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Wednesday, December 19, 2018

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Club West Golf Course put up for sale .3

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

. 20

AT THE BIG TOP

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

hree months after regaining ownership of the Club West Golf Course, Wilson Gee has put it up for sale. Gee last Friday priced the course at $1 million – making it the cheaper of the two golf courses in Arizona currently on the market and one of 32 courses on sale in the country. The other, Sun Dance Golf Club in Buckeye, is selling for $2.5 million, but it was built in 2003 – 10 years after Club West was. Gee said he decided to sell the course be-

cause “I don’t think people there want me.” “Basically, I have no support,” he said, adding that he feels many of the HOA’s approximate 2,400 homeowners “don’t want me running things.” He also complained that the Foothills Club West Community Association board specifically wouldn’t work with him as he tried to put the course back in playing condition. “They said ‘you got to do this, got to do that.’ That’s why I decided it wasn’t worth it,” Gee said. “So, we’re looking at just selling,” he added. “I think price wise, it’s an attractive property.”

But Gee’s decision may be putting him on a collision course with the HOA board and their attorney, Tim Barnes – the same lawyer representing two Ahwatukee Lakes homeowners in their long-running lawsuit against him for letting that golf course run into ruin. The HOA in summer 2016 sued Gee over conditions of the course after he stopped watering it because he said he could not afford to pay city water bills that exceeded $700,000 a year. The HOA withdrew the suit last December See

WEST on page 8

Five visitors bring stress relief to Mt. Pointe students BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

. 34

ATHLETES GIVE BACK

. 38

ith end-of-the-semester exams piled atop Christmas shopping anxiety and all the other pressures at their age, Mountain Pointe High School juniors Alan Dupre and Lauren Young knew just the ticket to add some calming moments for their over-stressed classmates. They let the dogs out. They invited five therapy dogs last Wednesday into school, through Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Paws nonprofit as part of a project for their DECA chapter, an international student marketing club. The dogs – Valentino, a Mi-Ki; Betsy Ross, an English Crème Goldendoodle; Arrow, a border collie; Abby, an Old English sheep dog; and Dos, a Catahoula leopard mix – sat silently and nonchalantly in the school See

DOGS on page 14

(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)

Preparing to meet Mountain Pointe High School students were pet therapy handlers and their dogs, from left: Khara Fuentes with Tino; Angela Graczyk with Arrow; Jaime Larson with Dos; Sharon Martin with Abby and Cindy Jacques with Betsy Ross.

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

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NEWS

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

48 YEARS OF TRUSTWORTHY SERVICE! The Ahwatukee Foothills News is published every Wednesday and distributed free of charge to homes and in single-copy locations throughout Ahwatukee Foothills. Times Media Group: 1620 W. Fountainhead Parkway, Suite 219 Tempe, Arizona, 85282 Main number: 480-898-6500 Advertising: 480-898-5624 Circulation service: 480-898-5641

PUBLISHER Steve T. Strickbine

VICE PRESIDENT Michael Hiatt

ADVERTISING STAFF National Advertising Director

Zac Reynolds 480-898-5603 zac@ahwatukee.com Advertising Sales Representatives:

Karen Mays, 480-898-7909, kmays@ahwatukee.com Laura Meehan, 480-898-7904, lmeehan@ahwatukee.com Classified:

Elaine Cota, 480-898-7926, ecota@ahwatukee.com Circulation Director:

Aaron Kolodny 480-898-5641, customercare@ahwatukee.com

NEWS STAFF Executive Editor:

Paul Maryniak, 480-898-5647, pmaryniak@ahwatukee..com Managing Editor:

Lee Shappell 480-898-6825 lshappell@ahwatukee.com GetOut Editor:

Christina Fuoco-Karasinski, 480-641-4518, christina@timespublications.com Sports Editor:

Zach Alvira 480-898-5630, zalvira@timespublications.com Designer:

Ruth Carlton, rcarlton@timespublications.com Production Coordinator:

Courtney Oldham 480-898-5617 production@timespublications.com Reporters:

Jim Walsh, 480-898-5639 jwalshe@ahwatukee.com Wayne Schutsky, 480-898-6533 wschutsky@timespublications.com Cecilla Chan. 480-898-5613, cchan@timespublications.com Photographer:

Kimberly Carrillo, kcarrillo@timespublications.com Ahwatukee Foothills News is distributed by AZ Integrated Media, a circulation service company owned by Times Media Group. The public is permitted one copy per reader. For further information regarding the circulation of this publication or others in the Times Media Group family of publications, and for subscription information, please contact AZ Integrated Media at circ@azintegratedmedia. com or 480-898-5641. For circulation services please contact Aaron Kolodny at aaron@azintegatedmedia.com.

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To submit a letter, please include your full name. Our policy is not to run anonymous letters. Please keep the length to 300 words. Letters will be run on a space-available basis. Please send your contributions to pmaryniak@ahwatukee.com. EDITORIAL CONTENT

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Set the Standard Event!

(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)

Carol Schade, left, and Joyce Blobner are head up the Blankets and Bears Drive by the Ahwatukee Women’s Golf Association.

Blankets and Bears Drive still collecting kids’ gifts BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA AFN Contributor

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n 1999, members of the Ahwatukee Women’s Golf Association decided to assist the local Fire Station #38 on the East Warner/Elliot Loop with their annual Teddy Bear Drive. The women were so enthused by the response from their community to the call for teddy bears and other stuffed animals that they decided to host an annual holiday charitable event with an annual collection of blankets and bears. The generosity of the Ahwatukee Foothills community hasn’t ceased to amaze them after all these years, said Joyce Blobner, who initiated the event under the umbrella of the Ahwatukee Women’s Golf Association, which meets at the Ahwatukee Country Club. They have collected literally thousands of blankets, teddy bears and other stuffed animals and gifted them to children over the years. The association has donated them to and through not only the Phoenix Fire Station #38, but the Child Crisis Arizona and area children’s hospitals. This year the Cardon Children’s Hospital at Banner Desert Hospital will once again be the recipient of Ahwatukee residents’ largesse. There will be two deliveries, one prior to Christmas Eve, and another before New Year’s Eve. Donations of bears and blankets will continue to be accepted through the end of December, said organizers. There are never too many of either. The AWGA members found both are well-received by doctors and nurses who tend to children hospitalized during the holidays. “My daughter has worked 20 years in the ER at Banner Desert, and one year she said, ‘Mom, if you have any extra bears, we sure could use them,’” Blobner recalled. “She told me the bears are used by the doctors for when a child is scared or upset to be in the hospital. See

BEARS on page 4

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from page 3

The doctor will walk in and stick a teddy bear under the child’s arm, and it helps break the ice.” The annual Blankets and Bears Collection has become a passion for Blobner, this year’s collection co-chair Carol Schade and the dozens of members. “The girls are still enthusiastic about it,” Blobner said. “We still make monetary donations to organizations, but this way, when you buy your teddy bear or blanket, you know where your gift is going.” “New” is the keyword for donations of blankets, bears or other small stuffed animals. Blobner, who was AWGA president 16 years ago and is again this year, said she recalled years past when it appeared people were cleaning out their closets and donating the detritus. “It was a disaster, some of the used teddy bears were as beat up as the boxes they were delivered in. That’s why we stress new.” “We can’t be taking used items to give to children in the hospital,” added Schade. Why blankets? “I don’t know how the blankets got started, but it’s done well over the years. I

do a lot of knitting, and now we get knitted, crocheted and fleece blankets donated. And size doesn’t matter because there are teens as well as little children who get them,” said Blobner, who moved from Michigan to Ahwatukee with her husband 24 years ago. “Over the years, I’ve made over a thousand blankets,” added Schade, who moved with her family to Ahwatukee from South Dakota in 1985. “The year I had a hip replacement, I did 250. This year is more like the average – around 60,” said Schade, who crochets the edges of fleece blankets. “It’s for the kids, and that makes each one special, and I can do them while we watch TV.” The new blanket donations have kept pace with the teddy bear and other stuffed animal donations – even though, like other civic organizations and community clubs, membership at AWGA has declined. “When I was president 16 years ago, we had 80 members. Now if we have 35, we’re lucky,” said Blobner. “When our golf group was quite large, we always did a new toy drive, but people weren’t really sure what to buy and it wasn’t fun to shop. Our Blankets and Bears Collection has proved very successful even with fewer members. We have to thank our caring

community.” Added Schade: “We found we needed to reach out and subsequently, we need to get help with donations.” “We had a gentleman in his 60s bring in 16 blankets made by his mother. He said she would make more. They wanted to stay anonymous so he wouldn’t give us their names,” said Schade as she looked over at the 10-foot Christmas tree in the foyer of the Ahwatukee Country Club that had dozens of bears beneath it – and tiny bears displayed among its green branches. “I remember some of the years I packed up 500 teddy bears and quit counting,” said Blobner. “Different years, we had more blankets than teddy bears. Teddy bears or small stuffed animals are so needed when a child is scared or upset to be in the hospital. And right now, I kind of stress the soft, little stuffed bears and other animals so the child can easily cuddle it.” Even as membership shrinks as members age or give up golf, organizers say the Blankets and Bears Collection stays strong. “I think this will be self-sustaining even after I’m through,” mused Blobner. “I know I’ll run it until maybe I’m the one in the hospital needing a teddy bear.” Donations of new teddy bears, small

stuffed animals and crocheted, knitted or fleece blankets can be made at the Ahwatukee Country Club, 12432 S. 48th St., just north of Warner Road. “We hope we need a truck,” said an optimistic Schade. “The donations will stay until after the 15th when some will be taken to Cardon so the doctors and staff have access before Christmas when they’re needed. In the trauma unit or when the doctors are seeing patients, they often give them a bear or blanket.” Information: Joyce Blobner at 480-3814195.

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DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

Pack your patience, check your car and take it slow for holiday travel in Arizona BY KARISMA SANDOVAL Cronkite News

reaming of a white Christmas? It might be a drive of only a few hours for Ahwatukee travelers to enjoy magnificent, snow-covered vistas in Arizona’s high country, but the journey can be treacherous. Arizona law-enforcement officials ask travelers to slow down and pack their patience as they drive during the busy holiday season. Downloading an Arizona Department of Transportation app for winter-weather driving conditions can be useful, too. While people from colder climates pay big money to come to the East Valley for warm holidays, many Ahwatukee residents want to go the other way, with holiday escapes to Prescott, Flagstaff, Payson or the White Mountains to play in the snow. Nearly 900,000 drivers were on the road over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday, and a AAA Arizona spokeswoman expects that number to increase from Christmas to New Year’s Day. Kameron Lee, a trooper for the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said the agency’s main goal is to enforce safety. “We know that everyone wants to get to

(Arizona Department of Transportation)

The high country is well equipped and experienced at keeping roads open in severe winter driving conditions, but drivers must give them some help: Never pass a snow plow.

their destination,” Lee said. “We want you to get to your destination, but we want you to get there safely.” For congested areas, Lee said DPS has a plan to keep traffic moving. “We’ll actually up our manpower in certain areas to make sure we can respond quickly to incidents,” he said. ADOT already has closed State Route 473 leading to Hawley Lake and State Route 67 to the North Rim of the Grand

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sitting in lengthy backups. Road conditions can change quickly when winter weather hits, and the ADOT Alerts app provides up-to-the-moment information directly from ADOT’s Traffic Operations Center. The app also sends notifications about crashes that close highways and cause delays. ADOT Alert users are encouraged to enable Location Services and Push Notifications so that when ADOT sends an alert it will pop up on your device’s screen immediately. The app can be downloaded free of charge in Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Search for “ADOT Alerts.” More information about the app can be found at ADOTAlerts.com. Before heading out, drivers may also call 511 or visit ADOT’s Traveler Information Center at az511.gov for the latest highway conditions. The website features camera images along state highways that give drivers a glimpse of weather conditions. After packing your parka and a blanket, don’t forget the emergency kit. ADOT encourages drivers to include a fully charged cell phone, flashlight, extra clothing, blan-

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DRIVING

from page 5

kets, water and snacks in case of major road delays in the frigid high country. Desert dwellers often have little or no experience driving in winter-weather conditions. Motorists heading into snow country are reminded to drive with caution. Don’t let GPS and navigation apps replace common sense. When a highway is closed, a suggested alternate route involving an unpaved, unplowed road can lead to danger. Avoid them. Doug Nintzel, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Transportation, said that the agency works closely with DPS to catch travelers who are impaired, speeding or not wearing their seat belts. ADOT also uses overhead signs to alert drivers to freeway accidents and wrong-way drivers. AAA Arizona also is gearing up to help people on the roads. Spokeswoman Michelle Donati said it will receive the most

calls this holiday season for “lockouts, calls for battery help, as well as tire trouble.” She cautions drivers to do all their pretrip checks, including maintenance, battery life and repairs before leaving. “We definitely want to make sure that our tow truck drivers who are out there putting their lives on the line to help our motorists in Arizona get home to their families at the end of the day,” she said. According to ADOT, over the three holiday weekends last year – Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s – 41 people died in vehicle crashes on Arizona roads. DPS said that there were no deaths on Arizona highways over this Thanksgiving weekend, but that does not include all roads. ADOT’s Twitter account (@ArizonaDOT) and Facebook page (facebook.com/ AZDOT) provide real-time information and interaction. Additional information on winter driving is available at azdot.gov/KnowSnow.

