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Litchfield Park dives into swim season with April Pool’s Day


by Rich Ott assistant editor


Litchfield Park Recreation Center closed. It’s set to reopen at noon Sunday with April Pool’s Day featuring Gosh, the lifeguard bunny. The five-hour event at the Recreation Center, 101 S. Old


Two hundred seven days ago, the swimming pool at the


Litchfield Road, will offer open swimming for all in the city’s heated pool.


“It will be a great day to be out in warm water,” said Mary Liotta, the aquatics director for Litchfield Park. The event, which costs $3 a person or free to Recreation Center members, will feature Gosh tossing floatable eggs into the swimming pool. “I just hope we can sink a few with rocks,” that way “scuba-like egg hunters” have something to search for, Liotta said.


be beverages available, though no food because she only has enough staff to keep the pool safe, Liotta said. The aquatics director, who has been with the city since 1990, is having a hard time finding staff for the pool because of the mid-year start. Most of the lifeguards from last year took other jobs to


make ends meet once the pool closed Sept. 6, or they are in the middle of a school year, she said. The Litchfield Park pool had been open year-round until


November 2009, when the City Council voted to close it through February 2010 as a cost-cutting measure during the economic recession. Ever since that first closure, the time the pool is shut


And some of those sinkable eggs will have prizes, she said. The event will also feature games and raffles. There will


Hope Lightfield Hope Lightfield: Artist of the Week


by Rachel Trott staff writer


down has grown each year: it was closed from October 2010 through March 2011 and from September 2011 through March 2012. Litchfield Park Assistant City Manager Sonny Culbreth


doesn’t foresee the pool being open any longer than Labor Day, Sept. 3, once again this year; if anything, it might close down earlier, he said.


The council will discuss that and other issues facing the city at its budget meetings in the coming months, Culbreth said.


its Lifeguard Certification class, set to begin at 9 a.m. April 7 at the Recreation Center. The four-week course will meet every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is open to those 15 and older, Liotta said. Once the individual completes the course, he or she will be a certified lifeguard. The cost is $135 for Litchfield Park residents and $160 for non-residents. Group swim lessons will begin the first week in April. Classes for toddlers to adults will be spread out over four weeks. Swim clinics, water exercise classes and private lessons are also available. Costs vary and depend on the person’s city of residence. For information, visit Litchfield- park.org or call the recreation center at 623-935-9040. Hours for open swimming in April and most of May will be 8 to 10 a.m. and 2 to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Cost is $3 per visit or an individual monthly pass can be purchased for $20 for Litchfield Park residents, $24 for non- residents. Family monthly passes are $40 for residents and $48 for nonresidents. The center offers a discount on passes. If you purchase three months, the fourth month is free, Liotta said. In late May, summer hours begin with a slew of new swim lessons. Registration for summer swim lessons begins on April 23 for residents and on May 5 for nonresidents. On April 16, registration opens for swim clinics and to join the Lagartos summer swim team.


Summer hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with some availability earlier in the morning — 5:30 to 6:45 a.m. — on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Weekend summer hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday.


Billboard-topping artist to perform in Buckeye Sat.


View report


Leno and Live with Regis and Kelly, as well as with Taylor Swift during her tour’s stop in Nashville, Tenn. His most recent single, “Fine by Me,” has broken into


VH1’s Top 20.


Singer and songwriter Andy Grammer is scheduled to perform at the Verrado Founder’s Day Concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at 21029 W. Main St., Buckeye. The 28-year-old musician’s self-titled album has hit No. 1 on Billboard’s “Heatseeker’s” chart. In 2011, he won the MTV “O Music Award” for most innovative video for “Keep Your Head Up,” featuring actor Rainn Wilson. Grammer has performed on The Tonight Show with Jay


show will precede Grammer’s performance from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Food, beverages and activities such as caricature artists, video games and a rock wall will also be available. For information on the Verrado Founder’s Day concert, visit www.verrado.net.


Admission to the performance is free. A resident variety One way the city hopes to find more lifeguards is through


Name: Hope Lightfield High School: Youngker High School Age, grade level: 17, senior Art forms: painting West Valley View: How did you first start painting? Hope Lightfield: My grandmother actually introduced me to watercolors. From then on I, just kind of progressed. I started acrylics, tried oils and it just seemed to hit me more than sketching things. I just enjoyed it and kept going with it. It was more of a hobby for my grandmother, but I used to visit her and she was painting a picture, and I asked to try, and she showed me how to do my strokes and I really, really enjoyed it. It was something that helped me transfer my everyday feelings into something that could benefit others. WVV: What are your


talents of visual and performing artists in the West Valley.


This series spotlights the


compared to civilization, so I just paint things like animals, trees or landscapes. WVV: Do you paint a lot of landscapes of Arizona?


Or are your landscapes from memory? Hope: I’m from California, so it’s a completely


different landscape there. I enjoy the forest atmosphere more compared to dirt and sand.


favorite subjects to paint? Hope: Nature, typically. It feels more attuned to it


and think, what do I want to paint today, and it just pops into my head, like something relevant to a willow tree. Then I’ll put a willow tree down and it just progresses. I’ll put a little cabin here with smoke coming out in the winter, a lake in the background so it turns into a lake house. You just put one thing down and then it progresses itself. WVV: Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve painted?


Hope: Honestly, I like them all. I do my best to make them something that I can enjoy, each and every one of them. There’s none that I can say are my absolute favorite. Maybe one day I’ll hopefully paint one that I can say is my favorite. WVV: What do you do with your artwork after


you paint it?


they want it. It’s not something that I try to make a profit off of, if my friends like it then they can hang it up in their room and enjoy it. WVV: What are your goals for your artwork? Hope: If I could I would travel the world painting landscapes, but that takes money and time. If I were born rich, I’d do it. I’ve always wanted to go to the tropics, it’s just something about it that attracts me there. It’s not something you find in America. Of course you have California with the ocean, but it’s not the same. If you look at pictures of paradise there’s palm trees, the warm sand and clear, blue water.


Some of [the landscapes] are from memories, but others are more from my imagination, just throwing it down on the paper. Most of the time I start out with just a line and go off of it. WVV: What is your creative process for creating a painting?


Hope: I don’t necessarily sit down and think, OK, I’m going to paint trees here or a wolf there. I just sit down


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I think [art] is just going to be a side thing after I graduate, because I really enjoy art but in today’s day and age you’re better off going into something else. Thank goodness I’m good at science so I can go into biochemistry or science.


not definite, like art. With science you find something new every day and that’s what’s going to keep me from getting bored, because I hate doing the same things over and over again.


If you would like to be featured as an artist of the week, email rtrott@westvalleyview.com.


LASER NAIL FUNGUS TREATMENT Science is fun to me because it’s something that’s Hope: Sometimes I keep it; I’ll give it to friends if


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