Ahwatukee Foothills News - Nov. 2, 2016

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

To the casual observer, the 135 acres of rolling green and 60 acres of granite stretching across the heart of Sunland Springs Village in east Mesa just looks like a scenic golf course in the shadow of the Superstition Mountains.

But in the last year, it has emerged as a sliver of hope to thousands of homeowners

across the country who fear their quality of life and their investment are slipping away because of a major shakeup in the golf industry.

Threatened by the sale of their 27hole public golf course, about 400 of the approximate 2,430 Sunland Springs homeowners banded together and bought it from owner Farnsworth Companies in January for $1.19 million.

“The group that brought me out there probably had the best beginning I’ve ever seen,” said Mike Kahn, a golf course

consultant based in Florida for more than 50 years who briefly worked with the homeowners in the early stages of the deal. “I thought they did a wonderful job, probably the best I’ve ever seen.”

Club West homeowners in Ahwatukee have studied the Sunland Springs Village purchase as they ponder a possible deal buy their beleaguered course from owner Wilson Gee.

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS

Freeway opponents file emergency bid to stop construction

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

Opponents of the South Mountain Freeway were to ask a federal appeals court this week to halt further construction work until the panel could consider their appeal of a judge’s rejection of their effort to halt it altogether.

U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa last week rejected the injunction requests by the Gila River Indian Community and the Ahwatukee-based Protect Arizona’s Resources and Children. They claim that allowing work to continue while they appeal will cause irreparable harm and render the reason for their appeal meaningless.

But Humetewa declared, “Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that the balance of hardships tips sharply in their favor. Construction activities have just recently begun and the specific

They have used a book about the purchase written by John DeVore, a Sunland Springs

Mountain Pointe High running back Rashie Hodge Jr. strides toward the end zone as the Pride capped off a perfect regular season by defeating Gilbert High on Friday. Both Mountain Pointe and Desert Vista High, which also won Friday, are in the playoffs that begin this weekend. For a report on Friday’s action and a look at what awaits the two teams, see page 44.

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Social studies group salutes Desert Vista High teacher

The Arizona Council for the Social Studies has given Desert Vista High School history teacher Dawn Schmidt its 2016 Isidore Starr Distinguished Social Teachers Award for her long-term contributions to social studies education.

The award, which honors a teacher who has made long-term contributions to social studies education, is named after a long-time educator who influenced civics and law-related education throughout the country and co-founded the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education.

Schmidt has visited more than 22 countries, sometimes on behalf of charities and/or in pursuit of sustainability studies.

Her parents, John and Bonnie Lassen, former Tempe Union High School teachers, traveled the world before Schmidt was born.

“Your impressive work as a social studies classroom teacher at Desert Vista High School and your continuing involvement in professional organizations dedicated to social studies education distinguish you as uniquely qualified for this prestigious award,” the council told Schmidt, calling her “an inspiration to the students and teachers who teach them.”

Schmidt also is a past winner of the Presidential Scholars Program’s Teacher Recognition Award.

Ahwatukee pilot retires from American after 38 years

American Airlines Robert Krahulec of Ahwatukee is retiring from American Airlines, where he was a pilot for 38 years.

“We feel great about American’s future because of the work that you have done over the years” said American’s CEO Doug Parker told Krahulec.

Legislative, school-board races head down to the wire

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

Three spirited election campaigns affecting Ahwatukee residents are heading to the finish lane next Tuesday.

Voters who did not take advantage of casting early ballots will still have big choices to make for both the State Senate and House seats for Legislative District 18 and in the Kyrene and Tempe Union school districts.

With three seats open on their governing boards, Tempe Union has six candidates in the running, including two incumbents, while Kyrene has one incumbent and three challengers.

And all eyes across the state will be on the LD 18 State Senate race, viewed as one of two districts where the outcome could determine whether Republicans or Democrats control that chamber for at least the next two years.

LD 18 Senate Candidates

With the incumbent having lost in the Republican primary, the Senate seat is a jump ball between Democrat Sean Bowie of Ahwatukee and Frank Schmuck of Tempe. LD 18 also includes parts of Chandler, Tempe and Mesa as well as all of Ahwatukee.

And in that race as well as the race for the two LD house seats, education funding has loomed as a major issue.

Bowie, a senior analyst for the Arizona State University provost, has vowed to fight to restore funds that have been cut back to both K-12 and state universities over the last few years.

Schmuck, a commercial airline pilot, has approached the funding issue from a different route: He wants to eliminate the state income tax and replace it with a consumption tax on everything except clothing, food and gas. He contends that millions of additional dollars for education would be generated by tourists paying that consumption levy.

LD 18 House Candidates

In the race for LD 18’s two house seats, incumbent Republican Jill Norgaard of Ahwatukee is seeking her second twoyear term while incumbent Republican Bob Robson of Chandler is going for his seventh.

They are being challenged by Democrat Mitzi Epstein and Green Party hopeful Linda Macias, both of Tempe.

All four have made education funding a big issue in their campaigns, although Macias has been less visible than the other three candidates. She did not answer an AFN questionnaire sent to all candidates and did not respond to an invitation to write two columns about her candidacy. The other candidates’ questionnaires and columns are on ahwatukee.com

The Republican legislative candidates also have gained considerable visibility over the last month in forcing the Arizona Department of Transportation to make some adjustments in its South Mountain Freeway plans in areas that affect nearby communities.

Two weeks ago, they announced that they had brokered an agreement in which ADOT will help provide the infrastructure that could resolve long-term water issues for all three Ahwatukee golf communities.

They also have persuaded ADOT to build a service road in the vicinity of 32nd Street to provide a route for emergency vehicles, especially for any mass evacuation that might be necessary for Desert Vista High and other nearby schools.

TUSD School Board Candidates

Epstein, a former Kyrene School Board member who has spent 30 years lobbying for public schools, has made education funding her big campaign issue. She and Bowie also are touting endorsements, many predictably coming from other Democrats such as Tempe’s mayor and a number of city council members.

Last week, Robson and Norgaard picked up a big salute from the American Conservative Union in its annual ratings of the Arizona Legislature.

“On a wide variety of key issues, from abortion and the Second Amendment to government reform and deregulation, Arizona continued to embrace conservative principles in the 2016 state legislative session,” said ACU Chairman Matt Schlapp.

“Unfortunately, the Arizona legislature passed bills that would make it easier for government employees to deny a public records request and lifted the spending cap on the expanded children’s healthcare program that now covers some adults and families making up to $80,000 per year,” he added.

ACU is the only organization in the nation rating all 50 state legislatures on “how elected officials view the role of

Kyrene School Board Candidates

government in an individual’s life.”

Norgaard and Robson rated awards from the ACU for scoring at least 80 percent in the way they voted on conservative issues. They were described by the group as having “consistently voted with the ideals articulated in the U.S. Constitution.”

The latest available data from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office shows that out of about 49,000 registered voters in Ahwatukee, 18,213 are Republicans, 14,217 are Democrats and 16,570 are independents.

But the registration figures for LD 18 suggest independent voters will have a big influence on the outcome. Figures from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office show LD 18 has about 49,000 registered Republicans, 42,500 Democrats and 45,000 independents.

In the school board races, Tempe Union is among the most contested in the state, given the number of candidates.

Incumbents Sandy Lowe and Michelle Helm, both of Tempe, are seeking another term. The other candidates are Tempe businessman Andres Barraza, Ahwatukee lawyer Don Fletcher, Chandler parent Berdetta Hodge and Ahwatukee businessman Scott Ryan.

Kyrene incumbent John King, a business consultant who lives in Ahwatukee, is seeking another term. The other candidates include Chandler residents Eshe Pickett, a computer analyst, and Michelle Fahy, a longtime teacher, as well as Tempe businessman Michael Myrick.

Feds raid Ahwatukee home, mum on reasons why

BY CHERYL HASELHORST AFN Staff Photographer

Federal agents raided a house on Montezuma Court, Ahwatukee, early Tuesday in connection with what was unofficially described as a possible door-to-door soliciting operation.

U.S. Postal Service inspectors and FBI agents began knocking on neighbors’ doors around 7 a.m. to tell them to stay indoors and were seen escorting more than a dozen teenagers out of the house about an hour later.

Councilman Sal DiCiccio said he had been told unofficially that the raid involved door-to-door magazine soliciting, but had no other details. Although at least one TV news report said it involved “human smuggling” and the theft of credit card numbers, a federal law enforcement source said no human smuggling was involved.

The U.S. Postal Service referred all calls to a U.S. Attorney’s office in Virginia, but a spokesman there said he did not have any immediate information.

Mark Pyper, the owner of the house, said he has been renting it to an

unmarried couple with four children for about the last six months.

“I’m speechless,” Pyper said. “I’m the last to know.”

He said that he “knew there was a problem” and that he had filed for eviction a month ago after the couple was six weeks behind on their rent.

“They hadn’t paid rent and were very angry,” he said.

“Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until my neighbor called and said they had 10 to 20 young people hanging out at the house,” Pyper said, adding his neighbors “told me there seemed to be a lot of people living there.”

DiCiccio described the raid as a good reminder that Ahwatukee residents should “be wary of individuals coming door to door. There is an international and national component to these groups.

“One of the laws I helped pass a couple of years ago involved the requirement of these individuals coming door-to-door to have a valid identification with them at all times. If these door-to-door solicitors come to your door without carrying any type of identification, please contact the Police Department immediately,” he said in a post on Facebook.

Wage proposition proponents target some Republican candidates, including LD 18 State Senate hopeful

BY HOWARD FISHER Capitol Media Services

Leading in the polls and with lots of money to spend, the group pushing to increase the minimum wage has now turned its sights to defeating political foes.

And that includes the State Senate race in Legislative District 18, which covers Ahwatukee.

Financial disclosure reports show Arizonans for Fair Wages and Healthy Families has put more than $62,000 into efforts to affect a handful of legislative races.

The mailers target Republican incumbents and candidates who Bill Scheel, campaign manager for Proposition 206, said are the kind of lawmakers who would vote to undermine the minimum wage initiative if it passes. One of those candidates is Republican

Frank Schmuck, who is vying for the vacant senate seat in LD 18 against Democrat Sean Bowie.

Schmuck responded by slamming Bowie for accepting campaign donations from special-interest groups, pointing out that he has refused contributions from any outside group.

Scheel said the races were chosen because they are competitive and represent opportunities for Democrats to add some seats to the House and Senate. LD 18’s senate race is viewed as one of two competitive campaigns in the state that could give Democrats control of the senate.

The move is being criticized by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, a foe of the minimum wage hike. She contends it is illegal for a committee which was organized and raised money to convince voters to approve a ballot measure to now use some of those dollars to affect

candidate races.

Lesko, in her complaint to the secretary of state, does not contend the people who donated to Proposition 206 are forbidden from influencing other races. But she said they have to form a separate committee, with separate reports.

Garrick Taylor of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which has found itself being outmaneuvered—and outspent—by initiative proponents, has his own take on the issue. He argues that the groups that are supporting Proposition 206, particularly national unions, have an alternate agenda.

“It’s now become apparent that Proposition 206 is just one element of a bigger play by labor in Arizona to make this state more hostile to job creators,’’ Taylor said.

Scheel, however, said the expenditures to oust GOP incumbents and prevent others from getting elected are all part of

the same campaign.

He pointed out that Republicans were involved in efforts to undermine the original 2006 initiative which first established a state minimum wage. That includes a 2013 law which sought to preclude cities, towns and counties from adopting their own minimum wages higher than what the state mandates. It took Attorney General Mark Brnovich to rule that legislation was illegal because the 2006 law specifically permits that local option.

“We think it’s important that voters know which legislative candidates are supportive of Prop 206 and which legislators are likely to attempt to undermine the will of the voters and undercut Prop 206 after it’s enacted,’’ Scheel said.

In the Clean Elections Commission

debate for LD 18, both Schmuck and Bowie were asked about their support for the minimum wage proposition.

Schmuck criticized the intervention of out-of-state groups into Arizona’s affairs. Bowie voiced his support for the measure.

The original 2006 initiative established a state minimum wage of $6.75 an hour at a time when employers in Arizona were subject only to the federal minimum of $5.15. The ballot measure also requires annual inflation adjustments, which have pushed the state figure up to $8.05; it will go to $8.15 on Jan. 1.

Proposition 206 proposes to boost the minimum wage to $10 an hour in January, rising to $12 by 2020. It also requires paid personal leave.

The most recent financial disclosure statements show the pro-206 effort has collected more than $3 million. While some of that was spent gathering signatures, Scheel said there has been enough to have TV commercials running for three weeks already on both English and Spanish-speaking media along with radio commercials and direct mailers.

Major contributors include Living

United for Change in Arizona which put up close to $1 million, $500,000 from CPD Action, a national group that is involved in living wage issues, and $350,000 each from the Citizen Participation Action Fund and the National Education Association.

By contrast, the anti-206 effort is virtually nonexistent, with the state chamber putting in less than $26,000.

Taylor, who admitted he has gotten no support from national business groups for his anti-206 campaign, said those out-of-state donations for the initiative show this is about more than wages.

“If anyone was wondering why the national teachers’ union has taken such interest in Arizona’s minimum wage law, it’s that they haven’t,’’ he charged. “What they care more about is pushing their larger anti-jobs agenda.’’

And Taylor said it’s irrelevant that the direct spending on political races is only about 2 percent of what was raised to support the ballot measure.

Politics aside, that still leaves the legal question of whether the group pushing the initiative broke the law by spending money on candidate races without creating a separate committee. A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office had no immediate comment.

Lakewood HOA board drops out of court fight against South Mountain Freeway

The Lakewood Homeowners Association board has decided to withdraw as a plaintiff in the lawsuit aiming to stop construction of the South Mountain Freeway.

In an email to residents late last month, the board said that although a survey showed 70 percent of homeowners in the community oppose the freeway’s current path, “56 percent of the community does not want the HOA to actively fight the freeway anymore by contributing” to the group Protect Arizona’s Resources and Children.

The board also said it was dropping out of the freeway case “to ensure there were no legal restrictions associated with our negotiations” with the Arizona Department of Transportation over several issues, including a frontage road in the area of 32nd Street.

“Lakewood will continue to monitor its status as it impacts the association,” the board said of the appeal.

Ahwatukee-based PARC is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, which is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for

the Ninth Circuit as freeway opponents seek to reverse U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa’s ruling that it and the Gila River Indian Community failed to provide enough evidence that the thoroughfare constituted a health hazard.

The Gila Community also said the Arizona Department of Transportation would be desecrating South Mountain, which Native Americans consider sacred.

PARC President Pat Lawlis slammed the Lakewood move, stating “the Lakewood decision is fueled by fear.”

“Two of their board members have convinced many residents that cooperating with ADOT will be the only way to save their lakes. ADOT will respond to Lakewood, however, no better than to anyone else. In other words, ADOT will provide lip service to tell them anything they want to hear,” Lawlis said.

“Meanwhile, ADOT is delighted to have scared Lakewood out of supporting PARC,” she continued.

Lawlis also said, “In the end, PARC will support all the citizens of Ahwatukee as well as all the citizens of the Valley of the Sun, whether they support PARC or

not. We will defeat this freeway that will benefit no one but trucking companies.”

Some residents also criticized the board’s decision on Facebook.

In its email, the Lakewood HOA board said it “has been and continues to work hard to protect Lakewood if the freeway does get built along the Pecos corridor.”

It said its concerns were focused on the

absence of a freeway interchange at 32nd Street.

“The board is extremely concerned that with the current design, early morning traffic that exits 32nd Street onto Pecos Road to head east to I-10 will instead travel through Lakewood in front of the

harm identified by plaintiffs will not occur in the immediate future. “Plaintiffs have not demonstrated immediate and irreparable harm based on the construction activities currently taking place or set to take place in the immediate future,” she added.

PARC’s attorney, Howard Shanker, will be submitting an emergency request for a construction halt to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He said the emergency nature of the request generally requires the court to rule in less than three weeks.

Shanker had told Humetewa that failing to halt the work pending appeal “will destroy the subject matter of this litigation.”

Attorney David B. Rosenbaum, representing the Gila Community, agreed, arguing, “The appeal will raise significant legal issues concerning the (highway) agencies’ compliance with federal law that merit review before the freeway construction begins damaging the area.”

“The agencies have been waiting more than 30 years to build this freeway,” he added. “They will not be harmed if they wait a bit longer so that the Ninth Circuit can resolve this appeal. In contrast, if the freeway is built while the appeal is pending, the very damage that the appeal seeks to prevent will be done.

“The mountain ridges and other sacred sites vital to the community and its people will be destroyed. This harm is significant and irreparable,” he added.

Echoing those arguments, Gila Community Gov. Stephen R. Lewis issued a press release condemning the judge’s action, although he added that tribal authorities are still pondering a request for an emergency injunction.

“This is a disturbing ruling for our Community and for all of us who love, respect and honor South Mountain,” said Lewis. “This isn’t about a road for our people. Destroying South Mountain is an attack on one of our most sacred resources. The Loop 202 extension as currently planned will destroy Muhadagi Doag and its trails, shrines and archaeological treasures.”

The 22-mile freeway would offer I-10 traffic a detour around Downtown Phoenix by connecting West Phoenix and the Loop 202 San Tan Freeway interchange in Chandler, running along Pecos Road and cutting a 200-foot-wide path through part of South Mountain. Arizona Department of Transportation Director John Halikowski praised last

week’s ruling, stating, “The completed South Mountain Freeway will provide a great overall economic benefit to the growing Maricopa County region, and relief to users of the system, particularly where Interstate 10 passes through downtown Phoenix.”

“We are moving forward with a project supported by Maricopa County voters and our partners—the city of Phoenix and the Maricopa Association of Governments—that will make the Phoenix metro area a better place to live and do business,” he added.

Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski issued a press release lauding the judge’s decision, calling it “good news” for Laveen.

“Remember that this freeway project is backed by years of study and multiple approvals by voters,” Nowakowski said. “It will be a huge economic development driver throughout the Valley, and I’m excited that construction can continue on this vital project. This is good news for the Laveen and Estrella areas in District 7, the city of Phoenix and the entire region.”

But PARC President Pat Lawlis had a different view of the ruling.

“While it would have been nice to get a favorable ruling, we didn’t expect one from a judge who had already ruled against our case,” she said. “The good news is that we are now free to take the injunction request to the Ninth Circuit where we have hope for a fair and timely ruling.”

Both the Gila Community and PARC are appealing Humetewa’s August decision that found no credible argument for blocking the 22-mile highway.

Humetewa ruled neither group proved that ADOT and the Federal Highway Administration short-shrifted an environmental study of the impact of pollution on the Gila Community residents and children who attend the 17 schools located near the freeway path.

She also rejected arguments that the highway agencies ignored the Native Americans’ cultural concerns over the freeway’s alleged desecration of South Mountain, which they consider sacred.

In her latest decision, Humetewa sided with ADOT and the FHA. They argued an injunction would trigger a delay that could cost taxpayers $188,000 a day.

The agencies said by taking into account other factors, “additional economic costs to the public due to project delays would be $641,000 per day.”

They warned that a year’s delay could add as much as $200 million to the

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BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

Accusations of “cheap” roadway planning and construction approaches that will harm Ahwatukee residents’ quality of life have now been levied at Phoenix bureaucrats.

In recent months, some residents and officials have accused the Arizona Department of Transportation of resorting to cheap alternatives for the South Mountain Freeway, claiming its at-grade design will ruin nearby homeowners’ views and increase road noise.

But now, similar allegations are being raised against the city Street Transportation Department in connection with a city project necessitated by the freeway’s construction—the Chandler Boulevard Extension.

The extension, a 1.2-mile stretch between 27th and 19th avenues, will connect the two ends of Chandler Boulevard, replacing Pecos Road and becoming a permanent part of Ahwatukee’s street grid.

Taylor Morrison.

When he asked city streets officials at the meeting if any other road in Phoenix was built that way, they assured Blostone there were. When they couldn’t cite any immediately, Blostone asked that they get back to him with the information.

Nearly two months later, city freeway coordination manager Thomas Remes told Blostone in an email, “At this time, City staff have not found a road similar to Chandler Boulevard.” He added staff had found three other streets in the city that offered the only way in and out.

Asked if there was anything that could be done, Blostone told AFN, “Sure, they could build out the entire project. They don’t want to and I haven’t completely figured out why they don’t.

“Phoenix isn’t paying for this road,” he added. “It is strange why they are so strongly opposed.”

Street Transportation Department spokeswoman Monica Hernandez said the city asked ADOT for money to build “both halves of the roadway.”

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About 30-feet wide and bordered by South Mountain Park to the north and state trust land to the south, the east-west extension will be a two-lane highway with bike paths on either side. The city is hoping to complete the $11.5-million project next summer.

The allegations that Phoenix is taking a cheap route that will hurt more than 800 Ahwatukee households—and even create a dangerous situation in emergencies—came from Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee Chairman Chad Blostone after he learned recently that city streets officials gave misleading information at the panel’s Aug. 22 meeting.

Blostone is upset that the city plans to only build a two-lane connector between two four-lane stretches of the boulevard, in effect creating daily traffic jams at either end as vehicles merge from two lanes in each direction into one lane each way.

That section of Chandler Boulevard will provide the only way in or out for three communities—Foothills Reserve, Calabria and the under-construction Agave Heights Discovery Collection by

“The requested was denied because anticipated traffic volumes in the area do not warrant four travel lanes to provide an acceptable level of service,” she said.

Blostone said the dangers created by a two-lane road joining either end of a four-lane highway are two-fold. First, an accident would shut down traffic going in at least one direction. And, the road is too narrow for fire trucks to turn around.

Streets officials said at the Aug. 22 meeting that the city Fire and Police departments had reviewed the plan and were fine with the design.

At that meeting, they also said they were hampered by the fact that the road abuts state trust land on one side.

But Blostone and city Councilman Sal DiCiccio said that even if the state did not want to give the city the necessary land, the extension could be built on the other side, which is owned by Phoenix.

“City staff has dug their heels on this one,” DiCiccio said. “Under all circumstances, that road needs to be four lanes or the people in those subdivisions will be landlocked.”

