Carefree Truth
Issue #676, July 27, 2018
The "Happy Hour" hosted by Mayor Les Peterson and held at Civana Carefree's meto cafe on July 24th was a well attended and fun event. Civana laid out a lovely spread and meto cafe was a great venue for a party. Herbert was there, camera in hand, to record the festivities. For those of you who were unable to be there, below is Herbert's video of the speakers. We knew there would be a crowd, so he hadn't brought a tripod and had to film the video hand held. I assured him it looked fine and it captures the spirit of the evening! Click on the box to play the video.
Mayor Peterson began by introducing his fellow Council candidates in attendance. They included Cheryl Kroyer, Mike Krahe, John Crane, Stephen Hatcher, and what the Mayor referred to as "the next generation", new candidate Vince D'Aliesio. He noted that Mike Krahe makes an outstanding Santa Claus during Santa season, and is also a warlock during the Pumpkin Festival. Vice Mayor John Crane is involved in literally everything and fills in where ever he's needed.
Mayor Peterson introduced Civana owner/CEO Kevin Kelly. Kevin was the founder, and was the CEO, of Canyon Ranch for 10 years. It is his brains, drive, and desire behind the remodeling of the Carefree Resort into what the Mayor believes will be the premier sustainable wellness resort in the state and perhaps in the Southwest. At the conclusion of Kevin's talk, tours of the new facility were available.
But before Kevin spoke, Mayor Peterson made an important announcement. A week ago, Carefree got a call from the Maricopa Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). Usually, those calls are shudder inducing. Something is leaking. There are chemicals. What have you done in the air? You have to clean it up! But this call was different. Instead of bad news, MDEQ said they are presenting an award to Civana and Carefree for the July 4th Drone Light Show, and how it kept the atmosphere clear. MDEQ will be at the August 7th Carefree Council meeting to make the presentation. The Mayor then passed the floor over to Kevin, to talk about the history and his vision.
Kevin joked that the Mayor picked the hottest day for this event, but was smart enough to make sure it was inside. He said he was very excited to be here. "About a year and a half ago, I got a call from my friend Steve Betts saying, 'Come down and meet with the Mayor, meet with Gary, and talk about this stuff they want to talk to you about, about doing something around healthier lifestyles in Carefree.' I said, 'Well sure' ".
"At the time, the Mayor and Gary and others were saying, 'Look, we have this piece of land. We'd like to figure out how to promote this town for what it is. This great healthy lifestyle place, this place with great outdoor activities, access to mountains, hiking and shopping, and Bartlett Lake, and so forth'. That particular conversation was short lived because the site was too small. But it stuck in my mind. And it stuck in my mind because I said, 'You know, this town wants to make things happen. This town wants to work with businesses, they want to attract capital, and they want to actually really move the dial'. And no pun intended about the dial."
"And so, a few months later, as fate would have it, we get a call that this property had fallen out and was available. And we came here and we thought that this was an absolutely ideal piece of property, was a hidden gem in a town that was in fact a hidden gem. And we started the process of working on this and figuring out what we could afford to do, and what our concept was about living and creating a healthier lifestyle, creating 5 different movement studios and fitness studios, creating a world class spa second to none in the Southwest, bringing an extremely talented team from all over the country to come in here. Can we really deliver for this more affordable, more approachable, more relaxed wellness property?"
"And we sat down and said, 'This is a really big venture. This is a $40 million investment, and it gets a little spooky'. When you try to look at places like Scottsdale, no disrespect to Scottsdale and some other towns, but there's a lot of time it's hard to get things done. And we sat down with the Mayor, we sat down with your Town Administrator, with other Council members and other staff and said, 'Look, here's what we want to do. Can you help us get there?' And they said, 'Yes, we're going to help you get there as long as you color inside the lines, right, play within the rules, yes, we're going to help accelerate it. We're gonna help move this along'. So we're here and we're here because of the government of Carefree, Arizona."
"Look at what we did the other day, July 4th. I think we called the Mayor on a Friday night with an idea. And as I've seen it all over the national news, I've been told it's now actually also played in England and France, and he said, just what he said, 'If you have a good idea...' I said, 'Let's do a partnership. We can't do this alone. We can't create the momentum alone, so let's do a partnership. Let's, since there's no fireworks, the kids are disappointed, it depresses the economy because there's not as much activity, let's do this crazy drone idea. We have this great idea, using technology'. And he says, 'OK, let's do it!' And we did it, literally on a verbal handshake over the phone at 1:00 on a Saturday, and brought 1200-1400 people a few days later, and a several hundred children saw a wonderful new technology drone show in the air over Carefree. Right?"
"What's interesting, because it was a partnership, I give Rianna Riego quite a bit of praise here because it was a partnership. We basically know this, that there are agencies that track how news gets dispersed. The equivalent outlets equal 30 million people, or outlets that touch 30 million people, heard about Carefree, Arizona and this uniqueness this town is evolving with creating this new high technology drone show. And that was literally throughout the U.S., and I literally know it was also in France, England, Germany, Switzerland and Asia. It actually had a lot of play."
"It shows what happens when you trust one another, you come together, you agree to do something, you think positively, you work your tail off, and that was a great example. I think this place is happening for that reason. That drone show is a microcosm of how this is happening too."
"So what I want to say is, we, Rianna and I and other employees, we were renting here for a little while. And I'm over, during the Christmas time, down by the park in Carefree, and had some coffee at the little coffee shop down there, and then over to (here he needed some prompting on the name from Rianna) Bacan. So in one day, we hit these 3 little restaurants. Then I'm sitting outside having a glass of wine at Venues."
"This town is so charming. There's something special about Carefree that we actually bought here and actually moved my dad here, so that's 3 more people that came here."
"I want to welcome you again. We're very appreciative. We hope to see come back over and over and over again. We see a lot of you on hamburger night with the Mayor's contingent. And, with that, again, we're ready to do a tour."
Next at the microphone was Councilman Mike Krahe. "What I consider one of the best, one of the best, leaders I've had the good fortune to work with is Les Peterson. Every time I've tried very hard in the last 2 years to compliment Les for what he does, and he never takes the compliment. He always says, 'We're a team. We do it together'. So I've been trying to teach him when I say, 'Les, you're doing a great job, say thank you'. Dammit, he finally is doing it!"
"But it's a real pleasure to work with Les and the rest of the folks that are on the Council with me. It's an honor. I'm humbled to work with people who are good to the core, who care about this town and the people, and its uniqueness and its character and its future. And I'm proud to serve with that guy (pointing to Mayor Peterson). So I'll let my com-padre here say a few words."
Phil Corso said, "I'm a closer. As a real estate developer, I never had a problem asking people to invest in me. So I'm asking you tonight to consider investing in Les. Les is a community leader. We, as a community, that's our job to support his efforts. It's coming out of pocket to lead us and provide the kind of service. Especially Les is a servant leader, you know, that he can serve us from a leadership perspective. So I'd ask you if you have the opportunity and have the where with all to write a check or give something to Les. 10 bucks, 20 bucks, 120 bucks, whatever works for you, to help defray the costs of the campaign, which are not out of control, well managed, but can always use your support. So, thank you very much and if you'd consider investing with us we appreciate it. Thank you."
Here is the link to the still photos Herbert took at the event, with 2 taken by Tracy McCormick included. Tracy caught Tammy and Ray Villafane, and she actually forced Herbie to come out from behind the camera, so there's a picture that includes him, a rarity!
http://aneyeonyouproduction.com/72418-mayor-les-petersonrsquos-happy-hour-meet--great-at-civana-carefree.html
Lyn Hitchon
Prepared by Carefree Truth
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