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As this photo from two days ago shows, Club West Golf Course has become a wasteland, deprived of water since the city turned off the tap in February.

WEST

from page 1

after Inter Tribal Golf Association CEO Richard Breuninger signed a $1.3 million note with Gee to buy the course and then had restored it to a lush, green landscape. But now the course has dried up again after the city shut off service in March when Breuninger failed to pay water bills now totaling close to $300,000 with interest. And HOA board President Michael Hinz said his association does not intend to let it stay that way without a fight. Hinz denied Gee’s assertion that the board had presented Gee with any specific demands beyond asking for his plan to restore the course. He said Gee had asked the board for “forbearance” until he could implement a plan to restore the course, presumably once he could arrange for cheaper water.. “The only requirement we told him we have is that if he wants to get a forbearance on the golf course, he has to provide us with a valid plan for its restoration and we’d be willing to discuss forbearance,” Hinz said. “He told us he needed some time to put the course together and clean it up and he’d appreciate it if we didn’t pressure him.” “But all we got was a marketing plan.” Hinz added. “We support whatever marketing plans he has, but we can’t be his marketing arm.” Hinz also indicated the board would not patiently wait until Gee finds a buyer. “Mr. Gee has a duty to bring the course up to standard whether the course is for sale or not,” Hinz said, adding, “The HOA looks for every remedy that’s available. The issue is what can we do to get a green course. We represent the homeowners and the homeowners want a green golf

course.” Hinz, who was surprised by Gee’s move last Friday to put the course on the market, seemed unpersuaded by Gee’s assertion that until the sale, he would be taking care of the course. “We’re still maintaining it,” Gee told AFN, adding his crews recently had taken out a dozen dead trees and that he had to buy a new $60,000 machine to help them clear dead brush and trees. “Some homeowners have called and complained about the condition of the course,” Hinz countered. Hinz also said he’s not surprised Gee feels homeowners don’t like him. “Whether or not they want him to be the owner, whatever Mr. Gee’s reputation is and whether he believes the community doesn’t want him, I don’t doubt he has the evidence to support that,” Hinz said. Meanwhile, the prospects for a quick sale – or, if there is a sale, that green grass will return to the course this year – seem murky. And once again, that’s because of the problem that has been dogging both the course’s owners for several years – namely, the cost of city potable water. The online ad states, “The new owner of Club West must make a $1,000,000 contribution towards the pipeline in order to receive discounted water. Annual savings will be approximately $300,000 – $350,000, making the course immediately cash flow positive.” However, Ahwatukee businessman Rande Leonard said his timetable has been delayed by ongoing South Mountain Freeway construction. Leonard said freeway design-builders Connect202Partners “estimates that they won’t move traffic off Pecos Road and See

WEST on page 9

NEWS

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

Ducey, GOP lawmakers at odds on new vehicle fee BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

ov. Doug Ducey has signaled to East Valley and other Republican legislators that they should back off plans to repeal or reduce a new $32-a-vehicle registration fee to pay to operate the Highway Patrol. Ducey said last week that the $10.4 billion budget he signed for the current fiscal year is built on the presumption that the state will collect $185 million from the new fee. That’s enough to pay not just for the Highway Patrol but also provide an extra 10 percent. More to the point, the governor said the new budget he will propose next month for the coming fiscal year also will rely on the revenues from that fee. The fee puts Ducey on a collision course next year with at least some Republican legislators – including Gilbert Rep. Warren Petersen, who decried the fee when it was passed. Petersen called it “the worst kind of tax

WEST

from page 8

build the southern half/eastbound side until summer 2019. Therefore, we will miss planting bermuda until June 2020, but they can overseed in October 2019.” Leonard’s vision is to transmit Long Term Storage Credit water stored within SRP’s water territory, leasing SRP wells

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increase’’ because it was being done without any idea of the price tag on motorists. “We’re going to tell an unelected bureau craft to go ahead and raise these fees to whatever he wants to,’’ he complained. See

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to recover those storage credits and transporting the recovered water in SRP’s canals/laterals under a transportation agreement that has yet to be worked out. If there is a new owner who can reach an agreement with Leonard and overseed Club West next October and if a pipeline is working by next September, Club West’s long-term future would then be secured.

The other Club West casualty

lub West has lost what for a time was a popular restaurant on the golf course. Biscuits Club West has closed for good. When owner Lloyd Melton opened it in the clubhouse that overlooks the lake, many residents rejoiced that they had a Biscuits that was a lot closer than the other Ahwatukee Biscuits on Elliot Road near 48th Street. The joy didn’t last long. First, the county health department ordered him closed in March after inspectors found he was brining in water from a large, mobile water tank because

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Phoenix has shut off service to course owner Richard Breuninger and his Inter Tribal Golf Association. Melton made a deal with the city and Breuninger to have his own water meter so the fate of the golf course’s supply wouldn’t be tied to the fate of his restaurant. But as the course deteriorated over spring, Melton wasn’t attracting enough patrons, so he limited hours to just Friday-Sunday. Finally, he gave up. Although Melton could not be reached for comment, course owner Wilson Gee said, “He couldn’t make it.”

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The Arizona Association of Realtors in June submitted 400,000 signatures to get the ban on service taxes on the November ballot.

Cities mounting lawsuit over Proposition 126 tax ban BY JIM WALSH AND WAYNE SCHUTSKY AFN Staff Writers

lthough they say they don’t want to trample the will of voters, Mesa, Scottsdale and other city officials are filing suit over the just-approved ballot proposition banning additional taxes on services. Claiming the Prop 126’s language is ambiguous language, an unknown number of municipalities are banding together to seek a declaratory judgement that would define what constitutes a service and what can and can‘t be taxed. The city councils in Mesa and Scottsdale in separate meetings last week voted to join the suit. Mesa officials are concerned the new law could undermine the impact of a separate ballot question approved by votes to raise the sales tax 0.25 percent to hire more police and firefighters. “Proposition 126 creates multiple issues and ambiguities that endanger the ability of the City of Mesa to collect and retain the Public Safety sales tax,’’ according to a statement issued by the city. The statement was issued several days after the Mesa council met in executive session Monday with attorneys, then voted without comment in public session to authorize the suit. “Not being able to collect the Public Safety sales tax in its entirety would mean there would be fewer firefighters and

police officers serving our city,’’ the statement said. “We don’t take challenging the initiative lightly, but our commitment to Mesa voters to fund our police and fire and medical departments to ensure a safe community for our citizens makes it necessary.’’ The Scottsdale City Council last week voted to join the suit, and give the Ballard Spahr law firm a $50,000 retainer to represent Scottsdale’s interests. “It is uncertain from a legal prospective exactly what effect this Proposition will have on cities’ taxing ability, including but not limited to what constitutes a “service,’’ according to a Scottsdale agenda item. “It is important to the city’s fiscal planning to have clarity regarding the effect of this proposition.’’ Kelly Corsette, a city spokesman, said Scottsdale is seeking clarity. “Scottsdale is still working through its analysis of any potential impact given the uncertainties in the proposition arising from, among other things, the absence of a definition of “services,’’ according to Scottsdale’s statement. The constitutional amendment was overwhelmingly approved by voters, 64 percent to 35 percent. It prohibits the state and each county, city, town, district or other political subdivision in Arizona from imposing a new or increased tax on services that was See

LAWSUIT on page 12

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

from page 10

not already in effect on Dec. 31, 2017, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office. But Mesa voters also approved Question Two, which increases the city sales tax increase, by a vote of 53 percent to 47 percent. The tax was represented to generate $15 million for the police department, to fund 65 positions, and to raise $10 million for the fire department. Giles said hotels and restaurants already are maintaining they don’t have to pay that increase. “We’re not going to tax realtors and doctors,’’ Giles added. “We need a judge to tell us, ‘you can tax this, you can’t tax that.’’’ “We don’t want to undo the will of the voters,’’ Giles said. “We need to know how many police and firefighters to hire.’’ Proposition 126 was viewed as an attempt to stave off future attempts by the state legislature to tax services. A bill to tax financial services was introduced in 2016, but it failed to win approval.

The proposition was sponsored by Citizens for Fair Tax Policy, which included national and state realtor groups. Advertising in support of the measure alluded to potential new taxes on veterinary services, health care and child care. The Arizona Association of Realtors submitted more than 400,000 signatures on petitions last June to put Prop 126 on

For example, Arizonans now pay taxes to purchase school supplies, clothing, over-the-counter medications and adult diapers. Under current law, lawmakers could opt to make those purchases tax-exempt, making up any lost revenues by taxing selected services. Or they could expand the list of what’s taxable to include services and reduce the overall state sales tax rate from its current 5.6 percent. The initiative blocks lawmakers from taxing not just basic services like medical care but also accounting, advertising, public relations, travel arrangements, nail salons, portfolio management and investment advice. “The way we look at it, we want to draw a line in the sand that will absolutely protect Arizona taxpayers,” Mabery said. Mabery said there’s no guarantee that any action by Arizona lawmakers would be revenue-neutral, having new taxes on services replace the levy on certain products. She said the initiative also protects against adding services to the list of what’s taxable to generate more dollars.

The way we look at it, we want “ to draw a line in the sand that will

absolutely protect Arizona taxpayers. the November ballot and cover everything from their own services to medical care, barbers, lobbying services and weight-loss centers. The desire is to protect senior citizens and the poor from new taxes that a future legislature might impose, said Holly Mabery, a Prescott real estate agent who chairs the effort. But Mabery didn’t dispute that the ballot measure, if approved, would prevent lawmakers from revamping taxes in a way that might actually have more benefit to people on fixed incomes.

”

-Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.

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courtyard during both lunch periods as scores of students crowded around them to pet and fawn over them. It was exactly what Alan and Lauren had in mind when they developed the project a few months ago – one that they hope will get them to an international DECA competition early next year once they’ve completed a paper on their project. Like most DECA projects, this one had two primary goals: call awareness to a problem and offer a solution. Or, as Alan put it, “Planning a public relations campaign that not only promotes awareness of elevated stress in schools but also provides simple ways to relieve that stress.” The 16-year-old son of Florence and Yann Dupre of Ahwatukee noted that the campaign not only involved weeks of publicizing the dogs’ visit, but also some research on why they were needed. They surveyed students “to have some idea of what is causing their stress,” Alan said, and then thought about ways “to help students relax.” Teachers allowed them to use their classrooms to show movies on stress relief while fellow

(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)

Mountain Pointe Junion Autumn Sanon gives a hug to Betsy Ross as the therapy dog’s own Cindy Jacques looks on during one of the lunch periods.

DECA members helped them make posters and flyers advertising the dogs’ visit. The survey results showed largely that “some aspect of school, such as homework and exams, as what

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studies indicating that as a whole, stress in schools has been more elevated for current students than for past generations. “This may be because students are feeling an increased academic pressure to get good grades, believing that if they are not successful in high school, it will be exponentially more difficult for them to do well in life,” he added, although he also noted, “what we perceive as elevated stress levels could only be due to an increase in today’s focus on stress as a prominent issue, resulting in more students opening up about how stressed they actually are.” But with the teen suicide rising in the East Valley and across Arizona and the nation and more schools focusing greater attention on social-emotional learning so kids of all ages can better cope with pressure, Lauren, 16, the daughter of Brenda and Dwayne Young of Ahwatukee, said she and Alan were determined to try and find at least a temporary solution that might point toward a longer term one. “We just want to help teens really,” Lauren explained. “This entire campaign has been about showing teens there are

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DOGS

from page 14

alternatives to dealing with stress, and that no one has to think of suicide or self-harm. You can deal with stress in healthy ways.” Added Alan: “We focused on stress as the main problem to be addressed because we not only felt like it was a pressing issue that we could start fixing through simple-to-implement activities, but also because we felt like it applied to us on a personal level. As high school students, we have experienced a great deal of stress in our time at high school, and so for us, taking on this issue was also personal.” Mountain Pointe teacher Marc Campbell, the DECA sponsor, said the two students’ project also reflects the philosophy he tries to impart on club members. “I believe that it is crucial for the nonprofit base side of business to be seen,” he said. “People don’t typically associate campaigns like these with businesses, and so public relations projects are an excellent way to show a community the kind of positive impacts these business campaigns can have on the community,” he said, adding:

critical thinking.” Moreover, he noted, their project can help “our school community become more educated on this issue and to realize that there is a support system for them, that their struggles are not uncommon and that there are options or positive ways to relieve their stress.” “I like it when my students take responsibility, and so I think that this sort of campaign is ( Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer) more powerful given The therapy dog project was organized by juniors Lauren Young and Alan that it’s coming Dupre, seen here flanking their DECA club sponsor Mark Campbell. from other high school students,” “I find that public relations projects Campbell said. The dogs are accustomed to being the like these have a positive effect on the community and help bring it together objects of stress relief, and have often in a way that a selling a product can’t. It been taken for therapeutic visits to is also a way for my students to practice hospitals and hospices – though schools their 21st century skills of: creativity, have become a common destination as communication, collaboration and well, said Sharon Martin of Chandler.

