Valley Voices: Local crews fight California wildfires

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Local crews battle wildfires in California

APPRECIATED

The Surprise Fire-Medical Department has sent three wild land firefighters and a Type 6 Brush Truck to assist in battling the deadly wildfires burning in California. — Surprise Fire-Medical Department

Thank you to my current hometown for helping my first hometown! I know that it’s greatly appreciated! — Laura Mesa

Thank you. — Jennifer Behrens-Phelps

Stay safe and God bless you. — Janalene Flores

Stay safe and thank you. — Desiree Simmons

Stay safe and God bless you all. — PooBear Kantos

Concerns over OTS apartment project plans

The Surprise City Council meeting is set for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 20 at City Hall, 16000 N. Civic Center Plaza. Please come save a piece of history in the original square mile, the first baseball field built in Surprise. They want to tear it down and move it for affordable low-income apartments. — Lori Gaines Miller

OPPOSES PLAN

We don’t need low-income apartments here in Surprise. We need to save Surprise history and preserve it … We need some more upscale businesses in Surprise, not Burger Kings, Goodwills and low-income apartments. — Deborah Luder

No to low income. — Sheila Redding Hoefer

They should buy up the existing low-income apartments and refurbish them instead of destroying history. We don’t need any more apartments. We need parks like Gaines to give the kids in the community something to do … The city is now focused on revenue instead of giving the residents a great place to live, work and play. Sad. Guess we need to remember this at election time. — Christie Rudicil Chatfield

Social media reacts to PUSD bond failure

REAL NUMBERS

I don’t disagree with this at all. One of the issues we face in the Coyote Hills area is charter schools. What a lot of parents don’t realize is that there are not any significant charter high schools in the area, so all their kids feed into overcrowded PUSD high schools. It’s an issue we need to figure out how to overcome. — Kacie Franklin

Kacie Franklin, you’re right. But then there’s Great Hearts and Basis that are charters that do go through high school in the area. I agree, though, that most of those kids are going to our high schools. — Jennifer Harman

I truly wish someone would give people some real numbers as to how much this would actually impact them on a monthly or annual basis. It seems like many residents felt that their taxes were going to go up (or weren’t going to go down if they understood it correctly) but I’d love to get out to people an actual dollar amount. I think maybe some of the retirees might vote for it in the future if they knew the exactly how much their property taxes on their home in Trilogy might be impacted. I have a feeling it’s a lot less than most think. — Reina Martinez