Guest Editorial: Scottsdale Bond Questions 1, 2, 3 Invest in Our Kids and Our Seniors

By Becca Linnig

I have lived in Scottsdale for 21 years. Our youngest son is a student at Mohave Middle School and will be the third Saguaro Sabercat in our family. Our oldest son is the Director of Operations for a successful home health care company in the Valley and our daughter is a Junior studying Computer Science at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

Scottsdale is our home as well as where we work and play. It is a special community that we are proud to be a part of.

Let’s keep it that way by Voting Yes on Questions 1, 2 and 3 on the November 5th ballot.

I’m an especially passionate about the infrastructure investments in Scottsdale’s senior centers to serve our aging population and youth sports, which we participate in weekly, included in the three bond measures before voters.

Those projects invest in our seniors as well as our kids.

The bonds will build 13 new multiuse youth sports near WestWorld, the geographic heart of Scottsdale. Those fields will help alleviate waiting lists and backlogs suffered by youth sports teams and leagues. The fields will be used for soccer, lacrosse, flag football and other youth sports. Our kids deserve first class facilities in their hometown. We are incredibly fortunate to have a city where I have met teams that have traveled from as far away as Australia to participate in tournaments hosted here. Scottsdale should be proud of its youth and high school sports.

The fields will also be utilized for parking a few weekends a year for the Phoenix Open and Barrett-Jackson, as takes place now with other fields in the city. That will generate parking revenue for the city to offset operational costs not to mention visitors that will occupy hotel rooms, eat at local restaurants and shop in our stores. This is great planning for public facilities.

Scottsdale has premier and revenue generating events at WestWorld, a publicly owned and operated facility. We need to make sure we don’t lose out on those or fall behind other cities. The bonds also make needed repairs at WestWorld including improving its horse barns and renovating its arena so it can host even more equestrian, youth sports, community and signature events.

We all know Scottsdale is wonderful place to live, work, start a business and raise a family. City voters have not approved a major bond program in 19 years leaving us with some infrastructure that needs fixed and community assets that need improvements.

Questions 1, 2 and 3 will do that across our city but especially by investing in our seniors and our kids.

Becca Linnig is a Scottsdale resident and serves on the Steering Committee of the For The Best Scottsdale Campaign: Vote Yes On Questions 1, 2 and 3.