“There’s something magical about them,” she said. “They connect with people.” Like the four other dogs, Martin’s 6-year-old sheep dog, Abby, seemed delighted to be there, wiggling her backside whenever she got up to change her position amid her admirers. Selected for their temperament, trainability and other factors – including their ability to emotionally connect with people – dogs like Abby have gone through months of rigorous training and careful assessment before they can be designated therapy dogs. For Khara Fuentes and her dog Valentino – “Tino” for short – the visit was something of a homecoming. The Ahwatukee native graduated from Mountain Pointe in 2001 and has been a therapy dog owner since 2015. Though Tino was barely a third the size of any of his four canine colleagues, he was just as mellow as the students surrounded him. And his owner added there were times when she was a Mountain Pointe student that a therapy dog would have been a blessing. And judging by the enthusiastic response of the students last week, a lot of them no doubt agreed.

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from page 9

Ducey’s comments also put him at odds with Republican Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita of Scottsdale, who already has introduced legislation to repeal it. Calling its enactment “sneaky,’’ she wants to repeal the fee, which applies to every car, truck, motorcycle and trailer. Ugenti-Rita said it’s bad enough that her colleagues used an end-run around the Arizona Constitution to avoid having to get a two-thirds vote for the fee, designed to fund the state Highway Patrol. But she said what added insult to injury is that lawmakers were told the fee would be in the $18-a-vehicle range, not 75 percent higher. Ducey sidestepped questions last week about whether voters – and the lawmakers who approved the fee – were misled because they were told when it was first approved that the fee would be in the $18 range. His spokesman Patrick Ptak said the dollars are needed to free up cash for road construction and repair, “especially in rural areas of the state where resources are badly needed.’’ “Any reforms to that fee should be responsible and keep these priorities in mind.’’ It’s not just Ducey who is concerned. Rep. Noel Campbell, R-Prescott, the architect of the fee, also agrees there is a need for the additional dollars for road construction and maintenance. But Campbell, like Ugenti-Rita, is irked that the fee is so much higher than he was told when he proposed it – and so much higher than he told his colleagues to get their votes. Part of that is because the $32 fee is levied when a vehicle is registered. So anyone who has a multi-year registration – up to five years – is exempt until then. And then the Highway Patrol budget ended up being larger than lawmakers were told. Campbell wants to revamp the fee to make it fairer and lower it back to the original $18 promise. But Ugenti-Rita said that misses the point that the fee was adopted through trickery to avoid having to get a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate. And Ugenti-Rita said if the money is really needed – and the levy is popular enough – it can be done in a way she says is legal, with the necessary two-thirds vote. And if it can’t get the margin? “Is that a justification to be tricky and circumvent the will of the people?’’ she responded. That will of the people is a 1992 voter-approved constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds vote for any new or

increased tax or fee. Unable to marshal that support, lawmakers instead empowered ADOT Director John Halikowski to compute the fee based on raising enough money to fund the Highway Patrol, with an extra 10 percent built in. And since it was Halikowski imposing the fee, the legislation to authorize him to do that required a simple majority vote. Ugenti-Rita conceded that, strictly speaking, the maneuver is legal. The Arizona Supreme Court just last year upheld the legality of a similar mechanism to impose a fee on hospitals to pay for expansion of the state’s health care program for the poor. That reasoning, however, left her unimpressed. “If the government’s justification is ‘Just because I can, I will,’ that’s a bad one,’’ she said. “I don’t think the public appreciates that,’’ Ugenti-Rita said. “Just because you found a sneaky way around it is not a good enough justification.’’ The reason for the Highway Patrol fee is even more complicated. Another constitutional provision says that any dollars raised from the use of Arizona roads, mainly gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees, can be spent solely for those roads. But in prior efforts to balance the budget, lawmakers and governors have siphoned off those dollars to pay for at least part of the Highway Patrol based on the argument that the agency promotes highway safety. What that did is leave fewer dollars for needed road construction and repair. The road repair financial problem is complicated by the fact that the state’s 18-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax has not been raised since 1991. While more vehicles are on the road, they are more fuel efficient, meaning motorists are buying fewer gallons of gas for every mile they travel. Campbell figured that a separate fee to pay for Highway Patrol would free up those gasoline taxes for what he said is the intended purpose. The fee was approved by a 35-24 margin in the House and 17-13 in the Senate, margins enough to authorize Halikowski to compute and impose a fee, but not enough for lawmakers to set the fee themselves. The governor, for his part, isn’t hearing any of it. “That’s been passed,’’ he said. “There is a fee.’’ And as far as how much that fee is, “we will leave it to ADOT.’’ Ugenti-Rita told Capitol Media Services she won’t be deterred from pursuing the issue even with the threat of a Ducey veto. “I understand that’s a real possibility,’’ she said.

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COMMUNITY

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

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Cactus Jack’s, CK’s Tavern serve needy a Merry Christmas BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA AFN Contributor

‘T

is the season of giving, and a popular method of providing those less fortunate with gifts during the Christmas season is through selecting tags from a tree. Whether it is called an angel tree, wish tree or even giving tree, Ahwatukee churches, businesses and civic groups erect them after Thanksgiving to benefit groups like Salvation Army, needy families and relatives of the incarcerated and Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation – to name a few. And there are those – like Cactus Jack’s Bar and Grill and CK’s Tavern & Grill in Ahwatukee – that have established their own niche and tradition in giving during the Holiday Season. Since 1995 – thanks to the inspiration of the late Ahwatukee resident Wayne Bier – needy families in Guadalupe have been the recipients of presents, personally delivered, just in time for Christmas. And though Bier passed away from

(Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)

Gathered around Cactus Jack’s angel tree are, from left, Burt Greenway, Mike Amato, Jamie Beno and Heather Mosbaugh.

cancer five years ago, his friends and even those who’ve never met him continue the tradition he established. They do so in his memory. “He started this 23 years ago, and I decided to help,” recalled Burt Greenway, a Cactus Jack’s self-described regular who

moved to Arizona in 1985 and Ahwatukee in 1994. “We’d go to the Guadalupe Center and they had a list of families in need. Actually, they give us the names the families and then we collect for them. That’s still how we do it.”

Heather Mosbaugh and long-time bartender Jamie Beno are among the main organizers of the Cactus Jack’s eight-foot decorated tree, positioned near the cavernous establishment’s main wall. “Wayne had done it for years and years and wanted someone to keep the tradition going,” said Mosbaugh, who moved from Denver to Ahwatukee in 1981 and lives in the village with her husband, Mike. “He took me to Guadalupe one year and introduced me around, and told me this is where we needed to gather toys to give to that area’s needy children,” she explained. “This is his wish, and I’m continuing to honor it.” Cactus Jack’s is a local restaurant and watering hole that bills itself as “your friendly Ahwatukee neighborhood tavern” and is known regionally for live music every Thursday through Sunday on a 24-foot bi-level stage, free weekly poker games and Wednesday’s free line dance lessons with Ahwatukee fitness expert Carrie McNeish. See

CACTUS JACKS on page 22

Ahwatukee ASU fall graduate excelled in leadership Courtesy of ASU

ommunication major Jaime Faulkner of Ahwatukee transferred to Arizona State University from Mesa Community College and wasted no time getting involved in student life and leadership at ASU, all while making the dean’s list each semester. She is among the students who graduated this month from the university. In addition to her classwork, Jaime interned for the ASU online literary magazine Superstition Review before being promoted to the position of nonfiction editor. She also worked as associate editor for Four Chambers Press, an independent community literary magazine and small press based in Phoenix. With a love of writing, she was also a Presidential Honors Scholar at community college and placed first in poetry in a

national literary competition sponsored by the League of Innovation, a consortium of community colleges across the nation. Branching out while at ASU, Jaime began to explore performance art as an aspect of her education in communication. “Performance art is a really gracious intersection between theater and poetry for me,” she said. “My work and study in this area have allowed me to articulate exactly what I want and need to say.” Jaime also received the Kristin Bervig Valentine Performance Studies Scholarship from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication for 2018 and wrote and performed a solo show about queer resistance in tabletop gaming. She has also performed about the panopticon effect of the male gaze on female-coded bodies, and she studies gender and pop culture. She is one of the organizers for the Encyclopedia Show Arizona, a

community-led live variety show, which is being organized entirely by students for the first time in Arizona. “My time at ASU has been invaluable to my development, as a scholar and as a person,” Jaime said. “My life has been shaped in the best way by my education, and I can thank my classmates and instructors at the Hugh Downs School for that.” Question: What was your “aha” moment, when you realized you wanted to study the field you majored in? Answer: I transferred into ASU and had heard great things about the Hugh Downs School from other friends in the major. When I started making my schedule, I was delighted by the versatility of communication and took the opportunity to study gender, critical theory, pop culture and performance studies. My aha moSee

GRAD on page 21

(Special to AFN)

Jamie Faulkner of Ahwatukee left a legacy of leadership at Arizona State University when she graduated earlier this month.

COMMUNITY

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

GRAD

from page 20

ment was during our dress rehearsal for a performance showcase in spring 2018; I realized I was exactly where I was meant to be, doing the work I needed to. Q: Why did you choose ASU? A: I chose ASU for the Hugh Downs School, specifically. My sister went to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and had an excellent experience, so I was encouraged by that. Q: Which professor taught you the most important lesson while at ASU? A: In my first performance studies class

with Jennifer Linde, I was blown away by her ability to facilitate spaces and create communities within classrooms. We’ve studied and performed about a lot of sensitive topics in those classes, and Jennifer always gives students the space to grow and learn from each other. Her ability to deeply listen and make people feel heard is a gift I wish to emulate. Q: What’s the best piece of advice you’d give to those still in school? A: Go to office hours! Your professors want you to succeed, and they’ll help you if you’re having trouble or even just have questions. Forming relationships with professors has been one of the most re-

Gifts of warmth

(Special to AFN)

The Knights of Columbus at the Parish of St. Benedict in Ahwatukee made 200 kids a lot warmed when they delivered coats to them at two family shelters and the St. Vincent de Paul Sunnyslope dining room earlier this month. The givers included, from left above, Ron Ellenberger (chairman of project this year), Jay Iole, Alfred Gomez, Patrick Tacderan, Isauro Amaro and Ed Giovanuccink. Also [participating were Jim McDowell and Jack Chapman (not pictured). Handing out the welcomed gifts below are, from left, Ron Ellenberger), James Chavez, Ed Giovanucci and Jay Iole.

warding parts of my studies. Q: What was your favorite spot on campus, whether for studying, meeting friends or just thinking about life? A: I love the lawn above Hayden. Q: What are your plans after graduation? A: I’m taking a year off to work and travel, and then plan to attend graduate school in fall 2020. Q: If someone gave you $40 million to solve one problem on our planet, what would you tackle? A: I would make sure sexual health resources and family planning resources were available in every place I could reach.

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

from page 20

The tavern is also appreciated for its largesse. A mid-December golf tournament, organized by bartender Mike Amado every year, has raised thousands for the St. Jude I can help you get all the discounts you deserve. Talk to me about a FREE Children’s Research Hospital. Discount Double Check® today. “Without a doubt, this is a very caring Get to a better State®. Sam Winter Ins Agcy Inc Get State Farm. group,” said Greenway of Cactus Jack’s, Sam Winter, Agent CALL ME TODAY 3636 E. Ray Road which has been owned by Art Perez and sam@samwinter.net Gina Lombardi for seven years. Bus: 480-704-2004 “A lot of us have known each other for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company 20 plus years and we do a lot of stuff toState Farm Indemnity Company, Bloomington IL 1201127 gether,” Greenway added. This year, four Guadalupe families will be personally presented with gifts that include clothing, pajamas, socks and shoes, coats and, of course, toys. Family managed since 1981 “It started out really small, but it seems to keep growing,” said Greenway. Mosbaugh added: “We ask what each • Fountains family needs and they usually say pillows, • Benches LOWEST PRICES, LARGEST SELECTION! blankets, dishes.” • Bird Baths HUGE SELECTION OF OVERSIZED POTTERY! PET FRIENDLY! • Ceramics On Saturday, Dec. 22, dining tables will • Stoneware be pulled together as volunteers spread 480-802-1309 • Wrought Iron out wrapping paper and bows and begin Southern Chandler • Oversized Pottery to wrap presents. • Metal Wall Decor 23843 S. Cooper Rd. “We have a good time wrapping the • Indoor/Outdoor 1/4 Mile S. of Chandler Heights Rd. Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m. 5p.m., Sun. 11 a.m. 5 p.m. presents and then people volunteer their Decor Hours: Thursday thru Monday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm CLOSED TUESDAYS & WEDNESDAYS • Much More! vehicles to deliver them,” said Greenway. ease review proof carefully. Submit any changes or APPROVE your ad proof.

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“We usually have between 10 to 20 people, and we make a little caravan.” Across town, CK’s Tavern & Grill is again hosting their own Wish Tree. “We have a Wish Tree for Arizona Friends of Foster Children,” said Kendra Pieratt, who co-owns the 14-year-old CK’s with her father and mother, Jim and Joanne Flaum, and her brother, Chad Flaum. “We adopted 120 children this year and all wish tags have been taken off the tree,” she reported with a big smile. Donations of new clothing, shoes, toys and hygiene items such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothbrushes and toothpaste for the foster children ages 3 months to 17 years are still being accepted, she said. “These are for foster children going with nothing from house to house,” she said. To donate items to either Ahwatukee endeavor, visit Cactus Jack’s Bar and Grill at 4747 E. Elliot Road, or CK’s Tavern & Grill at 4142 E. Chandler Blvd.

