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Police Receive Federal
Stimulus Money
 Federal money will help fund personnel
and operations
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
The News
The Apache Junction Police
Department was awarded
several grants that will bring
federal dollars into the City
of Apache Junction to fund
personnel and operations at
the Police Department. A majority
of it is American Recovery
and Reinvestment Act
of 2009 (ARRA) funds.
City and Police Department
staff, with the full support of
Mayor John Insalaco and the
City Council, pursued various
grant opportunities over
the past few months and recently
the Department of Justice
made the announcements
about the awards. The grants
Apache Junction has been
awarded are:
• $249,352, U.S. Department
of Justice, Office of Justice Program,
Edward Byrne
Memorial Justice Assistance
Competitive Grant Program
(ARRA)—Salary and benefits
for two additional Telecommunications
Officers for
two years.
“We’re very excited about
that,” said Kathy Jeter, the
department’s telecommunications
administrator. “We
have 12 1/2 dispatchers. We
had one dispatcher resign and
then she came back part time.
We had lost a half a dispatcher.
This’ll help fill that void.
We’ll have the personnel for
the peak traffic and to cover
for vacation, holidays and
sick time. We’ve been running
kind of short handed.”
• $77,576, U.S. Department
of Justice, Office of Justice
Program, Edward Byrne Memorial
Justice Assistance
Grant Program Local Solicitation
(ARRA)—Electronic
ticketing equipment and
overtime for police personnel
to conduct operations aimed
at reducing neighborhood and
business victimization.
See
A-1
Air Quality Van Set
For Tours
 Vehicle will be open for viewing at 6
p.m. Monday in City Hall parking lot
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
The News
The Maricopa County mobile
air quality monitoring
van will be available for tours
in the City Hall parking lot
for an hour prior to the 7 p.m.
Monday, September 14, City
Council work session.
“The actual mobile unit is a
very large traveling air monitoring
device, something that
helps us pull up to a site and
test the air,” said Holly Ward,
Maricopa County Air Quality
Department, public information
officer.
“Our department, the Maricopa
County Air Quality
Department, has 23 fixed locations
throughout Maricopa
County. With the addition of
this mobile air quality van,
we have a 24th location, but
one that we can move around,
depending on our need and the
community’s needs. This
will monitor everything that
the fixed sites monitor.”
Ward said her department is
inviting the public to “come
in and take a look, touch, feel
and see what this does.”
She said not only does it
have a practical use (collecting
data), but it is worthy
of community outreach. So
far, Ward’s department has
parked the van outside of 15
cities’ City Council meetings.
When the public or City officials
enter the van, they will
see how the department measures
and monitors for ozone and particulate
matter, as well as GC/MS (gas
chromatograph-
mass spectrometer)
units.
“They’ll see how we measure
for all criteria pollutants—
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide,
carbon monoxide, carbon
dioxide, oxygen and volatile
organic compounds.
“The van can also measure
meteorological data—ambient
temperature, barametric
pressure and how they factor
into air quality data.
“It’s very interesting,” Ward
said about the van which was
put into circulation last month.
“There’s so much more to it
than meets the eye.”
Superstition Search &
Rescue Seeks New Members
 Volunteer group meets monthly at Peralta
School
By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski
The News
Superstition Search and
Rescue is seeking to increase
its membership this upcoming
hiking season.
“Our mission is to assists the
Pinal County Sheriff’s Office
and the State of Arizona by
contributing trained professionals
that aid individuals
that are lost, injured, stranded
or deceased in Arizona’s remote
and relatively inaccessible
terrain through ground
searches, mountain rescue
techniques, and coordination
with air rescue and multiagency
resources,” said Robert
Cooper, commander of
SSAR.
“Our continued success on
SSAR missions is assured by
ongoing education and standardization
of training and
techniques amongst professional
organizations, cooperating
agencies and volunteers.”
Prospective members must
first petition the group to
join.
“When an individual petitions
Superstition Search
and Rescue for membership,
we explain to them that they
must agree to abide by support
and maintain the rules
and regulations of the organization
and behave according
to the ethical standards of our
organization,” said Robert
Cooper, Superstition Search
and Rescue commander.
“They must understand that
it is just crazy to want to do
this and no normal person
would devote the time and
energy to this task, much less
deal with the aggravation.
There are very few ‘thank
yous’ and there is a whole
lot of work, that missions occur
at the most inconvenient
times and in the worst weather,
be it as hot as my furnace
or as cold as my freezer.”
See
A-1
and see Rescue,
A-9
A.J. Boys Swim Team
Sinks Cactus Shadows
 By Chuck Baker
The News
Led by individual first
place finishes in diving
and the 100 freestyle from
Andrew Jones, the Prospector
swim and dive team
defeated Cave Creek Cactus
Shadows 109-74 in last
Tuesday’s home opener for
Apache Junction.
Jones tallied 173.8 points to
take first in diving and then
turned in a time of 57:47 to
capture the top spot in the
100 freestyle. Jones also
swam a leg of the boys 200
freestyle relay which finished
first with a combined
time of 1:46.50 and the boys
200 medley relay, along
with John Simeonoff, Storm
Hancock and Jim Huynh,
which finished first with a
comb8ined time of 1:57.76.
Also coming up with a first
place finish for the AJHS
boys were Cody Ploense in
the 200 freestyle (2:25.22),
Richard Penick in the 50
freestyle (24:46), Huynh
in the 100 breaststroke
(1:10.28), Ty Adair in the
500 freestyle (6:40.31), and
the boys 400 freestyle relay
with a combined time of
3:56.31.
Second place finishers for
the AJHS boys included Nate
Rees in the 200 freestyle
(2:25.39), Chris Richmond
in the 200 individual medley
(2:46.83), Jordan Goats
in the 50 freestyle (28:20),
Huynh in the 100 butterfly
(1:00.50), Ploense in the 500
freestyle (6:40.58), Simeonoff
in the 100 backstroke
(1:09.75), and the boys 400
freestyle relay (4:28.88).
In the girls competition,
Cactus Shadows took first
place with 107 team points
and Apache Junction scored
76 points to finish second.
See
page
B-1
and see Swim,
B-6
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