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Serving the communities of Cave Creek and Carefree
Cave Creek - Carefree Area Edition
TheFoothillsFocus.com
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This Week
Cave Creek reviews topics, discusses future BY JT GOMEZ Foothills Focus Staff Writer
A NEWS.................. 6
Rodeo Days accepting royalty applications
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
t the Cave Creek Town Council’s final meeting of the year, multiple topics were discussed, signifying the end of both the calendar year and the fiscal year in June. A comprehensive report on the town’s financial responsibilities was given by its auditing firm, in addition to an ending “Year in Review” presented by city staff. During the meeting, traffic — a citywide is-
sue that has affected pedestrians and motorists — was discussed and options explored to further curb this problem. The way in which the council looks to move forward with the plan is at the discretion of further governmental agencies who will decide whether or not the town is to receive grant funds. Cave Creek’s comprehensive financial report Newly appointed Cave Creek Finance Director Mitzi Callow introduced Brian Hemmerle of Bakertilly, the town’s auditing firm. He
produced the audit results required by state statute for the 2022 fiscal year. In a presentation to council, Hemmerle described how the audit didn’t go beyond what the state requires, and rather that the accounting firm provided a “reasonable opinion” that the results were “materially correct.” Reasoning behind this was provided as Hemmerle described that in order to provide exact assurance, the firm would have to test every transaction of the town.
see COUNCIL page 4
Carefree Town Council looks at future fire services FEATURES......... 16
Top resolutions include weight loss, exercise
OPINION.......................9 BUSINESS.................. 13 FEATURES................. 14 YOUTH....................... 21 CLASSIFIEDS............. 22 Zone 2
BY LAURA LATZKO Foothills Focus Contributing Writer
T
he Carefree Town Council voted 6-0 Dec. 13 to put on the May ballot a $2 million property tax levy to support fire and emergency services. One town councilmember was absent. The town of Carefree is looking into switching its fire and emergency services through mutual aid with Rural Metro to the automatic aid system with a provider like Daisy Mountain Fire District. Town of Carefree Administrator Gary Neiss
said the upcoming ballot initiative would determine what action the town takes. “If the community supports it, we will make a transition, most likely to a contract with Daisy Mountain to automatic aid. If they don’t support it, we will maintain our relationship with Rural Metro,” Neiss said. A switch to automatic aid would impact what resources would be available to Carefree in the case of an emergency. “Automatic aid was developed down in the city of Phoenix,” Neiss said. “It’s a partnership with many of the municipal
fire departments throughout the Valley and fire districts like Daisy Mountain. … They share resources so that they can still evenly spread emergency services throughout their community when there’s a large emergency within their community. So, they don’t deplete their resources. “They pull from these other agencies through a central dispatch system. They know where every piece of equipment is. There’s a computer-aided device on each piece of equipment. … It’s really a very sophisticated, satellite-based operation system of dispatch, where they seamless-
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see FIRE page 6