(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.  Enjoy!

http://www.carefreeazbusinesses.com/pictures-of-the-week--61515.html

Photo by Herbert Hitchon

 

 

 

The 2016 Carefree Desert Garden calendars will be available this fall at Carefree Town Hall, 8 Sundial Circle, Carefree. If you like to take pictures, visit the Gardens.  Our entry period for the Gardens photo contest is January.  Your picture could be in the 2017 calendar!

 

 

Desert Foothills Chronicle link:

http://www.desertfoothillschronicle.org/

City Sun Times link:

http://news.citysuntimes.com/

 

 

 

Lyn,

I, and Council Member Melissa Price and Gina Kaegi, Carefree's Director of Marketing and Communications , attended an annual conference on June 10th of the Valley Hotel & Restaurant Association City Officials Luncheon. In attendance were approximately 230 representatives from the major hotel, restaurant  and hospitality firms which have a presence in the greater Phoenix area. A high percentage of these attendees were responsible for the development and expansion activities of these firms.

Mayors from Valley cities and towns were afforded the opportunity to address this group and explain to them why they should consider investing in their communities. These communities, whose Mayor's presented their "stories," included Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Goodyear, Paradise Valley, and, of course, Carefree.  All of these other Mayors had very positive stories to tell about the recent economic development successes of their respective communities.

Highlights of the talk I gave telling the Carefree "story" and inviting

consideration from the participants is in the attached. Melissa and Gina

were both very helpful in helping me to develop Carefree's" story," which was well received by the participants of this conference.

Thanks,

Les Peterson

 

Valley Hotel and Resort Association

Highlights of talk given on 6/10/15

Perhaps in contrast to the size and established economic development activities of the more established cities such as Scottsdale, Phoenix and Mesa and the like whose Mayors have just presented their major priorities to you, let me take a few moments and tell you about Carefree.

Carefree is a small town of approximately 8 and ½ square miles with a population of 3500 people. As one of the participants pointed out to me regarding this population figure approximately two months ago when I was requested to address a group of naval flag officers from 50 countries around the world, that’s less than the number of people on an aircraft carrier.

But make no mistake, while small in size and population, Carefree is readying itself to become the economic hub of the Northeast Valley, which we call the Desert Foothills. I would like to take a few moments to share with you what we are doing in Carefree to ready our Town for this economic growth. The Desert Foothills is poised for growth, witness the 4,000 to 5,000 additional homes in north Scottsdale projected to be built within the next decade in the area around Legend Trail. Many of these new residents, and current residents, will utilize local retailers and restaurants, and Carefree needs to be ready to accommodate them.

To ready ourselves for this occurrence, the Carefree Town Council has been working diligently over these past two years with the Urban Land Institute and the Michael Baker Group to develop a comprehensive plan to further invigorate the downtown Carefree commercial area. Town Council members are taking the lead role, working with an outside consultant of considerable development expertise, in implementing those elements from the recommendations we have received which we believe will best poise Carefree to become the economic hub of the Northeast Valley.

Here is a sampling of the things we are doing:

Strengthened Downtown Events, which generate over 130,000 incremental visitors annually

o   We have a wonderful desert garden in the downtown area, which is outstanding to walk through and observe the specimen plants/attractions

o   12 Fairs and Festivals (spanning an entire weekend), with promoters like the Thunderbird Artists, Magic Bird Festivals,  and the Sonoran Arts League and the Desert Foothills Theater

o   12 heavily attended  Sunday afternoon Concerts in the Sanderson Lincoln Pavilion

o   Capped off with a Christmas Parade and week-end celebration which 23,000 people attend

In addition, Carefree has a number of promising initiatives in final approval process which we believe will even further strengthen the attraction of the downtown Carefree area to our current residents and visitors

o   We are looking to strengthen the entryways into the downtown Carefree area, potentially through the use of “gateways,” to facilitate recognition and entry into the downtown area by those unfamiliar with it

o   We are looking to add new attractions in the desert gardens

§  Fireplaces with benches around them for people to gather around in the winter months