Both DiCiccio and Blostone likened the city’s approach to ADOT’s “cheap

CHEAP

way out” on the freeway plans. ADOT has claimed a depressed highway would add as much as 50 percent more to the $1.77-billion cost of the South Mountain Freeway, the most expensive highway project in Arizona history.

The money for the Chandler Boulevard project comes from the Maricopa Association of Governments, though ADOT influences its spending decisions.

Widening the project has come up in discussions between ADOT and Ahwatukee legislative leaders, including DiCiccio and state Reps. Jill Norgaard and Bob Robson.

But they said they have made no headway on the Chandler Bouelvard project.

“Chad is correct on the size of the road and his concerns,” DiCiccio said. “We’re pushing as hard as we can to get more money.”

Ironically, the city with great fanfare last month announced it was starting to implement its Transportation 2050 plan, spending some of the $16.7 billion that a 0.3 percent sales tax increase approved by voters last year is projected to generate over the next two decades.

Mayor Greg Stanton said Ahwatukee

arterial streets would benefit from new pavement being added to a total 680 miles of major roadways in Phoenix, a reduction in the maintenance cycle for streets from 66 to 33 years, 1,080 miles of additional bike lanes, 135 miles of new sidewalks, 2,000 new street lights and $240 million in major street

improvements.

But nowhere in the plan is there a mention of the Chandler Boulevard Extension.

Hernandez said that’s because the project had been already approved for MAG funding.

She said the Citizens Transportation

Commission identified 18 roadways for funding based on four criteria, two of which involved transit. The other two were whether a roadway was “part of an approved plan, CEDD focus area or Neighborhood Service Initiative” and whether there were “known safety issues.”

from page 1

resident and one of the golf course owners now.

Jim Lindstrom, founder of a grassroots Club West homeowners group with nearly 700 members, called the book critical in two big ways.

“First, it gave us the key points to consider as we developed our strategy,” said Lindstrom, founder of Save Club West. “Second, it was a tremendous motivational tool for the homeowners as we tried to get them involved. We could point and say, ‘Guess what folks, it’s already been done in the Valley and it’s up and running since January. The book gave us a template for the strategy. You could read it as a cookbook.”

Ever since 2013, Sunland homeowners had been rattled when Gee closed the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course. He sold it for more than $8 million to True Life Companies, which describes itself on its website as “a diversified group of real estate companies whose primary mission is to be a premier provider of lots and land to America’s home builders.”

True Life wants to turn the 101-acre Lakes course into an “agrihood” with homes and townhouses, community farm, a private school, farmers market and a café. It needs at least 51 percent of the community’s 5,200 homeowners to agree to a change in the Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs) that would allow the development.

Meanwhile, several Lakes homeowners are suing Gee to force the restoration of the golf course, now little more than a barren desert wasteland.

Club West’s problems emerged over the summer, after Gee reduced irrigation, claiming he could not afford his $700,000-a-year water bill from Phoenix.

The Club West HOA is suing Gee, charging that the water reduction had reduced whole stretches of the course to hay.

But a group of about 675 homeowners, united in a group called Save Club West, think a lawsuit doesn’t solve the problem of getting a permanent source of cheaper water.

They also are studying the possible purchase of the course from Gee, whose asking price is about $1.9 million.

Home investments on the line

What further rattled Sunland homeowners was the Farnsworth Companies’ plan to sell their course, just as it had the courses in its three other Mesa golf communities.

The 60-year-old course at Dreamland Villa, the company’s oldest development, was sold for $4.3 million last year to a home-builder who is now erecting houses on the 30acre site.

“That created a lot of agitation in this community,” said DeVore. “The news really expedited this process because the CC&Rs for the golf course are separate for the community’s. So, whoever owns that course can do whatever they want.”

DeVore, a retired corporate executive and avid golfer who documented the sale in a book published in July, demurs at it being a blueprint for other golf communities with endangered courses.

He said immersed himself in recording every detail of the acquisition because it fascinated him and appealed to his background as a former executive with the Coors Brewing Company and his life-long interest in golf.

Besides, he has also owned a home in Sunland Springs since 2013 and he and his wife Cindy are avid golfers.

“I don’t want to send anyone down the wrong road,” he said of the Sunland golf course purchase. “This is a unique experiment.”

Yet, the book details every step the Sunland Springs Village homeowners took right up to signing the sales purchase agreement.

Devore said their “unique experiment” has preserved green space that is critical to the retirement community’s quality of life—and the homeowners’ pocketbooks.

As in many golf course communities, Sunland Springs homeowners whose houses are adjacent to the course paid a premium to be there. “I guarantee you there are people who paid $100,000 just for the lot,” DeVore said.

Kahn has documented the slide in home values in those golf communities that have lost their golf courses, saying they have declined anywhere between 19 and 30 percent.

The Sunland Village Springs deal comes amid a period of continuing turmoil for the golf industry in general and among communities anchored by golf courses specifically.

The industry began seeing a decline in golfing in the early part of this century, although experts say that has started to change as golf courses begin changing their operation to appeal to a younger market.

Still, Devore notes that the National

plan what happens after the course is built and the community is built.”

“Between about 1990 and 2005, almost 8,000 courses were developed but there was no growth in play,” Kahn added. “It’s like you’re the only shoe store in the mall and business is great, then eight other shoe stores open up and business falls off. It’s not that people aren’t wearing shoes; they’re just going to the other stores.”

Worse, Kahn said, the Baby Boomers who bought into these communities, many of them restricted to 55 years and older, are now getting too old to play golf or dying.

And if the course isn’t generating a good profit for the owner, it starts to look more attractive for other uses.

“I had a call from a course near Atlanta and they wanted to know what to do because the developer wanted to sell the course for $40,000 an acre,” Kahn said. “As a golf course, it wouldn’t sell for a nickel an acre, so what do you think the owner is going to sell it for?”

New owners took on risks

Although Sunland Springs Village is an age-restricted HOA, it also is home to a good-sized number of golfers who appreciate a site that is actually divided into three executive nine-hole courses.

“ A golf course never grows out of dependency. ”

“It truly is the centerpiece of our community,” DeVore said. “Our goal, as owners of the golf course is that its beautiful landscapes not only be the visual centerpiece of our community but also takes on a new role as the social center of Sunland Springs Village.”

—John DeVore

Golf Foundation reports that in the last five years, close to four million golfers have been lost in the United States.

Between 2009-10 alone, “the industry lost one million more golfers than were gained.”

Courses saturated the market

Kahn says the problem isn’t so much in the number of golfers or games played as it is with an oversaturation of courses, especially those that were used by developers to sell homes.

“Golf is not dying; it’s been around for thousands of years. The problem is an oversaturation of courses,” said Kahn, who has been a consultant for golf courses since the mid-50s and has worked in almost every state and Canada.

“It was a huge incentive for developers to offer a golf course to people mthey want to sell homes to,” he said. “But it was like the invasion of Iraq: they didn’t

At the same time, the new owners are aware of the risks they took on.

As DeVore advises in an introduction to his book, “Sunland Springs Golf Course: A Case Study to Help Others,” a golf course “is like a 3-week old baby: it needs virtually 24-7 care.”

Unlike an infant, however, “a golf course never grows out of dependency. In fact, as a golf course ages its care and needs become even greater.”

Kahn gives prospective purchasers of a golf course a check list with more than 250 items that must be considered and says there are another couple hundred that are subgroups of that list.

There are permits, licenses, environmental issues, transferable leases, personnel contracts, grass and weed control, liability issues. And because “golf is a competitive business,” DeVore noted, the courses demand

(Cheryl

SAVED

from page 12

“good greens, good fairways, good tees, groomed bunkers, a reasonable challenge for a variety of skills and talents, a nice practice facility, clean facilities and pleasant surroundings.”

The clubhouse just adds to the list, Kahn said, since its atmosphere, the

quality and variety of food and beverages and even the clothing sold by the pro shop are all important considerations.

The Sunland course owners held a fundraiser for a separate account of about $170,000, apart from the course’s operating contingency fund, to expand their clubhouse by adding a covered patio with misters, large screen TVs and

a fire pit. But the club house’s menu is limited to basically a snack shop with wine, beer and a few sandwiches.

Jury still out on course’s future

But the clubhouse can be an important asset for social engagement to the community, regardless of a resident’s interest in golf.

In his book, DeVore breaks down the steps he took to determine whether he and his wife Cindy should become part owners in the course.

On the one hand, the acquisition committee decided to cap the number of owners at 400 even though 2,430 homes and another 300 to be built before the community reaches build-out.

Between the purchase price and a contingency fund to cover repairs, the acquisition committee decided that owners had to pay a $5,000 “subscription fee” to raise $2 million to over both costs.

First, DeVore considered the benefits of ownership and tallied 14, ranging from “preservation of property values and the quality of life” to early tee time bookings and reduced fees.

“When my wife, Cindy, and I sat down with a pencil and paper to make the investment decision, the conclusion was that since a golf car was already owned, coupled with the number of rounds of golf played per year, the investment would be recovered in 2 1/2 years because of waived golf car trail fees and discounted annual pass fees for members,” he wrote.

Both DeVore and Kahn say the Sunland Springs Village experiment is a work in progress.

The board consists of five people who have no experience in running a golf course. They hired a professional course management company, OB Sports Golf Management, to run dayto-day operations for $65,000 a year plus bonuses if it made specific revenue targets.

Though DeVore signed a confidentiality agreement forbidding him from discussing revenue and related details, he noted that the course has a 15-year-old irrigation system, lacks

Sunland Springs Village author fuses passion for golf with meditation

BY PAUL MARYNIAK

AFN Managing Editor

The lush and peaceful setting of Sunland Springs Village Golf Club couldn’t be farther away geographically or spiritually from where John DeVore’s body and mind were nearly a half century ago.

Back in the 1960s, he was, by his own admission, a “trained killer” in the recesses of Viet Nam’s jungles.

Today, the 76-year-old Mesa resident is a kind of Zen golfer who writes daily, draws immense satisfaction from having lived a successful career as a corporate executive and business consultant and pursues with a passion a game he has played since he was 7 years old. How he became involved in the Sunland Springs Village homeowners’ purchase of the community’s golf course and writing a book about it marked a natural progression over that half century. It represented a marriage of his passion for golf and detail, his love of writing and the process of commercial acquisition, his intellectual curiosity and his inclination toward meditation.

And it probably was what could be expected by a West Point grad with an MBA and PhD who also graduated from the Golf Academy and earned a

master’s degree in religious studies from a Buddhist university after retiring from a 21-year career with the Coors Brewery Co. and three years as a business consultant.

The Ohio native served two tours of duty in Viet Name during the height of the war, his assignments toggling between the Army and the Air Force so much that he learned to fly.

He fondly recalls living with the Vietnamese as a military adviser, sharing their homes and their lives after learning their language at Fort Bragg Army Base before he shipped overseas. And he recalls the bitterness he felt over how soldiers were treated back home after the war.

But years later he wanted to “uncover my myth of war and further expose the nasty, seductive and intoxicating narcotic of war,” as he wrote in his first book, published in 2012 and then again two years ago.

In the book, titled “Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others,” DeVore said the slaughter he had witnessed in Southeast Asia made him wonder, “Could a good prescription for combat soldiers be Alzheimer’s”

After eight years in the Army, he decided “the military life was not for me.”

He moved to Colorado, where he eventually got divorced then met the

woman to whom he has been married 42 years.

He also ended up in 1973 working for Coors, first in its container company, then its brewery and then overseeing the merger into what is now the world’s seventh largest brewery.

After his retirement, though, his life

took a sharp turn from the business world.

In 2001 he enrolled in a three-year masters program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. At the Buddhistrun university, he later wrote, “studying

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LAKEWOOD

Lagos Elementary School to gain entry onto the South Mountain Freeway at 40th Street,” the email said.

“We strongly believe that the additional traffic through Lakewood would greatly disturb our community,” it added.

The board then cited the Republican legislators’ meetings with ADOT, though it did not mention that Republican state Rep. Bob Robson had already secured a promise from ADOT for the frontage road because he was concerned about the need for a second road for emergency vehicles, according to city Councilman Sal DiCiccio.

He was particularly concerned that in the event that nearby schools had to be evacuated, there would be no additional route for escape.

The frontage road would allow traffic traveling south on 32nd Street to gain entry to the freeway without passing through Lakewood, the board noted.

The board also announced that it has hired its own traffic consultant to take traffic counts of cars traveling along nine thoroughfares through or near Lakewood.

“With this data, our future plans include working with the city to get traffic-control methods such as traffic lights, one way or no-turns-allowed signs to further mitigate any additional traffic that may travel through Lakewood as a result of the South Mountain Freeway,” the board said.

FREEWAY

from page 9

total project cost. At $1.77 billion, the freeway is the most expensive highway project ever undertaken by Arizona.

“An injunction could have particularly harsh adverse impacts on the local construction community and on members of disadvantaged communities employed on the project as these communities continue to recover from the great recession,” agency lawyers argued.

“The public will suffer substantial other harm (including environmental harm) due to delay of the project’s benefits.

The board also said it would continue to meet with ADOT to make sure the freeway design bypasses its two wells, around 40th Street.

“We have had several meetings with ADOT where we have been assured that our wells will not be taken and that freeway construction can occur with no significant interruption to our water source,” the board said.

It added that it would be seeking “detailed plans and agreements that will ensure our well pipe is indeed protected during SMF construction and functions post-construction.”

The board said the freeway redesign will require ADOT to take some of the HOA’s land near the south end of its greenbelt.

Also, they have hired an independent appraiser so that the board knows what it is worth when the highway agency is ready to acquire it.

“The board’s plan is to make sure the 32nd Street frontage road, all required traffic mitigation, and well pipe culvert construction are part of any future agreement with ADOT,” the email read.

ADOT has said Lakewood’s well was in the freeway path but it redesigned the thoroughfare to circumvent it.

Some Club West homeowners want ed to talk to the HOA about accessing its well for their beleagured golf course, but Lakewood’s board has ruled that out. In an email, it said its policy is to not sell its water to anybody outside the community.

had “a laundry list of harms” that are “speculative and generally not supported by the record.”

And even if the claims are valid, he added, “proper consideration does not overbalance the need for an injunction to stop immediate irreparable harm to the environment.”

Rosenbaum accused the highway agencies of a “shameful attempt to downplay the devastating impact that the freeway would have on the community’s way of life.”

“The agencies mischaracterize the benefits of the freeway and exaggerate the urgency of the project,” he wrote.

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...The congestion on the freeway system is in material part attributable to the gap in the Loop 202 Freeway. Traffic conditions in the regional freeway system in the future will be substantially worse if the project is not built,” they added.

Shanker said the highway agencies

“The agencies cannot explain how a relatively small additional delay, following 30 years of planning and development of the same highway without any urgency, could cause sufficient harm to justify rushing through construction,” he said. He said the public had an interest in “avoiding irreparable injury” to the environment.

SAVED

from page 13

facilities that would qualify the course for a U.S. Golf Association rating and still has to develop a marketing plan to successfully lure players from many other public courses within a 10-mile radius.

“Golf is a competitive business and demands good greens, good fairways, good tees, groomed bunkers, a reasonable challenge for a variety of skills and talents, a nice practice facility, clean facilities and pleasant surroundings,” he said, adding that courses in general also have to rethink everything from the size of holes to the length of a game.”

“The golf industry is not evolving to

be state of the art,” he said. “You have to cater to what the market is telling you. That’s why I get concerned about opening up to the public. If golf is not on the cutting edge of where it has to be tomorrow, you’ve got a problem.”

Kahn agrees. But, like DeVore, believes Sunland Springs Village may have a better-than-average chance of succeeding.

“Golf courses survive if they’re ruled by a board with an iron fist,” Kahn said. “But this operation is the best I‘ve seen in the country. There are enough homes so that their community is strong enough to support that golf course in perpetuity.”

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meditation was of primary interest” and he eventually reconciled his “contemplative Catholic roots” with Buddhism.

Although he and his wife Cindy didn’t move to Arizona until 2013, he lived here for a time in 2011 while attending the Golf Academy with his son and earning a degree in golf management.

After moving to Sunland Springs Village, he wrote his second book, “Golfer’s Palette,” in which he lays out a plan for golfers to accomplish their goals for their game performance.

Now that he’s written about his experience on the acquisition team for the Sunland Springs Village golf course, he is working on a new book about what he calls “integral concentration, the thing that differentiates the professional golfer from the amateur like myself.”

“I went there to Naropa to experience the connection between the mind and

the physical body,” he said. “I also wanted to learn the connection between meditation and gold, but I never really got to the connection between golf and what they call the ‘quiet mind.’”

He now believes that connection is what the late Arnold Palmer called “the cocoon of concentration.”

Golfers like Palmer “are completely aware of the relationship between the ball, the club and the target,” he said.

“We’re only swinging that club for two seconds, but that two seconds—you can’t consistently get peak performance but you can get the condition where you are quieting your mind” and focusing on the hole,” DeVore said.

“This process is unique for every golfer,” he said. “It won’t work in the tips-and-tipsters mold that we have in the world. Each person has to create it and develop it and massage it and get it working for him. It’s very evolutionary in little tidbits.”

Kyrene study debunks claims of mass teacher exodus

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

Afirst-of-its-kind study by the Kyrene School District has thrown cold water on one of the major issues in the governing board campaign—namely, that too many teachers are leaving.

The study, unveiled at the Oct. 25 board meeting, shows that 142 employees left before the current school year began.

That number not only is far lower than the 180 cited often by some candidates, but it also includes both teachers and other personnel. The same candidates have said they were all teachers.

The study did not break down teachers and other employees.

The candidates’ claims seem to have originated from their misinterpretation of how many people showed up at a session that the district had for new teachers before the school year began.

“We invite more than just the individuals who show up the first day of school,” explained Susie Ostmeyer, a district operations expert who performed the study with colleague Mary Jane Rincon.

Although district officials say retention is a problem that needs to be addressed, at least one board member, outgoing Ross Robb, said the study shows it is hardly the crisis portrayed by some candidates.

“This doesn’t jump off the page that

this is a real crisis in Kyrene,” he said. “We know there’s 90 percent of the people who stay.”

Ostmeyer told the board that the study went deeper than previous employee departure analyses because it sought to address three questions: What is the retention rate in Kyrene? What does it mean? And “How does it inform our practices?”

While 90 percent of all employees returned to work in the 2014-15 school year, 85 percent of that number returned for 2015-16, the study found. The study probed the reasons why some opted out of district employment.

“Both resignations and retirements have shown upticks,” Ostmeyer said, noting that retirements have almost doubled over the previous school year’s percentage.

Retirements in 2014-15 constituted 1.5 percent of the district workforce and rose to 2.7 percent (15 vs. 26). The number of resignations rose from 61 two years ago to 89 in the 2015-16 school year, representing a percentage change to 9.2 percent from 6.1 percent of the workforce.

Nationally, 46 percent of all new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of working, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

The study also found:

• Kyrene employee departure rates were highest among those with two or three

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Obstacle course run draws ‘maniacs’ to Chandler

BY RACHEL EROH AFN Staff Writer

The Rugged Maniac obstacle course and festival is making a second stop in Chandler this year on Saturday.

As one of the largest obstacle race companies in the nation that holds 27 other events across the country, Rugged Maniac brings thousands of runners at each stop. COO Rob Dickens said the large turnout is due to their specific appeal that their competitors don’t share.

“We don’t take ourselves quite so seriously,” Dickens said.

Dickens said that the 5K is more about having fun, which makes it more appealing to a wider variety of people. It’s not a hardcore race where contestants feel discouraged if they don’t believe they are fit enough to compete.

“Our whole goal is getting people off of their couches and doing something active but fun,” Dickens said.

Rugged Maniac changes some obstacles to keep the course fresh and exciting for the runners, Dickens said.

“We are always improving the experience for our maniacs and making sure that they are having a great time out on the course but also in the festival,” Dickens said.

The daylong festival at Rawhide Western Town & Event Center, 5700 W. North Loop Road, is free to attend and will include a variety of entertainment, a mechanical bull, food, adult bounce houses, music and beer.

The course consists of 25 different obstacles, ranging from warped walls, balance beams, underground tunnels, jumping over fire and a 50-foot waterslide.

Competitors can get registered in advance at ruggedmaniac. com for $89 through Wednesday. At the gate, sign-up is $100. Students and military personnel with valid identification receive a $10 discount.

This is the first time the course will make a second stop in Chandler in one season. There are about 5,000 participants already registered.

“The Phoenix area has been good to us since 2011,” Dickens said.

A few years ago,

CEO Brad Scudder and Dickens appeared on the ABC’s “Shark Tank” after being approached by the show. They had not planned to accept any of the offers

from the investors but after watching more episodes, they decided they would accept an offer from businessman Mark Cuban.

Cuban offered them an investment of $1.75 million. Although their business prior to the show was expanding, having Cuban as a business partner has perks, Dickens said.

Michalle Pfister, a 38-year-old Peoria resident, will be participating in her third Rugged Maniac race on Nov. 5.

Pfister has competed in other obstacle courses like Spartan, Wipeoutrun and Foam Fest but Rugged Maniac is her favorite because there’s no pressure, Pfister said.

“It’s just about overcoming obstacles that you don’t get to encounter every day,” Pfister said.

Pfister had to do her first Rugged Maniac by herself because she couldn’t find a friend who was willing to

participate. At first she was disappointed, but she ended up making friends along the way, Pfister said.

“At every obstacle I struggled with I made more friends,” Pfister said. “So by the time I crossed the finish line I was with five or six people that I met along the way and we all kind of stayed together.”

Pfister struggled with being overweight prior to competing in obstacle courses. However, after her first obstacle course, she was hooked. Training for the race gave her a goal, Pfister said.

Pfister’s younger kids watched her from the sidelines during her last Rugged Maniac race as she neared the end of the course and they were impressed with her performance, Pfister said.

“They were like ‘I can’t believe you jumped over that fire!’” Pfister said. “They were in shock that mom did all that amazing stuff.”

years on the job.

• The biggest reason employees left Kyrene was because they or their spouse relocated. That constituted 13.7 percent of all resignations in 2015-16. The second most-cited reason was job stress, with 12.5 percent. Inadequate salary and a decision to raise children were tied at 8.5 percent.

• In examining the sources of dissatisfaction cited by departing employees, salary was the most-cited reason, with workload and class size virtually tying for the second mostcited reason.

