Letter: Marsh is quick to find the right solutions

Jul 15, 2020

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Bob Marsh candidate — Bob Marsh is a candidate for Maricopa City Council. Photo by Merenzi Young / Eye of Odin Studios

By Ted Yocum

My wife Kathy and I very strongly endorse Bob Marsh for Maricopa’s City Council. I hope all Maricopans will consider voting for Bob in the Primary Election on Aug. 4. Check out his website: maricopavoteforbob.com.

When Bob and I first met, almost a decade ago, I told him of my volunteering with the City. At my suggestion he attended the Maricopa Citizens’ Leadership Academy. Then he got appointed to the Board of Adjustment.

We served together on Maricopa’s Planning and Zoning Commission for years. I can attest that he knows his stuff and that he has a track record of getting to the core of each issue, zeroing in on the right decision, even when most of the rest of the commission was going in other directions. He was instrumental in helping get the APEX motor park approved, and the upcoming Anderson-Russell village in southeast Maricopa got approved by City Council based on Bob’s defense, even when a majority of the P&Z Commission had voted against it and recommended that Council disapprove the project.

I’ve worked with Bob on the board of directors of the Maricopa Senior Coalition, where Bob has worked to keep the need for a Maricopa senior center on the front burner, even when City Council members told us repeatedly that Maricopa will never have a bricks-and-mortar senior center. Well, guess what? We’re going to have a senior center, thanks to our creative City Manager and his staff – and persistent citizens like Bob.

One more thing: While serving on the Desert Cedars HOA board, Bob worked with the Maricopa Flood Control District to go after a FEMA grant to get the subdivision out of the flood hazard zone. The MFCD was successful and got a large FEMA grant to perform an engineering study to fix the problem. The study is now complete – with a great solution. Once the fix is complete, our homeowners will no longer be forced to pay for flood insurance. A huge win. And the MFCD can use that experience to go after grants for other subdivisions in flood zones – including the Heritage District.

Like the signs say: Vote for Bob.

Ted Yocum is a resident of Maricopa.