Our speaker last week was Tony Youngkin.  Mr. Youngkin is a 4th generation resident of Buckeye and still lives on his family's original land.  Mr. Youngkin represents the residents of District 1 on the Buckeye City Councilman and is a businessman owning Cafe 25:35 and La Placita Restaurants in downtown Buckeye.  Mr. Youngkin is a professionally trained chef and had a variety of corporate experiences prior to opening his own restaurants.  

 

As a city councilman, Mr. Youngkin is charged with working with his colleagues to plan what our city will look like in the future, a big responsibility for a city growing as fast as Buckeye and one he takes very seriously, as Buckeye will likely be a significant driver of growth for the Valley and Arizona over the next 20 to 30 years.  The goal is to make sure Buckeye is a community people want to live and one of which we can be proud.  

 

On the business front, he hopes to expand 25:35 and reconfigure La Placita with kitchen facilities which are adequate for a restaurant that size.  One of the challenges with working with older buildings is that the cost of bringing them up to code is typically quite high since you are working around an existing footprint.  In answer to a question about preserving some of the farm land as we grow, he said that is a difficult task because you are denying the property owner the maximum value for their land, which is why he never hears that question from farmers.  He believes it is inevitable that farm land will be developed, much as it has in the East Valley over the last 50 years.