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Horizon Honors inducts thespians

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

(Melissa Hartley/Special to AFN)

Horizon Honors High School in Ahwatukee initiated its first set of inductees into the newly formed International Thespian Society, an honorary organization for high school and middle school theater students who are recognized for their achievements on stage. Included were, from left: Noah Dinardo, Katie Cochrane of Ahwatukee, Ben Raimondo of Ahwatukee, Lauren Taylor of Ahwatukee, Burke Wood of Ahwatukee, Elizabeth Fear, Payton Angelmyer, Kaylee Arenz, Garrett Lindsey, Hasley McDaniel, Abe Newsum of Ahwatukee and Clayton Ramsey of Ahwatukee.

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Real Estate Guide Sellers’ market slowing down a bit in U.S., Metro Phoenix AFN News Staff

he sellers’ boom market is slowing down in both the Valley and nationwide, several home sales analysts say. But don’t bother hitting the panic button if you’re selling and keep the Champagne on ice if you’re buying. That’s because while the housing market may be cooling off a bit, inventory of existing homes and prices still favor sellers, though buyers may be at least getting a bit more of a choice and a bit more leverage in negotiations, according to the experts.

Marketwatch.com had the most dire assessment, stating earlier this month, “The housing picture is growing darker.” It noted that National Association of Realtors “now expects sales of existing homes to decline 3.1 percent in 2018, and another 0.4 percent in 2019. The group also forecasts home prices will fall 2.5 percent next year.” Experts say a long-awaited market correction is taking place, with the Realtors Association noting that pending home sales nationwide “slid 2.6 percent to a reading of 102.1 in October from See

HOUSING on page RE5

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re2

REAL ESTATE

Close enough to 7 figures

(Special to AFN)

This home in the 14400 block of South Canyon Drive Ahwatukee is pending sale for $100 before the million-dollar mark. It was voted by area Realtors "best home of tour" in September and has been touted as a "mountain biker's and hiker's paradise" because South Mountain is literally in its backyard. The 4,208-square-foot, fivebedroom home was built in 1997 and boasts an exquisitely detailed interior with beam 9-foot ceilings in many rooms, a spectacular master bathroom big enough for his and hers vanities, a sitting room in the master bedroom, three fireplaces and a sumptuous backyard that will make guests think they are at a resort. The luxury home market has been humming in Ahwatukee lately.

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

re3

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

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re4

REAL ESTATE

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

Before seeking a mortgage, keep these 3 things in mind

Though the report does not include your score – for that, you’ll have to pay a small fee – just perusing your report will give you a ballpark idea of how you’re doing by laying out any problems such as late or missing payments.

AFN News Staff

nfortunately, you can’t just show up at a bank with a checkbook and a smile and get approved for a home loan – you need to qualify for a mortgage, which requires some careful planning. That means, says Realtor.com, “arming yourself with the right knowledge about the home loan application process.” Here are three things you need to know before applying for a mortgage, courtesy of the real estate website.

What down payment you need

What is a good credit score

This powerful three-digit number is a key factor in whether you get approved for a mortgage. When you apply for a loan, lenders will check your score to assess whether you’re a low- or high-risk borrower. The higher your score, the better you look on paper – and the better your odds of landing a great loan. If you have a low credit score, though, you may have difficulty getting a mortgage. So, what’s considered a good credit score in the mortgage realm? While a number of credit scores exist, the most widely used credit score is the FICO score. A perfect score is 850. However, generally a score of 760 or higher is considered excellent, meaning it will help you qualify for the best interest rate and loan terms, says Richard Redmond, mortgage broker at All California Mortgage in Larkspur and author of “Mortgages: The Insider’s Guide.”

A good credit score is 700 to 759; a fair score is 650 to 699. If you have multiple blemishes on your credit history (e.g., late credit card payments, unpaid medical bills), your score could fall below 650, in which case you’ll likely get turned down for a conventional home loan. Then you will need to mend your credit in order to get approved unless you qualify for a Federal Housing Administration loan, which requires only a 580 minimum credit score. Before meeting with a mortgage lender, Beverly Harzog, consumer finance analyst and credit card expert at U.S. News & World Report, recommends obtaining your credit report. You’re entitled to a free copy of your full report at AnnualCreditReport.com.

What’s an acceptable down payment on a house? In a recent NerdWallet study, 44 percent of respondents said they believe you need to put 20 percent (or more) down to buy a home. So, if you do the math, you’d have to plunk down $50,000 on a $250,000 house. Of course, that’s a big chunk of change for many home buyers. The good news? That 20 percent figure is common, but it’s not set in stone. It’s the gold standard because when you put 20 percent down, you won’t have to pay private mortgage insurance, which can add several hundred dollars a month to your house payments. Another advantage of putting down 20 percent upfront is that that’s often the magic number you need to get a more favorable interest rate. If you’re unable to make a 20 percent down payment, there are many lenders that will allow you to put down less cash. And there are a number of loan products that you might qualify for that require less money down. FHA loans require as little as 3.5 percent down. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs loan program gives active or retired military personnel the opportunity See

3 THINGS on page RE7

Leading Luxury Home Experts

HOUSING

from page RE1

104.8 percent….That was the lowest since June 2014,” it added. In the Valley, the Cromford Report, which tracks home prices in the Valley and Arizona, said earlier this month that active listings as of Dec. 5 were up .08 percent from a year ago, but 3.4 percent up from the previous month. Monthly sales for November dropped 7.8 percent from a year ago and were down 9.7 percent from October. The supply of active listings without a contract rose 3.4 percent during the month of November, while total active listings increased by 2 percent,” it said. “These increases are in contrast to this time last year when we saw decreases of 1.2 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively. Just like last month, there has been a definite improvement in available supply, although the improvement varies a lot by price range.” “In October, sales were slightly lower than in 2017, but in November the difference is more striking,” the Cromford Report added. “A decline of almost 8 percent has not been seen since August 2014 and represents the arrival of the steep drop in demand that we have been anticipating for a long time.” Realtor.com noted that pending homes sales dropped by their sharpest in the West – 8.9 percent. It quoted Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, as stating: “By all accounts, we are seeing a buyers’ strike this year, as prospective home buyers have tired of surging home prices, frenzied bidding on scarce homes for sale and most

recently rising mortgage rates. The slowdown in homeprice appreciation in recent months should help to bring the housing market into better balance.” But the Cromford Report indicated that people who are considering putting their home for sale need not necessarily panic – and buyers need not necessarily grab the Champagne. “Although demand is down, it remains in excess of the chronically low supply and we are still in a seller’s market in almost all markets,” it said. “However, the advantage for sellers is less than it has been for the past two years which means we are seeing more cuts in asking prices and greater willingness to agree to buyer requests during contract negotiations.” And last week it said the market was mainly “stabilizing after a mild downturn.”

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“This does not bear much similarity to what we read in the press of a major retreat or even slump in the housing market,” it cautioned. “The reality in Greater Phoenix is that we have shifted from a strong seller’s market with high volumes to a moderate seller’s market with slightly lower volumes. In due course this is likely to adjust appreciation rates from the 8-10 percent level to more like 6-8 percent.” The Cromford Report said three factors have dented demand. Including higher mortgage rates than 2017, a faster rise in the cost of home ownership over rents and the new federal income tax law. Nevertheless, the Cromford Report said, “We definitely do not have anything approaching a crash or a slump, which would require a large increase in supply. “Supply remains weak because many existing homeowners are more reluctant to move. Doing so would require them to give up their existing cheap loan and take out a new more expensive one,” it added. “They are tending to stay put, which is good news for the likes of Home Depot and home remodeling and redecorating companies.” The Cromford Report also said the luxury home market was still strong – and likely to continue influencing outsiders to move to Arizona. “Supply of higher end homes is down from last year and demand is holding up rather well,” it said. “Of course, the luxury market in Arizona is priced like the mid-range market in many parts of California. Population flows are favoring Arizona too, so it looks as though Phoenix will have one of the leading housing markets over the coming year, even though it is likely to be somewhat less active than 2018.”

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REAL ESTATE

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

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3,835sqft, 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, Spectacular highly upgraded semi-custom Catalina model home located in the highly desirable community of Richmond Heights

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

SPOTLIGHT home

Hidden Canyon

Immaculately appointed single level on desirable Foothills cul-de-sac lot in gated community. 4 br plus den, 3.5 ba with 3,591 sq. ft. Spacious gourmet eat-in kitchen features oversized island, stainless steel appliances, Corian countertops and raised-panel maple cabinetry. Magnificent finishes throughout include 8’ doors, 9.5’ ceilings, wooden windowsills, ceiling fans, Plantation shutters and tile flooring. Open floorplan with fireplace in inviting family room. Master suite boasts spa-like bath. Generously sized secondary bedrooms plus Princess suite with private bath. Paradise-style backyard includes Pebble Tec pool with waterfall and slide, mature desert landscaping, extended covered patio and stunning mountain views.

Listed for $699,000

Mike Mendoza kw® SONORAN LIVING 480.706.7234 KELLER WILLIAMS® REALTY www.MendozaTeam.com 355 E Wildwood Drive Luxurious single level semi-custom 4 bedroom / 2.5 bathroom with magnificent mountain views located in the beautiful community of Camelot Summit. Major recent remodel!!! This gorgeous split floor plan offers a warm interior, upgraded lighting, plush coffer-ed ceilings and new flooring throughout! Stunning front entry leads into formal living and dining room, open cozy family room with fireplace and large windows. Fabulous eat-in kitchen features center island, stainless appliances, corian counters, pantry, new stain to cabinetry with stylish hardware and breakfast area with patio access. Master Bedroom suite with large walk-in closet and patio access. Master bathroom with separate shower and spa-like tub. 3 spacious secondary bedrooms. Upgraded cabinets, fixtures, hardware and flooring t/o. Lovely backyard with paver covered patio, sparkling pool, spa, 2 sitting areas, orange and lemon trees and lush landscape. Corner lot and stunning mountain views! 3 car garage with epoxy flooring and attached cabinets. Great Ahwatukee location! Award winning Kyrene Schools.

Listed for $589,900

kw SONORAN LIVING ®

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Immaculate & stunning custom estate located in gated Calabreça complete with the highest quality build and finishes grand foyer formal dining room family room w/fireplace gourmet kitchen includes: slab granite counters, alder cabinets, island, s/s appliances, gas cook-top, hood, warming drawer. 2 Wine fridges, & pantry executive office w/built-ins media/theater room w/105-inch screen master bedroom w/stunning mountain views master bath w/dual vanities,soaking tub,& walk-in shower guest bedroom w/ en-suite bath travertine & hardwood flooring surround sound basement inc: full wet-bar, large family room, & two bedrooms perfect for guests or teens peaceful resort backyard w/dream views, covered patio, fireplace, pebble sheen pool, turf, & mister system garage w/ storage this luxurious estate is a perfect 10! Listed for $1,069,000

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REAL ESTATE

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

3 THINGS

from page RE4

to purchase a home with a $0 down payment and no mortgage insurance premium. Same with USDA loans (federally backed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development). Another option worth pursuing is qualifying for down payment assistance. There are 2,290 programs across the country that offer financial assistance, kicking in an average of $17,766, according to one study. (You can find programs in your area on the National Council of State Housing Agencies website.) There are some cases, though, where you’ll have to put more than 20 percent down to qualify for a mortgage. A jumbo loan is a mortgage that’s above the limits for government-sponsored loans. In most parts of the country, that means loans over $417,000. Since larger loans require the lender to take on more risk, jumbo loans typically require home buyers to make a bigger down payment – up to 30 percent for some lenders.

The DTI ratio

To get approved for a mortgage, you need a solid debt-to-income ratio. This

480-706-7234 ST JU TED LIS

Mountain Park Ranch E

DTI figure compares your outstanding debts (on student loans, credit cards, car loans and more) with your income. For example, if you make $6,000 a month but pay $500 to debts, you’d divide $500 by $6,000 to get a DTI ratio of 0.083, or 8.3 percent. However, that’s your DTI ratio without a monthly mortgage payment. If you factor in a monthly mortgage payment of, say, $1,000 per month, your DTI ratio increases to 25 percent. Lenders like this number to be low, because evidence from studies of mortgage loans shows that borrowers with a higher DTI ratio are more likely to run into trouble making monthly payments, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For a conventional loan, most mortgage lenders require a borrower’s DTI to be no more than 36 percent, although some lenders will accept up to 43 percent. If you’re above the 36 percent ceiling, there are ways that you can lower your DTI. The easiest would be to apply for a smaller mortgage – meaning you’ll have to lower your price range. Or, if you’re not willing to budge on price, you can lower your DTI by paying off a large chunk of your debts in a lump sum.

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Immaculately appointed single level on desirable cul-de-sac lot. Paradise backyard boasts Pebble Tec pool with waterfall and slide.

