Holtz faces four felony charges

AJ Airman Collecting Prestigious Awards
Set to attend flight school in October
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
The News
Awards seem to come easy to Senior Airman Nathaniel Elman as the Apache Junction native recently added Airman of the Month in Iraq to his long list of prizes.
   “I’m very proud of him,” said his wife, Alyssa Elman. “He works very hard.”
  Earlier this year, Elman, who is a part of the 763rd Rescue Maintenance Squadron while based in the United States, traveled to Washington, D.C., to accept the prestigious 2008 Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez Award during the Maintenance Awards Banquet.
   According to the event’s program, while deployed for 141 days in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Elman sustained 10 HH-60G helicopters, generating 792 combat missions and 711 flying hours. He managed $800,000 in Multiple Access Tactical Terminal radio equipment maintaining all 10 systems fully operational. Additionally, he isolated and repaired an intercom malfunction restoring secure communications critical to combat search and rescue in two hours.
   Last year, Elman won Airman of the Year.
 “He’s won quite a few awards,” said Bobbi Mudge, his mother, who lives in Apache Junction. “He just keeps getting award after award. He’s doing awesome.”
   The 25-year-old Elman graduated from Apache Junction High School and attended Desert Vista Elementary and Thunder Mountain Middle schools.
   “He was in the ROTC in high school,” Mudge said. “He actually got accepted to Annapolis ... but he took his scholarships and went to ASU for awhile. He worked for the Apache Junction Fire District. But he just really wanted to go into the military.” Elman and his wife have three children—Trevor, 5, Rylie, 3, and Haliwyn, 1. He will serve in Iraq through September and the following month, he is expected to begin flight school.
   “He’ll be training to be a flight engineer,” Alyssa Elman said. “Right now he works on radios in the helicopters. When he goes to flight school, he’ll be a flight engineer and he’ll be making sure all systems work while in the air.”

City Adds Recycling Center
Residents can now recycle at Animal Control
A new location is available for folks to drop off recycling serving the southern portion of the community.
   Located at the City’s Animal Control facility at 725 E. Baseline Road, this location offers the same recycle services available at other locations.
   “I have been recycling for years,” said recently retired City of Apache Junction library employee Gail Graham- Fisel. “I pick up trash wherever I see it to recycle. Children or others will ask me why do you pick someone one else’s (trash) up? I tell them it’s not my trash, but it is my planet.”
   The City of Apache Junction provides a Drop-Off Recycling Program for residents and winter visitors and strongly encourages its use.
   The program provides Apache Junction the opportunity to recycle the following items: newspaper, aluminum and tin cans, plastics, cardboard and office paper. Office paper includes such common household items as newspapers, magazines, telephone books, junk mail and catalogs.
   Drop-Off Recycling is available at the following locations:

• City of Apache Junction;
  1001 N. Idaho Road

• City of Apache Junction
  Animal Control, 725 E.
  Baseline

• Fire Station No. 263; 1645
  S. Idaho Road

• Fire Station No. 262; 3955
  E. Superstition Blvd.

For further information visit the City of Apache Junction Web site at www.ajcity.net/recycle.

AJHS Volleyball Sizzles
Win Florence Tournament; beat Phoenix College and 5A-I Mesa Westwood in Summer League
By Chuck Baker
The News
One week after suffering close defeats to two strong volleyball teams in 4A-I power Glendale Cactus and 5A-I playoff contender Mesa Westwood during the Phoenix College Summer League, the Lady Prospector varsity volleyball squad got as hot as the Summer temperatures by first going undefeated in winning the 24-team Florence Tournament on July 18 and then by knocking off the Phoenix College team and Westwood this past Tuesday in the summer league.
   At the July 18 tournament, Apache Junction first went undefeated in their six team pool, then won a “cross-over” match and finished by cruising through a single elimination tournament, beating the host school Florence in the championship game.
   Also at the same Florence Tournament, the AJHS junior varsity team advanced all the way to the consolation championship finals before losing to Miami, a great show of overall strength and depth for the AJHS volleyball program.
   Playing last Tuesday in the summer league, Apache Junction first picked up a three-game upset win over a Phoenix College team, then got revenge for that loss to Westwood by picking up a 25-27, 25-19, 15-11 victory, and then capped off a terrific night beating Glendale Independence in two straight games, 25-16 and 25-18.

See page B-1 and see V-Ball, B-6

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