Rincon and Ostmeyer said the study shows that schools face declining employee-retention rates at the local, state and national levels and that the reasons for departures vary widely, including “a mix of personal and employer factors.”

They said the district needs to sharpen

the focus in exit interviews to pinpoint reasons for departures more quickly and effectively, then analyze those reasons and develop strategies for dealing with them. They also recommended a 90day action plan to improve employee retention rates.

Ostmeyer noted that the board may want to consider salary “mini-bumps” every three years to encourage more employees to stay at Kyrene. She said the district already has programs to offer new teachers more support.

Board Vice President John King said the study showed a “disconnect” since teachers know what they’ll be paid before they start working for the district, although he added, “We don’t want to lose teachers simply because they don’t make enough money.”

District Superintendent Jan Vesely said the district will continue to develop strategies to elevate retention rates. She added the district will “talk to the teachers and ask what are things we can do to impact your professional life.”

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Bargain hunter alert: annual Y OPAS book sale is Saturday

AFN News Staff

If you’re looking to do some early Christmas shopping and help Ahwatukee seniors at the same time, your chance is coming this weekend.

The Ahwatukee Foothills Family YMCA’s Outreach Program for Ahwatukee Seniors, commonly known as Y OPAS, is holding its ninth annual fund-raising used book sale 7:30 a.m.4 p.m. at the Y, 1030 E. Liberty Lane, Ahwatukee.

As an added feature, Y OPAS volunteers are holding a unique silent auction item: the entire set of Richard Phillips’ bestselling “Rho Agenda” novels, signed by the author. In addition, the winner will have a chance to have a character in his next book, “The Meridian Ascent,” named after him or her. The winner can also choose whether to be a good guy or a villain.

Bidding is ongoing and people can sign a bid sheet at the Y. Bidding will continue until the end of the sale, when a winner will be announced. Raffle tickets are $1 or $5 for six.

In addition, Phillips and four other

Ahwatukee authors will be on hand to meet book sale attendees. They include Vi Armour (“I’ll Always Be With You”), Andrea Dickutt and Betty Mermelstein (“Desert Sensations”), Barbara Hanser (“The Return of Einstein”) and Martin Gibson (“Phoenix’s Ahwatukee Foothills”).

“We also plan to have some raffle items available during the book sale,” said Bev Strom, one of the volunteers who organize the sale.

Strom said organizers have worked long hours for two months sorting through more than 6,000 donated books so that they will be organized by category for the sale.

“We have two storage units at U Haul on Chandler Boulevard next to the Ironwood library – one unit is for sorting the books and the other is for storage after they are sorted and boxed,” she said.

Only cash or checks will be accepted, and Strom said people might want to stop at one of the ATMs near the Y before they hit the books.

More than 50 volunteers from Y OPAS, Mountain Pointe High Key

Club, Ahwatukee Foothills Friends and Neighbors, the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other organizations have been working on the sale, Strom said.

Y OPAS is a hyper-local nonprofit in which Ahwatukee volunteers serve Ahwatukee seniors. A majority of the assistance is transportation to and from doctor appointments or physical therapy, but volunteers also do some grocery shopping, take clients to get their hair cut, or perform various other chores for seniors that require getting out of the house

Andrea Groves manages the volunteers who collect and sort books. Maureen Davies has been organizing the book sale from the start “and we credit her with the idea to have a book sale to fundraise for Y OPAS,” Strom said.

Linda Jochim, outreach coordinator for Y OPAS, and Jill Sears, Y OPAS program director, are also part of the planning committee.

The sale itself usually draws hundreds of people.

“We don’t keep track of attendance but we have local residents as well as a number of people attending from other parts of the Valley and Tucson,” Strom said. “We have a lot of Ahwatukee families who attend year after year.”

The committee collected paperbacks and hardbacks in a wide range of categories, including fiction, foreign, history, biography, religion, cooking, crafts, health, home and garden, humor and others.

“We have a great selection of children’s, teen and young adult books, too” Strom said. “We take all kinds of books except text books, encyclopedias and dictionaries. We do not take magazines or damaged and soiled books.”

IF YOU GO:

When: Saturday, 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. Where: YMCA, 1030 E. Liberty Lane, Ahwatukee.

Five Ahwatukee authors will be on hand

AFN News Staff

Here’s a closer look at the Ahwatukee authors who will be signing books at the Y OPAS book sale on Saturday.

Violetta

Armour

Armour has published two books as well as stories in “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and “Highlights for Children.” Her children’s book, “Granddad Golf and Me,” is illustrated by Dawn Hughes, also of Ahwatukee.

“My debut novel, ‘I’ll Always Be With You,’ is contemporary fiction with a flashback to the 60’s,” Armour said. “It tells how three generations of a family heal after a tragedy. One of the main characters is 16 years old, so it has won two national awards in the young-adult/ coming-of-age category. I will be going to the Miami International Book Fair in November to receive the first-place Gold award.”

A retired teacher, she also owned a bookstore in Ahwatukee called Pages. “Now I do volunteer work and write,” she said. “I’ve been writing off and on for 15 years but in the last two years, write daily.

“What inspired me to write? I would have to say my life-long love affair with books since I won the summer library reading contest at age 10,” she said.

Betty Mermelstein

The latest of Betty Mermelstein’s eight books is “A Spirited Justice,” the sequel to “A Spirited Inheritance.”

“Both books are for a preteen audience and feature two ghostly ancestors of Karen, a teenager, who come back to life,” Mermelstein said. “In the first book, they ask for her help in finding a

lost scarab, and they humorously follow Karen on her quest.

“In the sequel, the ghosts return when Karen seeks to clear the name of one of them after she finds an old newspaper article accusing him of theft. Again, the ghosts comically accompany Karen as she sets out to prove his I red teacher who continues to write books, poetry, and short humorous essays, many of which have been self-published or published by others.”

Mermelstein said she has been writing since childhood.

“I’ve always had a love of words and how they present images and characterizations,” she said. “I love to read and felt from an early age that should also be creating stories for others to read.”

Richard Phillips

Author of nine books in the bestselling science fiction series titled “The Rho Agenda,” Phillips’ latest novel is “The Meridian Ascent.”

The series “is about an ongoing struggle between those on Earth who want to welcome in an alien species called the Kasari Collective and those who oppose becoming part of the collective.”

He had been writing parttime for 13 years but decided three years ago to retired from General Dynamics and devote his full time to his craft.

“I have always loved science fiction and fantasy and decided to try my hand at story-telling while I was on vacation in Maui in 2004,” he said.

“That is when I started writing the first novel in my Rho Agenda series, ‘The Second Ship.’ After failing to sell that novel in any appreciable numbers through traditional self-publishing, I decided to try releasing it as an ebook for the Amazon Kindle platform.

“Shortly thereafter, I finished the second novel in the series, ‘Immune,’ and also released it on the Kindle. Initial sales were slow, but as they built up a significant number of positive reviews, they eventually moved up to be the #1 and #2 bestsellers on all of Amazon in the science fiction and fantasy categories,” he continued, adding:

“Immediately thereafter, I signed an agreement with Janklow & Nesbit for them to represent me. Since then, we have negotiated three separate threebook contracts with 47North, an Amazon publish house that republished

my first two novels and has published every one of my novels since.”

Barbara Hanser

The author of two books and “countless news-letters,” Barbara Hanser’s latest book, “The Return of Einstein” is for adults and young adults.

It is “based on a true story centered on my daughter’s cat, Einstein,” she said. “He disappeared into the Dreamy Draw Mountain Preserve in June one year and reappeared the following February, his matted fur infested with assorted bugs but otherwise healthy.

“His amazing survival story is a mixture of fact and fiction along with Albert Einstein quotes,” she continued. “My most recent children’s book, also based on a true story but not yet published, is about a quail and a rabbit who meet on the mountain preserve and become close friends.”

Semi-retired, she is the recording secretary for a homeowners’ association. Hanser also has been a life-long singer and is associated with the South Mountain Community College music school.

She will be performing for the 18th year in Handel’s Messiah at the campus.

Asked what inspired her to be a writer, Hanser said, “I have always been a staunch supporter of communication via the written word, particularly residing in an HOA environment since 1991. And, after working on Capitol Hill for over 10 years, I still love to hate politics. And, by the way, there is no difference between the politics on Capitol Hill and the politics in an HOA.”

‘As for my first published book,” she added, "the true story behind it was an opportunity that, as a writer, I could not pass up. "

Marty Gibson

Marty Gibson is currently working on a follow to his first book, "Phoeix's AhwatukeeFoothills," which is a history of Ahwatukee.

A business information specialist for Nationwide E&S Security, he said his second book will be a follow to the first

He said he pursued writing because of “a passion for local history combined with the absence of any repository containing it. I filled the vacuum.”

He conducted scores of interviews to accomplish that task.

ELECT

PHOENIX COUNCILMAN

SAL DICICCIO & TEMPE MAYOR MARK MITCHELL PROUDLY SUPPORT

MICHAEL MYRICK

SUPPORTER OF PUBLIC EDUCATION FOR THE KYRENE SCHOOL BOARD

• Parent of 3 children currently enrolled in the district

• Current President of a Board of Directors

• 37 Years as an East Valley Resident

• Graduate of Northern Arizona University

Goals as Board Member

• Transparency

• Fiscal Accountability

• Student Achievement

BY COTY DOLORES MIRANDA AFN Contributing Writer

athew Blades is known for his morning patter on Mix 96.9 Radio, but for the past four years, he’s also been a big man on campus.

Well, admittedly, when you’re a dad and surrounded by elementary school children, you’re automatically a big man. But for this father of two boys, being on campus is much more than a matter of size.

Together with Robert Myers, Blades started the first Kyrene School District WATCH D.O.G.S. program at Sierra Elementary in Ahwatukee.

Since that initial launch, other Kyrene schools have started their own WATCH D.O.G.S.—an acronym for “Dads of Great Students.”

The program is an outreach of the Arkansas-based nonprofit, National Center for Fathering, founded in 1990

See WATCH D.O.G.S. on page 25

with the purpose of “turning the hearts of fathers to their children.”

WATCH D.O.G.S., consists of “fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and other father-figures,” the group states on its website.

Since the first launch at Sierra four years ago, five other Kyrene District schools have come aboard.

“It’s fantastic to see it grow at other Kyrene schools,” said Myers, who has two children at Sierra and one at Altadena Middle School.

“I always knew the program was great for our children but was especially moved when my oldest, who is not a big talker, thanked me for bringing WATCH D.O.G.S. to Sierra,” said Myers, an American Airlines pilot. “It truly is an incredible and necessary program. I am still stopped by dads who tell me how great a program it is.”

At Cerritos Elementary, John D. Schurz is “Top Dog” and is often seen on campus wearing his WATCH D.O.G.S. polo shirt.

“I volunteer because, most of all, because I love my kids and want to spend more time with them. But, I also want to reinforce the importance of education and support Cerritos Elementary,” said Schurz.

“After volunteering, the respect and appreciation I have for teachers, staff and school administrators has only been amplified,” he added. “You can see how hard they work to ensure that kids realize their potential through a quality learning experience.”

The Top Dog at Kyrene de la Colina is Todd Hains, who said the program provides fathers with an on-campus presence that helps in many ways.

“For me, it’s all the kids,” Hains said. “There are so many children who do not have a positive male role model in their life. The WATCH D.O.G.S. program changes that, even if for only a few hours a week. I feel a difference has been made.”.

Several years ago, the Kyrene men, who brainstorm regularly, purchased a costumed furry dog that makes appearances at various school events.

“One of my great joys of the program is watching the kids’ faces light up when they see the Watch Dog,” said Hains. “Another important

aspect the WATCH D.O.G.S. provide is a sense of added security or an extra set of eyes on campus.”

WATCH D.O.G.S.. are assigned duties on campus by principals.

At Kyrene de los Lagos Duel Language Academy, Principal Ana Gomez del Castillo said the kids' response “is priceless.”

“There’s lots of excitement on the faces of our students when they see one of the WATCH D.O.G.S,” Castillo said. “It’s made a significant contribution to our school.”

Assistant principal Robyn Lee concurred, saying fathers serve as “positive male role models” while providing help throughout the school, “in and out of classrooms.”

Lagos Elementary’s Top Dog is Joshua McClain, a father of two students.

For Blades, the four years of his continuing involvement has expanded to helping with school launches, like the inaugural one Sept. 26 at Kyrene de las Manitas Elementary in Tempe.

“We had a little competition at that launch,” he laughed. “It was on the same night as the first presidential debate and Monday night football. But you could see the look on the dads’ faces that said, ‘This makes so much sense; why haven’t we done this sooner?’”

For Manitas principal Dan Langston, the official arrival of Dolphin Dad’s WATCH D.O.G.S. on campus this month under the leadership of Top Dog Andy Swann is highly-anticipated.

“We’re extremely excited to get it going at Manitas. Our staff is excited about this and looking forward to embracing the dads as they become a part of our school and campus on the days they’re here,” said Langston, who has been Manitas principal for 10 years.

Blades said that the dads’ presence is essential to the children, noting, “At my presentations to dads, I always ask, ‘Who here has children that act differently around you versus mom?’ Almost every hand goes up. So that is one reason I think WATCH D.O.G.S. is important."

“The other is that I think it’s important that we show our kids that dads, too, can get involved and be a role model in schools,” he added. “There are many kids in schools today that don’t have a positive male role model and we can be that for them.”

Desert Vista High grad finds success in the lost art of handwriting

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

Part of Erica Tighe mourns for the cursive lessons she had growing up in Ahwatukee schools that now have gone the way of 8-track cassettes.

The other part is smiling like the proverbial cat that caught the canary because she is quickly establishing herself as a go-to artist skilled in the dying art of calligraphy.

The 2007 Desert Vista High School graduate—and product of Monte Vista Elementary and Altadena Middle schools in Ahwatukee—started a calligraphy business, Be A Heart Design, in Los Angeles two years ago. Now, it is catching national attention.

She also is writing an instructional art book on calligraphy that will come out next year, and will appear on a show being produced by TruTV.

Elle Magazine published a big spread on the 28-year-old artist in June, and now her name is getting around Hollywood mega-stars as the person to call for custom-designed invitations, place cards and other signage that requires an elegant and original touch.

“A lot of people are feeling the loss of handwriting,” said Tighe, 28. “As we get more into keyboards and screens, we’re losing our handwriting ability. People are hiring me to teach cursive to their children. I think that is how my career has gotten so successful: a lot of people want hand-written invitations or things like that, and it’s hard finding someone who can do it.”

The daughter of Jim and Jennie Tighe of Ahwatukee, she recalled an anecdote involving her mother at an expressdelivery station not long ago.

“My mother had to write something in cursive and the attendant, who was young, couldn’t understand what she had written,” she related.

Tighe is in Ahwatukee this week and next because she’s teaching two special three-hour classes at The McKinley Club in downtown Phoenix. The classes, on basic calligraphy and brush lettering for ink and watercolor, are Nov. 10 and 11, respectively.

Only a few seats are left, and information and registration are at her business’ website, beaheart.com.

Creating a business capped a whirlwind decade that began after she graduated from Desert Vista.

She moved to Chicago, where she

earned a sociology degree and then volunteered with Heart’s Home, an international charity, to teach impoverished children. She ended up in a jungle in Brazil—she had to go wherever the organization sent her.

She had long wanted to be a teacher, inspired by her teachers at Monte Vista, where she often volunteered to help at summer school during college. The school is near her parents’ home.

When she graduated from college, Tighe said, “I was a kid who desired to help other people and live my life for others. When I graduated, I was feeling selfish, as college makes you. Your world is just you and I wanted to help people.”

She had developed her desire to help others at Desert Vista, where she founded a club, called Community Counts, that paired her peers with poverty-stricken children at a Central Phoenix elementary school.

In Brazil, she said, “These kids were so emotionally wounded, they didn’t know how to express themselves.”

Tighe created an arts program, teaching the children to make art out of anything they could find around the school.

“Seeing such immense poverty and using old things and making them beautiful was very rewarding,” she said, because it appealed to her desire “to bring compassion and friendship to those who were suffering and lonely.”

After about 18 months in Brazil, Tighe moved to New York City, where she taught herself calligraphy.

“I needed something in the long winters to bring beauty into my life,” she said, adding that her mother had taught her calligraphy when she was a child “but it was so antiquated with these old calligraphy pens.”

She started buying modern equipment, then learned how to do designs on the computer.

She finally moved to LA and set up her business, with her brother Alex as her business manager.

Tighe’s big break came when she was hired to make some invitations to an event that caught the eye of actresses Halle Barry and Courtney Cox.

“The business has grown immensely,” she said. “I started out small but I got to the point where I took a risk and decided to invest all my energy in it.”

Her book is being designed for adults who want to develop some handlettering skills.

“It’s the next wave after coloring books for adults,” she explained.

THURSDAY, NOV. 3

Plan for Social Security

What are the requirements to receive benefits? What filing options do I have? How are benefits calculated?

SSA Public Affairs Specialist Jack Burns will answer these questions and more at this free class.

DETAILS>> 6-7:30 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Register in the calendar section at phxlib.org. Presenter recommends creating a free account at ssa.gov/myaccount before attending.

FRIDAY, NOV. 4

Inspire Kids sets open house

Inspire Kids Montessori will hold an open house for its programs, which include children 6 weeks to 6 years old. Tuition and enrollment discounts will be given to parents who enroll their kids at the event.

DETAILS>> 9-11 a.m., 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Suite 11, Ahwatukee. Information: 480-659-9402 or inspirekidsmontessori.com.

SATURDAY, NOV. 5

Kids can learn coding

“Coding 4 Kids” offers children ages 6-11 a chance to explore basic hands-on computer game coding utilizing web-based sites while creating their own version of a video game with the help of step-by-step instructions from a professional video game coder. Bring a laptop if you have one.

DETAILS>> 2-4 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Free. No registration required, but come early as space is limited.

Kiwanis meets weekly

The Kiwanis Club is hold its weekly meeting, but will have no guest speaker.

DETAILS>>7:30 a.m., Biscuits Restaurant, 4632 E. Elliot Road, Ahwatukee. Information: Mike Maloney, 602-625-2181.

THURSDAY, NOV. 10

YMCA rep to address club

Debbie Mitchel of the YMCA will speaker at the next meeting of the Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club.

DETAILS>> 7:30 a.m., Biscuits Restaurant, 4632 E. Elliot Road, Ahwatukee.

FRIDAY, NOV. 11

Joseph Ortiz to speak

Local financial adviser Joseph Ortiz will discuss the stock market and the economy at a free coffee session.

DETAILS>> 8:30 a.m., Trattoria D’Amico (formerly Ruffino’s), 4902 E. Warner Road, Ahwatukee. Reservations needed: Terri McKibbin at 480-753-7664 by Nov. 10.

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

Library has 'Oreo Feast'

Parents, get your teens out of the house. How many different flavors of Oreos are out there? Which one is your favorite? Find out at our Thanksgiving Feast teen-style. We’ll try out as many Oreos as we can find while watching a movie. This event is free and open to teens ages 12-17.

DETAILS>> 2-4 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. No registration required.

Fall festival features snow

A snow slide will highlight the Ahwatukee Foothills Montessori Fall Festival, which also will offer carnival games, prizes, crafts, indoor sports and face painting.

DETAILS>> 9:30 a.m.-noon, 3221 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee. Free. Information: 480-759-3810 or ahwatukeefoothillsmontessori.com.

TUESDAY, NOV. 15

Get your writing critiqued

Bring five pages of writing to get feedback on from your fellow writers. Bringing extra copies to share is encouraged.

DETAILS>> 6-7:45 p.m., Ironwood Library, 4333 E. Chandler Blvd. Email haley.dziuk@phoenix.gov for more info.

SATURDAY, NOV. 19

Church holds fall fest

Friendship Community Church promises “lots of family fun” at its Fall Festival with food, music, games and a bounce house.

DETAILS>> 3-6 p.m., 9807 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. Free.

SATURDAY, DEC. 17

'Nutcracker' coming

Ahwatukee dance instructor Kimberly Lewis will present her 17th annual “Nutcracker” with Santa making a guest appearance after both afternoon shows.

DETAILS>> Tickets are on sale for 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 17 and 2 p.m. Dec. 18. All performances at

Mountain Pointe High School’s Fine Arts Theatre. Tickets can be obtained at Dance Studio 111, 4910 Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee, at 480-706-6040, or by emailing afnutcracker@gmail.com. Tickets are $18 to $40 for assigned seating. Information: afnutcracker. com.

ONGOING

Israel trip planned

Congregation NefeshSoul is planning a tour of Israel June 10-20, 2017. Explore historical sites along with the beauty and rich culture of Israel.

DETAILS>> Rabbi Susan Schanerman at rabbi@ nefeshsoul.org.

MONDAYS

Open play for kids offered

Open Playday is held through Dec. 19 by the Kyrene Early Education Resource Center to help children explore and make sense of the world around them. DETAILS>> 9-11 a.m. Kyrene de las Lomas, 11820 S. Warner-Elliot Loop, Ahwatukee. Register: kyrene.org/ earlyed.

MS group offers support

This group addresses the informational, emotional and social support needs of the MS community. People with MS, care partners and spouses are welcome. The group mobilizes people and resources to drive research for a cure and to address the challenges people affected by MS.

DETAILS>> 10 a.m.-noon, third Monday of each month, Dignity Health Urgent Care Ahwatukee, conference room, 4545 E. Chandler Blvd. Free. Information: Lynn Grant at lgrant3567@yahoo.com or 480-414-7172.

Ahwatukee residents can join Keep Phoenix Beautiful Day

Ahwatukee residents don’t have far to travel if they want to join Keep Phoenix Beautiful Day this weekend.

South Mountain Park is one of more than 30 designated sites throughout the city that will be visited between 8 a.m.noon Saturday by some of the projected 2,500 volunteers who want to keep Phoenix clean and green.

“This single-day event is poised to have a huge environmental impact in the Phoenix community to promote the importance of volunteering. The ability to transform Phoenix begins with the power of individual volunteers,” said Tom Waldeck, president/CEO of Keep Phoenix Beautiful.

