MARANANEWS The Voice of Marana, Oro Valley and Northwest Tucson
August 17, 2022
Teen football players spread hope through public campaign
INSIDE Explorer and
Marana News, August
Volume 29• Number 33
17, 2022
11
BY JESSICA GONZALEZ
EXPLOR ER • MA RANA NEWS •
FOOTHI LLS NE WS •
DESERT TIMES
2022 Home Sweet Home | Page 11
Book signing
Tucson author pens ‘Mi Ciudad Sings’
| Page 7
Athlete of the Week
Danielle Tuakalau’s cruel summer
| Page 20
F
our football players from Canyon del Oro, Ironwood Ridge and Salpointe high schools are using their visibility on campus and their followings on Vehicles navigate the new roundabout at Sandario and Twin Peaks roads near Marana High School. The social media to help save teen lives during roundabout opened to traffic on Aug. 1. It is expected to be completed this month when solar lights Teen Suicide Prevention Awareness Month are installed. The project cost just over $1 million. (Tom Leyde/Submitted) in September. The players are part of a group of 19 high-profile football players and one cheerleader representing 18 Arizona high schools in the Tucson, Phoenix and Yuma areas, who were selected to call attention to the issue of preventing teen suicide. High school junior Sa’Kylee Woodward Mac Murray, project manager with the town from Canyon del Oro, senior Mason SanBY TOM LEYDE of Marana Public Works Department. “It was a chez from Salpointe, and Ironwood Ridge A new roundabout is changing traffic flow for unique challenge with all the material challenges seniors Nasohn Jantz and Otto Hagele will the better at the intersection of Twin Peaks and but we were able to pull it off,” he said. star in a series of professionally produced There were concrete shortages during con- video public service announcements orgaSandario roads in Marana. The project opened to traffic Aug. 1 and will struction and contractors couldn’t get full orders nized by Teen Lifeline and the Grand Canbe fully finished on Aug. 22, Marana town offi- of concrete, Murray explained. That was ironic, yon State Gridiron Club. cials said. By that date solar streetlamps will be considering there are two cement plants in Ma“I think there is a serious problem with installed. Solar lamps are necessary because there rana: CMEX Marana Apex Concrete Plant and teen mental health,” said Jantz, a running is no dedicated public electrical access in the area. CalPortland Rillito Cement Plant. back and linebacker for the Ironwood Ridge There were plant shutdowns, Murray said, and Nighthawks. “The best way to reach someThe city promised nearby Marana High School that it would finish the project by the opening of a lot of the concrete produced here is sent to oth- one is by being able to relate with them beschool (Aug. 8). In order to complete it in two er places. The cement shortage also affected new cause we are the same age.” months’ time, the city closed Sandario Road to home construction in Arizona. When released during September, the The project cost $1.06 million, and the winning PSA campaign is designed to provide traffic during construction. “If we had to do it under open road (conditions), it would have taken four months,” said
Twin Peaks roundabout improving traffic flow
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