§  A unique and memorable water feature to further attract families

o   Adding a new Culinary and Craft Beer Festival, which we anticipate will become a major annual event

o   Looking towards a month long event in October during which we will suitably decorate the Gardens and bring in artists with global recognition

In addition, we will be working with Developers seeking to renovate existing historic buildings, and bring in new restaurants and retailers to complement the existing ones

Further, there are several downtown properties available in the downtown Carefree area which could be ideal (per studies) for a unique and appealing small or boutique hotel. For perspective, there is no such hotel north of the 101 to serve the many people which the Baker Group research identified as wanting such a service in the Carefree area.

In closing, I would like to invite all of you to come and see what is happening in Carefree. Give any of the Council members a call and we will be glad to share with you what is going on. Thank you.

Mayor Les Peterson

Carefree, AZ

Dear Family, Friends, and Friends of friends,

David and I would like to thank you all for your generosity in contributing to our Scottsdale “Walk to Defeat ALS” team.  So far “David’s Carefree Sole Mates” is the leader in donations – and by a large margin!  Here is a link to the website so that you can follow how the team is doing.

http://web.alsa.org/site/TR/Walks/Arizona?team_id=332049&pg=team&fr_id=10960

Sometimes we all donate to a cause and then wonder if the donations are really doing any good.  David and I can assure you that our local ALS Chapter is making a huge difference in our lives.  They have provided us both with counseling and support, home visits, loan of equipment and referrals. All of the services they have and will provide for us are possible because of the money donated through fundraisers like this.  

In addition, some of the money raised will go to research.  As you know there is no cure for this disease.   Research is not only needed for a cure, but also to discover medicines or procedures to help the person with ALS (PALS) live as comfortable a life as possible.

Some of you are family, close friends, and some of you we have never met, but ALL of you have touched our hearts.  With your continued help, we are one step closer to finding a treatment or cure for this horrible disease.  For those of you who are walking as part of the team, we will see you in October!

With Love and a Big Hug,

Binka Schwan

 

Thanks, Lyn.  That is reassuring.  In the council discussion, I was not sure what Gary meant when he responded to a question that the lights would not be colored, and John Crane had expressed a liability concern.  Also, one of the lighting consultants we used originally recommended using bright, white, lights so that people’s faces would be well lit at night which is a fairly typical recommendation by lighting companies.  I wanted to make sure that if the town got the same advice again, they would understand the reasons for the original color choice.

Thanks for your help.

Lloyd Meyer   

 

Hi Lyn,

I concur with Lloyd Meyer's assessment regarding the investment made to determine the best lighting source for the Gas Lamps. Obviously, LED technology was not available at the time, so the choices were either  incandscent or halogen lighting. 

The decision to use incandescent bulbs was made with the advice of a lighting expert who had developed lighting applications for Chase Field and several local TV stations and if my memory serves, he consulted with Glendale for their Gas Light District. 

His suggestions were that the halogen light would provide a larger illumination footprint, but a harsh white light that would minimize the desired ambience.

I hope some of this information is useful to those involved in this project. As Lloyd mentioned, we support the Council's decision to move forward and I'm sure the Gas Lamps will look better than ever.

Bob Gemmill

 

Hi Lyn,

Thank you for your continued service to the community through Carefree Truth, and also for these ads, and urging your readers to try local restaurants, most especially Carefree Bistro.  We have had two excellent meals/experiences there and are glad to have such a nice restaurant in the neighborhood.

Andrea Dickey Genette

 

Hi Lyn.

How are you?  I hope all’s well!  Though I don’t always respond to them, I DO so enjoy reading your Carefree Truths and keeping up with everything going on here.

It seems to me that you are very tied in to “the powers that be” here, so I hope you can help me get my message into the proper hands.

In Carefree we have 2 TV, Phone and Internet providers.  They are Century Link and DISH Network.  Both Dish and Century Link provide hard lined telephone service.  We always keep a landline due to the inconsistent cell phone service, although we do have cells as well. Dish provides satellite TV, while Century link provides cable and they both also provide internet service through DSL cable.  Like many of your readers, we use Century Link for our landline and internet service.