“Everything we do in the community is thanks to the spirit of volunteerism,” he added. “From cleaning up canals, installing community gardens, or planting shade trees, one person can make a big difference by giving back on Keep Phoenix Beautiful Day.”

Volunteer locations span north to Carefree and south to South Mountain

Park and the group has set a variety of tasks so most anyone can lend a hand, he said.

Corporate volunteer groups with Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Go Daddy and others are joining the effort, now in its third year.

Chipotle Mexican Grill will offer free burritos and T-shirts to the volunteers in support of sustainable community practices by keeping Phoenix “burritoful.” Other sponsors such Lowes, UPS, ReImagine Phoenix, and the national Keep America Beautiful organization will provide planting tools, clean up materials, garden materials and trees to create shade.

Keep Phoenix Beautiful is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and a non-profit organization. Since 1982, it has educated residents about recycling management and beautification practices. Keep Phoenix Beautiful organizes and implements several programs including education, litter prevention and recycling initiatives.

To sign up for Saturday: kpbday.org. General information: 602-262-4820 or info@keepphxbeautiful.org.

Crafter at work

(Sue

Gail Dutil creates a fountain which will be glazed and sold at the Ahwatukee Recreation Center Arts and Crafts Fair, which is returning after a year's absence to give shoppers a head-start on their holiday shopping. The fair will be 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Nov. 19 at the Ahwatukee Recreation Center, 5001 E. Cheyenne Drive, Ahwatukee. It was cancelled last year because of renovation work at the center. Thirty artists will offer handcrafted items, including pottery, stained glass, paintings, jewelry, quilts, decor, needlecraft and woodworking. Demonstrations will be provided on the outdoor pavilion. TV personality Peter Longo will a popular television personality. Breakfast and lunch items will be available.

Ahwatukee seniors can learn transit options, discounts

The YMCA’s Outreach Programs for Ahwatukee Seniors is presenting an informational seminar called Valley Metro 101 at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 10 at the Ahwatukee Recreation Center.

The session will discuss Ahwatukee seniors’ transportation options and how they qualify for discounted and expanded services

Information: Lois Bryan at loisbryan@aol. com or 480-753-0474.

Horizon Honors presents time-travel comedy

Horizon Honors Secondary School will present a generational comedy titled “Never Mind What Happened, How Did it End?” this weekend.

The nostalgic story explores how three generations of women have shaped their attitudes about love and their own self-identity.

Performances are 3:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Friday and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $5 and are available in the front office.

Men can learn to grow facial hair correctly at local salon

Keep It Cut, a men’s salon at 4025 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee, is offering men a chance to learn how to grow a beard or mustache as part of No Shave November. Attendants will offer tips on how to choose the right beard or mustache and how to care for skin while it grows.

City Council makes Phoenix an ‘age-friendly’ city

Phoenix City Council last week voted to join the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communitie, joining a number of large U.S. cities that have pledged to plan and prepare for worldwide trends of rapid population aging and urbanization.

Council also approved the creation of a new management assistant position to oversee this initiative and another on making Phoenix a Fast-Track City to end AIDS as a public health threat.

The network is part of the World Health Organization’s Global Age-Friendly Cities and Communities Program.

Cities in the network pledge to work toward becoming more age-friendly; identify and involve stakeholders, including older adults; conduct a baseline assessment of the community’s age-friendliness; write an action plan, based on the results from the assessment, aimed at improving the community’s livability

for people of all ages; identify indicators for assessing and monitoring progress; monitor progress and establish a process for continual improvement.

Grandparents can learn to cope at special seminars

Duet offers support groups, workshops, guidance by phone and grandfamily activities for grandparents raising grandchildren throughout Maricopa County. Grandparents learn tools to cope with the physical, financial, emotional and legal stress of raising grandchildren. They form friendships and support from fellow grandparents, easing feelings of loneliness, confusion and fear.

Duet’s monthly support groups will continue 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Bethlehem Lutheran Church and 9-11 a.m. Nov. 10 at the Duet offices, 555 W. Glendale Ave., Phoenix.

Grandparents raising grandchildren can also learn about the legal issues when trying to gain guardianship at a free workshop 3-5 p.m. Nov. 18 at Duet, 555 W. Glendale Ave., Phoenix.

Duet will also offer a workshop for grandparents raising grandchildren on Coping with Holiday Stress from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 5 at the Family Involvement Center, 5333 N. 7th St., Suite A-100, Phoenix. Information: 602-274-5022.

Melting Pot offering free cheese to patrons this week

The Melting Pot restaurant in Ahwatukee is giving free cheese to people who want to sit on its patio 6-7 p.m. today through Sunday. The offer is limited to one type of cheese per table.

Information: meltingpot.com.

Bunco game open to female Ahhwatukee residents

Organizers of the female intergeneration bunco, open to females aged 10 and up, will add a charitable activity to their fun 6:1-8:30 p.m. Saturday at Mountain Park Community Church in Ahwatukee. They will stuff shoeboxes with small gifts for impoverished children around the world as part of Operation Christmas Child. Attendees are asked to bring a small nonperishable and nonviolent toy or other item. Details about the drive are at samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/ operation-christmas-child

The bunco game, which is not a churchsponsored event, is easy to learn, organizers said. Information: text 612-709-9671.

Tempe Preparatory Academy Open House

for incoming 6th-8th grade students and parents who are interested in attending Tempe Prep Thursday, November 17 at 6:30 pm 1251 E Southern Avenue (between Rural and McClintock)

Now Accepting Applications

2017-18 School Year, Grades 6-12

Early Enrollment ends December 15, 2016 For information and to apply, go to TempePrep.org

Apply Now u 480-839-3402 or www.TempePrep.org

www.ahwatukee.com

Our appeal will hold ADOT accountable for the freeway

BY PAT LAWLIS AFN Guest Writer

The Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway concept

is a major hoax being perpetrated by the Arizona Department of Transportation. It is an extremely expensive project based on fictitious needs.

The Maricopa Association of Governments first conceived the SMF in the early 1980s. It had plans for three loops around the Phoenix metropolitan area, but none of these had a southwest sector to “complete the loop,” largely because the geography of the area does not support a freeway southwest of downtown.

The city’s commercial area, however, is located on the city’s southwest side, and certain business interests convinced MAG to “stimulate the economy” of the Valley by providing a truck bypass to their area.

To comply, MAG decided to “forcefit” the Loop 202 freeway through SouthMountain, destroying three ridges and cutting through South Mountain Park and Preserve.

MAG did not consider that they would be subjecting the freeway environs to at least 30,000 pollutant-spewing trucks per day, harming the health of the population (particularly children), threatening the safety of Ahwatukee residents with trucks carrying hazardous materials through a vulnerable residential area, degrading a fragile wilderness environment in South Mountain, and destroying the sanctity of a mountain sacred to many indigenous people.

Real solutions exist for stimulating the flow of goods to and from the commercial area, but a truck bypass within the metropolitan area and through precious public lands is not one.

Forcing a freeway through public land is a violation of Section 4f of the Transportation Act, and freeway plans must also go through a process prescribed by the National Environmental Policy Act.

Providing a shortcut truck bypass would not be an acceptable reason for destroying public lands, causing health problems, etc. So MAG and their builder ADOT had to “gin” up some kind of requirements that would appear to satisfy the concerns these laws address.

To make it look legitimate and to garner public support, ADOT began a public relations campaign to make people believe that the SMF would relieve traffic congestion during rush hour. This was a real stretch, considering that the SMF would provide no access to downtown.

ADOT led the public to believe the SMF would remove traffic, particularly trucks, from I-10 going downtown, improving traffic on the Broadway Curve. Commuters who would love anything that would cut time from their daily grind were quick to believe this— not because it made sense but because they so desperately want it to be true.

ADOT’s “logic” makes very little sense. Would a truck driver wade into

Phoenix rush hour unless she/he had business downtown? Coming from east to west on I-10, truckers just passing through the area take the current truck bypass along I-8 from Casa Grande to Gila Bend and then SR-85 north to Buckeye where they join I-10 again.

Truckers heading for the commercial area take Riggs Road across the Gila River Indian Community, eventually emerging onto 51st Avenue.

As ADOT created an Environmental Impact Statement to satisfy the requirements of NEPA, it used MAG traffic models in an attempt to prove that the SMF would improve traffic.

These models are just projections, of course, so they contain allowances for errors. ADOT took the most advantageous values from the models for justifying the SMF that it could come up with (i.e., values that contain maximum errors skewed toward showing a need for a freeway) in order to provide a table in the EIS that shows projected time savings for the SMF in 2035.

The table shows that a commuter from Ahwatukee to downtown Phoenix would save one minute from their current commute time. ADOT’s own best estimates clearly show that the SMF is a total waste of money.

ADOT public relations spins statements about the SMF to mislead the public. ADOT only talks about the 20 minutes a driver might save driving from Chandler to Avondale using the SMF instead of going through downtown. So just how often would people from Chandler want to go to work or shop in Avondale? Hardly enough to justify billions of dollars for the SMF. The facts are clear that commuters would gain virtually nothing.

Real solutions exist for improving traffic congestion during rush hour. The SMF, however, is not a solution. ADOT could fix the problems at the Broadway Curve by fixing the Broadway Curve.

The lawsuits filed by Protecting Arizona’s Resources and Children and the Gila Community make clear that current SMF plans violate both NEPA and Section 4f. The lawsuits point out clear environmental, health, safety, and cultural violations of law.

Notwithstanding the “un-believable” ruling by the local federal court, a court ruling that follows the law will clearly stop this freeway hoax.

The appeal that is currently in process at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals should provide a fair ruling on this case. PARC’s attorney, Howard Shanker, who is very experienced in this type of case, advised PARC from the very beginning to expect a logical ruling when the case got to its final stop in the Ninth Circuit. Thank goodness the case is finally there, and we expect to win this fight by next year.

Meanwhile, an injunction to stop ADOT from doing further destruction has just made its way to the Ninth Circuit after wallowing in U.S. District Court for nearly two months. It should be ruled upon within weeks at the Ninth

ADOT rhetoric, activity like that of third world

The Arizona Department of Transportation, perhaps the biggest engineering and construction company in Arizona, is headed up by John Halikowski. He claims to have “20 years of experience in transportation legislation” on his LinkedIn profile.

But Mr. Halikowski has no engineering, business, or legal education or relevant experience whatsoever. Not even some kind of education that involves logic. Instead, he has a degree in communication.

It is fitting these days, though, as administration seems to have very little to do with administering public funds or legally implementing the decisions of a legislature and more to do with empirebuilding, legislating, cronyism and favor-brokering. Behind Halikowski’s administrative veneer is a propaganda machine colluding with Phoenix’s land development and construction interests.

Take the example of the Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway.

“It’s been on the books for 30 years” has been the mantra of ADOT for the last 11 years. What books? one might ask. It’s not in the title reports for any real estate sold in the last 12 years in what now appears to be the right of way.

It wasn’t in the ADOT administrative record until three years ago. What books? It doesn’t matter. “Just keep repeating it” is likely the directive to all ADOT staff.

“Building the freeway will save local commuters thousands of hours and relieve congestion on the I-10” is another favorite ADOT chant over the last decade.

Where does that proclamation come from? It comes out of thin air. In fact, there has never been any study conducted that identifies the number or percentage of drivers congesting the I-10 that would use the new freeway.

There’s never even been any study of I-10 traffic conducted that sought to determine where drivers originate or terminate their trips. Even more incredibly, ADOT responded to Environmental Impact Study questions on this topic that it has never used the now common and cheap methods for determining such.

Unbelievably, the very week that Victor Mendez approved the freeway, ADOT announced that it will conduct a “Spine Study” to determine where I-10 traffic comes from and goes to. In fact, it has no idea. That was an unfortunate admission

that there is no basis upon which any tenuous declaration of need could be based.

“The Loop 202 SMF isn’t a part of the CANAMEX Highway” is another piece of ADOT misinformation dispensed liberally over the years. If it isn’t, where does the link between Casa Grande and Tolleson lie?

After years of stonewalling that question, ADOT has recently pointed to the future I-11 freeway, now in the early-planning stages. If history is any indicator of the future, that won’t happen for another three decades. By then, most of us will have passed on.

So it really will be the de facto CANAMEX Highway for years. But the ADOT propaganda machine can’t say as much since the feds would have to fund the entire project and disclose the fact that different traffic and traffic rules would dominate on the South Mountain Freeway.

It would also mean that ADOT would have no powers of eminent domain. The federal government, which could condemn the lands of the Indian Nation, would have no reason to build the freeway along the Pecos Road alignment. So, ADOT’s initial denial and stonewalling on this issue had to give way to deflection to the I-10 more recently.

Sometimes it’s just challenging for ADOT staff to keep their eye on the PR ball.

Significantly, two state Supreme Court decisions (Overton Park & Kelo) tilted the playing field strongly in favor of administrative entrepreneurs and their decisions that seek to take private land under eminent domain.

But Arizonans overwhelmingly passed Proposition 207 in 2007 in response to Kelo to curb mere administrative proclamations of public need. No longer can any agency of this state or local government take private lands by merely proclaiming a public need and no longer can private land be taken for privateparty profit.

In the case of the South Mountain Freeway, stripping away the fictitious commuting need and the prohibited CANAMEX need leaves no public need other than a “general economic health” need. Furthermore, the P3 funding is by definition a third-party development for private profit.

Both of these concepts are specifically prohibited by the Proposition 207 language of ARS 12-1136. And any possible future public benefit is purely speculative, incidental and marginal at

best. After all, “build it and they will come” will have some kind of future effect.

So the recent test assertion by the state that it “could take private land by eminent domain” if it wanted to, is really just more unfounded propaganda. It can’t.

Nevertheless, the undaunted Mr. Halikowski keeps the misinformation and propaganda juggernaut rolling. At the same time, he unabashedly appears on various industry lobbying websites such as Hardhats for Highways.

He is an arrogant career politician first and foremost and possibly exclusively. In his world, it’s all about pandering to business interests and utilizing his platform to promote private interests, himself and the money pipe.

As the money flowing into the state spreads like a cancer and infiltrates the rank and file of every state agency, every branch of government, every subcontractor, local homeowner’s associations and even the local police department, the rule of law is set aside.

Private property interests are shouted down with nonsensical responses, public forums are policed for political correctness, and time-tested legal precedents are dispensed with by loud and unfounded assertions, bogus facts and fiction.

Unfortunately, any redress sought by those adversely affected by his and Victor Mendez’ pet project, the South Mountain Freeway, will have to be sought in a distant forum.

Sometimes it feels like we’re living in a third world country.

- Dietmar Hanke

Teen: Ahwatukee Farms is important to me

My name is Sam, I’m 16 years old, and Ahwatukee Farms is more important to me than the average teenager in the Foothills. I go to Desert Garden Montessori, the school that is trying to expand to the Ahwatukee Lakes property. When I heard about the Farms proposition, I was so excited, and I thought everyone else in the community would be too.

You can imagine how I felt when I found out about the opposition to the project. Even one of my close friends, a resident in the nearby neighborhood, was against it. At most, I was confused, but when I heard the argument that the farm could be used to exploit child labor, I was shocked.

Through all the back and forth arguing between the community and developers, it became obvious that no one stopped to ask how the children felt. Children who would be impacted by this project more than anyone else. I realized I needed to make my voice heard.

I’ve been at Desert Garden Montessori since second grade, and I’m in 11th now. One of my biggest passions is botany. As I grew up in this school, that passion has been nurtured with the gardening program. One of my favorite memories is when my friends and I would run down to the garden to pull radishes and search for the bunnies that ate our lettuce.

But as I grew older, our classrooms got smaller, and so did our outdoor environments. My classroom now is at an off campus site in an office complex. We have no outdoor environment, and we’re stuck inside all day. We’re running out of space, and I would do anything for even a small raised bed to plant something in. It seems like every year we create a plan for a high school, and every year the plans fall through. The scheduled finish date for Ahwatukee Farms is the fall of 2018. I graduate in the spring of 2018. Even though I know now that I won’t fully be able to be a part of this project, I want the younger kids in my school to have that opportunity.

I just want the homeowners who have to make the decision to sign the consent form for Ahwatukee Farms to become a reality to realize one thing when making their decision: That maybe if we had support from people just like you in those years when we kept planning and replanning our future high school, then maybe right now I would be in a classroom with a garden everyday instead of a small office room.

-Sam Walker

Planning panel head:

‘Clear

choices’ are on the ballot

Election time can be confusing for voters; with opposing messages emanating from candidates who send sleek mailers and flood our answering machines with phone calls.

But here in Ahwatukee, we have clear choices for our state legislative candidates. I have worked closely with Reps. Jill Norgaard and Bob Robson on several issues important to our community, including increased education funding and the South Mountain Freeway. And even though he is not in office yet, Senate

MEDICAL MASSAGE

LETTERS

candidate Frank Schmuck is already throwing himself into public policy to improve Ahwatukee.

In our LD18, Republicans often win and that helps gets things done. Republicans have controlled either or both the House and Senate since the 1960s. That means our elected leaders get a big say in crafting the state budget and their legislative agendas get attention from the governor and other leaders.

Sadly, most voters can’t name their legislator. Few candidates or groups have enough money to mount serious television advertisement campaigns. So the onus to learn about legislative candidates is on us, the voters.

After looking at their records in the Legislature, it’s hard to find a better pair of lawmakers than Norgaard and Robson.

Norgaard has established herself as a leader in the House. She helped push the effort to ensure the career and technical education programs so many of our children attend retained full funding. Robson’s years of advocacy for higher education has brought tens of millions of dollars for research to our three universities.

These two understand the key to being effective legislators is to keep rooted in the community they serve.

Schmuck, who beat an incumbent in the GOP primary, is clearly learning that valuable lesson even before the election.

Schmuck helped Reps. Norgaard and Robson, Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio and I negotiate an agreement with the Arizona Department of Transportation to assure our Golf Courses and Lakes don’t lose their affordable water source due to construction of the South Mountain Freeway.

I have spent many years working to improve our Ahwatukee neighborhoods, volunteering on the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee and working with various elected officials. I have come to know Schmuck, Norgaard and Robson personally.

They have all taken keen interest in mitigating negative impacts of the South Mountain Freeway. They are all committed to improving education. Norgaard and Robson voted to place Prop 123 on the ballot.

This measure, approved by voters in May, puts billions of dollars into our schools without raising taxes. It reduced class size and increased teacher pay. I was dismayed many Democrats voted

against the measure, but appreciated the leadership from Reps. Norgaard and Robson and support by Schmuck. Schmuck, Norgaard, and Robson will continue to improve education funding without compromising other important areas of state services. All three support the expansion of successful charter schools and giving parents as many options as possible to place their children in schools that meet their needs.

All three are also committed to public safety and will oppose measures to release thousands of prisoners early to satisfy a liberal agenda. The same can’t be said for Schmuck’s opponent.

I am supporting Schmuck, Robson and Norgaard because they understand our needs in Ahwatukee. They are fiscal conservatives who understand how to improve Arizona without expanding government.

-Chad Blostone

The writer is chairman of the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee.

He knows who he will vote for in District

18 race

I recently came across a handful of letters to the editor in the AFN regarding the candidacy of Frank Schmuck for the Legislative District 18 senate seat.

As a long time Ahwatukee resident, I felt compelled to write to you.

First and foremost, Frank Schmuck is dedicated to serving his community. He stands as a model example of dedication to service, and frankly, we should all aspire to such a level of commitment when it comes to giving back. Frank is a United States Air Force Academy graduate, and served honorably. His credentials in this area are unquestioned. This is more service than many citizens ever provide.

His integrity is unquestionable. Frank’s service since becoming a private citizen is also far more than many would ever think to provide. A lengthy list of community service acts, ranging from founding scholarship programs for high school students in LD18 to championing improved medical care for veterans with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), are just two examples.

There are many more, and doesn’t even include the small acts of volunteering, a helpful piece of advice, an extra little something for the offering plate, or friendly smile that he so freely gives.

Second, Frank is a true Republican, with the conscience of a conservative. He

Real Estate Guide

Custom-designed home sells for $1.7 million in Canyon Reserve

An eye-popping 8,100-square foot home set atop a five-tiered hill in Canyon Reserve is the latest home to sell in Ahwatukee for more than $1 million.

The six-bedroom, 8.5bath house at 13847 S. Canyon Drive sold last month for $1.7 million— the first resale since it was built by its original owner. Built in 2008 and

designed by Scottsdale architect Nick Tsontakis, the house sits on 5.89 acres of rocky hillside abutting South Mountain Preserve and rises on five levels of an excavated hillside lot to a 1,400-foot peak. More than 200 feet of retaining walls were built into the granite.

“This is not just a house. It’s a choice to start living the life you deserve,” a realtor was quoted as saying in a 2009 story

about the home that appeared in Living Spaces magazine.

The home was built at a cost of $3.75 million, according to mls.com.

Described as an “exceptional architectural statement” by mls.com, the three-story house includes an elevator.

“Large public rooms and high ceilings convey impressive scale and

volume,” mls said, noting that the “true chef’s kitchen” and large wine cellar with wine-tasting room provide “all the culinary elements of sophisticated dining and festive entertaining.”

That kitchen and adjacent great room are on the second floor, which people reach via a double staircase with handmade stairs and hand-forged iron railings, according to Living Spaces.

The house features three large stone fireplaces, Venetian plaster walls and walnut and stone flooring. The master bath includes imported marble vanities, a spa bath and jetted tub as well as a rainforest walk-in shower.

There’s also a circular den with a fireplace, wet bar and full bathroom as well as a large theater room and a library.

Along with mountain views, the expansive back patio includes a negativeedge salt-water pool and spa, a fire pit, outdoor kitchen and is equipped with misters.

The house is big enough to include a children’s wing while overnight guests can enjoy their own privacy in an attached casita with a separate entrance.

Ahwatukee Foothills Montessori

3221 E. Chandler Blvd., Ahwatukee

Ahwatukee Foothills Montessori was established in 1995 on the belief that every child should be helped to reach their maximum potential, and that every child has the right to be treated with love and respect in their school environment.

“Our staff is highly trained in the Montessori method, and has many years of experience guiding students through our curriculum,” a spokeswoman said.

At what she called the “highly academic” school, students “enjoy a diverse curriculum with an emphasis in reading, math, science, social studies, Spanish, art, and music.

