Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 117

Peoria ienaa The Arizona Republic FRIDAY February 23, 2001 LLIL West Valley bureau chief. Susan Felt (602) 444-6915 susan.feKiari20narepublic.con1 Community. Edition Our Goodyear City Council picks editorial, page 2 Deer Valley a destined contender sports, page Cheerleader mom awaits ruling 1 in prison for solicitation of murder. Holloway was accused of hiring a man to ------rV A that could include time in jail. The trial evidence four years ago showed that Champion placed the threats in 1996 while her daughter, Heather, then 15, was engaged in tryouts for the north Glendale high school's award-winning cheerleader team.

In one call, she threatened to have sugar poured into the gas tank of the car of Vicki Jones, the cheerleader coach. In another call, she alluded to the case of Wanda Webb Holloway, the so-called Texas Cheerleader Mom, who was sentenced in 1996 to 10 years By Brent Whiting The Arizona Republic Time is running out for Mona Champion. In a made-for-tabloids drama, she was convicted in 1997 of making phone threats to the cheerleader coach at Deer Valley High School. Champion, 47, of Phoenix, was sentenced to 60 days in jail but has yet to be incarcerated, as her case has lingered in the courts on appeal. Her conviction was upheld last year.

Now she is awaiting final disposition in the case 3 kill the mother of her teenage daughter's rival. "And don't forget the woman in Texas," Champion told Jones in the tape-recorded call. "And what was it that she did? Oh, that's right, she had one of those other mothers killed, didn't she? Have a great day." Last year, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge upheld the conviction but or- See MOM Page 3 "1 1 Ashley BachThe Arizona Republic Seattle Mariners pitcher Kazuhiro Sasaki signs autographs Tuesday during spring training at the Peoria Sports Complex. pring Ibrin gs In your neighborhood A HERO REMEMBERED The face on the television news Sunday abruptly caught the attention of Stella Bustos, night manager of Raul Theresa's Restaurant in Avondale. She had seen him a few times before when he dropped in for a bite while in town to compete at Phoenix International Raceway.

And there he was again, but this time the television announcer was saying Dale Earnhardt was dead, the victim of a crash at Daytona International Speedway in Florida. "It was sad," Bustos said. "I remember he and the other drivers used to come in in bunches, maybe 10 or 12 or 16," she said. "They'd come in and get a little rowdy." Earnhardt was a big draw for PIR from his first NASCAR race there in 1988, recalls former PIR owner Buddy Jobe, who watched Sunday's race on television. "He was out there doing what he truly loved, and few men get to do what they truly love.

He was an artist at his trade, the best of the best." Robin Braig, executive vice president and general manager of PIR, was at Daytona when the tragedy occurred. He said Earnhardt was the kind of driver and person who ignited his fans. "He was an even greater man off the track out of the public's eye, where only a select, chosen few were allowed to know him as the very warm, kind, giving and funny man he was." TRIBUTES WELCOME baseball fan 1 back to mrk (I K7 A Suzanne StarrThe Arizona Republic Glendale Transportation Director Jim Book stands at 59th and Peoria avenues, which has among the fewest accidents of any intersection in the city. By Ashley Bach The Arizona Republic It has begun. Position players reported for spring training at West Valley stadiums early this week, kicking off in earnest more than a month of workouts and games.

And a legion of fans, both local and from across the country, couldn't be happier. "It's wonderful," Cheryl Breimon, 56, said as she watched batting practice at Peoria Sports Complex. "My heart is just pounding for baseball to get started." Breimon and her husband were two of hundreds of fans who turned out Tuesday to see the entire Seattle Mari ners team practice for the first time. The San Diego Padres, also in Peoria, and the Milwaukee Brewers, at Maryvale Baseball Park, are the other teams training in the West Valley. Fans scrambled to see their favorite Mariners in the warm sunshine as the players slowly got back into the swing of things.

As players approached fences or public areas, fans threw out hats, balls and posters anything they had in their hands for the players to sign. Sam Black, 68, walked away from an autograph session proudly pointing out his hat to his friends. It had just See BASEBALL Page 3 Glendale's most dangerous intersections Accidents from Jan. 1, 1997, through Dec. 31, 1999 Crash rate up, citations are Air Force also puts civilians at controls Glendale to hire more traffic cops 4 I Bell Rd: A GreenwayRd.

Thunderb rd Rd. 4 actusRd 1 1 1 1 Peoria Mb Olive Ave. Northern Ave. i i eg Glendale Ave. -v 2 mile; 1 i Bethany Home Rd.

2 km i 1 i I I In the wake of the tragedy, PIR is letting fans leave flowers and pay their respects at a makeshift shrine at Gate 2A at the racetrack. On Tuesday, Avondale paid tribute to Earnhardt with a proclamation, praising the driver's achievements, including winning the Winston Cup at PIR in 1990. Avondale Mayor Ron Drake said he never met Earnhardt but knew he was greatly admired. One of Drake's friends, a diehard race fan, told him it was like losing MichaelJordan. "tfou could just feel the pain," Drake said, adding that fans would jam PIR each year to get a glimpse of Earnhardt, dubbed "The In-timidator." SUNSET AND PRAYER 7 1- 9t 4 1 By David Madrid The Arizona Republic The Navy isn't the only branch of military service that pumps up its image by allowing civilians to take the controls of its expensive machinery.

