One Small Voice
by Laura McGaffey
Articles originally published in "The Voice in the Desert"

Frank Vargas Landscaping and Groundskeeper
December 2005

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When you drive past the new Recker Realty office on Highway 191 and admire the landscaping you can thank "Vargas Landscaping and Groundskeeper". Frank is a gregarious, intelligent gentleman who retired from a long career teaching physically challenged children and then turned to working with people and working outdoors in the dirt.

Mr. Vargas was born and raised in Tucson but also spent time at his father's ranch in Bowie. Being born deaf in the right ear and partially deaf in the left ear he attended the Arizona State School for the Deaf and Blind (ASDB). He then went on to earn his AA degree from Phoenix College and his BA in Developmental Psychology with an emphasis in Special Education from the University of Arizona.

He went back to ASDB as Dean of Students and retired from the school in 1995 after 22 years. Upon retiring he moved to a small very remote ranch but quickly realized that he missed interacting with people. So he moved to Sunsites and started occasionally helping his neighbors with their landscaping because he enjoyed it so much.

One friend repeately urged him to start a landscaping company. Since he was getting more and more requests for his help he established "Vargas Landscaping and Groundskeeper" in 1998, offering landscape design, installation and maintenace services.

Frank now designs and implements projects in Sunsites, Tucson, Green Valley and Rio Rico. He hand sketches a plan for the design and then uses watercolor to paint an elevation to give an idea of how it will look when all the work is done. His services also include laying in gravel, putting in grass lawns, installing sprinkler and drip systems, pruning trees and bushes, removing trees, spraying weeds and clearing fields with his 4 foot wide field cutter.

If you need someone to help with your landscaping Frank Vargas comes highly recommended. His phone number is 520-826-1517. His cell phone number is 520-678-5425.