We use DISH for Satellite TV reception.  Both my husband and I are avid sports fans and like to watch international events.  We also like to stream movies from Apple TV and the internet…more about that soon.  We have ADEQUATE reception for normal programming through DISH.

And here is my question:  Carefree is the second highest per capita residential area in Arizona following only Paradise Valley.  But both companies that provide internet to our area only provide 3Mpbs which is the second lowest internet speed available. That is simply not right. In cities like Phoenix and Scottsdale consumers can get up to 20 Mpbs.    In an age where we are all dependent on the internet to communicate with family, to pay our bills and to do business 3Mpbs is laughable.  Now let me get back to the streaming:  This past January we bought a TV with all the best picture options and all the newest technology.  Yet due to that lowly 3Mpbs speed we cannot use all the TV’s features.

Here’s an example.  Last weekend we tried (Hopefully once again) to download a movie from Apple TV.  LOL.  The message we got on the TV screen was that the movie was downloading…..and would be ready for viewing in..get this…538 hours!!!  And yes, eventually the signal dropped and though we paid for our rental, we were never able to watch it.

That is not acceptable!!! This is  2015. We live in the second  highest per capita area of Arizona!!  Come on!!!  Who can we speak to about updating the antiquated systems available in Carefree!!  Aren’t our taxes good for anything????

Thanks,

Karen Keilt

Author & Human Rights Activist

(Lyn's note: Long story short, it's not the median income, it's the population density that determines how much these private companies are willing to spend on infrastructure.  Carefree does not have a local property tax, but taxes have nothing to do with it anyway.  These are private companies and governments have no say over how they choose to spend their money.

  

That said, we feel your pain.  Herbert does a lot of videos.  At home, it takes overnight to publish the longer Council meeting ones.  Even the shorter ones he does for Carefree businesses and local non profits take quite a while.  At his office in Phoenix, the short ones take minutes, as opposed to hours at home.  We also use Century Link and Dish Net for phone and TV.  We use Western WIMAX for wireless Internet service because we are too far off the street to be hardwired into Cox.  Our Internet is really slow in the evening, which we assume is because there are more people using it then.  I can't watch a 5 minute video all the way through in the evening without it stopping to buffer a bunch of times.  It doesn't have that problem during the day, which is why I'm assuming it has to do with the number of people on it at any given time.  It is very frustrating.

 

Bottom line, we trade the peace and quiet of living in a less densely populated area for the inconvenience of sub par Internet.)

 

Oh LOL.  Thanks for reminding me why we live here. I guess that was just Century Link frustration boiling over.  I will keep on putting up with it as long as I have the views and my critters all around me.

KK

 

 

 

Hi Lyn,

 

When I was a young bachelor guy living & working in Manhattan, right across the street from the Museum of Modern Art ( I think it was 53rd St. off 5th Ave. )  there was a Library with a theatre in the lower level and they only showed classic old B&W movies for free.  I would go there and watch the movies on my lunch break .

It's a nice idea - Not sure where you'd find those films - unless they've been all digitized and available.

I'm not sure why they don't use our existing Lincoln facility. With some simple black out design, a drop down screen & a portable projector, it would work, and if the weather is too hot - No movies when the weather is over 100 .  It's an interesting idea that would work IF

Joe DeVito

 

 

 

Thanks for all your work as the town crier over the years.

Mary Harris

 

 

LOOKS LIKE WE MISSED OUR CHANCE TO “SET” THE SUNDIAL THIS WEEK!

Sundials have been used for centuries to tell time during the day. The sun casts a shadow across the sundial's pointer, called a gnomon, onto the sundial surface. It’s marked with lines indicating the hours of the day.

“Sun time” and “clock time” agree only four times a year, April 15, June 15, September 1 and December 24. These are the best days to set a sundial for an accurate reading. The best time is at noon, when the sun is at its highest point in the sky.

BEV PETERSON – PLANNING CLERK

Town of Carefree