Official publication of the city of Surprise Winter 2009 Volume 9 No. 1 PProroSggURrrPReeISEssss YEAR IN REVIEW Looking back... and ahead inside GO Bond Committee Regional Transportation Project Map 2009 Surprise Spring Training contents Year in City Council 623.222.1300 Review Lyn Truitt, Mayor 4 John Longabaugh, District 1 Driven to Richard Alton, District 2 Improve John Williams, District 3 7 Roy Villanueva, District 4 Surprise Spring Training Joe Johnson, District 5 10 Skip Hall, District 6 The web City Manager 623.222.1100 never sleeps Randy Oliver 12 Planning & Zoning Commission 623.222.3133 Matthew Bieniek John Hallin Senior Center Jan Blair Robert Rein activities Ken Chapman Steve Somers 14 Fred Watts City TTY: 623.222.1002/VP: 623.222.3802 Happenings 15 Arts & Cultural Advisory Board Transportation Committee 623.222.1300 623.222.3290 Parks & Recreation Advisory Board Disability Advisory Commission 623.222.2000 623.222.3821 SURPRISE TTY: 623.222.3802 Revitalization Advisory Board Progress 623.222.1551 Surprise Progress is published by the city City Council meetings of Surprise Communications Department and Surprise City Hall, 12425 W. Bell Road Info: 623.222.1200 distributed to all city residents via mail. We hope 6 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursday of the month you like our format and content. We’d like to • January 8th and 22nd hear from you about our magazine. Please call • February 12th and 26th 623.222.1400 or email [email protected] • March 12th and 26th with your comments and suggestions. Planning & Zoning Commission meetings Ken Lynch Surprise City Hall, 12425 W. Bell Road Info: 623.222.3133 Communications Director 6 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the month • January 6th Diane Arthur • February 3rd Public Information Officer • March 3rd Doug Tolf City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission Graphic Designer meetings are broadcast live on Surprise 11, available to Cox Cable subscribers in Surprise, Sun City and Sun City SURPRISE PROGRESS AWARDS West. Council meetings are rebroadcast several times during the week following the meeting. Broadcast times are: APEX 3CMA 3CMA Award of Excellence Silver Circle Award Award of Excellence 8 a.m. Tuesday, 4:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 a.m. Friday, 3 p.m. 2007-2008 2003-2005, 2007 2002, 2008 Sunday, NOW STREAMING LIVE ON THE WEB! 2 Winter 2009 www.surpriseaz.com SURPRISE PROGRESS I Beginning with the end Above: Channel 11’s Council ooking forward and backward at the same time is a hallmark Conversations studio set of Janus, for whom January is named. In Roman mythology, Left: New Fire Station 307 Janus oversaw beginnings and endings. It is a fine theme for Lthe first Progress magazine of the year, as we review one of the most challenging and amazing years in Surprise history, and And what about 2009? In this issue we look at important steps anticipate an exciting 2009. we will take in transportation, with a center map and a message from the City Manager about the major progress on Bell Road 2008 began with new Mayor Lyn Truitt and five new council and on construction of the 303 coming this year. members setting fresh direction for Surprise, and by July, featured new City Manager Randy Oliver at the helm of city As the New Year dawns, a new council appointed committee is government. Residents saw new openness and transparency in hard at work, preparing to get your thoughts on a possible government with live, online city council meetings, and bond election in 2009, our first since 1995. You will find more “Council Conversation” TV programs on Surprise 11. information inside, including how you can be heard on this topic. Our newly elected officials also embraced the possibilities of www.surpriseaz.com, starting up their own web sites with Of course, challenges remain. The economy will be a top issue online journals to keep you up to date. The site includes e-mail as budget managers begin preparing a reduced city budget this links, council schedules and even videos of some of their spring. We will also see the effect of more than $2 million in important community and TV appearances. Surprise as the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program responds to the decline in the housing market. Check out our look back at ’08, and see if you don’t agree it was a memorable year filled with challenge and accomplish - Enjoy this edition of Progress as, Janus-like, we look ment for our community. From responding to economic hard backward and forward. Let us know what you’re thinking times, to winning acclaim nationally as an emerging tennis by getting online at www.surpriseaz.com and taking our center, to welcoming hundreds of new jobs while dealing with regularly updated survey questions. From all of us at the the challenge of