My View

BY DON SORCHYCH  |  JUNE 3, 2015

Bookmark and Share

my viewCouncil members and road closures

We encourage letters to the editor. Some we agree with and some we don’t. You will see a letter to the editor from Councilman Thomas McGuire. Thomas is a councilman of long standing, a retired school teacher, author, docent at Spur Cross Ranch and a geologist of standing. He bounced back from a card draw loss of a council seat to Adam Trenk.

His letter is in response to a letter we published from a local business owner who is adversely affected by road closures.
McGuire writes, “These events do bring tax revenues to operate the town and help avoid a property tax and this has become a point of pride for Cave Creek citizens.”

Bullshit!

The road closures are due to an unhealthy relationship between the town and four businesses. Ever hear of a town where the police department is also the marketing department which has been delegated decision making that benefits a few, not all businesses?

Past administrations have proven to me the town core can only contribute so much to the town’s economy and the avoidance of a property tax is dependent on larger scale commercial development along the Carefree Highway corridor, not the town core.

Furthermore, I know of no business on the west end of Cave Creek Road that benefits from road closures. Forget about the owner of Greasy Eats (Ugh!) who claims it only takes two minutes to traverse single lanes caused by closing two lanes. She is biased and a dark sider, and you don’t want to see her records of open meeting law issues while on council and worse.
As I have written, the average is more like ten minutes. There is no justification for what the town is doing with road closures.

McGuire waxes poetically about the propaganda he is fed by the town. My personal experience is generally the opposite. Town Marshal/Marketing Manager Adam Stein, “… instructed members of the Sheriff’s posse to allow at least 15 cars to pass between groups of people waiting to cross the road.”

If Stein did that, the posse members were not listening because I traversed their blockage dozens of times and it simply isn’t true. I once stopped to complain and was told to move and move now. As soon as any pedestrians got to the edge of the road, traffic was stopped for them to stroll across. Pedestrians definitely get the right of way!

McGuire writes, “Town staff is working on alternate routes through town to insure public safety and expedite traffic flow. Our historic pattern of roads makes this objective a challenge. But it is being addressed.”

BS again. Much like the property tax, this a never event. This newspaper is over twenty years old and that elusive goal has been around for at least that long. Furthermore there is no proposed route that would have the four lane characteristics of Cave Creek Road. At best the proposed routes are for emergency exits and entry. Also, the idea for alternate roads suggests citizens should be denied use of the major artery in town and relegated to substandard roads to benefit a handful of businesses. Why would we do that?

The solution is to stop closing the road.

I have written previously that council should approve or deny town events as they did successfully years ago. The town also needs to get out of the marketing business since town employees are unduly influenced by a few businesses to the detriment of most.

We once had an active chamber of commerce, now the Cave Creek Merchants and Events Association. That organization should be priming the business pump, not Cave Creek town staff. And certainly not with town money – our tax dollars.

The council, instead of being cheer leaders, should be assuring fairness across the board, always keeping in mind the voting public.

Recent surveys showed over 80 percent of people contacted were against closing our roads for motorcycles. It is not popular with voters. The only road closings accepted by the majority were for Fiesta Days and Wild West Days and only for a half day for the parades.

It has been historic that council is swayed by council meeting attendees. That is why Buffalo Chip owner Larry Wendt remarked in a recent council meeting he wished he had brought a crowd with him because road closing was on the agenda. Today, streaming video of council meetings are a ready excuse not go to the meetings.

I hope people show up and speak to support the good guys (and woman) on the council.
All you have to do is recall how bad it was when the slate ruled the town. Let’s not do that again. Maybe the brace of the $20,000 metal horses at each end of the town will remind us. Or should we just sell them for scrap metal?