Hot Dog Guy has new view location
By Linda Bentley | March 10, 2010
Magic Bird appropriates old high-visibility corner
CAVE CREEK – Last week, Jerry Vicena, AKA the Hot Dog Guy, was able to negotiate a new location in the parking lot of the stone-clad restaurant site on the hill along Cave Creek Road, overlooking the mountains and the rest of Stagecoach Village below.
Vicena has been in further communication with Cave Creek Unified School District Superintendent Debbie Burdick, who expressed concerns over insurance, which Vicena stated he would be happy to provide. However, he said Burdick then provided other reasons as to why Vicena couldn’t use the northeast corner of School House and Cave Creek roads, including the lease to Career Success charter school does not allow for subleasing.
Vicena wasn’t subleasing, although he said he would have been happy to do so, had anyone asked. He simply received permission from the charter school principal to locate there.
Vicena questioned the process under which CCUSD granted permission for the charitable donations/recycling bins to be located on the same property, not because he wanted the district to have them removed, but so he could apply using the same process.
When Sonoran News requested copies of records approving the donation bins, Burdick said there weren’t any.
While the six recycling and donation bins have been on the property for several years, it is apparently not something Associate Superintendent of Finance Kent Frison ever noticed while making his regular inspections of the district’s properties.
Meanwhile, Magic Bird Festivals commandeered Vicena’s old corner at School House and Cave Creek roads to park a “billboard” truck advertising its events.
Although Frison contacted the Cave Creek Town Marshal’s office to ask Vicena to leave the premises, Lester Rechlin, who owns Magic Bird, was able to appropriate the exact same spot with impunity.
Jerry Vicena, AKA the Hot Dog Guy, has been granted permission to operate his hot dog cart at Stagecoach Village in the parking lot of the vacant stone-clad building on Cave Creek Road. Meanwhile, Magic Bird Festivals commandeered Vicenaís former location at Cave Creek and School House roads.
Photos by Linda Bentley