HISTORY
Memories flooding back Maricopa historian Patricia Brock’s 1946 photo (below) of the unpaved Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway looks west toward the city. The Richfield Service Station, which would become the Texaco Service Station a decade later, is the white building in the center, while the DeHart homestead is on the left. The DeHart family were early pioneers in the area, and their home was once used as a U.S. post office building. Rhoton’s Store is on the right, at the end of the street where Napa Auto Parts would later set up shop. During winter storms, spring rains and summer monsoons, the unpaved highway would wash out. High school kids, pictured here (above), were bussed to Casa Grande until the mid-1950s.
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The first hotel inside city limits broke ground. Franchise owner Andy Bhakta turned earth with his family, partners and city officials at La Quinta Inn, right next to Copper Sky Regional Park. “We have this beautiful park and it’s one of the nicest in the state, and yet we don’t have the ability for folks to come and have tournaments here and stay here,” then-Mayor Christian Price said five Septembers ago. “It’s a really big deal.”
A 56-year-old substitute bus driver trainee for Maricopa Unified School District was arrested and charged with two counts each of indecent exposure and disruption of an educational institution after flashing his genitals to high school students on a bus one Friday afternoon. Paul Dickerson was seated behind the driver when he reportedly flashed two girls under 18 and a male over 18. He was terminated. In 2016, he would plead guilty to one felony count of interfering with an educational institution in a plea bargain.
Maricopa City Council decided the fate of the “old library” on Maricopa- Casa Grande Highway, dedicating it as a center for veterans and seniors. Today, it’s the Maricopa Museum and Visitor Center.
A Pinal County sheriff’s deputy busted a speeder on State Route 347 with $1.5 million worth of marijuana. The deputy caught him on radar going 10 miles per hour over the posted speed limit near Peters and Nall Road. The driver fled on foot as police found 3,000 pounds of bundled weed in the back of his van. A few days later, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and Ak-Chin police recovered 6,000 more pounds of weed, two stolen pickup trucks, military clothing and a loaded gun while executing a search warrant at a home on Ralston Road. No arrests were reported in either case.
InMaricopa.com | September 2024
September 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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