Gilbert Goings-On

There are a couple of notable items about Gilbert culture this morning. The first, of course, has to do with the election for town council members. Both of the local papers have initial reports on the election. The AZ Republic's is here, and the East Valley Tribune article begins this way:

A former vice mayor and two incumbents won seats in Tuesday’s Gilbert Town Council primary election, unofficial results show.

Linda Abbott, a high school history teacher who served on the Town Council a dozen years ago as vice mayor, was the top vote-getter among the nine candidates vying for four seats. Current Vice Mayor Dave Crozier and Councilman Steve Urie also received more than 50 percent of ballots cast needed to secure a seat outright.

Results could change if enough provisional ballots yet to be counted push any of the three below the 50 percent mark. The number of uncounted ballots won’t be known until today, and final results won’t be released until Friday, Town Clerk Cathy Templeton said.

If the three maintain their edge and win seats in the primary, then one more seat will be left to decide in the May 15 runoff election. If that’s the case, the next two next two top vote-getters, Councilman Les Presmyk and challenger Dwayne Farnsworth, would battle for the last spot. Presmyk appears to, in preliminary results, have just missed enough votes to win a seat outright in the primary.

The rest of the ballots are supposed to be counted by Friday and so we will have definitive news then.

The other notable items, especially to Morrison Ranch residents, is the beginning of construction on a Polar Ice skating rink next to Crossroads Park:

One of two dog parks in Gilbert will be closed for four months to make way for infrastructure work on a new ice-skating facility.

The dog park at Crossroads Park, at Greenfield and Knox roads north of Loop 202, will be closed from March 26 until late July during construction of the 70,000-square-foot Polar Ice skating center.

During the closure, dog owners are being asked to use Cosmo Park near Loop 202 and Ray Road that opened last summer.

Polar Ice is expected to open in spring 2008.

And the Harkins movie theater at Williams Field and the loop 202 at the San Tan Village:

Harkins Theatres' 16-screen cinema will be the first tenant to open, on March 30.

Westcor on Tuesday announced more tenants for the center, including Anchor Blue, Claire's, Finish Line, Forever 21, Industrial Ride Shop, Johnny Rockets, Journeys, Sunglass Icon, Torrid, Wet Seal and Zumiez.

The mall's roughly 100 shops and restaurants will begin opening seven months later, and will be anchored by Dillard's and, mostly likely, Macy's.

Newland said Macy's will likely open at SanTan in 2008, making it the second department store there, although it is not formally listed as a tenant.

Some new options for Gilbert residents are seemingly right around the corner.