In Scottsdale there is always a need for thoughtful advocacy from educated voices that care about and relate to real people. Those with the integrity to remember all our neighbors have a right to be heard and represented. One usually does not find such folk on a ballot or in the board room these days.”
Nancy Cantor, Scottsdale resident
By Nancy Cantor
In 1987 the Community Council of Scottsdale was formed by neighbors living in the areas around Tonto Elementary School, Hohokam Elementary School, Pima Elementary School, Yavapai Elementary School, Tonalea Elementary School, Navajo Elementary School, Supai Middle School, Coronado High School and Saguaro High School.
We have worked with neighbors in the Paiute Area when it was still part of the school district and since it has become the Paiute Neighborhood Center. As well, we worked with the neighbors in the Apache Elementary School neighborhood and the old Loloma School neighborhood.
The Community Council of Scottsdale continues to work on issues that affect those above school neighborhoods. In 2006, CCS was granted grandfathered meeting space at the Granite Reef Senior Center when it opened in 2006, through a unanimous vote of the City Council. Meetings are held once a month on the third Thursday and they start at 7 p.m.
That senior center came about because the community represented by the CCS wanted something besides a high-end housing development. They wanted an affordable senior housing development and access to a senior center like Via Linda Senior Center built across the park from Laguna Elementary School.
CCS meetings are informational sometimes pulling in a member of Scottsdale city government as they did last week with City Manager Jim Thompson answering a variety of questions from the community.
Years ago working with Mayor Drinkwater and Councilman Bill Walton the Community Council helped save 2,000 affordable homes that were in the original path of the Pima Freeway designated by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Members also lobbied ADOT to have the rubberized surfacing that does away with a lot of traffic noise along the Pima Freeway from McKellips Road to Shea Boulevard.
CCS assisted The Trails HOA president, Jim Bateman, to create the Apache Park at 1201 N. 85th St., in a land swap with Scottsdale Unified School District.
Over the years members of the CCS, like Darlene Petersen, have advocated at Scottsdale Unified School District Governing Board meetings and City Council meetings. And partnered with PTAs, churches and HOAs for issues of importance to their daily quality of life.
In fact Darlene, who just turned 90, has appeared before City Council speaking on environmental issues, neighborhood safety issues and school and community partnerships. In fact you can now call her Officer Darlene Petersen as she was made an honorary Patrol Officer by Scottsdale Police Chief Alan Rodbell.
The Community Council of Scottsdale participated in the creation of the Coalition of Greater Scottsdale that brought together many neighborhood groups and HOAs from Apache Park to Pinnacle Peak under one umbrella so the average resident’s voice could be heard in our rapidly growing community.
Under the leadership of Sonny Kirtley, since 2008, who is now executive director of COGS, the organization pushes for open discussion of development projects and what actions residents can do to effectively advocate for themselves should the need arise.
Dr. Sonnie Kirtley, though she probably wouldn’t respond if you called her that today, has taught college level physics classes in Oregon, and in Arizona has taught oceanography and physical geology; and at Saguaro High School taught chemistry. All of that was done while raising her kids here in Scottsdale. Oh!
And she has been an award winning real estate broker here in Scottsdale.
Then there is her civic involvement --- Sonnie doesn’t do anything by halves. She is on the board of her neighborhood group, been a Downtown Ambassadors, and served on the General Plan Update Task Force, McDowell Corridor Downtown Task Forces, Scottsdale Pride Commission, Town Hall, Southern Scottsdale Character Area Planning Group. She has coached Science Olympiad and Academic Decathalon.
And she loves to travel. The World. On land and under the water. Often accompanied by her canine companion, but he doesn’t go underwater. Yet. She will probably teach him on that next trip.
On that first COGS board was Rita Saunders-Hawranek a mom of four adult children, who was an attorney, and taught law at ASU while going through chemotherapy and advocating for the historical preservation of the California neighborhood she grew up in. While living in that neighborhood in California she marched with Cesar Chavez advocating for farm workers.
Living in Santa Barbara, California, she successfully advocated for the preservation of an important humming bird habitat.
Then there was the late Jim Heather. After retiring from Imperial Lithography, he went to work at his favorite job. Jim was all campus aide at both Yavapai and Tonalea Elementary Schools, as well as mentoring kids and parents. And crossing guard, too, at the old back Tonalea school on Oak and 68th St.
When school was out he and his wife Judy would ride his motorcycle touring Arizona sites and they were hardcore Green Bay Packers Backers.
Jim worked at his campus aide job until he turned 82. After retiring from the school district he volunteered to raise funds for his last four years bringing in funds from his Packer Backers to purchase 23 turkeys for the families at the school who might not have a Thanksgiving dinner.
Jim and Judy raised three kids who went to Tonalea Elementary School and Coronado High School.
Jim was an advocate for environmental education and for neighborhood safety for several years. When the old Los Arcos Mall closed down he was one of the neighbors who kept an eye on the vacant buildings and the surrounding grounds helping Scottsdale police officers keep everyone safe.
So, when you start hearing anyone under 60 complaining about old folks, old geezers, and, I have, personally, heard of my fellow over-age-65 friends called “over the hill old farts,” think about your words and what you have volunteered for and think of why.
Then think of all the things they have learned and given back to make our community better.
What is taking place in Scottsdale, today, is not new. Too much of the development is mundane and lacks thought for challenges of the future, whether the environment, safety, culture or the over all quality of life as stated in the Smart Growth Plus Act approved by the Arizona Legislature.
In Scottsdale there is always a need for thoughtful advocacy from educated voices that care about and relate to real people. Those with the integrity to remember all our neighbors have a right to be heard and represented. One usually does not find such folk on a ballot or in the board room these days.
Editor’s Note: Nancy Cantor is a Scottsdale resident and community advocate.