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

COMMUNITY

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

AROUND AHWATUKEE

Christmas House will again open in Ahwatukee tomorrow night

Every year, Jim Simpson opens his home at 2313 E. Taxidea Way, Ahwatukee, to the public for a view of his amazing Christmas collection, and this year is no exception. So reserve 6-9 p.m. Dec. 20 for a trip there, and the only admission is a nonperishable food item that will be donated to a food bank. Virtually every room in the house is a Christmas wonderland, with walls and floor displays that include over 100 animated figures, ornaments and nativities from around the world, an 8-foot wall of angels, a 12-foot Christmas tree, over 70 nutcrackers, train sets, a 75-house village, over 30,000 lights in and around the house and Santa Claus himself. “The magic of Christmas will surround guests,” said Simpson, boasting the house has often won holiday décor contests.

Horizon Honors Schools accepts lottery forms for 2019-20

Horizon Honors Schools in Ahwatukee are now accepting lottery forms for the 2019-2020 school year. Lottery forms must be submitted online at horizonclc.org by Jan. 21. In addition, info sessions and tours are available for prospective families. Reservations are required and available at horizonclc.org. Horizon Honors Schools is an organization of tuition-free, public, charter schools which provide continuous learning, K-12. Located in Ahwatukee, over 1,500 students from cities throughout the East Valley attend the schools. Both Horizon Honors Schools are graded “A” by the Arizona Department

CALENDAR

of Education.

AARP offering Smart Driver Course for seniors

AARP is sponsoring the Smart Driver Course, which enables seniors to refresh their driving skills while learning about changes in road designs, intersections and signage and technological changes to our cars. After attending the four-hour class, participants will receive a certificate that may make them eligible for insurance discounts. The next classes will be at the Pecos Senior Center, 17010 S. 48th St. on Feb. 11 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and at LivGenerations Ahwatukee Senior Living, 15815 S. 50th St., Ahwatukee, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 13. The cost is $15 for AARP members, $20 for non-members. To register, call Jane at 480-7107265 or email janesimmers@gmail.com.

Parent-toddler class offered at Summit School in Ahwatukee

Summit School in Ahwatukee offers parents and toddlers a first step into a world of learning through “Toddler Discoveries,” a developmentally appropriate and fun-filled experience for children 18 to 36 months and their adult companion. Children can enjoy art, building, fine motor development, dramatic play, group stories and songs, with time to play. Adults will also have an opportunity to discuss relevant “toddler topics” with an experienced teacher. Registration is underway for a new class starting the end of January. The spring class is being offered 9-11 a.m. on Thursdays through April. To enroll: email Admissions@SummitSchoolAZ.org.

WEDNESDAY DEC. 19

Magic Tree House Book Club

Read the book at home, then do fun timetravel activities at the library. Kids can read this month’s Magic Tree House series title, “Christmas in Camelot” by Mary Pope Osborne, on their own or with family to prepare for hands-on activities that bring the story to life. January’s book: “Knight at Dawn” by Mary Pope Osborne. DETAILS>> 4-5:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 6-11. Free. No registration required.

4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages birth to five. Free. Tickets are limited & available in the library at 6 p.m. on the evening of the program.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 24 Caffe Boa holiday

Reservations are now being accepted for “Christmas Eve at Caffe Boa,” which will be open for lunch and dinner with a regular menu plus specials at both meals. DETAILS>> 5063 E. Elliot Road, Ahwatukee, 480893-3331, caffeboa1@msn.com or caffeboa.com.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 26

THURSDAY, DEC. 20

Red Cross blood drive

All you can eat prime rib

Ahwatukee Country Club is hosting an all-youcan-eat prime rib dinner. Enjoy a prime rib and lasagna buffet close to home and help the Kiwanis Club of Ahwatukee provide holiday gifts to foster children in group homes. Bring an unwrapped toy, new clothing item or gift card to receive 15 percent off your dining. DETAILS>> 5-8 p.m.; prime rib/lasagna, $26.95; lasagna only, $13.95; Soft drinks, beer/wine, cocktails available. Reservations are required: 480-893-1161; 12432 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee.

Polar Express Family Storytime

Wear your pajamas to a special reading of this holiday classic by Chris Van Allsburg and enjoy cookies with friends afterward. DETAILS>> 6:30-7:15 p.m., Ironwood Library,

Give the gift of blood at this American Red Cross Blood Drive. DETAILS>> 2:30-7 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages: Adults. Free. Appointments are recommended and can be made at www. redcrossblood.org; select the “Donating Blood” option to submit your appointment time. Walkin donations are also welcome, as available.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 5-6

Mastering your emotions

Sacred Roots Wellness in Ahwatukee will host a workshop for women titled “Meanings Master: Becoming the Master of Your Emotions.” An intensive, intimate weekend workshop See

CALENDAR on page 27

Better than Mistletoe Classes ages 6 months and up:

• Gymnastics • Tumbling • Trampoline • Acrobatic Gymnastics • Ballet, Hip Hop and Tap • Martial Arts • Swimming CONGRATS

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

candlelight christmas eve service December 24th, 5-6 PM “Bethlehem’s child” a choral cantata WRITTEN BY VICTOR C. JOHNSON & LLOYD LARSON

ALSO FEATURING OUR BELL CHOIR AND

A SPECIAL CHILDREN’S MESSAGE.

St. James

Episcopal Church Christmas Eve 6:00pm Family candlelight service with A Godly Play Christmas

9:00pm

Traditional candlelight service

Christmas ~ 11:00am Come,Day Lord Jesus, Come!

CHILD CARE PROVIDED

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Christmas Eve

MAKES A MAS IST GREAT CHIFRT G

The Rev. Susan E. Wilmot 975 E. Warner Rd | Tempe, AZ 85284

480-345-2686 www.stjamestempe.org 6:00pm Family Candlelight Service

with A Godly Play Christmas

9:00pm Traditional Candlelight Service Christmas Day ~ 11:00am

1401 E. LIBERTY LANE | 480.460.1480 | WWW.HORIZONCHURCH.COM

The Rev. Susan E. Wilmot 975 E. Warner Rd | Tempe, AZ 85284 480-345-2686 Visit us on www.stjamestempe.org facebook

TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2019 – 7 PM ORPHEUM THATRE PHOENIX

Tickets available in person at the Phoenix Convention Center West Building (100 N. Third St.) Call Ticket Force at 1-877-840-0457, or Phoenix.ticketforce.com/RedGreen

www.redgreen.com

COMMUNITY

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

CALENDAR

from page 25

for powerful women “will equip you with potent tools so you can embrace your most uncomfortable emotions, rewrite the past, and turn tragedies into triumphs, without wasting years in therapy.” DETAILS>> 8:15 a.m.-4:15 p.m., 4001 E. Mountain Sky Ave., honeybee-you.com/mm-workshop.

THURSDAY, JAN. 24

Freshmen showcase

Mountain Pointe High School will host an informational workshop about the school for all eighth grade students and their families. DETAILS>> 5-8 p.m., 44th Street and Knox Road gymnasium, Information: Joe Dominguez at jdominguez@tempeunion.org.

SUNDAYS

Bible study

Foundations of Our Faith Bible Study, a journey through Exodus that is biblically accurate and understandable for everyone. Learn the historical perspective which reveals the love of God for all His people. Technology and questions are both encouraged. DETAILS>> 9:15 a.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. 480-8932579. mvlutheran.org/classes.

Learn gardening from pros

Learn desert gardening by getting your hands

dirty with the Ahwatukee Community Gardening Project. Share in the knowledge, the produce and the smiles. All ages welcome. Bring sun protection and water, tools optional. DETAILS>> 8-9:15 a.m. in the northwest corner of the park at 4700 E. Warner Road, Ahwatukee, behind the guitar player at the Ahwatukee Farmers Market, which is open 9a.m.-1 p.m. Information: acgarden.org or 480-759-5338.

Chess, knitters clubs

Two new clubs meet in Ahwatukee every Sunday: the Chess Club for players at all skill levels and Knitters Anonymous for all levels of knitters and people who crochet. DETAILS>> The Chess Club meets at 11 a.m. and Knitters Anonymous meets at 2 p.m., both at Sun Cup Café, 1241 E. Chandler Blvd. For either club, call 480-246-1912 for more information.

Our Faith Bible Study

This biblical scripture study embraces a spiritfilled, intellectually honest and refreshingly understandable exploration of God’s Word. Lessons will combine Christian and Jewish theology along with bible history, archaeology and linguistics for a rich learning experience. DETAILS>> 9:15 a.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee Information: 480-893-2579. www.mvlutheran. org/classes.

MONDAYS

GOSBELLS

This learning handbell choir teaches you

how to ring those bells! The group presents occasionally during worship services and special holidays throughout the school year. DETAILS>> 6 p.m. Mountain View Lutheran Church. 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. 480-8932579. mvlutheran.org.

Power Partners meet

The Ahwatukee Foothills Chamber of Commerce’s Power Partners meets. It’s a category-specific networking and leads group. Non-Chamber members can attend one event to “check it out.” DETAILS>> noon-1 p.m.at Native Grill and Wings 5030 E. Ray Road, Ahwatukee. Contact: Gina Jenkins, 480-990-5444.

LD 18 Dems meet monthly

Legislative District 18 Democrats gather monthly, usually the second Monday, to share news, opportunities, food and laughter. Meetings include guest speakers, legislative updates, how-to sessions and Q&A. Volunteer or just enjoy an evening with like-minded folks. DETAILS>> For times and places: ld18democrats. org/calendar.

Digital City

Children can let their digital creativity flow in this self-guided tech “playground.” We provide hands-on beginner bots, exercises to build fine motor skills and Chromebooks preloaded with links to code-learning environments, 3D modeling and digital art programs. #stem #IronwoodLibrary DETAILS>> 4-5 p.m., Nov. 5 and 19. Ironwood Li-

brary, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Ages 5-12. Free. No registration required.

TUESDAYS

Estrangement support

Although rarely discussed, family estrangement is far more common than most people realize. The estranged suffer from loneliness, lack of self-esteem, guilt, anger and depression. Desert Foothills United Methodist Church provides a support group that meets the first Tuesday of every month. The public is invited to the “Living Loss” sessions. No questions asked, and anonymity will be respected. DETAILS>> 7 p.m., first Tuesday of every month; 2156 E. Liberty Lane, Ahwatukee. Free. Information: 480-460-1025 and office@ desertfoothills.org. The January meeting will be Jan. 8 because of the holiday.

Prayer night offered

Ahwatukee Health and Recovery holds a weekly prayer night. The public is invited. DETAILS>> noon-1:30 p.m., 16515 S. 40th St. #119, Ahwatukee. Free.

Chair yoga featured

Inner Vision Yoga Studio offers chair yoga to help seniors and people recovering from injuries to stay fit. DETAILS>> 1:30-2:30 p.m., 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. $6 per class. Information: 480-330-2015 or donna@innervisionyoga.com.

COMMUNITY

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

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Opinion DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

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For us transplants, home is where the heart is BY DAVID LEIBOWITZ AFN Columnist

hen does a place become home? The question occurs to you as you pack your suitcase, another airplane departure a few hours away. You are headed back east to celebrate the holiday in the house where you grew up, around the nicked, wooden kitchen table with the television set no doubt blaring in the background. Jake, once your parents’ dog, now your dad’s alone, will beg for scraps at every meal. The house on Dahlia Drive in south Florida was home once, for most of your life. It was where your family moved from New York, the place you came home to on college spring breaks and for your two weeks off from so many jobs. “When are you coming home?” your mother would ask. Or you’d send your high school

buddies a text message: “I’ll be home in a couple weeks!” Then, at some indeterminate moment in time, your sense of home shifted. The Valley and Arizona won out. Now the desert is home and everyplace else is simply a destination. When did it happen? Was there a date and time, a precise moment? The best answer you can summon is not one moment, but many, a series of occurrences that have etched this place in your heart. There was that November night in 2001 when Jay Bell crossed home plate and the Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series over your childhood team, the New York Yankees. You high fived and hugged strangers that night and everything you screamed began with the word “We.” There was 2009, when you left daily journalism behind for good and started to work for yourself – your own business, your own chance to sign the front of a

paycheck as opposed to the back. When people ask about how things are going, how the business has grown, you are always quick to credit Arizona for its role in things. Without this state and its people, you think, you would have no work, no network, not a dollar in income. The other moments are not one-offs, but repetitions, sights you see so often they become a part of you in perpetuity. A few hundred sunrises viewed as you hike up Piestewa Peak. A few dozen beers on a few dozen nights in Pomeroy’s on Seventh Street. The unfurling of the Grand Canyon along the West Rim near the spot the Hualapai Tribe refers to as Eagle Point. The way you take offense at another Phoenix Suns loss and the cratering of “your” beloved basketball team. The gentle arc of a golf ball against the backdrop of a cloudless Arizona winter morning. One more step across the threshold into the living room of the place

you call home. More than 70 percent of Arizona’s population comes from someplace else, another state, another nation. We are a disparate people, without the roots and bonds of many other states. For the natives, the Valley is always home, the place where they’re from. The rest of us adopt this place – we choose it even as it chooses us. Maybe for some people who call the Valley home, it’s always a way station, a temporary stopping point on the way to elsewhere. But for most of us, Arizona eventually becomes home. Maybe not on Day One, or during the first year or decade, but eventually. The exact moment doesn’t matter. The end result is the thing. So, you pack up a suitcase and head out to Sky Harbor. As you lock the door behind you, you think about how happy you’ll be to get back home – to the place that has a permanent claim on your life, your brain, your heart.

