Dust ordinance still a hard pill to swallow

Cave Creek tightens belt in tough economic times

By Linda Bentley

    CAVE CREEK – Utilities Manager Jessica Marlow provided an update on the town’s water system during Monday night’s council meeting and said the Neary tank was now in service and everything went smoothly.
    After meeting with neighbors in the Rockaway Hills neighborhood, she said the town agreed not to paint the tank, because residents thought the concrete blended in better than anything else.
    Marlow said most of the customer billing problems had to do with customers not receiving water bills for the past year and stated some people’s water meters were buried under a foot of dirt and landscaped over.
    However, she said the town hired a former water company employee who has assisted in finding those “missing” meters.
    Marlow told council the town now generates the billing itself and then sends them electronically to a company that prints, folds, stuffs and mails them for the town, with the current billing going out this week.
    She then said the town had just sent out its first Shutoff Notice, adding, “The customer hasn’t paid his bill in a year and he told us he wasn’t going to pay.”
    Sonoran News learned later the notice was sent to Arek Fressadi, who told the town, in writing, that until the town enters into a development agreement with him to resolve the stalemate they’re in with reference to his “subdivision,” he will be applying his water usage to accruing interests on the improvements in ground and wrote, “Please refer to the enclosed invoice.”
    Fressadi billed the town for $80,000 for a sewer line extension he installed in 2004, plus interest, less his water usage through January 2008 for a total of $117,154.14.
    The Shutoff Notice gives Fressadi until May 16 to pay $1,397.70 or have his water shut off.
    By a vote of 5-1, with Councilman Thomas McGuire absent and Councilman Ernie Bunch dissenting, council passed the second reading of the dust ordinance.
    Town Attorney Cliff Mattice said the status of the ordinance will be submitted to Arizona Department of Environmental Quality which will in turn submit it to the EPA.
    He also said the “superfluous language” about inspections had been completely removed.
    Cave Creek is the last municipality in Maricopa County’s Area A to adopt the ordinance.
    Councilwoman Grace Meeth said, “This may be the hardest vote I’ll ever have to make ... This is so wrong for this community and I have to vote against the best interests of the town.”
    She said she felt she had to vote for it because it is mandated by law and she wouldn’t feel right picking and choosing which laws she will uphold.
    “Like I said several months ago,” Councilman Dick Esser said, “It’s a hard pill to swallow.”
    He said the revisions made it a little softer.
    Vice Mayor Gilbert Lopez said, “We’re caught between a rock and hard place.”
    Bunch said, “We’re being asked to vote on a plan that is so wrong.”
    However, on Monday, Mayor Vincent Francia sent a letter to Stephen Johnson, administrator for the EPA in Washington D.C., on behalf of the community requesting Cave Creek be exempted from complying with PM-10 guidelines until such a time the closest monitoring station is fitted with the proper devices to monitor PM-10 particulates in Cave Creek, and said, “Only in this way can it be verified that my community is in violation of PM-10 guidelines.”
    Explaining the community’s rural, equestrian lifestyle made up of about 5,000 people with an equal number of horses, Francia said most people keep their horses in onsite stables and corrals and the majority of driveways leading to the 2,300 homes in Cave Creek are dirt.
    He said, “I feel it is contrary to the letter and spirit of established democratic principals to impose unfair financial hardship on a citizenry, when in this case no data exists to verify that the town of Cave Creek is in violation of PM-10 guidelines …
    Absent such data it would be overly restrictive to enforce PM- 10 guidelines on the citizens of Cave Creek.”
    Meanwhile, Larry Wendt told Sonoran News a complaint to the county has resulted in him being required to dustproof his parking lot, the cost of which, using a product such as Soil-Cement, will cost $1,500 for the initial application and then $500 per month to maintain.
    However, Wendt said the product not only prevents fugitive dust, it is also water resistant, which he believes could cause drainage problems and flooding.
    Amy Ganley, who challenged Scottsdale’s dust ordinance last month with a referendum, learned Tuesday she successfully collected 2,189 valid signatures, which is 228 more than the number required. The ordinance will now be on Scottsdale’s ballot in September.
    However, the ordinance may be more than just a local issue settled by referendum. Whereas, the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
    The Arizona Constitution further states, “No local or specific laws shall be enacted … when a general law can be made applicable,” and begs the question: Can the legislature, upon a federal mandate, enact a law that requires only portions of two counties to enact legislation that will be costly to its citizens, without any specific data to explain why certain communities have been included while others have not?
    The Paragon Foundation, which provides for education, research and the exchange of ideas in an effort to promote and support constitutional principles, individual freedoms, private property rights and the continuation of rural customs and culture -all with the intent of celebrating and continuing our Founding Fathers' vision for America, is behind Ganley’s efforts.
    Marian Groeneveld presented an overall view of where the town’s revenue stood and what percentage each source contributed. She said, “What we’re receiving from restaurants is up, retail is down, but we’re making up for it with construction.”
    Ralph Mozilo, who has volunteered on the budget committee for several years, reported the committee has been meeting weekly and said, “Tough questions were asked, taking into account the current economy. We asked departments what was the minimum amount needed to run departments.”
    As each department made brief comments and answered questions about their budgets, it appeared they complied with the committee’s belt-tightening request.
    Next Monday, May 12, at 7 p.m., a special council meeting will be held. Rural/Metro Fire Department and Daisy Mountain Fire District will present the services they each offer and how they are compensated.