“We are well know in the education community for our reading program that enables students to begin reading at age 3,” she added. “Early,

independent reading enables a child to become a lifelong learner.”

Kindergarten students at AFM often win medals at the annual Grand Canyon State Games Art and Essay Competitions. The programs, for children 2 ½ years old through kindergarten, are five days a week with the option of a year-round or 10-month school year.

The school maintains a 7-1 student/ teacher ratio, “allowing us to give each child daily, individualized attention,” the spokeswoman said.

Parents can stop by any Wednesday at 4 p.m. for more information and a tour.

The school will hold its annual free Fall Festival 9:30 a.m.-noon Nov. 12, featuring a snow slide, games and other attractions.

Information: ahwatukeefoothillsmontessori.com, facebook.com/AFM.Phoenix, or 480-759-3810.

Ahwatukee homes sold

85044

$94,000 10610 S. 48th St.

$95,000 10610 S. 48th St.

$198,000

$209,500

$228,000

$235,000 4147

$266,000

$269,900

$284,500

$312,000

$315,000

$359,000 4358 E. Mcneil St.

$859,000

$305,000

$320,000

$345,000

$354,000

85048

$115,000 16013 S. Desert Foothills Pkwy.

$145,000 16013 S. Desert Foothills Pkwy.

$187,000 3236 E. Chandler Blvd.

$205,000 16623 S. 23rd St.

$205,000 4408 E. Glenhaven Drive

$207,000 16015 S. 30th Place

$210,000 2212 E. Clubhouse Drive

$215,000 16625 S. 46th Place

$230,000 4612 E. Glenhaven Drive

$250,000 15204 S. 14th Place

$269,000 2427 E. Granite View Drive

$270,000 1426 E. Cathedral Rock Drive

$280,000 16630 S. 28th Place

$280,000 16040 S. 24th Place

$288,000 4317 E. Frye Road

$295,000 4446 E. Cottonwood Lane

$379,900 14802 S. 25th St.

$390,000 16414 S. 35th St.

$415,000 738 E. Hddeniview Drive

$441,500 327 E. Wildwood Drive

$460,000 814 E. Hiddenview Drive

$495,000 1630 E. Brookwood Court

$526,000 2012 E. Sapium Way

$549,900 1843 E. South Fork Drive

$550,000 16410 S. 37th Way

$1,700,000 13847 S. Canyon Drive

New developments add excitement to Ahwatukee market

Rosewood Villages

BY BONNY HOLLAND AFN Guest Writer

If you’re looking for new construction in the Ahwatukee Foothills, here’s a look at some exciting housing developments currently underway.

Located at Desert Foothills Parkway and Marketplace, Rosewood Villages is in its close-out phase. Only seven of the original 59 home sites remain and are under construction with prices in the mid $300,000s.

Rosewood Village is conveniently located in the heart of the Ahwatukee Foothills. Gentle terraced home sites offer beautiful mountain views and are within walking distance to outstanding Kyrene schools, wonderful parks, trails, a fabulous YMCA and a variety of restaurants and stores.

Residents will also enjoy a private recreation area with resort style swimming pool, pool-side cabanas, patio furniture, BBQ grill, fire pit and an “event lawn” for special gatherings.

Smartly designed homes are complimented by Rosewood Homes’ Signature Construction, an exclusive program that goes above and beyond the industry standard for quality, craftsmanship and energy efficiency.

Rosewood Canyon Estates

Rose Canyon Estates is a new gated neighborhood located at Chandler Boulevard and 11th Avenue in e Foothills, Club West. e community includes 40 welldetailed single-story and two-story homes adjacent to the 16,000-acre South Mountain Park Preserve in the Ahwatukee Foothills.

Open space on all four sides maximizes privacy and gorgeous views from homes ranging from 2,268-3,539 square feet. Pricing ranges from mid $400,000s to mid $500,000s. Rosewood Canyon Estates model homes are available for viewing. Rose Canyon has had a tremendous interest and has sold 50 percent of its inventory.

Shea Homes Vantage Condominiums

Vantage phase two is now open for sales. is 64-exclusive-unit condominium community combines amenity-rich living and superior craftsmanship with exceptional value.

ese beautiful, stacked-flat condominiums are nestled in the Ahwatukee Foothills in a private, gated complex off Chandler Boulevard and 5th Avenue. Gorgeous slab granite countertops, beautiful cabinetry and stainless steel appliances come standard.

Each home has its own attached one- or two-car garage.

Community amenities include pool, spa, BBQ, and clubhouse with exercise room and theater. Units range

from 1,432-2,067 square feet and pricing starting at $299,000. ere are currently 58 units left.

Oasis in The Foothills

Located at Desert Foothills Parkway and Liberty Lane, Oasis is currently taking reservations. e community offers 22 single family homes with base prices starting in the mid $300,000s.

e community will be a gated cluster development with four homes sharing a driveway and lots large enough for back yard entertaining. Oasis will have a community pool and popular contemporary flare designs.

Within walking distance of the YMCA, park and shopping, Oasis currently has two of their models under construction and expects completion by early 2017.

Agave Heights

In the spring of 2017 Taylor-Morrison Builders will introduce e Discovery Collection at Agave Heights at 46th Place and Agave Road. Community details and more specifics and will be coming soon. ese are all exciting options for new construction in Ahwatukee. Have a safe and happy anksgiving.

Mountain Park Ranch

Gorgeous home on hillside lot with privacy of mountain preserve. Elegant hardwood flooring greets you upon entry. Bright kitchen with view windows, granite countertops, island with breakfast bar and walk-in pantry. Downstairs master suite replete with separate door to patio, cedar walkin closet and large custom slate-tile shower. New exterior paint in 2016 and interior in 2013. 2016 remodeled upstairs

kitchen, TV and speakers, pavers with fire pit, artificial grass and new exterior lighting. Listed for $517,500

Fewer people are become repeat home buyers, study finds

couldn’t convert that equity into a down payment for a bigger home, she said.

There were about half as many second or even third- or fourthtime buyers in 2015 as there were in 2001, according to a recent report from the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

In 2001, there were about 1.8 million repeat buyers. Just over 931,000 sales went to second-time buyers in 2015.

The study looked only at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Federal Housing Administration loans from 2001 through 2015. Mortgages by private lenders and banks were not included.

“We’re going in the right direction,” said Sheryl Pardo, spokeswoman for the center at the Urban Institute. But “the post-crisis depreciation in home values hit repeat home buyers hard.”

The average loan size of these repeat buyers was $246,166, the report said.

One possible culprit for the drop-off was that many homeowners lost equity in their homes when the housing bubble burst starting in 2007. That meant they

And those who lost their residences to foreclosure will have a tougher time getting a mortgage for a new property.

Another problem is that those fancier and more spacious homes cost more. And there simply aren’t enough residences for sale to satiate demand.

“It’s too expensive to move up,” says Gerd-Ulf Krueger, chief economist at Krueger Economics, a housing data firm based in Los Angeles. “The people who want to trade up aren’t putting their homes on the market, because they aren’t seeing enough alternative properties that are attractive to them at the right price.”

He expects that the number of homeowners buying new abodes will rise—but not by much.

“There’s just not enough (residences) on the market. There’s not enough new-home construction,” Krueger says. Builders are “trending toward more upscale markets, and there’s something missing in the middle.”

This contest is bound to put you in a holiday frame of mind

BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

Now that Halloween is over, the ritual is near.

No, I’m not talking about the shower we’ll need after the presidential campaign.

I’m talking about that ritual of going into the shed or garage and pulling out the strings of lights, the reindeer and other lawn ornaments, the wreaths and whatever else you use to wish your neighbors Happy Holidays.

Actually, that ritual began almost a week ago for one of Ahwatukee’s signature displays, the Festival of Lights, as the company that strings them up along Chandler Boulevard completed its task.

Now, you can just mark Nov. 26 on your calendar for the annual Festival of Lights Kickoff Party, a daylong celebration for the whole family that gets your mind off shopping and holiday chores and puts you in the spirit of the season.

The Ahwatukee Foothills News wants

to bump up that feeling with a Holiday Lights Contest for the residents who go that extra mile and festoon their homes with the glitz and glitter of Christmas.

Have you noticed a neighbor’s elaborate decorations for the season? Have you been inspired by them—or more than a little irritated? Do you think yours are more tasteful?

You don’t even have to know the homeowner’s name. Just send in the address and whip out your smartphone to snap a photo just to give us an idea of what’s special about it.

Go ahead and write a note about why you nominated it. And, yes, you can nominate yourself as well. We do need your name, address and phone number as “official nominator” for any contenders you send along.

What makes for the best lighting display? We’ll be the judge of that. The AFN will award prizes in a few different categories. (And we’ll figure out what those are after we look at the nominees.)

Just a few rules, because what’s a contest without rules? You don’t have to buy anything to enter or to have a better

chance at winning.

The nominated home, business or edifice must be in Ahwatukee.

And it can’t be a classroom, your gym locker or your home office. In other words, it must be a building the general public can view from the street in their car, a bike or on foot.

To enter, go to surveymonkey.com/r/ AFNLights and attach that smartphone image of the display. Please supply the exact address, since Siri has trouble with approximations.

If you’re really old school, then write us at Ahwatukee Holiday Lights, 1620 W. Fountainhead Parkway, Suite 219, Tempe, AZ 85282. Be sure to include your Polaroids. And don’t forget your contact information.

We’ll accept entries through Nov. 30. The following week or so, we’ll be judging, so winners won’t be announced until Dec. 14, maybe Dec. 7 if our staffers can cut loose from the South Mountain Freeway, beleaguered golf courses and

whatever else threatens to distract the community from its efforts to spread holiday cheer.

Then, we’ll share information about the best ones and even map them for you at ahwatukee.com.

If you’ve been reading AFN the last few weeks, you know that some of your neighbors went all-out for Halloween. But let’s face it, there’s something cheerful about a flickering Santa or glowing eaves that zombies and pumpkins just can’t match.

So, start testing those lights, dusting off the reindeer and sleigh and grabbing that ladder.

I can’t wait to see how you tell

LETTERS

believes in small, limited government, reducing barriers to productive enterprise, school choice, and that education is a clear path to socio-economic prosperity.

However, I can also say that in today’s hyper-partisan political landscape, Frank approaches every discussion with a pragmatic and reasonable view and I know that he will be a senator for all Arizonans. He has avoided special interest monies and put his money where is mouth is by funding huge portions of his campaign.

For these reasons, I will be casting my vote for Frank Schmuck on election day.

-Steven W. Ranes

His candidate’s name means ‘nice, tidy’

The German translation of schmuck is “neat, tidy.”

Frank Schmuck is that and then some. He’s a graduate of the Air Force Academy, with honors. Getting into the academy is a feat by itself, let alone graduating from it with honors.

He also subscribes to the concepts of national unity, justice, domestic tranquility, a strong national defense, the general welfare and having the blessings of liberty for himself, his family, your family, his children and your children and their posterity.

You will be hard-pressed to find a better man to represent you in our State Legislature. Everything he believes is diametrically opposed to the tenets of the socialist. You just can’t do more than that.

-Don Kennedy

‘He has the right stuff’ for office and senate seat

I've known Frank Schmuck for a number of years through our flying community. I've seldom seen anyone as dedicated towards serving his fellow citizens than Frank. I hope he will soon be elected to the Arizona State Senate.

Frank believes in small government, fiscal responsibility (both personal and governmental) and individual responsibility. He is a strong proponent of the fundamentals of our Founding Fathers. You know...the ones which speak of Nature’s God and the Laws of Nature’s God. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as set forth in our Declaration of Independence are basic to him.

We need someone with high moral values and a caring nature.

Frank Schmuck gives us those things so often missing in the political arena. Frank is the fellow we can count on to put his country and his community first. He has the "right stuff" and the ability to work with all members of the legislature in an effort to move forward those issues important to his constituents. Frank listens then acts.

-Billy Walker

There is nothing wrong with a Tea Party candidate

Frank Schmuck, Republican candidate for State Senate in LD 18, is a man of the people, a combat veteran and a patriot who cares more about his country than his personal gain. His vote will never be sold.

He is a visionary who understands the true impact on our state economy if the state income tax were to be eliminated. His opponents decry him as "just another Tea Party person, like Sarah Palin, Jill Norgaard and Donald Trump." This begs the question, "what's wrong with that"?

The Tea Party stands on the same principles that brought our nation to greatness. The opponents of the Tea Party

are those who brought Barrack Obama to the White House and how well we know what that has wrought.

So the question I suggest we ask ourselves is what is more important, mediocrity, growing national debt, over-taxation and regulation or a re-establishment of commonsense leadership, national pride and competence in government? I don't know about you, but as for me the only answer is the latter and that is why I'm voting for US Air Force Captain Frank Schmuck for Arizona State Senator. Tom Morrisey

LD 18 candidate could be a 'game changer'

Your vote in Ahwatukee's Legislative District 18 State Senate race can be a game changer.

I ask you to vote with me to elect Sean BoIwie to our State Senate.

Sean is an Ahwatukee resident and— just like my own children—graduated from Mountain Pointe High School. Sean knows our community—he understands us and our unique needs and values.

-JoRita DeFrancesco

Four Points by Sheraton

Hosted by the Women in Business Committee, this annual ceremony celebrates and honors the Business Woman of the Year, Social Enterprise Award and Corporate Award. In addition, scholarships are given to women furthering their education from funds raised throughout the year. is exciting annual event features a cocktail hour, silent auction, dinner, and an awards ceremony.

Leaving an abusive relationship can be dangerous, even deadly

BY: LESLIE MAR’NA AFN Guest Writer

Many times planning to leave an abusive relationship can cost your life.

In the United States, one in four women and one in seven men will experience domestic violence within their lifetime. A more disturbing statistic is that more than three women are murdered by their husbands or partners in the U.S. every day.

Many domestic violence survivors are judged for not leaving their abusers quick enough as many don’t understand leaving an abuser is the most dangerous part of living through domestic abuse.

Leaving an abusive situation and becoming safe is achievable, but it is a process that requires careful planning. It is easier said than done to leave a domestic violence situation due to the complex nature of power and control that is the root cause of the abuse.

When victims attempt to leave a domestic violence situation, abusers tend to feel as though they are losing power and control, which causes violent behaviors to increase and become more lethal. This is why victims are placed in the greatest amount of danger when deciding to leave an abusive relationship.

The threat of being killed can be a very real concern for the victim and their family during this time, which often leads to the victim continuing to remain in the abusive relationship. Even when a victim makes the decision to leave the domestic violence situation, it takes an average of seven times to become fully independent of the abuser and each attempt can increase in danger, becoming more lethal. It’s recommended that victims plan a quiet escape to a safe shelter if they feel they are in a life-threatening situation.

Devices that can track whereabouts via GPS location services, such as a phone or tablet, should be left behind. My Sisters’ Place provides an emergency shelter which allows victims of domestic violence to leave their abusive situation and have a safe place to go with their children.

In addition to providing shelter, My Sisters’ Place offers counseling, support groups, and victim advocacy during and after their stay. Counseling is extremely important after leaving a domestic violence relationship to ensure that victims do not return to the abuse.

Abusers are extremely good at putting the victim down, convincing them that they are the cause of the problems in their relationship and that they are to blame for the abuse. My Sisters’ Place ensures that survivors have access to help and resources when it comes to leaving their domestic violence situation. Survivors can and do achieve happy, fulfilling, and safe lives after abuse.

Volunteer and advocacy efforts, as well as donations, help to end the pattern of domestic violence.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, help is available and is a crucial step in staying safe. While it is encouraged to make quiet plans to leave an abuser, speaking to a trusted friend, family member, or counselor can be the first step in getting help.

When speaking to a survivor, being supportive and respectful of their safety is of utmost importance; victims should never feel pressured to leave their domestic violence situation as it might not feel safe for them to do so.

For more information about My Sisters’ Place or if you are in an abusive relationship and need immediate assistance, call the 24-hour hotline at 480-821-1024.

-Leslie Mar’Na is the senior program manager at My Sisters’ Place, a Catholic Charities domestic violence shelter Information: catholiccharities.com

The ADOT threat of a huge bond that plaintiffs would have to pay until the case is heard is more public relations nonsense. The law does not make it impossible for the public to challenge the government. Rather, the law allows for at most a very

minimal bond in public cases. It is only through public watchdogging that government agencies can be made accountable. ADOT has not been challenged before and it shows. It bullies its way to get what it wants. This time, however, ADOT will be made accountable.

www.ahwatukee.com

Ahwatukee man designs new kind of saddle shoe for the golf course

BY JIM WALSH AFN Staff Writer

Bart Walker of Ahwatukee had an idea.

It morphed into a prototype for a unique saddle golf shoe that can be customized, using Velcro and magnets to change the saddle’s color and even add the logos of corporations and sports teams on it.

Walker, 37, a married and the father of two, soon decided that he had found his new calling in life. He quit his banking job, cashed in his 401K and launched Jack Grace USA, a start up named after his two children, William Jack and Estella Grace.

His wife, Erinn, serves as the company’s vice president. Walker said his company started with an old shoe he retrieved from his garage. He said he invented the concept on his kitchen table.

Walker said he told Erinn when he married her that he probably would not be a banker forever, and that whenever he found his life’s mission, he would pursue it.

“She’s probably the most supportive, understanding wife in the world,’’ he said.

Walker and his wife both graduated from Mountain Pointe High School, although they didn’t meet in school. He scoffed at a reporter’s suggestion that he could always go back to banking if his shoe dream fizzled, making it clear he has no desire to do that.

“To me, this is the pursuit of the American Dream. I cashed in my 401K and I’m going for it,’’ he said. “I just wanted to work at something I was passionate about.’’

It was hard not to notice Walker’s passion for his new shoe design as he unloaded three product samples from a black case sitting on a conference table. He has three shoes in different colors and demonstrates how to change their look, adding the Arizona State University Sun Devils logo to a white shoe.

While there are many types of golf shoes and golf apparel. “the shoes were very boring,’’ he said. “I designed it

myself. I was very fortunate in that I worked with a local cobbler.’’

The cobbler is Randy Lucas, who is known as Randy the Cobbler on a popular Instagram account. Lucas is a protégé of his father, a longtime Tempe cobbler. His Instagram page shows how he customizes many types of high end shoes, including Minnetonka moccasins.

“We made an early prototype at 3 a.m.,’’ Walker said.

Without the different saddle designs, which attach to the shoes with his patent-pending system, the shoes look like a typical athletic-style golf shoe. They have cushioning for comfort and lugs on the bottom for traction.

He said the shoe’s flexibility is among its strongest selling points, allowing a golfer to customize his or her look.

While someone might not want to pay $150 for a pair of ASU Sun Devil shoes, they might like to wear the Sun Devil logo occasionally or wear a corporate

logo to a company golf tournament or to a charitable golf tournament a company is sponsoring.

“The millennials want everything to be custom. They don’t want anything off a rack,’’ Walker said.

He said the Mountain Pointe High golf coach is already ordering shoes for the school’s team next year.

Walker views his golf shoes as combining a traditional-looking upper part—a throwback to when golf shoes were dress shoes—with a more modern, comfortable sole.

Walker believes his concept is so flexible that it could be applied to other types of shoes. He said he has contracted with Your Proof of Concept, a Portland, Oregon, consulting firm run by shoe industry veterans who have years of experience working with such large corporations as Nike and Adidas.

The consulting firm serves as a sort of a general contractor on the shoe

project, and acts as Walker’s guide to the shoe industry. He said the shoe is heading from the sample stage into the production stage.

He said he tried to contact FootJoy, a brand of the Acushnet Co. in Massachusetts and a giant in the golf industry known not only for its shoes, but for its popular Titleist golf clubs, golf balls and golf gloves. But Walker said he couldn’t even get past a receptionist.

“I wouldn’t want to take them on. I wouldn’t want to challenge these beasts,’’ Walker said, adding that he wouldn’t mind selling his concept to FootJoy someday.

At the moment, Walker is getting ready to launch his shoes for sale on the internet through his web site, jackgraceusa.com. He even has his first sale in mind, $99 for shoes that normally would sell for $160.

“This is what I am supposed to be doing. It’s full force,’’ Walker said.

Ahwatukee woman says pet sitting isn’t just for the dogs

By PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor

There are more than 7,000 selfemployed business professionals like Kate McPike of Ahwatukee in the country.

That may not mean much until you have to go on vacation or a business trip and leave your pet at home alone.

Many people rely on a relative or a neighbor, but if something goes wrong, they’re not likely bonded. Or if Fido gets sick or hurt, they’re unlikely to know pet CPR or other techniques required for handling a medical emergency.

But as a member of the 22-year-old Pet Sitters International, McPike, the sole proprietor of K8’s Pet Care, is bonded, insured and trained in animal CPR and first aid.

“I want every pet owner to be able to leave home with peace of mind knowing his or her pet or pets at home are in my responsible care,” she said.

Though she grew up on a California ranch with horses and “lots of dogs and cats,” McPike started her working career in banking after getting a business degree.

She eventually moved to New York City, where she became a trainer and then district operations manager for Weight Watchers International. She moved back West and became a trainer for a credit union trade association, teaching tellers and supervisors about fraud prevention, robbery, cross-selling and other subjects.

She got so good at that she still develops and delivers webinars on those subjects for a company in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

But McPike reached a point where she wanted a career change.

“I have always been passionate about animals and animal causes. Pet sitting was always in the back of my mind, but I had a job in California that required extensive travel. After leaving that job, pet sitting was a perfect fit for me,” she explained.

She moved to Texas, where she met a woman who owned a pet-sitting business called Not Home Alone.

“I received all of my training from her,” McPike said. “After working for her for a year, she sold the business, and some of her clients wanted to me to continue taking care of and walking their pets.”

Although she moved to Ahwatukee earlier this year, McPike said she stays in touch with the woman who trained her.

“I still call her if I have questions, and

she and I have remained best friends,” said McPike, who not only is a member of Pet Sitters International, “where I take advantage of their webinars and online training programs,” but also belongs to the Arizona Professional Pet Sitters Association, “where we get information and network with other pet sitters in the area.”

She set up K8’s Pet Care in April, and has found “the biggest challenge was moving to an area where I knew no one.

