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This Week
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Veteran details journey to Emmy-winning career The Foothills Focus, in partnership with the An them Veterans Memorial, will honor a local veteran each mo nth. This is the story of Phil G. Giriodi.
OPINION........... 10
A new year offers new opportunities
BY ELIZABETH TURNER Anthem Veterans Memorial
A
s a young boy who grew up in Angels Camp, California, Phil Giriodi often walked the slope above the town. It once brought miners and employment to the stamp mills, but now was left with a logging mill, a few ranches, a school, a theater and his father’s pharmacy. Unlike his friends, who “didn’t seem to have any goals or plans for their future,”
see GIRIODI page 4
Phil Giriodi enlisted in the Air Force with a desire to travel and film what unfolded in the world. (Phil Giriodi/Submitted)
Voters’ tax defeat leaves fire districts in a bind FEATURES......... 15
Top resolutions include weight loss, exercise
OPINION.................... 10 FEATURES................. 14 YOUTH....................... 21 CLASSIFIEDS............. 22 Zone I
BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Foothills Focus Staff Writer
S
tate firefighter organizations lobbied the Legislature this year to put a question on the Nov. 8 ballot asking voters to approve a 20-year, 0.1% sales tax that would generate revenue for fire districts across the state. The Legislature obliged, but in a 52-48% vote — 1,230,042 against to 1,144,495 for
— Arizona voters shot down Prop 310, sending fire officials back to the drawing board to address a funding problem they say isn’t going away any time soon. Firefighters also noted that at the same time as Proposition 310 failed, voters approved another legislative initiative that requires ballot questions posing tax increases to pass with at least a 60% approval. Approval of Prop 132 by a 50.7% to 49.3% — 1,210,702 votes in favor and 1,176,327
against — means it will be even harder to get a tax passed in the future. “We were obviously disappointed. Like the air came out of our sails,” Daisy Mountain Fire District Chief Brian Tobin said. “My firefighters worked very hard on their days off to try and get as much education and information out about 310, but we came up short.”
see FIRE DISTRICTS page 9
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