One of the most remarkable aspects of publishing a small, neighborhood-focused newspaper for years — does Wrangler News ring a bell? — is the number of people we encounter, consider friends… and one day realize we’ve fallen out of touch with.
Such was the case when a press release arrived on our desk announcing that Chandler hometown boy Jay Tibshraeny, one of that city’s all-time most energized members of a leadership cadre that’s helped grow the city into the respected power center it is today, is getting deserved recognition for at least some of what he’s accomplished, all in the about the same handful of decades that we’ve been, leisurely by comparison it seems, helping to tell the story of our neighboring city’s remarkable growth.
So while Tibshraeny hasn’t exactly been low profile for those years (he’s been a city councilmember, mayor, state senator, frequent behind-the-scenes advocate for business expansion and more), much of what he’s accomplished appears to have fallen under a mantra of merely believing in the qualities of the place he calls home.
So on Saturday, Feb. 22, at an event that by comparison promises to be markedly more modest than Tibshraeny’s history of accomplishment, he’ll be recognized in ceremonies at the city’s Celebration Plaza, referenced by planners as a place built specifically to provide a backdrop for recognizing notable efforts to make Chandler a better, more livable place.
Although as mentioned earlier, the pages of Wrangler News, or Wrangler News Independent as we now know it, haven’t contained as frequent updates lately of Mr. Tibshraeny’s seemingly unending work at community building, it hasn’t always been that way.
Starting in the 1990s, when we began publishing, Jay Tibshraeny had already begun building a road map to help guide the city’s economic upswing. By the early 2000s, those efforts were showing signs of success, and his newfound prominence for introducing significant legislative initiatives had caused people to take notice.
A big challenge, Tibshraeny said at the time and as reported by Wrangler News editor Joyce Coronel, were his efforts to monitor the distribution of state revenue, a portion of which represented one of Chandler’s vital sources of income.
Tibshraeny, history proves, was up to the task.
His determination to help protect Chandler’s economy seemed to be evident in a comment he made to Coronel at the time and which seems to have cemented the reputation for which Tibshraeny will be honored at the tribute at Celebration Plaza: “I’ve never been shy about working hard and doing what I need to do. I’ll continue to work hard and will just have longer days.”
Evidence is strong that Tibshraeny still maintains that same view of community involvement now, a decade-plus later.
Celebration Plaza is at Tumbleweed Park, 745 E. Germann Road. The event begins at 9 a.m. Information: chandlermuseum.org.
To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Share with others