LETTERS

ABM ‘elf’ spreads cheer in mysterious ways

This elf is too busy to simply sit on a shelf For the past several years, Ahwatukee has had a benevolent elf who happens to also be a homeowner. She just keeps showing up. While elves are generally shy in nature, they play the most pivotal role in executing Santa’s Christmas plan – bringing smiles to the faces of others and joy to their hearts. Ahwatukee’s Christmas elf has visited the Ahwatukee Board of Management (ABM) on numerous occasions bringing gift cards and monetary donations for people the ABM staff know of that are struggling. You may wonder “what is an elf doing at an HOA of all places?!” Glad you asked. This is one smart elf as, unfortunately, ABM staff encounters many, many residents who are experiencing serious financial hardship, health challenges or debilitating illness. Life can certainly take sharp turns for the worse. You might think this elf is giving out of considerable abundance or is sitting high

on her own shelf. Not so. In fact, our sweet elf has lost two immediate family members in the past few years, including a brother she was very close to. I’ve learned that elf ’s feel pain like everyone else. But rather than allow grief and sorrow to rule the day, she’d rather spread joy and help to others. ABM staff has selected about a dozen homeowners with elf gifts from a portion of their annual assessment being paid to Target gift cards. And, this elf works all year long, often bringing breakfast treats to the ABM office. She also has a deep appreciation for the maintenance staff who, from her shelf vantage point, she can often see working along the common areas. She has treated them to lunch on several occasions to acknowledge their hard work in Ahwatukee. Since our elf neighbor insists her contributions be anonymous, we must abide by her wishes. I used to wonder what the significance was of elves moving around, feeling they need to abandon their comfy shelf. Well, they’d rather be among us, jumping into their community and

helping as they’re able. Thank you to ALL who are kind hearted and a service to others. Whatever your kind gesture or assistance to others may be, it all matters and makes a difference. Merry Christmas to all! -Karen Young

Disputes columnist on border crossings

Today I opened up the Ahwatukee Foothills News and saw yet another article by David Leibowitz on the “awful things” we are doing to the alien population attempting to cross our border illegally. Lets be clear about some facts: When our forefathers immigrated to this country, they did not expect, nor receive, free health care, a free college education, free food stamps, or a welfare handout. They came with the knowledge they would have to hit the ground running. They knew they would need to learn the language so they could communicate and function in the U.S. Recent U.S. census indicates that 67 percent of illegal aliens are on “our welfare” system. And of those who have ac-

tually become “legal immigrants,” 47 percent are on welfare. Our forefathers were not funded and transported by that funding source to our borders, as this caravan and the one behind has proven to be. Do you really believe this “poor mother of five” walked all the way from Honduras with five small children, apparently by herself? And, if she was fleeing for her safety, why would she not stop in Mexico who was offering the immigrants asylum? And why would you have five kids if you know you live in a country where you cannot possibly feed them all – and were they all hers? Or was she smuggling them across for some cartel boss to use? Trump wasn’t the first President to protect our sovereign nation with tear gas. And were the facts even relevant to Mr.Leibowitz, he would see that Obama used tear gas, factually, more than any other President (on the average of once a month). The media didn’t report it because they weren’t trying to destroy him, as they are Trump. Obama also separated children See

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from their parents and in some cases, he separated children from sex trade smugglers and he placed them in far worse holding areas than this current President. And is Mr. Leibowitz aware that there are hundreds of kids who have “never been claimed” by a parent or family, and we are holding them (because they are minors) all over the U.S. And did you know there are hundreds of them in multiple agencies, at a cost of $1,250 per day EACH. Tear gas was used because these “poor starving women and children who were running for the life from Honduras with their Elsa t-shirts on" were in the group of aliens pelting our U.S. Border Patrol agents and our America soldiers with rocks and bricks. What mother knowingly takes her five young children into an area they have been repeatedly told they may not be in, and that force will be used to keep them from entering? They were told they would not be allowed into the U.S. and force would be used if necessary. Exactly what was she expecting to happen given that the group she was with was violent? Violent and out of control not just on our border, but the Mexican border as well.

And finally, immigrants are not all that convincing about their desire to become Americans when they are carrying the Honduran country’s flag. That would not be the picture of a person fleeing from the dangers of persecution by their country. So I would say yes, Mr. Leibowitz, let’s build our wall, because it isn’t “Trump’s wall”, or my wall, it’s America’s wall. It is to protect our borders from an invasion of people whom we know nothing about and who have already proven themselves to not respect our country’s laws. They are fleeing their country for economic reasons and we are their Free ride. I am interested in helping the starving kids in America that are living under bridges, in their parents’ cars, or in shacks without food and water. How about we set our own house straight and take care of our poor and disadvantaged before we assume responsibility for the rest of the people in all the third world countries. -Paula Martin

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Start-up firms thrive in revamped Gangplank BY COLLEEN SPARKS AFN Staff Writer

newly revamped co-working space in downtown Chandler is giving entrepreneurs more opportunities to train teams, create products and use technological tools. But the real magic of Gangplank is in the community it builds. So say members of the nonprofit organization, as well as its responsible person and manager for the Chandler chapter of Gangplank, Mike Kovarik. The organization, which opened its Chandler space several years ago on 250 S. Arizona Ave., celebrated a grand reopening on Dec. 7 after renovating about 3,000 square feet in its building. The coworking space – where businesses and individuals can come to grow their companies, work and collaborate with other entrepreneurs – takes up about 6,000 square feet in the building space it leases. Gangplank closed for a few months while phone booths/webinar rooms and a training room were added, Kovarik said. Some conference rooms were consolidated to provide more room for desks, and a media room for photographers and artists to do photo shoots was set up. “Gangplank is a coworking space where businesses can come and work with other individuals and creatives to grow their business and use this as a place to work and innovate, have collisions,” Kovarik said. “Gangplank is really the original coworking space,” he added. “It started all on social capital. One of the biggest differences from Galvanize or CO+HOOTS is you can come in and utilize the space at no cost. You can try (it) out, get coaching and mentoring. Since we’re a nonprofit, we’re not focused on getting membership dues out of every individual.” Gangplank has two other locations, in Queen Creek and Avondale. The one in Chandler gets some financial help from the City of Chandler and about 33 companies use the facility. Some businesses pay membership fees to use the Gangplank space, but others can contribute through “social capital” –

founders, attended the grand reopening, and said Gangplank has also helped their companies. Dozens of people mingled, worked on computers at several stations, talked in a conference room, worked in a workshop area with a laser-cutting machine and toured the center, while others ate tacos at the gathering. Using space at Gangplank for his company has saved Burton a lot of rent. He started his company in 2011 and said his rent dropped from about $250,000 a month to $4,400 a month. Besides saving money, he also met HiringSolved’s co-founder Trevor Olson, now his company’s chief technology officer, at Gangplank. “For me, what was import(Special to AFN ) ant here … was being able to Mike Kovarik is the responsible person and manager for the sit next to someone,” Burton Chandler chapter of Gangplank, which celebrated its grand said. “You get to kind of know reopening on Dec. 7. somebody really well. It’s a talmeaning they clean up, take out the trash ent pool for us. We got business advice. and offer advice and coaching to people, You could say, ‘What do you think of this among other tasks, in exchange for utiliz- design?’” Collaboration at Gangplank is “huge,” ing the space, Kovarik said. Kovarik is also CEO of Attribytes, a he added. “We stay here because when we move software service company focused on the food service industry; he has been workout, we get sad,” Burton said. “We miss ing out of Gangplank in Chandler for the people, energy.” Gregg Lahti, CEO and co-founder of about two years. Attribytes began more than three years ago and the majority of Cerebrum, a company he said sells softits employees work out of Gangplank in ware for anatomic pathology labs, has also Chandler, though some employees work worked out of Gangplank in Chandler since his start-up’s inception. in other states. “Gangplank’s one of those places where The mentoring and collaboration he received when coming to Gangplank you also contribute as much as you get,” inspired Kovarik to stay involved in the Lahti said. “I get space for my team. Different businesses all go through the same coworking space. Kovarik said Shon Burton, CEO and problem. I’ve been through five start-ups. co-founder of HiringSolved, “provided Gangplank, it attracts a lot of everyone. great advice to help us get through tough I’m an engineer.” Daniel Graham, CFO and founder of a times.” He added that Burton also provid- digital advertising company called Sublimed some technological assistance to get inal Group, also likes the Chandler space. He spent the grand reopening making an through roadblocks and offered tips on electric skateboard using the laser-cutting seeking venture capital support. Burton, as well as many other start-up machine to build the fender. That device

is part of a personal project, but Graham said he and Subliminal Group’s co-founder also do work for that ad business out of Chandler Gangplank. Graham worked in a room with several shelves, tools, the laser-cutting machine and pieces of wood to create his electric skateboard. “This was one of the first places I stumbled into,” he said. “I wouldn’t have found the success as quickly … without Gangplank. Gangplank allows us to bring in clients and look more professional.” Graham said he learned a lot from another advertising company that worked out of Gangplank. “I’m just grateful,” he said. “I put in a lot of time here trying to help out other people, answer questions about video work and live streaming. It’s a great space.” During a presentation in front of the crowd at Gangplank during the grand reopening, Kovarik introduced Burton of HiringSolved and Lahti of Cerebrum. Lahti said Kovarik had given him “great advice.” Kovarik said Gangplank is a place to get advice and mentoring. “It’s difficult to start your own business,” he said, and praised the opportunity Gangplank gives him and other entrepreneurs. “It’s amazing to bring that connective tissue to the Valley,” he said. Chandler Mayor-elect Kevin Hartke praised Gangplank as well, stating: “We’re excited about Gangplank and what you continue to do. We continue to be committed to downtown. Gangplank has been a staple here … and you guys have continued to perform. You’ve continued to incite and inspire our kids for technology … and you’ve been successful.” People who had previously used TechShop, a maker space which closed abruptly in Chandler, have found a place to work in Gangplank. Dave Kerr, an IT consultant who had been doing some prototyping at TechShop, was on a computer doing work at the Gangplank grand reopening. “I got into crypto currencies,” Kerr said. “I was just a member there. I helped peoSee

GANGPLANK on page 32

BUSINESS

GANGPLANK

from page 31

ple in the community from TechShop. I love Gangplank.” Terri Kimble, president/CEO of the Chandler Chamber of Commerce, is also pleased with Gangplank. “This is great,” Kimble said. “Obviously this is a huge component of our community – celebrating entrepreneurs. There are bumps in the road and you need that support system.” Membership in Gangplank, other than those who are contributing the “social capital,” is $500 a year for solo entrepreneurs; $5,000 a year for companies with a “couple more people” and $20,000 a year for larger businesses, Kovarik said. Cash prizes of $10,000, $3,500 and $1,500 were given to business owners for the first, second and third place winners after they pitched their companies to Gangplank as part of the grand reopening event. Members can access the building whenever they want to, but the regular business hours for non-members is 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Non-members can also access the building anytime a member is in there. Information: gangplankhq.com.

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

Consider some new year’s financial resolutions now BY JOSEPH ORTIZ AFN Guest Writer

s the year winds down, you may want to look ahead to see which areas of your life you can improve in 2019. Perhaps you’ll decide to exercise more, eat healthier foods, reconnect with old friends or volunteer at a school or charitable organization. All these goals are certainly worthwhile – but you also may want to add some New Year’s financial resolutions to your list. Here are a few ideas to consider: Boost contributions to your employer-sponsored retirement plan. Good news! Contribution limits will be increasing for many employer-sponsored retirement plans. For 2019, you can contribute up to $19,000 (up from $18,500 in 2018) – or $25,000 (up from $24,500 in 2018) if you’re 50 or older – to your 401(k) or similar employer-sponsored retirement plan. It’s usually a good idea to contribute as much as you can afford to your employer’s plan, as your contributions may lower your taxable income, while any earnings

growth is tax-deferred. Keep in mind that taxes are due upon withdrawal, and withdrawals prior to age 59 ½ may be subject to a 10 percent IRS penalty. At a minimum, put in enough to earn your employer’s matching contribution, if one is offered. Try to “max out” on your IRA. Even if you have a 401(k) or similar plan, you can probably still invest in an IRA. For 2019, you can put in up to $6,000 in a traditional or Roth IRA (up from $5,500 in 2018), or $7,000 (up from $6,500) if you’re 50 or older. Income restrictions apply to Roth IRAs. Contributions to a traditional IRA may be tax-deductible, depending on your income, and any earnings growth is tax-deferred. Roth IRA contributions are not deductible, but earnings growth can be withdrawn taxfree, provided you don’t start taking withdrawals until you are 59 ½ and you’ve had your account at least five years. You can put most types of investments – stocks, bonds, mutual funds, government securities and so on – into an IRA, so it can expand your options beyond those offered in your 401(k) or similar plan. Build an emergency fund. Try to build an emergency fund containing three to six

months’ worth of living expenses, with the money held in a low-risk, liquid account. This fund can help you avoid dipping in to your long-term investments to pay for unexpected costs, such as a major car repair. Control your debts. Do what you can to keep your debts under control. Ultimately, the less you have to spend on debt payments, the more you can invest for your future. Don’t overreact to financial market volatility. In 2018 – especially the last few months of the year – we saw considerable market volatility, with huge drops and big gains in rapid succession. What will 2019 bring? It’s always difficult – and usually futile – trying to forecast the market’s performance over the course of an entire year. But, in any case, try not to overreact to whatever ups and downs we may experience. Instead, continue pursuing an investment strategy that’s appropriate for your goals, risk tolerance and time horizon. Following these suggestions can help you become a better investor in 2019 – and beyond. --Joseph Ortiz is a financial advisor with Edward Jones at 4902 E. Warner Road, Ahwatukee. Reach him at 480-753-7664.

