Editor’s Letter: A brush with Maricopa fame

Talk about a juxtaposition.

Victor Moreno, a photographer who sometimes lends his expertise to us here at InMaricopa, was out at Don Pearce Fire Station on Edison Drive shooting photos of James Huerta for the cover of this month’s magazine.

And while he shot Huerta, I was taking pictures of Victor.

Victor has captured so many images of what matters in Maricopa both for our magazine and other entities.

He is the guy who photographs everyone and here I am taking pictures of him.

It truly was an inception moment.

In this month’s issue, we have stories about both, who are as close as it gets to famous in Maricopa. Through their work, albeit in vastly different fields, both men have touched many lives in Maricopa.

The story on Huerta is remarkable in that here’s a 64-year-old man keeping up with and oftentimes surpassing the efforts of men and women a third his age. This guy might be the closest thing Maricopa has to a superhero.

But all superheroes have their weaknesses. For a few weeks in 2020, it seemed Huerta may have found his kryptonite with a COVID-19 infection. The man who makes everything seem effortless struggled to recover.

Speaking of overcoming struggles, Amalia Clark, the owner of Molly’s House of Little Feet, has an interesting story we tell about the 10-year journey to opening her preschool on Porter Road.

Tom Schuman took some time to talk with Clark about how she made her dream a reality.

Growth, commercial and otherwise, is a complex topic in Maricopa. Jay Taylor takes a look at how residential growth has to occur before commercial growth can follow. It seems you can’t have one without the other.

And as part of our monthly InFocus segment, we speak with City Manager Rick Horst about jobs, growth and how we may have some unexpected allies in the drive to improve State Route 347.

These are just a few of the features in this month’s issue.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading!

This Editor’s Letter was first published in the March edition of InMaricopa magazine.