At Luke, community leaders, reporters and politicians are handed the controls of $20 million F-16s, all in the name of public relations. Lt. Col. Chris Metz, director of operations for the 56th Operations Support Squadron, says you can't compare an F-16 flight with operating a submarine. Although two civilians were at the controls of a crew-driven submarine that recently crashed into a Japanese fishing boat, only one pilot and one passenger are in an F-16.

"We have a highly qualified instructor pilot in the airplane who is in control at all By Dennis Godfrey The Arizona Republic Glendale has a reputation for tough enforcement of its traffic laws. Mayor Elaine Scruggs tells of inviting a group of political figures from other cities to come over for a breakfast meeting. They were reluctant because they feared getting a speeding ticket, she said. Despite that tough reputation, traffic citations and arrests were down last year. And accidents are up.

But help is on the way. Glendale is getting 24 new officers this year, adding to the 307 already on the force. Six of those new officers are to be assigned to traffic. In addition, more officers will be working over-See TRAFFIC I Page 5 Tech. Sgt.

Michael C. Burns Crocodile hunter Steve Irwin prepares for a different adventure in an F-16. Average daily volume 46,820 60,352 41,819 65,048 57,231 29,097 66,497 46,050 Rate 3.0 2.7 2.2 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 Intersection Count 67th Ave. and Bethany Home Rd. 154 59th and Olive avenues 178 67th and Glendale avenues 100 51st and Olive avenues 152 51st and Northern avenues 132 59th Ave.

and Glenn Dr. 67 59th Ave. and Bell Rd. 151 0 59th and Northern avenues 102 Rate per I million vehicles times," Metz said. "The person in the back seat can have control, but the pilot can override the controls in the front seat." See PR FLIGHTS I Page 3 Mark WatersThe Arizona Republic Source: City of Glendale Manistee stands in for Prosperity Movie role fits for mall Jobe, a Chandler farmer and land developer, met Earnhardt in 1985 right after he bought the track.

"What was neat about Dale was once you kind of broke into that inner circle of his and got close, he was always the same every time you saw him. It was just like 'you saw him the day before," Jobe said. Earnhardt told Jobe that he appreciated PIR's laid-back atmosphere. "We never tried to be stuffy," Jobe said. "Coming here was like old home week.

We'd hang out and go to dinner or have dinners here i for them. We'd hang out in the garages and swap stories." For a land developer, being welcomed into the drivers' circle of friends was an honor, Jobe said. A night after the crash, Jobe took a walk up Squaw Peak. "It was really tough to lose somebody. I walked up Squaw Peak and watched the sunset and said a little prayer for Dale," he said.

"I felt the whole load was off my shoulders. I saw the lights of the city and thought what a neat end to the day." Have an unsung hero, interesting meeting or other bit of news? Let us know and we'll put it In Your Neighborhood. Call Ashley Bach at (602) 444-6919. fax us at (623) 412-9577 or e-mail us at ashley.backar1zonarepublic.com or drop a note to In Your Neighborhood. 17235 N.

75th Suite A-100, Glendale AZ 85308 I I i 1 1 1 No, you haven't left Glendale. Manistee Town Center was renamed temporarily for the movie Arac Attack. By Dennis Godfrey The Arizona Republic It took the magic of the movies to bring Prosperity to Manistee Town Center. The Glendale mall has been renamed Prosperity Mall for the movie Arac Attack, which is being filmed there. The movie, a giant-spiders-attack-innocent-humans flick, is set in the mythical rundown mining town of Prosperity.

Superior turned out to be the perfect place to shoot the town scenes. A key element of the movie is the down-and-out mall in the down-and-out town. Where better than Manistee, which is virtually vacant after a long decline? other's arms. But, Erdmann said, older folks who liked the mutant insect movies of the '50s will get a nostalgic jump from it, too. "It is not a huge, big-budget movie, simply because of the genre," Erdmann said.

The plan is to have it look like those old-time movies, only with modern special effects. No papier-mache spiders here. No tiny black widows enlarged 10,000 times. These spiders are hatched and nourished in computers. The horrible, menacing arachnids on the big screen are barely figments to the actors now.

The terror they are emoting is a reaction to a blank spot 1 It worked out exactly right, said Terry Erdmann, the publicist for the Warner Bros, film. "We found Superior, which is perfect, and then, an hour and a half away, we have this deserted mall." The film crew, 200 strong at its peak, is spending eight weeks in Arizona. The last scheduled shooting at Man-istee-cum-Prosperity is on Tuesday. That's when stars David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer fight their last spider. "We're doing this very seriously," Erdmann said, "but the minute you say 'giant how serious can you be?" The goal is to make a fun, sour, film a date movie.

With luck, the attacking spiders will scare kids into each -J suits used to be. But we'll have to take Erd- mann's word for that. The set is No visitors, no tours. No autograph sessions. And all the extras they need have already been hired.

Reach the reporter at dennis.godfreyarizona republic.com or (602) 444-6921. that will be filled in later by the techno-heads in Los Angeles. What used to be Montgomery Ward at Manistee is now a fully functioning sound stage, Erdmann said. A bedroom, identical to one shot in Superior, has been created. Also 400 feet of a mine shaft right there where the leisure A.