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Popular Zoppé family circus returns to the East Valley BY COLLEEN SPARKS GET OUT Staff

n unusual Old-World Italian circus known for generating laughs and creating fun family memories is returning to the Chandler Center for the Arts for its 10th season. Zoppé, which is an Italian family circus, will deliver its dramatic and humorous displays of talent in a 500-seat tent Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 2-6 on the arts center site at 250 N. Arizona Ave. Michelle Mac Lennan, executive director of the Chandler Center for the Arts, is thrilled this particular circus is returning after she came up with the idea of bringing the colorful performance group to the center for the first time in the 2009-10 season. The center was undergoing renovations at that time and she thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase the circus in a tent. Last year, at least 75 percent of the seats were sold at each show and some performances were sold out, Mac Lennan said. “It’s a good trend,” she said. “It definitely is on an upward tick. I love the story because it’s not like the Ringling Brothers and some big circus. This is seventh-generation performers. It’s this intimate, one-ring European-style. “The circus was the first presented art form in the United States. People are just kind of mesmerized with seeing these sometimes death-defying acts in front of your face. No one’s farther than 30 feet from the ring,” she added. Mac Lennan said her youngest son, Marius, now 11, was only 3 when he first saw Zoppé An Italian Family Circus. Her oldest son Brandon, now 28, first enjoyed the circus at age 18 and likes to come back every year. Mac Lennan said she loves joining the circus performers, volunteers and staff members for a Christmas Eve dinner at the performance site. “They have a big Christmas Eve celebration and all of the families in the show make a special dish,” she said. “It really is our family tradition. We do have fun and our volunteers love it.” The show itself involves performers’ own pets and is enjoyable for people of all ages, Mac Lennan said. “It’s in their local community so that’s nice, but ultimately it’s good, clean fun for the whole family,” she said. “You can bring Grandma and she’s gonna laugh. You can have your baby on your lap for free. It’s not

(Special to AFN)

Giovanni Zoppé orchestrates the circus and plays Nino the Clown. He is in the seventh generation of his family to perform in the circus, which is performing in Chandler this month.

over anyone’s head. It’s really easy to understand. It is just good, old-fashioned laughter.” Giovanni Zoppé, who orchestrates the circus and plays Nino the clown in the shows, is in the seventh generation of his family to perform in the Zoppé circus. He said the family story goes back to 1842 after his great-great-great grandparents met. His great-great-great grandfather, a young French street clown named Napoline Zoppé, saw Hungarian equestrian ballerina, Ermenegilda, Giovanni’s great-great-great grandmother, in 1842 and the two fell in love.

The couple moved to Italy, settling in the Venice area, and performed on the street before forming their own circus. “In 1842 the circus was much different,” Giovanni said. “It was more of community performance, because the towns of Europe and entertainment in general was much different.” Today, Giovanni’s daughter, Chiara Zoppé, 16, of Illinois, performs as a circular trapeze artist, and his son Giovanni Julien, 9, also of Illinois, plays Giovanni’s “mini-me” clown, Giovanni said.

(Special to AFN)

The Zoppé Italian Family Circus sets up on the grounds of the Chandler Center for the Arts.

Giovanni’s sister, Tosca Zoppé -Walther, is an equestrian ballerina; and his sister Carla Heinen, along with Carla’s husband, Rudolph, work with the dogs in the circus. “We go the true tradition of what the circus truly was 100 years ago,” Giovanni said. “We try to reach all of your emotions. We want you to be happy, to be sad, to cry. It’s more of a theatrical performance, more dramatic. It’s like a play.” He said his character, Nino, is the “bumbling idiot” but he “always wins” and the audience roots for him, while the other clown character in the shows believes he’s the “boss” and “thinks he knows everything.” “I’ve played many parts,” Giovanni said. “As a child you become the clown, like my son is now. Then you learn all the different skills.” “I was a bareback rider for most of my life. I was the handsome guy on a horse with long hair. I loved it. We get standing ovations every show and people are screaming and laughing.” He said the circus is not only a fun show for children and families but also “a great event to take a date to.” Giovanni loves performing in Chandler, where he and his fellow cast members have made friends. “We love performing there because our audience there is so welcoming,” he said. “We feel like we’re back home when we’re there. We have so many friends. A lot of local people come for our Christmas dinner. We have a really great following there.” Residents have brought bread, cakes and other gifts to Giovanni and the other Zoppé members. Giovanni said the Chandler Center for the Arts is “just an amazing arts center,” and he likes how it gives children in need tickets for the circus shows. “It really opens the door to all audiences,” he said. Besides the shows, Zoppé offers Zoppé Circus Camp for youths. Children ages 7 to 13 will learn juggling, low wire performance, balancing and clowning around at the camp from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 2 to 4 under the big circus tent on the west lawn at the arts center. The professional Zoppé circus performers will teach youths, who will perform for their parents on Jan. 4. “It teaches them math, it teaches them culture, it teaches them humanity, it teaches them respect,” Giovanni said. “Culturally, they’re in a camp for a week and they go through probably four or five languages.” For tickets and information: chandlercenter.org.

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DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

‘Drumline Live’ brings Christmas to Chandler BY HEATHER COPFER GET OUT Contributor

he Drumline Live Holiday Spectacular marches into Chandler this month and percussion director Larry Allen calls it a “magical masterpiece.” “You’re performing on a theatrical stage, so there’s a lot more you can do on the stage than an actual field,” he said. “You get all the elements of (historically black colleges and universities) plus the glitz and glam of going to a Beyoncé or P!nk show.” Drumline Live is a theatrical, international tour based on the marching bands at the historically black colleges and universities. The show incorporates a mix of percussionists, vocalists and choreography. This winter, the Drumline Live Holiday Spectacular showcases modern holiday hits like “All I Want for Christmas is You,” “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” and “Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer.” The show comes to the Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21. “The kids love it,” Allen said. “It’s neon lights and the whole mystery of being

(Special to AFN)

The Drumline Live Holiday Spectacular features this trio of horn players along with holiday dancers.

pitch black in the theater and you see all these drums lit up and sticks glowing and twirling. It’s a real great experience.” Aside from the role as percussion director, he is also a drummer, vocalist and trumpet player in the show. “Not only do we all play instruments in the cast, but we also double as vocalists

or dancers as well,” he said. “Every cast member has two or three talents they provide for the show.” Allen has been a part of Drumline for nine years. A Houston native, he attended Prairie View A&M University from which he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s in sociology. Shortly

after grad school, he was introduced to the CEO and director of Drumline, Don Roberts. Allen sent in an audition tape and the rest is history. “I started as a cast member playing trumpet and percussion and each year I’ve moved up on the creative staff of creating what the show will be about. It’s been a dream come true,” he said. Allen said that the show is high intensity with great musicianship from instrumentalists to percussionists and vocalists. The holiday show taps into genres like hip-hop, jazz, soul and Motown. “Music is a universal language and we bring funk, jazz, classical, every element of music into one show and we put it on the stage and give it all we got. 150 percent every night,” Allen said. Drumline Live Holiday Spectacular, Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler, 480-782-2680, chandlercenter.org, 7:30 p.m. Dec. 21. Tickets $38-$48.

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

Riopelle playing farewell shows at Talking Stick Resort CHRISTINA FUOCO-KARASINSKI GET OUT Editor

LL RI

• AHWAT

U K

ER N & TAV G

erry Riopelle believes that he has one job: Make fans feel good for a couple of hours. He intends to do that Dec. 28-29, when he plays his final shows at Talking Stick Resort. “I’m bringing a pretty big band, six-piece rhythm section and singers and so on,” said Riopelle, who lives in Scottsdale. “I think we’ll probably play most of the well-liked songs because it’s my final shows. I don’t want to leave anything out that people really hope to hear.” Born in Detroit, where his family was involved in the Democrat Party, and raised in Tampa, Riopelle began his music career in Los Angeles in the 1960s by learning independent record production. After playing drums for the Hollywood Argyles, he signed as a staff writer for Screen Gems. Upon hearing a single that Riopelle had written and produced with Clydie King entitled “The Thrill is Gone,” Phil Spector hired him as a staff writer and producer for Philles Records. Soon thereafter, Riopelle produced the top -20 hit “Home of the Brave” by Bonnie and The Treasures. Two more top-40 hits by April Stevens and Nino Tempo and The Parade

itol Records, and it quickly caught on in Arizona. After his third album, Saving Grace, Riopelle opened for Dr. John at the Celebrity Theatre on New Year’s Eve. Riopelle soon scored the hits “Walkin’ on Water,” “Blues on My Table,” “Red Ball Texas Flyer” and “Naomi’s Song.” He has played nearly every New Year’s Eve here since 1974. “I always write more songs than I need,” Riopelle said of his songwriting process. “I pick the best songs. I have a certain level that a song has to reach so it pleases me enough to include it on an album. “I can’t really describe the feeling. I do know when it’s not finished.” His songs have been covered by numerous artists, including Herb Alpert, Joan Baez, Leon (Special to AFN) Russell, Kenny Loggins, Rita Scottsdale musician Jerry Riopelle is calling it quits. Coolidge and Meat Loaf. “I love that I have the relanded him a job as an A&M Records produc- spect of my peers,” he said. “Rita Coolidge did a cover of ‘A Man and a Woman.’ It’s very er and as a staff writer for Irving Music. He released his self-titled debut for Cap- lyrical. It’s warm and it had a lot of air play

in L.A. Boy, I loved it. As a matter of fact, I should consider it for my shows.” In 2005, then-Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon proclaimed Dec. 31 Jerry Riopelle Day in Phoenix. In 2007, Riopelle was inducted into the Arizona Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. Retirement is bittersweet for the 77-yearold musician. He’s writing another record and hasn’t completely written off live performances. “I’ve been playing shows for a long time, since ’74,” he said. “It’s hard to give up. There are several places in town where I can go and sit in if I really want to play, like Handlebar J. “My career has been so great and gone on for so long. I’ve been playing sold-out shows here for 40 years. The time has come.”

IF YOU GO

What: Jerry Riopelle. Where: Talking Stick Resort, 9800 E. Talking Stick Way, Scottsdale. When: 8 p.m. Dec. 28 and 29. Tickets: start at $25. Information: talkingstickresort.com, 480-850-7777.

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THE SUNDAYEAST EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE | |DECEMBER DECEMBER9,2,2018 2018 GET OUT THE VALLEY TRIBUNE 26DECEMBER GET OUT 5244SUNDAY 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLSNEWS NEWS GET OUT DECEMBER 19,12,2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS

What’s Cooking Cooking What’s With JAN D’ATRI With JAN D’ATRI WithJAN JAND’ATRI D’ATRI With GetOut Contributor Get OutContributor Contributor GetOut Contributor Get Out

