(Lyn's note: Please feel free to send us any pictures you'd like included.  If your photos are for sale, let us know and we will put them under that category.  We have a special section for that purpose.  If anyone would like to buy a print of any of Herbert's photos, all profits will be donated to one of the local non-profit organizations.)  Here's the link to this week's Pictures of the Week.

http://www.carefreeazbusinesses.com/pictures-of-the-week-31615.html

 

Photo by Herbert Hitchon

 

 

 

The 2015 Carefree Gardens calendars are now available at Carefree Town Hall, 8 Sundial Circle, Carefree.  They are gorgeous!

 

 

 

Desert Foothills Chronicle link:

http://www.desertfoothillschronicle.org/

City Sun Times link:

http://news.citysuntimes.com/

 

 

 

 

Lyn's note: Congratulations to new Carefree Council members Bob Gearhart and Geno Orrico, to Mayor Les Peterson, and to Vice Mayor John Crane.  The Town was fortunate to have many good candidates offering to fill the 2 vacated seats.  To the rest of you who applied, as Mayor Peterson said, please stay involved.  You all seemed like very decent and bright individuals.  Thank you for volunteering to serve our town. Below is the full video of the meeting.

https://vimeo.com/user18676056/review/122519654/a3bc773805

 

 

 

 

 

To hear all the squabbling, you'd think the position of Mayor comes with a generous six-figure salary, limo service, free housing and a personal body guard.......and maybe some sort of veto power over all town decisions.  I suspect it actually requires the perseverance to wade through lots of fairly dull, tedious information on topics I, personally, am glad to leave for others to study AND the patience to listen to lots of divergent opinions, often from people who haven't bothered to study the facts.

 

The laws re: mayoral succession are not as clear and succinct as they might be.  But, once the decision was made to consult with Arizona's recognized legal authority on this and similar issues, the involved parties just need to accept his professional opinion.  Period.  No arguments, no other opinions, no excuses.  The issue is finished and we all need to accept and support that decision.

 

The Lewis problems are complex and won't be solved with the simple, magical solution of paying a huge amount of money to developer Ed Lewis.  His wheeling-dealing behavior and unrealistic projections should have raised red flags for anyone paying attention.  Like the Wizard of Oz, we needed to peek behind the curtain with this guy to see who and what he really is. 

 

A rational and somewhat intelligent view of emergencies might include out-of-control grass fires, complete collapse of a public utility, etc.  A cognitively-limited anxious person might over-interpret a developing problem as an emergency.  

 

Fighting, rudeness, hysteria, and dogmatic opinions need to stop.  We need thoughtful study, cooperative planning, and civility.  

 

 

Jeff S.

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Ms. Hitchon for sending me these chronicles of Carefree occurrences.

I read where most all of the Cave Creek Town Council was recalled and a new bevy of council members is now in place.  I know you seldom write much about the neighboring town, but I was wondering what your thoughts were regarding this event?  A good thing, or bad… and if you could list any reasons for your opinion?  (I was surprised to learn that the Town of Cave Creek runs all the way down Cave Creek Road to as far as, it appears, Dixeleta -  do the folks who live in the areas south of, say, the Walmart really care about Cave Creek situations?)

Thank you,

Maitland

(Lyn's note: While I don't generally comment on Cave Creek issues in Carefree Truth, this question hits a note on the same issue we had in Carefree a few years ago. 

The recall mechanism is meant to give voters the ability to remove from office those who commit gross ethical or financial misdeeds.  I know of no one in Cave Creek or Carefree who has ever met that criteria.  Unfortunately, in Arizona the only legal requirement to get recalls on the ballot is a sufficient number of signatures, done correctly, on petitions. 

 

A local "newspaper" owner/editor/publisher, who lost the Cave Creek municipal advertising dollars and his ruling power in the last election, started talking about recalls even before the council members who he knew would take those from him were seated.  That newspaper ran constant negative articles on those 4 council members from day one.  You know the old saying, "Repeat something often enough and it becomes the truth."  

 

I believe he was also behind the recall attempt in 2009/10 on Carefree Mayor David Schwan.  He had managed to get 3 of his candidates elected to our council, just missing a majority which would have returned those long ago removed municipal advertising dollars to his coffers, and given him, for the first time, control over Carefree.  I started writing Carefree Truth to combat, with public record facts, the outrageous atrocities the recallers and the "newspaper" were spewing about our Mayor.  In Carefree, the facts won.  It didn't hurt that we accompanied the facts with videos of council meetings.  Often, facial expressions and body language speak louder than words.  While Carefree Truth was but a cog in the larger wheel that derailed the recall attempt, the videos were generally considered invaluable.

 

The Cave Creek Post Office services some locations in both Carefree and north Phoenix.  The area to the south of WalMart to which you refer is Phoenix, so those residents don't vote in Cave Creek.)