“Competition is pretty stiff,” she said.

Pet Sitters International said its members collectively care for animals in more than 720,000 households, generating $392 million annually in revenue

And the pets they care for aren’t necessarily furry.

The association reported this year they’re seeing increasing demand from owners of reptiles and even chickens.

“There has been a jump in the number of pet sitters who offer services for chickens or barnyard fowl,” it said. “In 2014, around 58 percent of sitters who offered livestock care said they offered care for chickens, while this year the percentage jumped to 85.4 percent.”

The trend is slightly different when it comes to reptiles.

“More than 9.3 million reptiles are owned in 4.9 million households across the United States,” Pet Sitters International stated. “But reptiles have not achieved the same popularity or acceptance as other pets such as dogs, cats or fish.”

McPike is trained to handle a gamut of animals.

“I take care of dogs and cats mainly, but I have also taken care of a mouse, sugar gliders (a kind of opossum), a rat, fish, frogs and a lizard,” she said.

She also is a typical trained and insured pet sitter.

Pet Sitters International found that more than a third of its 7,000 members have college degrees and 58 percent left another career to start pet-sitting businesses.

Still, the general public’s acceptance of pet sitters is slow in coming, McPike said.

She said her biggest challenge is “educating the public that there is a difference in pet sitters when the person they hire is bonded/insured, trained and pet CPR/first aid trained.

“There are so many other people that think pet sitting would be fun, so they decide to get into the business not really knowing what’s involved,” she said. “With my training and experience, I

feel equipped to give pet owners the best possible care for their beloved pets. I also feel confident that I can handle a pet or home emergency should one occur.”

“We learned about the causes of a pet’s heart stopping and what signs to look for to determine if CPR is necessary,” she said. “If it is, I would apply compressions—there are three different types—and breath into the animal’s nose while keeping its mouth held together with my fingers.”

She said Malinda Hall Malone, owner of Diamond Cut Pet Spa in Ahwatukee, was the instructor for her wellness assessment training and “if I have a concern or a question about a certain pet in my care, she’s my go-to person.”

Of course, it’s not just the owner who might be wary of a pet sitter. The sitter has to be wary of the pet.

“In addition to learning CPR, we learned how to deal with choking, heat stroke, burns, cuts, seizures, convulsions, pets that have been hit by a car and other injuries. We also learned how conduct a snout-to-tail assessment for injury and for wellness.”

Hospital treats unusual animals as well as reptiles and

BY RACHEL EROH AFN Staff Writer

People think of veterinarians as doctors specializing in treating typical household pets like dogs and cats, but the veterinarians at the Arizona Exotic Animal Hospital specialize in treating a more unique set of pets.

Exotic animals refer to anything outside of dogs and cats. Since most vets don’t treat such pets, the exotic animal hospital has the services to help anything from a beta fish to a tortoise.

The Mesa hospital, at 744 N. Center St. #101, has been open since 2007. The hospital offers a range of services, from animal treatment, surgeries, boarding and exotic animal pet supplies.

The staff at the hospital always have had interest in animals but wanted to be around more than just dogs and cats.

“I’ve had an interest in reptiles my whole life,” office manager Mark Hamilton said.

The hospital sees a lot of tortoises, birds, guinea pigs, rabbits and fish. They can accommodate almost any animal for

boarding.

Doctors and interns share a passion for the unique animals that come through their doors. Many of the interns

The hospital also has a small endoscope

Dr. Heather Bjornebo has been with the animal hospital for over two years and has treated an array of exotic animals. She said she can’t pick out the

“When you’re used to seeing weird things, people ask ‘What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen?’ and I’m like, ‘Define

She has treated fish, tarantulas, hermit crabs, kangaroos, wallabies and goats. Her favorite animals to treat, however,

Bjornebo’s passion for exotic animals goes beyond the workplace. At her house, she has a room filled with 40

Along with the animals, the work environment is what makes Bjornebo

veterinarian clinic.

There are special dental tools for smaller animals that are needed to hold the animal and to open their mouths.

excited to come into work every day. She said that the workplace is relaxed

At 30 years, Someburros restaurant still growing in region

BY SHELLEY GILLESPIE

AFN Staff Writer

When George and Mary Vasquez and George’s mom Isabel started Poncho’s Restaurant in south Phoenix in the 1970s, Tim Vasquez was only a baby. The whole family was involved. The restaurant offered take-out service and a restaurant with drinks. They also began accepting the revolutionary new method of payment, checks.

Things started slowly. On National Taco Day in 1986, George worried when they sold only about 40 tacos. By the time George and Mary opened a new restaurant, Someburros, in 1986, Tim was 11 years old and played mascot in a furry donkey costume in the summer heat to advertise their new restaurant. The driving force and the recipes for the restaurants came from Isabel, who, sadly, died two months before Someburros opened. Her Sonoran-based Mexican recipes have been the basis for the restaurant’s menu, which is kept as a family secret and shared with just a few chefs.

The Someburros name came from Mary’s long involvement as a Girl Scout leader, which she continues.

“I was a Girl Scout leader Camp Sombrero, and that gave me the inspiration for our name, Someburros,” she said.

Coining the phrase “fast casual,” the Vasquez family preferred that to being called fast food. Instead, Mary called their approach “Quality Mexican food prepared quickly.”

Then and always, they have made everything from scratch using local vendors. The one item they have delivered fresh every day is their tortillas. In the beginning, Someburros’

progress worried George. Located on Baseline Road and Mill Streets in Tempe, the first Someburros was set back from the street, hard to see.

“I worried. A lot,” says George. They were trying a new approach to reach the young families with small budgets with no tipping required.

“We bought the best-quality ingredients—beef, cheese—kept the prices low, made enough to make a living. We have a good product and don’t give up anything quality-wise,”

George said.

Family held everything together as their idea took off. Initially it was a slow development. After 25 years, they added alcohol so the patrons who wanted beer with their Mexican food could have it.

One by one starting in the early 2000s, they built five more locations at roughly three-year intervals. Their newer locations are in Gilbert, Chandler, San Tan, Scottsdale and Flagstaff. And, as a tribute to their matriarch, Isabel’s Amor opened in 2013 in Gilbert. With a more upscale menu, Isabel’s also provides a full drink menu.

Their next restaurant will open in Spring 2017 in Queen Creek.

Popular dishes include their pollo fundido, red and green chilies, enchiladas, and tostados, said Tim.

Family members are involved and each new generation becomes part of the staff. As Tim and his sisters grew up, they all played a part.

Tim, after earning a communications degree at ASU, has taken over the family business as CEO and president. His sister Amy, also an ASU graduate, is vice president and COO. His wife Julie was involved with the décor of Isabel’s. Tim’s youngest sister, Jennilyn, a University of San Diego graduate, is their catering director. Right now, she is taking a break

with two youngsters under 5 years old.

“Employees stay and have been around for so many years that they’re like family,” George said. One employee has been there 30 years, and another has been with them for 29 years.

With six general managers, the average tenure with Some burros is 18 years. Even family members must work their way up by beginning with six weeks in the kitchen, then six weeks at the counter, then they wait for a general manager opening to move up.

Both George and Tim had dreams come true briefly with short professional baseball careers. Ultimately, Tim considered going to law school or becoming a sportscaster.

“There was nothing I could do that would be more important than serving my grandma’s recipes and continuing my family business,” Tim realized.

With George and Mary mostly retired from the restaurants, they spend time at

a family cabin. However, “George gets bored after planting a few flowers,” said Mary.

What does he do now that he’s retired?

“I manage Poncho’s,” George proclaims. Even though he is still worrying about the family restaurants, he loves it. He admits, “It’s a lot of work, a lot of work.”

Mary smiles. “It is fun to have the kids involved. I love the family meetings. Someburros has grown beyond my wildest dreams.”

Today, Someburros is still attracting a family crowd. And, instead of a driveup window, the family recommends ordering online or by phone first, then the food can be hot and ready quickly when a customer arrives. On National Taco Day this year, they sold 8,000 tacos.

They recently celebrated their 30th year in business on October 29 with festive decorations including piñatas and specials at each location.

To order or for catering, see someburrors.com or varying phone numbers for each location.

and that the staff is a second family to her.

“The people make this place what it is,” Bjornebo said.

The most important part to Bjornebo is the relationships she makes with the owners and the relief they have when she helps their beloved pets.

“The most rewarding part is the look on people’s faces when you tell them that everything is going to be OK,” Bjornebo said.

Diversification is still important for retirees

BY JOSEPH ORTIZ AFN Guest Writer

During your working years, your primary investment goal is generally growth—you need your money to grow so that you can eventually afford the comfortable retirement lifestyle you’ve envisioned. But when you retire, should you change course and adjust your investment strategy from “offense” to “defense”?

Actually, it’s not quite that simple. To begin with, even while you are working, you don’t want your portfolio to be completely filled with growth-oriented investments, such as stocks.

If it were, you would likely be taking on a degree of investment risk that’s too high, because, as you may know, stocks will fluctuate in price – sometimes significantly. And if you only own stocks, you could take a big hit during a market downturn. That’s why you need to have an array of investments—stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit and so on.

By spreading your investment dollars this way, you can give yourself more opportunities for success while reducing the impact of volatility on your portfolio. (Keep in mind, though, that diversification, by itself, can’t guarantee profits or protect against all losses.)

Now, let’s fast-forward to your retirement date.

Once you retire, you may need to look at your investment portfolio somewhat differently – instead of “building it up,” you may now want to think of “making it last.” So, your first impression might be that instead of maintaining the diversified portfolio you had when you were working, you need to switch to predominantly “safe” investments, such as CDs and

Treasury bonds, to reduce the risk of losing principal.

And such a strategy might indeed be effective—if your retirement were only going to last a year or so. But the chances are reasonably good that you could be retired for two, or possibly even three, decades. If that’s the case, then you will have to deal with a threat to your lifestyle that you might not have considered: inflation.

We’ve had low inflation for several years, but that could change in the future. Even at a relatively low 3% inflation rate, prices double roughly every 25 years. And depending on your personal needs and spending patterns, your personal inflation rate might be even higher.

To protect yourself against inflation, CDs and Treasury bonds are typically not much help. In fact, in a low-rate environment, your returns on these investments may not even keep up with inflation, much less keep you ahead of it. That’s not to say they have no value. They can provide you with an income stream and help lower your overall investment risk.

But to defend your purchasing power, you will still need some growth potential in your investment portfolio during your retirement years. Your exact percentage of stocks and other growth-oriented investments will depend on a variety of factors—your longevity, other sources of income, family situation and so on. You may want to consult with a financial professional to ensure that your portfolio mix is suitable for your needs.

Many things may change in your life when you retire. But the need for investment diversification is not one of them.

Ahwatukee Foothills Edward Jones Financial Advisor Joseph B. Ortiz, AAMS, CRPS, can be reached at 480-753-7664 or joseph.ortiz@ edwardjones.com.

Shopping and home-delivery service opens in one Ahwatukee ZIP code

AFN News Staff

People living in part of Ahwatukee can now have someone else do their shopping to some degree.

Instacart, a retail delivery service whose personal shoppers hand pick and deliver items from what the company calls “trusted local stores,” has expanded into 22 Valley ZIP codes, including 85044.

That means residents can order from retailers such as Costco, Smart and Final and Petco, and have their groceries delivered to their doorsteps in as little as one hour.

Company officials said they were reacting to “an overwhelming volume of requests for expansion into this region.”

“Over the past year we’ve seen incredible growth throughout cities in the West,” said Sean Twersky, Instacart general manager. “We strive to provide the freshest, highest-quality groceries to our customers and we’re very excited to expand to Phoenix and give thousands of new customers the opportunity to experience Instacart’s incredible service.”

Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Instacart has spread its operation to 28 metropolitan areas across the U.S., partnering with dozens of grocery retailers, including popular national chains such Whole Foods Market, Publix, Costco, Petco as well as local and regional grocers.

PET SITTING

from page 39

For example, McPike follows a routine when she is asked to take on a new dog. She schedules a “meet and greet session” to see if she and the dog will get along.

“Most dogs are very protective of their owners,” McPike explained. “When I go to a complimentary visit to meet the pet owner and the pet, if the dog starts barking or seems aggressive, it is usually because it is protecting the owner. When I’m alone with the dog, he or she is usually a sweet puppy.”

Still, she doesn’t take on every potential customer who calls.

“If the dog appears aggressive and a danger to me or others, I will pass on the pet-sitting job,” she said.

While they may be minimal, hazards do come with the territory.

“I have been bitten by a very small dog,” McPike said. “I survived and now carry two first aid kits in my car—one for me and one for the pets I care for.”

It boasts of “combining a personal touch with cutting-edge technology” in its pitch to save customers time.

Right now, residents in 85044 have a limited number of stores that Instamart has a relationship with. Its website for the ZIP code shows people can order from Frys, Safeway, Costco, Petco, Whole Foods and Smart & Final.

The website takes the user to each store’s offerings, showing the price of the item and any sale price. It’s unclear what the delivery charge is, though first-time customers can get their first delivery for free.

Some items are excluded from delivery, including tobacco, gift cards, pharmacy prescriptions and other age-restricted items. And some coupons are not redeemable through Instacart. All orders must be at least $10.

“Instacart’s entrance into Phoenix will give residents the peace of mind that time-consuming grocery and pet-supply shopping can now be completed in a matter of minutes,” the company said in a release.

After they sign up at instacart.com, customers pick the store and times they want, choose a delivery window of anywhere between less than an hour to seven days in advance, and check out.

Orders can also be made with smartphones.

McPike doesn’t just feed her clients and make sure they haven’t been injured. Besides walking the dogs, she’ll also give the pets “a comforting touch” so they can be reassured their owners haven’t abandoned them.

The fish and reptiles may miss out on the cuddles.

And McPike just doesn’t care for the pets; she brings in the mail, waters the plants and makes sure the premises are secured.

She falls for the pets sometimes, as she did in Texas with a dog named Bruce.

Bruce was a dog whose owner wanted McPike to sit with and watch TV while the client was at work.

“When he saw me, he saw ‘walk,’ so I would leash him up first and walk him back and forth in the back yard for about 10 minutes before we started watching TV,” she said. “I did that on a regular basis and miss spending my evenings with Bruce now.”

Information: k8spetcare.com or 480718-5063.

Our lives are just a small part of God’s much larger plan

BY REV. SUSAN WILMOT AFN Guest Writer

Do you remember the movie “Antz”?

The story is loosely based on Aldous Huxley’s novel, “A Brave New World.” In the movie, power mad General Mandible betrays the ant colony to a group of termites, so he can take control of a new colony. The movie invites us into the drama and reveals some interesting character traits. The colony is ultimately saved from disaster. Yet at the end, the camera pans out to a very small corner of a large park. There’s a trashcan and a puddle.

The intense and personal drama was, after all, just a small part of a much bigger picture. The mind-expanding end puts it all into perspective. It reminds us that our own lives are also just a small part of a much larger plan in God’s hands. Yes, all the drama around our presidential election is also in God’s hands.

Speaking of God, the “Revelation to John” is also mind-expanding. “Revelation” is filled with symbolism, and images that both frighten and

FRIDAY, NOV. 4

HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE

Red Mountain United Methodist Church’s Eleventh Annual Holiday Boutique will feature floral arrangements, embroidered pillows, scarves and more. DETAILS> 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., 2936 North Power Road, Mesa. Information: RMUMC.com.

SATURDAY, NOV. 5

FALL FESTIVAL

St. Peter Lutheran Church in Mesa will be holding a Fall Festival, with a Holiday Boutique and Rummage Sale. A kids’ carnival will also be available. Service at 4 p.m., with potluck dinner afterward.

DETAILS> Sales from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Games from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 1844 E. Dana Ave., Mesa. Information: 480-833-4251.

SUNDAY, NOV. 6

CHOIRS TO PERFORM

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church will host the combined choirs of Chandler-Gilbert Community College Performing Arts.

astonish us. Nonetheless, it’s ultimately good news for believers, because it clearly describes God as our origin, and our destination.

It inspires courage and strength for our earthly journey, hope for the present in any struggles we’re facing, and great joy in the promise of new and unending life in Christ. John’s Revelation of God’s plan encourages us to be more expansive in our vision, and to see the world, and world events, with Christ-like eyes.

As Paul puts it in his letter to the Romans (12:2), “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.”

As we’re transformed in our own understanding of what illusion and what’s reality, we’re better equipped to experience our freedom in Christ.

Whatever the outcome of our presidential election, it will be a new beginning.

“The Revelation to John” has several references to new beginnings.

For example in Revelation 21:1-2, there’s a new heaven and a new earth, as well as the new Jerusalem. What we

DETAILS> 2 p.m., 739 E. Erie St., Chandler. Free, but goodwill offering suggested. Tickets at www. htlutheran.com and at the door. Information: 480-9364127, or earl@htlutheran.com.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 9

HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE PLANNED

The Hope’s Treasures Holiday Boutique returns this year with quality handcrafted holiday and home décor, decorations, gifts for kids and adults, stocking stuffers, jewelry, handcrafted apparel, comfort items and more. Shoppers are invited to bring a non-perishable food item for Matthew’s Crossing food bank.

DETAILS> Nov. 9-12, Hope Covenant Church, 1770 S. Dobson Road, Chandler. 4-8 p.m. Nov. 9; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 10-11; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 12. Information: hopechurchchandler.com

FRIDAY, NOV. 11

KINDERGARTEN & PRESCHOOL OPEN HOUSE

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic School will host parents who have small children entering kindergarten or preschool at a special open house. Children will to experience a “mini” day of school, while parents

may miss in the hubbub and stress of our busy lives is that God is constantly making all things new.

This isn’t a revelation that we have to wait for. “It is done!” says the Lord in Revelation 21:6. Through Jesus’ resurrection, the victory of love and life over sin and death is already won. The kingdom of God is here and now, and God’s redemptive activity is ongoing.

Our world is already being transformed into the new earth of John’s vision. But how, we might ask?

In faith, we can see the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit working through all believers as we continue Christ’s mission of reconciliation, healing and forgiveness, justice and equality. As cocreators with God, we’re making God’s will and purpose visible in the world.

Every day is a new beginning in Christ. Consider how John’s vision helps each of us, in unique and wonderful ways, to serve God and our neighbors with loving compassion, and forgiving hearts.

God’s kingdom is so amazing we might wonder why crowds of people aren’t rushing to get caught up in the gracious and sweeping movement of the

attend a presentation to learn more about the school. All children must be 5 years old by Sept. 1, 2017, to attend the kindergarten open house and 3 years old by Sept. 1, 2017, to attend preschool open house.

DETAILS> 8:30-11 a.m., 2117 S. Rural Road, Tempe. To reserve a space, go to olmcschool.info, email openhouse@olmcschool.info or call 480-967-5567.

SATURDAY, NOV. 19

CRAFT AND VENDOR FAIR

Over 50 vendors will be selling Christmas ornaments & lighted blocks, handmade greeting cards, jewelry, soy candles, pottery, wood items, handmade purses, Mary Kay, leather goods, tea gift baskets and much more at the Love of Christ Lutheran Church’s Center of Compassion. Two food trucks will be available, and the church’s youth group will have a car wash.

DETAILS> 9 a.m.-2 p.m., 1525 North Power Road, Mesa. Cost: Free. Information: loveofchristchurch.net.

SUNDAY, DEC. 4

SPECIAL CONCERT PLANNED

Guest artists from the first annual Summer Artist in Residence Program, Chandler Gilbert Community

Holy Spirit.

Why indeed? What does it take to welcome God’s transforming grace, and let go of our fear? What part does trust play in our ability to risk authentic love, especially when we have to set aside all concern for self? Do our day-to-day lives really reflect that deep level of trust and faith in God’s purpose, and obedience to God’s will?

A reflective life invites God to show us what’s really stopping us from living God’s kingdom vision every day and in all aspects of life.

Let God make all things new in your life. Let God lift up the eyes of your heart, and open your mind to see and know God’s presence. Today’s a great day to welcome the gift of the Spirit, who expands our horizons and stretches our vision.

As we continue our mission for justice and peace, may we always be open to God’s constant coming in our lives, empowering us to be agents of God’s love in the world.

975 E. Warner Road, Tempe. Reach her: rector@stjamestempe.org or 480-345-2686.

College piano professor Piano Amanda Sherrill, and Arizona Opera soprano Melissa Solomon, will present a holiday concert of Bach, Handel, Rachmaninov and beloved classics.

DETAILS> 2 p.m., Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. Admission, $15/students, $10. Children under 10 are free. Information: 480-936-4127, or Earl@htlutheran.com.

SUNDAY, DEC. 11

‘JAZZOPERETRY’ RETURNS

After a four-year absence, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and Jazzoperetry (“Jazz-OP-ruh-tree”), Inc., will join forces to present the long-awaited return to Arizona of the contemporary Christian singer/ songwriter Robert Moffat. The Holy Trinity Chancel choir will join the Rob Moffat Chorus and instrumental ensemble to perform a musical nativity.

DETAILS>2 p.m., 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. Admission $15/students $10. Information: 480-936-4127, or Earl@ htlutheran.com.

CALENDAR

SUNDAYS

VALOR CHRISTIAN OUTLINES MISSION

Valor Christian Center in Gilbert offers “great praise and worship and great messages for today’s living,” according to Pastor Thor Strandholt, associate pastor. “Our mission is evangelize, healing and discipleship through the word of God.”

DETAILS> 10 a.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Thursdays. 3015 E. Warner Road. Information: valorcc.com.

HORIZON SEEKS YOUNG PEOPLE

High school and middle school students meet to worship and do life together.

DETAILS> 5 p.m. at Horizon Presbyterian Church, 1401 E. Liberty Lane. 480-460-1480 or email joel@ horizonchurch.com.

BEREAVED CAN SHARE GRIEF

A support group designed to assist people through the grieving process. One-time book fee $15.

DETAILS> 2-4 p.m. at Arizona Community Church, 9325 S. Rural Road, Room G3, Tempe. 480-491-2210.

UNITY OFFERS INSPIRATION

Inspirational messages and music are offered, along with classes and special events.

DETAILS> 10 a.m. at Unity of Tempe, 1222 E. Baseline Road, Suite 103, Tempe. 480-792-1800 or unityoftempe.com.