foreclosures, to setting attendance records at city of Surprise, a happy and prosperous 2009 to you and Spring Training, Surprise continued to mature. your family! SURPRISE PROGRESS www.surpriseaz.com Winter 2009 3 I From left to right: Bell Rd. construction, Spring Training at Surprise Stadium, ground breaking ceremony for Crescent Crown Distributing, Housing Preservation Forum, Fire station 307 ribbon cutting, “The Gorilla” entertaining at the Trader Joe’s grand opening, and Ultra Star Cinema. The Year in Review will be a year we long remember in Surprise. education map and creating a college-atmosphere buzz around From the January inaugural meeting of a new the City Hall complex. mayor and five new council members all the 2way 0throu0 gh t8he December Holiday Tree lighting and Balloon The council appointed 17 members to a Bond Committee to Glow, it was a year we made major strides at all levels of civic life. recommend whether to hold an election in 2009 and which im - portant public projects should be placed on the ballot if an elec - In February, Mayor Lyn Truitt and the Surprise City Council tion happens (see separate story). OK’ed a partnership with Rio Salado College for the first “Communiversity,” an innovative higher education presence at Mayor Truitt was elected co-chair of the Luke/West Valley the new Surprise City Hall complex, which opens this year. Mayors Council, a high profile post leading the fight to retain Students of all ages can earn 2 and four-year degrees at the Luke Air Force Base as an Arizona fixture. Communiversity, putting Surprise squarely on the regional higher As a souring economy made headlines, the council formed a citizen-led Ad Hoc Foreclosure Committee, which organized a Housing Preservation Forum and free counseling sessions attended by hundreds in September. Foreclosure and counseling information is currently on our Web site, www.surpriseaz.com. In July, the council hired Randy Oliver as the new City Manager. Oliver, a city management veteran with experience in county and municipal government around the country, immediately sharpened the focus of the city on transportation and economic development issues (see his comments on transportation with the center map inside). City Hall is a more open place today, thanks to several innovative communications tools. Residents can now see city council meetings Surprise serves and all other Surprise 11 programs live on the Web site, or call up archives of any meeting. The interactive online agenda lets you go up professional tennis directly to the item you are interested in. The mayor and council Surprise made its debut on the national professional tennis scene in November, as TV viewers across the country joined thousands of fans in the stands to fired up their own web pages this year with video links, event catch John McEnroe, Jim Courier and other tennis legends in the Inaugural calendars and updated journal entries from each council member. Cancer Treatment Centers of America Tennis Championships at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex. Surprise made economic news of the very best kind all year as we welcomed the May groundbreaking of Crescent Crown More than 10,000 tickets were sold during the five-day event, which saw at Surprise Point. The 250,000 square foot bever - McEnroe win the 8-man round-robin tournament during a wild and windy Distributing finals match against American rival Todd Martin. age distribution center will create as many as 600 jobs in Surprise. It is scheduled to open this spring. All the players agreed that Surprise tennis facilities were among the best they’ve seen on the Outback Champions Series Tour, which includes stops in Boston, Sands Chevrolet became Surprise's first new car dealer when Dallas and Dubai. Many of the matches were rebroadcast on FSN Arizona and it opened in late December. Sands bring more than 20 high the Tennis Channel, showcasing our beautiful tennis complex to a national quality jobs to its new facility at the Prasada Auto Show, and audience. The CTCA Tennis Championships will be back in 2009 and 2010. becomes the first Prasada business to open its doors. 4 Winter 2009 www.surpriseaz.com SURPRISE PROGRESS I Ultra Star Cinema, the first motion picture complex in Surprise, opened with a May party at Surprise Point that attracted hundreds. GO Bond committee formed nvolved Surprise residents are at work this winter gathering facts and After a city survey showed Trader Joe’s as the top busi - sorting through ideas about whether to recommend a bond election in ness residents wanted to see come to Surprise, the store’s 2009, and what projects should be included. fall opening attracted long lines of happy shoppers. I Former City Council member Cliff Elkins chairs the 17-member group, Transportation made historic strides in Surprise, too.