DLE

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Pops yellow would onion, barbecue Mom would 1/8Thank Ingredients: teaspoon pepper flakes the recipe! 1 large sweet finelyand diced InFor a saucepan, add that’ the apple cider vinegar, chick1½ ofstalk Christmas M&M›s plus topping teaspoon cinnamon great side make all the things. This was our favorite 4 up center cutother pork chops, atmore leastfor 1-inch thick 1 Salt anda pepper to tastes super simple, savory and 1 cups large celery, finely diced en cup broth, mustard and dissolved 1 cup of mini 3/4 flouramaple perfect for familysyrup, meal or a big crowd, this one’s salad for herchocolate toormake. 1 cup leek, diced finechips plus more for topping 2For Croutons: (boneless bone-in) cornstarch, whisking to combine. Bring 1/21 “Each cup of white chocolate chips Cinnamon Sugar Mixture Noe bread, brainer!cut into 1/2-inch cubes to a boil time wesalt have it now, reminds me of when 4acups medium carrot, peeled anditfinely diced 1 teaspoon and apples,sugar stirring to combine. Continue Directions: 1/4 cup add granulated 1 pint cherry tomatoes 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon pepper cut in half cooking onground a low cinnamon boiling until mixture thickens, Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 1 tablespoon 4 heaping cupschili kale, stems removed, cut into 1 tablespoon butter, melted 2 teaspoons powder stirring often, about 5 minutes. (For thicker glaze, Line a 9x13 baking dish with foil or parchment Directions: small pieces garlic powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon mix one moresheet tablespoon of cornstarch or flour paper; somepieces, overhang to make Line a baking 4 Ingredients: cups turkey shredded orremoval choppedeasier. 1/4 teaspoon pepperwith a parchment paper and 1 leave teaspoon onion powder with warm water. Add to apple mixture while on Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray. set aside. 61 cups chickenRice broth 1 cup cheese (like Pecorino, Romano, Asiago or box Chicken 1 tablespoon appleA Roni cider vinegar a low an boil.)electric mixer, beat together butter, With an ounces) electricthinly mixer,sliced beat orbutter, sugar and With 1 2can (15 white beans 1 cup Pearl Parmesan) coarsely grated. green onions, ½ cup chicken broth When apples softened andsugar glazeonhas thickbrown sugar together until fluffy. granulated sugar,have and light brown medium ½ green bell pepper, seeded and chopped fine ½ cup pure maple syrup Directions: ened, addlight butter, stir well2-3 andminutes. then turn offinheat. Add in eggs and vanilla extract. Mix well. speed until and fluffy, Add the 8Inpimiento-stuffed olives, slicedoilthin 2 teaspoons ground mustard a medium coarse soupgreen pot, heat olive on medium high heat. Sauté celery, leek and carrot Cover pan to keeponion, warm. Lower speed and add flour, baking soda and salt. egg, the yolk, vanilla, baking soda, cream of tartar, 2 (6 ounce) jars Artichoke Hearts 1 tablespoon or flour dissolved in 2 Inbroth. until tender. StirofMarinated incornstarch tomatoes, kale, turkey and chicken Bring to aonboil, and then reduce heatolive to a large skillet, heat the Mix ¼until combined. salt, and cinnamon andmedium mix forhigh, 1 minute, scraping teaspoon curry powder (Do not omit!) tablespoons of warm water a simmer. untilofoilthe glistens. Place the porkTurn chops in the bowl as necessary. mixer to Add M&M’ s and mini chocolate chips and give a fi- theoilsides 1/3 cupfor mayonnaise 2 crisp apples, and sliced Cook aboutpeeled 15 minutes. Stir inthin beans (with juice) pan or pearl couscous. Simmer forallows aboutpork 5 minutes without crowding (this chops low and add in flour, mixing until just combined. nal stir, reserving some M&M’ s , mini chocolate chips butter (or1 tablespoon couscous is cooked.) Meanwhile, make croutons. In all a bowl, tossaround.) bread cubes with olive oil, 1until tablespoon butter thesmall way Cookyour untilCinnamon browned, Into asear separate bowl make and white chocolate chips for topping cookie bars. butter, salt and pepper. Spread cubes on a baking sheet and place under broiler (about 375 degrees) 3 tablespoons olive oil about 2-3 minutes on each side. Reduce the heat Sugar by mixing together cinnamon and sugar, stirTransfer cookie dough to prepared baking dish. Directions: tossing once twice until golden brown. Remove fromtobroiler, but keep fororgarnish medium-low andbroiler cook on. until pork chops are ring until evenly combined. PressParsley additional M&M’S, mini chocolate chips and Cook the ricesoup as directed onseason packagewith butsalt, reduce the amount butterflakes. in half Garnish (use onlywith 1 tablespoon). ReWhen is done, pepper anddone redofor pepper internal temperaturebasil. of 160. Do not Using a reach medium (2-temperature. tablespoon) cookie scoop white chocolate chipspour intointo top aofmedium-size cookie dough. move from heat, mixing bowl and cool to room When cooled, Option #1: Divide soup between four oven safe soupovercook. bowls. Directions: portion out the dough and roll into a ball. Roll each Bake 35 to 40 minutes on oven rack in lower third add chopped onions, pepper and olives. Drain artichoke reserving the marinade to aeach bowl. Top bowl ofdrysoup croutons. a 1/4 Transfer cuphearts, grated cheese over croutons for bowl. Pattoeach pork chopsover withwith paper towels.Sprinkle In a bowl, porkball chops platter andmixture spoon cookie dough intotothea serving cinnamon sugar of oven prevent browning. Combine the marinade with curry and mayonnaise and blend well. Place bowls in a baking sheet and return to broiler. Broil just until cheese is melted, about 1 minute. together the salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic until apple maple glaze overfortop. coated. Refrigerate 30 Garnish minutes.with Bakeparsley. at 325 Let mix cool completely and cut. Add dressing Serve piping hot.to rice mixture. Add artichokes and gently mix. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled; degrees for 8-10 minutes or until done. several or overnight. Makeswith 6-8grilled servings. Optionhours #2: Simply servemy soup bread on the side. Watch how-to video: jandatri.com/jans-recipe/one-minute-kitchen Store in airtight container. Watch my how-to video: jandatri.com/jans-recipe/one-minute-kitchen Watch my how-to video: jandatri.com/jans-recipe/one-minute-kitchen Watch my how-to video: jandatri.com/jans-recipe/one-minute-kitchen

Turkey and kale soup Maple-glaze pork chops

Skip’s Rice Salad

2525 FOOTHILLS NEWS |OUT NOVEMBER OUT THEAHWATUKEE SUNDAY EAST VALLEY TRIBUNE 16, 2018 GET AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS || DECEMBER DECEMBER 2018 GET OUT 28,5,2018 4537 GETGET OUT

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PUZZLE ANSWERS on page 32 ANSWERS on page 13 PUZZLE ANSWERS on page 23 ANSWERS on page 13 PUZZLE ANSWERS on page PUZZLE ANSWERS on page 12 PUZZLE ANSWERS on page 15 PUZZLEANSWERS ANSWERS page 28 PUZZLE onon page 1223 PUZZLE ANSWERS on page 12

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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | DECEMBER 19, 2018

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DV volleyball into giving spirit with fundraiser for diabetes research BY ZACH ALVIRA AFN Sports Editor

t’s the season of giving and caring. Athletes and their teams across the East Valley are engaging in activities consistent with the spirit of the time to help others. The Desert Vista High girls volleyball team got an early start. Throughout the summer leading up to the season, coach Molly West searched for ways to honor Alex DePriest, a popular player and student on campus, who passed away in April of complications associated with type 1 diabetes. She was 17. Finally, the light bulb lit for West. She changed the theme of the team’s annual father/daughter car wash. “We’ve done the car wash for close to 20 years,” West said. “We decided to do our fundraiser this year in honor of Alex and donate all of the funds to Juvenile Diabetes (Research Fund).”

Each girl and her father wore pink Desert Vista volleyball shirts with DePriest’s jersey No. 7 on the sleeve. The team promoted the fundraiser with flyers and pre-ordered tickets. Two washes took place, one at Yoasis Ahwatukee and the other across Chandler Boulevard at Uno Mas Cantina near the school. The team normally makes about $1,400. This year, the car washes brought in more than $3,000. “It became more than just a car wash. It was a way to honor Alex and that’s what was awesome about it,” West said. “We will continue to do that for now and find ideas for next year to promote it even more.” West shared with her team the legacy that DePriest left, one of hard work and dedication. West retired DePriest’s number on all levels of the girls program this season and along with the boys team created the Alex DePriest Award. “The award was for a player who showed

(Special to AFN)

Alex DePriest, who passed away in April of complications associated with type 1 diabetes, was among the most popular figures in the Desert Vista volleyball programs.

characteristics that we felt needed to be recognized,” West said. “It’s anything from team spirit, attitude, to overall work ethic. It’s everything Alex encompassed.” (Special to AFN) West added that she will con- Jennifer Soto (left) and Lila Wu of the Desert Vista High tinue to look for ways to honor girls volleyball team promote a charitable car wash by the DePriest going forward. To her, team in honor of their late teammate, Alex DePriest, who See

DEPRIESTon page 39

passed away in April. Proceeds were donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.

Ahwatukee athletes pedaling into interscholastic cycling BY ZACH ALVIRA Tribune Sports Editor

t is a scenic mountain-bike ride along desert trails but it is not necessarily leisurely. A unique sport, interscholastic bicycling, including high school athletes from schools across the East Valley, is growing rapidly across Arizona. Some teams, such as East Valley Composite, which includes Red Mountain High, are composed of riders from multiple schools. Other schools have their own teams. Desert Vista, Mountain Pointe, Arizona College Prep, Campo Verde and Perry are among those fielding teams. Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe haven’t yet built a rivalry like the Ahwatukee Bowl between their football teams. You don’t see a lot of taunting or trash talking in prep cycling. Yet it is competitive. The Arizona Interscholastic Cycling League was founded in 2013 as an affiliate of the National Interscholastic Cycling

(Kimberly Carrillo/Tribune staff)

A unique sport, interscholastic bicycling, with athletes like Trusten Torgerson of East Valley Composite hitting the trails, is growing rapidly across Arizona. Arizona has 67 teams representing 157 schools with nearly 1,000 racers, including several in the East Valley.

League, which has 25 leagues across the nation. The Arizona league is a 501(c)(3) non-profit youth-development organization to promote interscholastic mountain bike racing, provide training and education to new teams and coaches and offer a comprehensive infrastructure to grow

youth cycling in a professional, safe and engaging manner. Five years later, Arizona has 67 teams representing 157 schools with nearly 1,000 racers ranging from sixth- to 12th-graders. “We have five to eight schools represented,” East Valley Composite coach Curtis Barrett said. “Our first year, we had six kids, second year we had 12, third we had 20 and now, the fourth year, we have about 35 kids.” Races consist of 15 to 25 miles. Barrett preaches to the team is that it isn’t all about winning. “We emphasize that winning is important but it isn’t our primary focus,” Barrett said. “We want to make it about being a lifelong hobby and lifestyle.” Wanting his riders to continue the sport is more important to Barrett. Consequently, his team embraces new riders, especially those who never have ridden a mountain bike. “We are thrilled when we get someone who just bought a mountain bike but maybe has never ridden before,” Barrett said. “We love it because we know they

will love it.” East Valley Composite, which practices at Usery Mountain Regional Park, competes in races at parks all over the state. Each rider is responsible for paying $300, which goes toward race fees. The team asks for sponsors to help with food and other necessities during the two-day events. Barrett said there are about a dozen sponsors. Their contributions also help the team ride as an independent in the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona in the spring. “We have a really nice-running system after a few years of working out the kinks,” Barrett said. “That makes it all worth it for me, even though it is a lot of work. I think this is something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.” Caleb Robinson, a senior at Imagine Prep in Apache Junction, found East Valley Composite after seeing information on Facebook. He’s been on the team for three years. Being among the few seniors, RobSee

CYCLING on page 39

DECEMBER 19, 2018 | AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

DEPRIEST

CYCLING

from page 38

it’s the least she can do for someone who meant so much to so many at Desert Vista. It’s been eight months since the DV community learned that the beloved DePriest had succumbed on April 3. DePriest, a senior, was out of town with a friend. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at a young age and had reactions before. “It was shocking, devastating,” West said. “Alex was getting ready to go off to ASU and get into nursing. It affected everybody. It was tragic and unexpected.” West coached DePriest from her sophomore to senior year at Spiral Volleyball Academy, and again when she was a twoyear starter on the Thunder’s varsity team. DePriest also was a manager of the boys varsity team. Her death came just as the Thunder boys were preparing for the 6A state playoffs. “The first match after she passed, it was tough,” West said. “It’s hard to talk about.” Signs in DePriest’s honor appeared at the game while the team and crowd wore pink shirts, her favorite color. Highland players – Desert Vista’s opponent that night – delivered flowers to the open seat on the Thunder bench dedicated to her. Desert Vista players placed roses and a bag of Fri-

(Special to AFN)

The Desert Vista girls volleyball team raised $3,000 for juvenile diabetes research during a fundraising car wash. Among the participants are Cary DePriest (back row center, white hat) and Cheryl DePriest (front row center, white hat), parents of Alex DePriest, who passed away of complications associated with Type 1 diabetes. Participants wore Alex’s favorite color and have her jersey No. 7 on their sleeves.

tos – her favorite snack – next to her jersey. It was an emotional night in honor for a girl who had made a positive impact on so many at Desert Vista. “Alex had a lot of good, strong energy,” West said. “She had this loud, outrageous laugh you would recognize anywhere. She was a good kid and everybody knew her.”

Honoring DePriest didn’t stop that night. The boys team continued wearing the pink shirts throughout the playoffs as they went on to win the 6A state championship. “Alex was our spark plug,” West said. “Even all of the officials in volleyball knew who she was. She meant a lot to this school.”

SPORTS

from page 38

inson is a leader for younger riders. “It’s been amazing and really fun,” Robinson said. “I’ve learned a lot through all these years of riding.” Macie Waldron, a freshman at Red Mountain, began riding with the team two years ago after she heard about it at a bike shop. She gave up gymnastics to bike full time. “I would walk the path first and then ride it slow. Now, I’m pretty comfortable doing just about any ride,” Waldron said. Racing in JV1 this past season against 11th graders two years older, Waldron placed second. Austin Phillips, a sophomore at Red Mountain, won the JV2 division. He had experience in motocross and BMX but found a love for mountain bikes after his neighbor convinced him to give it a try. Two years later, he is among the best riders in the state. His motocross background helped but he said that mountain biking was a challenge. “The technical aspect is still the same but the amount of effort you put in is greatly increased,” Phillips said. More information: www.arizonamtb. org or www.evcbiketeam.com.

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