KIDS CAN LEARN JEWISH LIFE

Children can learn and experience Jewish life. Chabad Hebrew School focuses on Jewish heritage, culture and holidays.

DETAILS> 9:30 a.m. to noon, for children ages 5-13 at Pollack Chabad Center for Jewish Life, 875 N.

McClintock Drive, Chandler. 480-855-4333, info@ chabadcenter.com, or chabadcenter.com.

RABBINIC LIT COURSE OFFERED

Ongoing morning study of two classics of rabbinic literature by medieval philosopher Moses Maimonides (the “Rambam”). At 10 a.m., Prof. Norbert Samuelson, Grossman chair of Jewish Philosophy at ASU and TBS member, teaches “Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed: What Jews Ought to Believe.” At 11:15 a.m., TBS member Isaac Levy teaches “Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah: How Jews Ought to Behave.” Readings in both Hebrew and English.

DETAILS> Community Room of the administration building at Temple Beth Sholom of the East Valley, 3400 N. Dobson Road, Chandler. 480-897-3636.

UNITY OFFERS A PATH

Unity of Mesa says its Sunday service offers “a positive path for spiritual living” through “transformational lessons, empowering music and various spiritual practices with an open-minded and welcoming community.”

DETAILS> 9 a.m. Spiritual discussion group and meditation practices group. 10:15 a.m. service. 2700 E. Southern Ave., Mesa. Child care available at 9 a.m. Nursery for infants through kindergarten at 10:15 a.m. 480-892-2700, unityofmesa.org, joanne@unityofmesa.org.

MONDAYS

JOIN CHRIST-CENTERED YOGA

This Flow 1-2 class (intermediate) is free and open to the community.

DETAILS> 6-7 p.m., Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road. Greg Battle at 480-759-6200 or gbattle@moutainpark.org.

CLASS TARGETS THE GRIEVING

Classes for those grieving over death or divorce.

DETAILS> 6:30 p.m., Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 739

Daily Mass | Mon-Sat • 8:15am

Tuesday Mass | 6:00pm

Saturday Mass | 4:00pm

Sunday Mass

7:00, 8:30, 10:30am, 5:00pm

W. Erie St., Chandler. 480-963-4127.

STRUGGLING FIND SUPPORT

Support group for those struggling with how to deal with a loss in life.

DETAILS>7 p.m., 1825 S. Alma School Road, Room C201, Chandler. Pastor Larry Daily, 480-963-3997, ext. 141, larrydaily@chandlercc.org or chandlercc.org.

TUESDAYS

DIVORCED CAN FIND COMFORT

People suffering through a divorce or separation can find understanding and caring support to face these challenges.

DETAILS> 6:30-8 p.m., Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road, Room 117, Ahwatukee, 480759-6200 or mountainpark.org.

FINDING HEALING FOR PAIN

HOPE, an acronym for “Help Overcome Painful Experiences,” offers support for men and women who seek God’s grace and healing.

DETAILS> 6:30-8 p.m. Mountain Park Community Church, 2408 E. Pecos Road. mountainpark.org.

SENIORS ENJOY ‘TERRIFIC TUESDAYS’

The program is free and includes bagels and coffee and a different speaker or theme each week. Registration not needed.

DETAILS> 10:30 a.m. to noon, Barness Family East Valley Jewish Community Center, 908 N. Alma School Road, Chandler. Information: evjcc.org or 480-897-0588.

HOLY TRINITY HAS GRIEFSHARE

DETAILS> 2 and 6:30 p.m., 739 W. Erie St., Chandler. 480-963-4127.

READ BIBLE FOR PLEASURE

Bring a Bible, or Bibles are available at these free sessions.

DETAILS> 7-8 p.m., Chandler Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1188 W. Galveston St. Lori, 480-917-3593.

WEDNESDAYS

CHILDREN MEET AT BRIDGEWAY

Awana Children’s Clubs for kids 3 years old through sixth grade meet weekly at Bridgeway Community Church. DETAILS> 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesdays. 2420 E. Liberty Lane. 85048. Register at bridgewaycc.org.

CELEBRATE RECOVERY MEETS

Celebrate Recovery says it “brings your relationship with the Lord closer to your heart as it heals your hurts, habits and hang-ups.” Participants can discuss issues ranging from feeling left out to addictions. “Nothing is too small or too large.”

DETAILS> 6:20 p.m. at Mountain View Lutheran Church, 11002 S. 48th St., Ahwatukee. mvlutheran.org/ celebraterecovery or email cr@alphamvlc.com.

WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY OFFERED

Living Word Ahwatukee women’s Bible study and fellowship that offers “a short, low-key time of praise and worship in music and message.” It’s also an opportunity to meet other Christian women in Ahwatukee. DETAILS> 10-11:30 a.m., Living Word Ahwatukee, 14647 W. 50th St., Suite 165, Ahwatukee. Free child care.

TAKE A COFFEE BREAK

Corpus Christi offers a coffee break with scripture study, prayer and fellowship.

DETAILS> 9:15-11:30 a.m. Corpus Christi Catholic Church, 3550 E. Knox Road, Ahwatukee. Loraine 480893-1160 or CoffeebreakMin@aol.com.

GameNight: Pride does season proud

BY TYLER DRAKE

Special to AFN

The Mountain Pointe High School varsity football took home a victory Friday and a fourth perfect regular season with a decisive 56-16 win over the Gilbert Tigers.

Mountain Pointe’s 10th consecutive win this year gave head coach Norris Vaughan the Pride’s fourth undefeated season in eight years. It was also Vaughan’s seventh undefeated season in his 12 years of coaching in Arizona.

“We work really, really hard and our kids play hard,” Vaughan said. “We work hard, we play hard and hope things come out all right.”

The Pride got things rolling early in the first quarter when senior wide receiver Jaydon Brooks took a Gilbert punt 70 yards for the score.

“Jaydon had a great game, he had two punt returns for touchdowns” Vaughan said. “He caught several passes, he’s a super player.”

The Tigers scored on the ensuing drive with a 35-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-3. Mountain Pointe junior wide receiver

In the second quarter, senior running back Rashie Hodge Jr. found the end zone on two separate occasions. He ran 57 yards for one score and sophomore quarterback Nick Wallerstedt connected with him on a 39-yard pass for another.

“Hodge had a great game, he caught a couple big plays,” Vaughan said. “Our quarterback was big tonight as well. I thought we played really well, but we had a few errors here and there.”

Delano Salgado answered back with a 6-yard plunge into the end zone with 4:54 remaining in the first quarter.

The Pride’s defense stymied the Tigers with a scoreless second quarter. It totaled seven sacks on the night, while Gilbert’s junior quarterback

Jack Plummer went 23-45 for 294 yards and a touchdown.

“We played pretty well on defense,” Vaughan said. “Their quarterback is pretty special; he played well, did a lot of things and caused a lot of problems.”

The Tigers opened up the second half with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Plummer to junior wide receiver Dawson Tanner, but Mountain Pointe moved down the field and scored off a Salgado 5-yard run to push the lead back to 26.

In the fourth quarter Brooks put the nail in the coffin with a 65-yard punt return, his second of the night, and Wallerstedt added a 37-yard run to put the Pride up 56-16 over the Tigers.

“I thought our quarterback played really well,” Vaughan said. “We thought he had a big game running and throwing.”

BOX SCORE

Mountain Pointe 56, Gilbert 16

MP 14 21 7 14

GHS 9 0 7 0

SCORING

First

MP – Brooks 70 kick return (Abercrombie kick), 9:51

GHS – Carlson 35 FG, 6:28

MP – Salgado 6 run (Abercrombie kick), 4:54

GHS – Tanner 2 run (Carlson kick blocked), 1:46

Second

MP – Hodge Jr. 57 run (Abercrombie kick), 11:14

MP – Hodge Jr. 39 pass from Wallerstedt (Abercrombie kick), 4:55

MP – Brooks 23 pass from Wallerstedt (Abercrombie kick), 1:01

Third

GHS – Tanner 10 pass from Plummer (Carlson kick), 9:59

MP – Salgado 5 run (Abercrombie kick), 3:53

Fourth

MP – Brooks 65 kick return (Abercrombie kick), 9:13

MP – Wallerstedt 37 run (Abercrombie kick), 3:32

TEAM STATISTICS

MP

Rush-Yards-TD: 32-260-4

Att-Comp-TD-INT: 10-15-2-2

Pass Yards: 180

Total Yards: 440

GHS

Rush-Yards-TD: 18-67-1

Att-Comp-TD: 23-45-1

Pass Yards: 294

Total Yards: 361

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Passing

MP – Wallerstedt 10-15-180, 2 TDs, 2 INT; GHS – Plummer 23-45294, TD

Rushing

MP – Hodge Jr. 6-74, TD, Salgado 8-49, 2 TDs, Brooks 3-0, Wallerstedt 4-78, TD, Stephens 11-59; GHS – Middleton 3-16, Hardy 2-1, Plummer 6-16, Tanner 3-13, TD, Laganke 1-10, Luton 2-0

Receiving

MP – Brooks 7-100, TD, Hodge Jr. 2-78, TD, Stephens 1-2; GHS –Heywood 4-70, Tanner 5-36, TD, Morales 4-30, Mckernan 1-3, Turcotte 3-29

Football playoffs: Best bets and possible upsets

BY JASON SKODA AFN Prep Sports Director

Twenty area varsity teams were placed on a line in the AIA state football playoff brackets Saturday.

Some programs were surprised to get in, some coaches were dumbfounded by the final placement and the players began preparing to make the most the postseason.

Here is a preview of each conference: 6A

Overview: Mountain Pointe and Chandler are the clear favorites at No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. The Wolves might be the outright favorite, given the way they are playing and how the Pride’s injuries on offense have impacted depth and play calling.

Unsure how Tucson jumped two spots to No. 11, Hamilton stayed put at No. 6 and No. 4 Skyline has a much tougher matchup with No. 13 Red Mountain. Best game: No. 10 Desert Vista at No. 7 Mountain View.

Biggest potential blowout: No. 14

Valley Vista at No. 3 Perry.

Upset alert: No. 12 Pinnacle at No. 5

Brophy.

Rematch to watch: No. 13 Red Mountain at No. 4 Skyline.

They said it: “I think we are pretty evenly matched. We never thought we were going to play them because of our record and being No. 4. I don’t know how they got jumped by two or three teams... It’s the mystery (the AIA) keeps locked up, so it is what it is.”— Skyline coach Angelo Paffumi.

They said it: “We haven’t played them, but you’ve seen film on just about everyone at this point (because of common opponents). We will dig into it and come up with a good game plan. The players are believing in each other right now and we believe in them. We feel good about where we are at.”

Desert Vista coach Dan Hinds on facing Mountain View.

5A

Overview: This is probably the most

wide-open conference. Desert Edge getting upset in the season finale threw it into a mess. The top six-seeded teams all have a shot at winning it all.

Best game: No. 13 Verrado at No. 4

Desert Edge. Verrado just beat Desert Edge 6-3 in two overtimes on Thursday.

Biggest potential blowout: No. 16

Fairfax at No. 1 Cienega.

Upset alert: No. 9 Mesquite at No. 8

Marana Mountain View.

Rematch to watch: No. 12 Liberty at No. 5 Centennial.

4A

Overview: It has been clear everyone has been playing for state runner-up to Saguaro all year, but the Sabercats still have to go out and prove it. No. 2 Higley and No. 3 Sunrise Mountain, both of whom lost to Saguaro, feel they can hang with the favorite.

Best game: No. 10 Dysart at No. 7 Cactus.

Biggest potential blowout: No. 16 Amphi at No. 1 Saguaro.

Upset alert: No. 11 Cactus Shadows

at No. 6 Catalina Foothills.

3A

Overview: This is another conference where several teams have a shot at winning it all. Show Low comes in at No. 1 but would it be a surprise if No. 5 Sabino or No. 8 Yuma Catholic knocked them off before the finals? No. Best game: No. 11 River Valley at No. 6 Florence.

Biggest potential blowout: No. 14 Wickenburg at No. 3 American Leadership.

Upset alert: No. 12 Winslow at No. 4 Monument Valley.

Rematch to watch: No. 9 Casteel at No. 8 Yuma Catholic.

They said it: “Hopefully we don’t make the same mistakes. We’ve made corrections since then. They are coached well and I respect them, but they are beatable. We have to play really well to beat and I believe we have that kind of effort in us.” —Casteel coach Spencer Stowers on facing Yuma Catholic (the only team to beat the Colts).

TITLEIST PERFORMANCE INSTITUTE GOLF CLINIC

IMPROVE YOUR GOLF GAME!

Since its inception in 2003, TPI has studied thousands of golfers ranging from the top professional tour players to weekend enthusiasts. Using this data, TPI discovered how a properly functioning body allows a player to swing a golf club in the most e cient way possible. By integrating our team of TPI certi ed physical therapists, certi ed personal trainers , and PGA Golf Professionals, Pritchette Physical Therapy, operating as Rehab Plus of Ahwatukee, o ers one of the most comprehensive golf training programs available.

WHERE: Rehab Plus of Ahwatukee

Pre-registration – $25 per person prior to day of event

Multiple registration discount – $20 per person for multiple person registration

Event Day registration – $30 per person registration day of event

*Payment will be collected day of event, or you can pay by phone

SCHEDULE:

This clinic will work with each individual one-on-one, so please register and include your preferred time between 12-3pm. We will have our event coordinator contact you to schedule your speci c time. Wear loose athletic attire. Golf equipment will be on-site for use.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12

GameNight: DV riding wave into playoffs after thumping Corona

BY ERIC SMITH AFN Contributing Writer

Desert Vista High School football coach Dan Hinds thinks winning is all about belief. His players believed they could beat Desert Ridge two weeks ago and they managed to do so. They believed they could win on Friday night too and, for the fourth straight time, they did.

Desert Vista rolled behind a 93-yard, two-touchdown performance from senior running back Lelon Dillard, cruising into the playoffs with a 35-7 win over Corona del Sol.

“I think that big win last week got our guys believing they can win football games and play with anybody,” Hinds

said. “Our big focus with these guys is not who we’re playing, it’s what team (of ours) shows up.”

In addition to carrying the ball 17 times, Dillard also caught two passes for 46 yards and added an interception on defense.

“It feels great, I haven’t got to do it much this year,”

BOX SCORE

Desert Vista 35, Corona del Sol 7

DV 7 14 14 0 -- 35

CDS 0 0 7 0 -- 7

SCORING

First

DV – Thomas 55-yard pass to White (Erickson kick)

Second

DV – Dillard six-yard rush (Erickson kick)

DV – Thomas four-yard rush (Erickson kick)

Third

DV – Dillard two-yard rush (Erickson kick)

CDS – Helt 30-yard pass to Kress (Delany kick)

DV – Thomas seven-yard pass to Porter (Erickson kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

Dillard said. “I’m happy things are starting to get rolling for me.”

The Thunder totaled 362 yards of offense while limiting the Aztecs to 224 total yards.

Corona del Sol couldn’t find an offensive rhythm for much of the game. Senior running back Cameron Brice was limited to only 27 rushing yards on 11 carries and senior quarterback Austin Helt was held to 121 passing yards on 10-of24 passing with a touchdown and an interception.

DV CDS

Rush-yards 29-158 19-66

Comp-Att-Int 14-24-0 12-49-2

Pass yards 204 158

Total yards 362 220

Penalties 8-80 4-50

Fumbles/lost 0-0 0-0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

DV - Dillard 17-93-2, Porter 5-37, Thomas 4-7-1. CDS – Brice 11-27, Clemens 3-36.

Passing

DV – Thomas 14-24-204-2 TDs. CDS – Helt 10-24-121-1 TD-1 INT.

Receiving

DV – White 1-55-1, Porter 3-18-1, Dillard 2-46. CDS – Kress 4-47-1, McCluskey 2-32. Missed FG

DV – Erickson (42,25)

“That’s a good football team,” Corona del Sol interim coach Richard Mettlach said of Desert Vista. “We’ve had some injuries in the offensive line and we haven’t had the same group week in and week out…but you gotta take your hat off to them, they have a good defense and they played well.”

The Aztecs, who were ranked 16th in 6A coming into the contest, needed a win to have any hope of a playoff berth.

“We took it all week as a playoff game,” Mettlach said. “Our playoffs started tonight and we didn’t get it done,”

The Thunder played mostly for playoff positioning.

“We like the momentum we’re on right now,” Hinds said.

Stadium.

Before any of that can happen, the first week of the postseason awaits.

The top game in all of 6A Conference just might be Desert Vista at Mountain View.

Both teams come in hot with fourgame streaks intact and confidence as high has it has been all year long.

Thunder learns from mistakes

The Toros, who are coached by Ohio transplant Mike Fell, opened the year 3-0, then lost three when some injuries along the line took its toll.

They finished with four straight

wins, including a 42-35 win over Red Mountain to get it all started right after what was the low point of the season—a 30-0 loss to Skyline to open East Valley Region play.

The Thunder also lost to Skyline in a much closer game, 27-21, when it had a chance to win at the last second, but a fumble inside the Skyline 10-yard line ended comeback hopes.

It’s the kind of mistakes Desert Vista made early in the year, but has cleaned up down the stretch.

“Early in the years we were beating

BY JASON P. SKODA

AFN Prep Sports Director

The expiration clock has started on the 2016 football season.

There are no more games guaranteed at this point. The prospect of the end can sometimes play havoc with players, especially seniors, as they try too hard to extend their careers as long as possible.

Or the idea of turning in their helmet and shoulder pads after they clear out their lockers can inspire them to play at an even higher level to savor every moment because for many, it is the last time they will play the game. Whatever effect the sudden-death aspect of the playoffs might have on area teams is about to play out, starting with Friday’s kickoffs.

Top-seeded Mountain Pointe (10-0) hosts No. 16 Cesar Chavez (6-4)

while No. 10 Desert Vista (6-4) travels to No. 7 Mountain View (7-3).

Desert Vista and Mountain Pointe are on opposite sides of the bracket, so the 21st Ahwatukee Bowl can only happen if both teams make the state title game on Nov. 26 at University of Phoenix

PLAYOFFS

from page 47

ourselves, shooting ourselves in the foot, against the good teams,” Desert Vista quarterback Nick Thomas said. “We started practicing better and pay more attention to details, and it all came together.”

Thunder coach Dan Hinds, who is in 12th playoff in 15 years of coaching the program, feels confident the team will be ready for the Toros.

“These guys believe in each other and that’s just important as the game plan,” said Hinds, who has led the programs to two state title appearances (2007 and 2011) and one title.

“We’ve preached brotherhood since we left for team camp, and it really paid off when this team could have been down and out,” Hinds added. “Instead, they stuck together and fought through some to get to this point.”

The teams have met seven times since 2004 with the Toros holding a 4-3 advantage, but the Thunder have won three in a row including last year’s 61-43 victory.

Pride has big advantage

The Mountain Pointe and Chavez series is a little more one-sided.

The Pride are 4-0 against Chavez since 2004 with the last meeting coming in 2014, a 48-6 win for the Pride at Chavez.

Chavez finished No. 19 in the power rankings but earned the 16th and final spot as the Metro Region champion.

“They have some really good players,” Pride coach Norris Vaughan said. “They have a really big running. He’s the size of NFL back. If he gets a head of steam, he is tough to bring down.”

Mike Rogers is listed at 6-foot-4 and 243 pounds. The preeminent big back in the NFL is LaGarrett Blount and he is 6-foot and 250.

Rogers has rushed for 1,855 yards with 22 touchdowns with 1,510 yards, and 20 of those scores came in the final six weeks against other Metro Region opponents.

But he’ll be up against one of the best defenses in the state.

Mountain Pointe has three shutouts this season, and two other games where the opposition has scored a touchdown or less. For the season, opponents have scored an average of 11.1 points a game with some of that coming against subs.

While the identity of the offense has changed since injuries took away top running back Gary Bragg and quarterback Noah Grover, the defense has accepted the challenge of having the

outcome dictated by its level of play.

“The coaches told us it was up to us to get the job done,” junior safety Kenny Churchwell. “We have to stop them, and get the ball back to the offense and we to score when we get a turnover.”

The offense opened up in the seasonfinale win over Gilbert as sophomore quarterback Nick Wallerstedt had his best game of his three starts.

Mountain Pointe senior Rashie Hodge Jr., who has averaged 122.2 yards a game over the second half of the season, continues to break off big runs and grind out games.

Wallerstedt was 10 of 15 for 180 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had four rushes for 78 yards, including a 37-yard score in the fourth quarter against Gilbert.

“He’s getting more comfortable and we opened it up for him,” Pride coach Norris Vaughan said. “There are going to be some drives and games where we are going to need him to make plays and he has shown he can do it.”

The Pride have been the consensus No. 1 ever since topping No. 2 Chandler in September. After finishing with its fourth undefeated season, making the semifinals for seventh time in eight years won’t be enough.

A championship has been the goal from the start and continues to be the big-picture goal while the team focuses on each week of the four-game playoff journey individually.

“It’s going to be tough, but they’ve showed up and played every week,” Vaughan said prior to the Gilbert game. “We feel like if we play our best game then it is going to be hard to beat us, but penalties and turnovers change a game.

“As long as we limit some of that stuff we will be in a position to win the game at the end.”

– Contact Jason Skoda at 480-898-7915 or jskoda@ahwatukee.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonPSkoda.

– Check us out and like the Ahwatukee Foothills News on Facebook and follow @AhwatukeeFN on Twitter.

Postseason arrives for other sports besides football

BY JASON P. SKODA AFN Prep Sports Director

The second season has arrived and only a select few have made it. Whether it is a team or individual sport, now is the time of the year all strived for when fall camp began in August.

Here are some quick story lines in volleyball, golf, swimming and cross country:

• Horizon Honors girls volleyball earned the No. 1 seed in the 2A Conference tournament after going 16-1. It’s a continuation of last year’s success when the Eagles made state semifinals.

• Desert Vista girls volleyball have a tough road to a third straight title as the No. 9 Thunder start on the road against No. 8 Horizon with No. 1 Hamilton most likely waiting in the quarterfinals.

• Mountain Pointe girls volleyball earned the fifth seed and the Pride’s resurgence to a top program will most likely hinge on its second round match with No. 4 Perry Perry is coached by Fred Mann, who coached the Pride for 20 years.

Meanwhile, Desert Vista senior Kendall Glover set the program’s season record for digs last week, surpassing her sister, Lexi.

Kendall entered Tuesday’s playoff game with 764 digs on the season after setting in the regular season finale. The previous mark by Lexi was 740.

• Desert Vista cross country teams are favorites to pull off a double win in cross country as both the boys and girls squads are heavy favorites in the 6A Conference meet.

• The Thunder girls swim team will be one of the contenders in the Division

I meet after winning several meets this season, including beating perennial champions Chaparral and Xavier at the Wolves Classic, and the Gators in a dual meet.

• The Desert Vista boys and girls golf teams qualified for state with the girls finishing as the second ranked team in 6A and the boys were sixth.

• Mountain Pointe had individuals qualify in golf with senior Kayla Kelsen for the girls and junior Zack Ramseyer. Ramseyer has had quality year in shooting six competitive rounds under 40, including a 35 at the Raven Golf Club.

“He’s been very consistent this year,” Mountain Pointe coach Tony Ramseyer, Zack’s father, said. “In the previous seasons, he scored well but then he’d have that occasional blow up hole or round.”

It’s made the relationship between dad and son, and coach and player easier to manage.

“If he has a bad round, it can be hard to separate the two,” the elder Ramseyer said. “Golf can be very frustrating, but he’s had a really good year so we haven’t had to deal with it as much.”

Monday marked the start of the spring season for high school sports as

basketball, soccer and wrestling. The first games/matches for basketball and soccer are Nov. 21, while the first wrestling matches of the season are March 22.

Desert Vista hired Rodney Berry as the interim girls basketball coach for the 2016-17 season.

Berry is the interim because the hire came so late–one week–before the season starts after Cheyan Wilson resigned last month.

The athletic department will do a full coaching search after the season.

Some other story lines for the second season in golf, swimming and cross country:

– Contact Jason Skoda at 480-898-7915 or jskoda@ahwatukee.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonPSkoda.

PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

Cross Country Cave Creek Golf Course, Phoenix

All Divisions Saturday Division I Girls – 8:55 a.m.; Boys - 9:45 a.m.

See POSTSEASON on page 50

This lecture is designed to enhance the understanding of Alzheimer’s and will explain the various other types of dementia - including symptoms, diagnosis, disease progression, and treatment options - all in a language we can understand. Brian is the Director of Education and Outreach at Banner Research and the President of Dementia Care Education.

Enjoy the culinary creations our Sunrise Chef has prepared for you. Call 480-786-4998 today for more information and to RSVP. By doing so you will be entered to win a door prize provided by Endeavor.

Sunrise of Chandler, 5757 W Chandler Blvd., Chandler, AZ 85226 480-786-4998 | Chandler.DOS@sunriseseniorliving.com

Camryn Marshall.

Division II

Girls 12:40 p.m.; Boys - 1:30 p.m.

Division III

Girls 10:10 a.m.; Boys - 9:20 a.m.

Division IV

Girls 1:05 p.m.; Boys - 12:15 p.m.

Football

Friday

No. 10 Desert Vista (6-4) at No. 7

Mountain View (7-3)

No. 16 Cesar Chavez (4-6) at No. 1 Mountain Pointe

Golf

Division I girls:

Day 1: Today, 7:30 a.m., Aguila Golf Course

Day 2: Thursday, 7:30 a.m., Aguila Golf Course

Division I boys

Day 1: Monday, 7:45 a.m., Grand Canyon Golf Course

Day 2: Tuesday, 7:45 a.m., Grand Canyon Golf Course

Swimming

Division I

Diving: Friday, 1:30 p.m., Skyline Aquatic Center (SAC)

Swim Prelims: Friday, 2:30 p.m., SAC

Swim Finals: Saturday, 2:30 p.m., SAC

Division II

Diving: Friday, 9:30 a.m., SAC

Swim Prelims: Friday, 9:30 a.m., SAC Swim Finals: Saturday, 9:30 a.m., SAC

Division III

Diving: Friday, 1:30 p.m., SAC Swim Prelims: Saturday, 9:30 a.m., Phoenix Country Day (PCD) Swim Finals: Saturday, 3:30 p.m., PCDS

Volleyball Today, 6:30 p.m.

6A Conference No. 9 Desert Vista at No. 8 Horizon No. 12 Red Mountain at No. 5 Mountain Pointe

2A Conference Friday Central High No. 16 Desert Christian vs. No. 1 Horizon Honors, 3 p.m.

COMING THANKSGIVING DAY!

Get Out

Farmers markets provide more than fresh produce

BY BRI MALLOY AFN Contributing Writer

Along with fresh produce and a variety of hand-crafted products, a stroll through local farmers’ markets gives a genuine representation of the community that you belong to.

With around 100 farmers’ markets statewide and an increased interest in them, Ahwatukee and the East Valley are witnessing their growing popularity.

Vendors and patrons alike said that markets bring the community together, help support local businesses and keep money in the local economy.

“The most important thing is the community-based atmosphere,” said Anita Reale, manager at the Ahwatukee Farmers Market. “People can come together and take in Arizona business.”

Catherine “The Herb Lady” Crowley, vendor at the Mesa Community Farmers’ Market, said, “In the last 20 years, the number of farmers’ markets has grown exponentially,”

Crowley added that the Valley is now filled with them and that they are held on different days, varying from the traditional Saturday and Sunday morning markets.

The Arizona Farm Bureau’s second website, fillyourplate.org, which is focused on nutrition, launched a farmers’ market finder that gives details and hours.

“Farmers’ markets have a lot more specialty food and item booths than a few years ago, and that is a sign of growth and interest.”

The growing trend of shopping local to keep money in the community and people’s desire for fresh foods and different craft items have helped that growth, said Deanne Fenton, event coordinator for downtown Chandler.

“Farmers’ markets allow the community to get together and support local businesses that are smaller,” Fenton said. “They are making sure that the money isn’t going toward large corporations.”

Justin Crowell, staff member at Tempe Farmers Market, said shopping at farmers’ markets allows consumers to support neighbors.

Walking around a farmers market gives patrons a better idea of their community’s diversity.

“I love them because of the sense of community they create in a city. It’s also a way to showcase local talents and flavors,” said Katie Young, owner of Letter Craft at the Gilbert Farmers Market.

“Farmers’ markets are important because they connect the consumer to the producer,” said Lauren Scott, a student who has attended the Chandler Farmers Market for three years.

“When you go to a farmers’ market and buy produce or a product like a candle,” she added, “you can talk to the person

Farmers’ Markets

WHAT: Chandler Farmers Market

WHEN: 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays WHERE: A.J. Chandler Park, 3 S. Arizona Ave., Chandler INFORMATION: downtownchandler.org

WHAT: Gilbert Farmers Market WHEN: 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Saturdays, October through March; 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturdays, April through September WHERE: 222 N. Ash St., Gilbert INFORMATION: gilbertmarket.com

October through May; 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Fridays, June through September

WHERE: City Hall Plaza, 20 E. Main St., Mesa

INFORMATION: arizonafarmersmarkets.com/ pageMesa/Mesa.htm

WHAT: Tempe Farmers Market

WHEN: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., open daily WHERE: 805 S. Farmer Ave., Tempe INFORMATION:

Dozens of children prepping for Christmas ‘Annie Jr.’ show

AFN News Staff

Some of the best and brightest youth actors in Ahwatukee and the East Valley will leap onto stage at Mesa Arts Center in December for “Annie Jr.,” a junior version of the musical.

Produced by Gilbert’s Studio 3 Performing Arts in partnership with Limelight Performing Arts, kids auditioned for the show. With more than 100 performers ages 4-18 vying for a part, the directors double- and even triple-cast many featured roles.

“We were completely blown away by all of the talent,” said Emma England, owner of Studio 3 and artistic director of “Annie Jr.”

“While we are committed to producing the best possible show, we’re also passionate about providing opportunities and encouragement for as many young actors as possible,” she added.

More than 60 performers fill out the show’s red, green and blue casts, and

all will have a turn to portray the story of the plucky, courageous 11-year-old named Annie.

Set in Depression-era New York City, America’s favorite orphan and her dog, Sandy, thwart Miss Hannigan’s wicked machinations and find a new home with Daddy Warbucks. “Annie Jr.” includes such songs as “It’s the Hard Knock Life,” “You’re Never Fully Dressed” and “Tomorrow.”

Performances are scheduled at the Mesa Arts Center Nesbitt/Elliot Playhouse from Dec. 14-20. Tickets are $15 and are available for purchase at mesaartscenter. com, keyword “Annie,” or by calling the MAC box office at 480-644-6500. Group discounts are also available. Information: limelightyouththeater. org or (480-545-1492.

Top chef bringing Greek restaurant to Ahwatukee next week

One of the Valley’s leading chefs is opening a restaurant in Ahwatukee.

employees for maximum efficiency to withstand $7 million to $8 million in annual gross sales,” her consulting business’ website states.

Harris is bringing her family recipes to Fresko, which is located in Ahwatukee Plaza.

Kody Harris, the former executive chef of the Thirsty Lion Gastropub and Grille, is opening a Greek restaurant called Fresko at 5033 E. Elliot Road on Tuesday. Hours will be 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Harris, who owns a restaurant consulting business in Phoenix, has a “fast casual” concept for Fresko.

She has “the secrets of fresh, homemade Greek cuisine in her blood,” a spokeswoman said. Her father was Greek and a chef and she’s been in the restaurant business since she was 8 years old and worked in the kitchen of her family’s restaurant in Portland, Oregon.

“Fresko is the restaurant I’ve always wanted, from top to bottom,” Harris said. “Fresko translates to ‘fresh,’ and that’s exactly what we offer in this kitchen. Great food doesn’t have to be unhealthy food.”

Beginning as a line cook 30 years ago, Harris has “opened over 22 restaurants, designing kitchens and training

With Greek classics like souvlaki, keftedes (Greek meatballs) and spanakopita, Fresko touts “the diseasefighting benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, with fresh vegetables, nuts, grains and olive oil at the foundation of most dishes.”

The menu features appetizers, pita and other sandwiches, plates and add-ons ranging from meat skewers to dipping veggies. Desserts are limited to baklava and bougatsa.

“The restaurant’s interior is focused on recreating the authentic Greek home experience, with reclaimed barn wood walls, intricate tile work and a natural, countryside vibe. Paying homage to her roots, the walls include a side-by-side photo of her grandfather in his kitchen and Harris in hers,” a spokeswoman said.

In a magazine interview earlier this year, Harris said her mentor is “my family in general.”

“I come from a Greek family, so meat is lamb of course. My mother is an excellent cook,” she said.

She said in another interview that “sometimes chef overcomplicate things” and that she favors simplicity “instead of adding 14 million things” to a dish.

“I feel food brings people together and food brings smiles to people’s faces,” she added.

Fresko doesn’t currently serve alcohol, but patrons can bring their own beer, wine and spirits.

Information: freskokitchen.com or 480-940-3669.

Boats races, jazz and magic in the offing

JUSTIN FERRIS Getout/AFN Staff Writer

Jazz fest comes to Chandler

Spend four days listening to 13 outstanding regional jazz bands play New Orleans-style, Swing, Dixieland, Chicago-

style, Hot Jazz and more at the Arizona Classic Jazz Festival. People can also strut their stuff at two Lindy Hop dance parties.

DETAILS>> Times vary, Thursday-Sunday. Crowne Plaza San Marcos, 1 San Marcos Place, Chandler. Tickets: $100 (4 days), $20-$55 (individual days). 480-620-3941, azclassicjazz.org.

Boat race roars to Wild Horse

Get your speed fix as you watch nitro methane Top Fuel boats blaze across the water. They can cover a quarter-mile in 4.7 seconds at speeds up to 250 mph!

DETAILS>> 9 a.m., Friday-Sunday. Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, 20000 S. Maricopa Road, Chandler. Tickets: $70 (3 days), $20$30 (individual days); only available at gate. 520-796-5601, racewildhorse.net.

Theater features ‘Music Man’

Don’t miss the classic musical “The Music Man,” which offers laughter and love as con man Harold Hill tries to convince a small town to front the money for a boys’ marching band. It features hit songs like “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “Ya Got Trouble,” and “Till There Was You.”

DETAILS>> Times vary, Friday-Nov. 20. Mesa Arts Center, One E. Main St., Mesa. Tickets: $31 adults, $28 seniors and students with ID. 480-644-6500, mesaartscenter.com.

Phoenix Zoo offers Farm Days

Get a fun farm experience (no waking up early or hard work required) at Harmony Farm in Phoenix Zoo. It features live music, games, crafts, meet and greet with actual farmers, goat training and, naturally, a wide range of barnyard animals.

DETAILS>> 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday-Sunday. Phoenix Zoo, 455 N. Galvin Pkwy., Phoenix. Tickets: $24.95 adults, $14.95 kids 3-13. 602286-3800, phoenixzoo.org.

Garden features ‘Dog Days’

You love Desert Botanical Garden and its lush desert beauty and sprawling pathways, but a walk through nature just seems incomplete without your faithful walking fur-panion. That changes Saturday.

DETAILS>> 8 a.m.-2 p.m.. Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 N. Galvin Pkwy., Phoenix. Cost: Regular admission plus $4 per dog. 480941-1225, dbg.org.

Explore space at ASU

Budding scientists and science lovers alike should attend this event at Arizona

CALENDAR

from page 54

State University. See more than 40 exhibits showing cutting-edge science from astronomy to robotics, plus 3-D astronomy shows, an actual moon rock and presentations from experts.

DETAILS>> 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. ASU Tempe ISTB IV, 781 E. Terrace Mall, Tempe. Cost: Free, but RSVP at asuevents.asu.edu.

Arizona Harvest Fest slated

Celebrate fall with activities like a pumpkin toss, pie eating contest, corn shucking and more harvest-type fun, including an area for the kids and seasonal beer flavors for adults. Live music courtesy of San Diego-based Tribal Seeds.

DETAILS>> 4-11 p.m. Friday. Dr. A.J. Chandler

Park, 3 S. Arizona Ave., Chandler. Tickets: $8 (online or at gate with non-perishable food donation), $10 (at gate), free for kids 12 and under. 602-276-2499, arizonaharvestfest. com.

Eric Giliam performs magic

Prepare for an evening of magic and wonder with award-winning magician and past World Teen Magic Champion Eric Giliam, and his beautiful assistant. This family-friendly show features mindblowing illusion and fun for all ages.

DETAILS>> 7 p.m., Saturday. Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler. Tickets: $19-$29. 480-782-2680,, chandlercenter.org.

Symphony performs in Chandler

The free concert lineup by the Chandler Symphony includes both this year’s Piano/

Harp/Percussion Youth Competition winner and Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.” Also, hear “Phantom of the Opera” and Mussorgsky’s spooky “Night on Bald Mountain.”

DETAILS>> 3 p.m. Sunday. Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 N. Arizona Ave., Chandler. Cost: free. 480-782-2680 chandlercenter.org.

Movies coming Friday

Dr. Strange (PG-13) – The latest Marvel installment follows an injured surgeon as he unlocks the mystical side of the universe and becomes its guardian. Starring Benedict Cummberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong and Tilda Swinton.

Trolls (PG) – The wild-haired, ‘90s toy craze comes to life as a troll princess and her unhappy companion try to rescue their friends. Voiced by Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, Justin Timberlake and Christine Baranski.

Hacksaw Ridge (R) – The inspirational true story of WWII Army Medic Desmond T. Doss who received a Medal of Honor in spite

of his refusal to kill. Starring Teresa Palmer, Andrew Garfield, Vince Vaughn, Sam Worthington and Hugo Weaving. Get more ideas for fun things to do in the Ahwatukee - and beyond - at Phoenix.org.

Gilbert group’s pilgrimage in Spain captured in documentary

BY RALPH ZUBIATE AFN Managing Editor

The Way of St. James, or el Camino de Santiago in Spanish, is the route of a pilgrimage in Spain, a religious journey to find something. A group from Gilbert went on that journey in the summer of 2014, and what they found was themselves, and God.

“It was a beautiful experience,” said the Rev. Sergio Muñoz Fita.

That experience is documented in “Footprints: The Path of Your Life,” a film showing in limited release until Friday at Harkins Chandler Fashion 20 Theaters.

Fita, of St. Anne Parish in Gilbert, led 10 pilgrims, men from all walks of life, more 500 miles in 40 days through Spain. They walked from San Sebastian to Santiago de Compostela through what’s called the Northern Route.

They took a few detours along on the way to visit other sites important to Catholics.

“We went to the birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola. It was a beautiful place, and it was important for us to be there,” Fita said.

They also went to a monastery in Santo Toribio de Liebana. It holds an important relic, what is purported to be a large part of the cross of the crucifixion.

“The whole left arm of the cross of Jesus is there,” he said.

Pedro Gutierrez, president of the non-profit Catholics in Action, helped organize the journey and was one of the 10 pilgrims.

“It’s probably most difficult thing I’ve done in my life,” Gutierrez said. “You’re walking through so many different terrains— beach, forest, city, you’re walking through highways, meadows, mountains.

“It was absolutely beautiful and very challenging. From day one, a majority of the men got blisters on their feet.”

Gutierrez and the other men went through a few pairs of shoes on the journey.

“One pilgrim wore handmade Mexican sandals. He made a vow that he was going to wear those sandals for the last 100 kilometers, and he did. They looked like they were the most uncomfortable sandals.

“Having blisters was the most consistent theme from the whole pilgrimage,” Gutierrez said.

“At the end of the second week, my shoes were so worn that I had to switch to some sandals that were made for hiking.

“That’s one of the most important components of pilgrimage,” Fita responded. “You have to go through suffering and pain. You have to go through the suffering of the cross to see the light of redemption.”

The struggle was spiritual as well as physical.

“I was really concerned with the direction, or lack of direction, that my life was heading in,” Gutierrez said. “I had a big ask of God; I wanted to have an answer. I wanted to know what to do with the rest of my life.

“I realized, maybe the last week or so, that I had been asking myself the wrong

question all along. I asked one question and got a different answer from God. I came out with God telling me it’s time to find out for yourself.

“Right now, what’s most important to me is making sure that I’m giving the most of me in all I do,” he said.

Fita said he learned humility.

“You feel so strong right in the beginning, but God makes you aware of your limitations. You need help,” he said.

“We are really very frail beings,” Fita laughed. “I had that sense of God’s providence, taking care of all of us all the way. If he didn’t give us the strength, it would have been impossible for us to get to Santiago.”

Gutierrez said the journey affected an unexpected group: the filmmakers.

“The men that were filming us had a distance at first,” he said. “Then, they became part of the pilgrimage. They even participated in part of the things we did, like celebrating Mass.

“Some of them said that walking on the pilgrimage opened their mind to God.”

After the film’s run at Harkins, Fita is hoping to show “Footprints” through the Cinemark theater chain. Eventually, it will find a home at Netflix.

“I think it’s going to help many people who are thinking of walking The Way in the future,” Fita said, “but it will also help others to see their lives as a pilgrimage.” Information: footprintsdocumentary.com.

Classifieds

OF MINE Your in-home pet sitting and plant care service For all your pet needs domestic and exotics Flat fee-no hidden costs Serving Ahwatukee since 2003 Member of PSI Bond/Ins d 602-617-0993 Please visit us at afriend ofminepetsitting com

Employment General

AGRICULTURAL NURSERY HELP

Whitfill Nursery needs workers for the following position:

Tree Harvesters and Pruners will harvest and prune different types of citrus, desert and palm trees by hand and by machinery Workers will p l

trees from the worksite, transplant container grown stock into boxes and containers, prune production stock including pruning young grafted trees Workers should have 3 months experience and will be required to lift up to 50lbs on a regular basis

Temporary employment in Arizona for 15 jobs i n H

Meetings/Events

Ahwatukee Foothills Friends and Neighbors (AFFAN) is a women s organization, dedicated to cultivating friendships, and goodwill AFFAN promotes social, charitable and educational events all year long AFFAN holds monthly luncheon meetings with varied speakers We offer over 40 monthly activities including Book Clubs, Canasta, Bunco, Euchre, and Bridge Other monthly activities are Dining Out Stitch and Chat, Explore Arizona, and Garden Club Significant others/ spouses can attend some events For more info contact Teresa Akrish Phone: 480-518-5788, teresaakrish@gmail com Check our website at affanwomensclub.com

Crops of Luv

We make Scrapbooks for critically-ill children who have had their "WISH" trip come true! Scrapbook with us, make embellishments for us donate your time, or your commercial space, donate funds to ship albums, etc! Does your teen need community service hours? We could use their help! Copsofluv com 480 634 7763 Ahwatukee based non-profit

Aegis Hospice Grief/Loss Support Group

We meet 6 pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month

Legacy Funeral Home: 1722 N Banning St Mesa, Refreshments provided Contact: Rick Wesley 480-219-4790 rick@ aegishospice com

Phoenix Positions needed from 12/6/2016 thru 4/15/2017 Wage is $11 20 per hour (51 hours per week) Work is guaranteed for at least

of

All work tools, supplies, and equipment will be provided

Meetings/Events

Meetings/Events

Handyman

D Call Bob 480-893-9482

Meetings/Events

Anonymous

Big Book Step Study

Mtg Every Tuesday

7:00pm Closed meeting Child care provided

Mtn View Lutheran Church, 11002 S 48th St , Phoenix, 85044

AHWATUKEE TEA PARTY

General Meeting Notice

Quality Inn

Hotel Desert Meeting Rm 5121 E LaPuenta Ave 51st St /Elliot-Ahwatukee

Meetings are held on the 3rd Thurdsday of each month Doors open at 6:30p meeting starts at 7pm Public is invited!

EMAIL: info@tukee teaparty com

The Ahwatukee Republican Women's Club (ARW)

General meetings are held on the 4th Tuesday of the month (unless otherwise noted) at the Four Points by Sheraton South Mountain 10831 S 51st St Phoenix, 85044 Social Networking begins at 6:30 PM and the meeting (program) begins at 7:00 PM Additional info contact:

ARWomen@aol.com

Visit our website at www ahwatukee republican women com

AHWATUKEE AL-ANON

family group invites you to meetings every Mon 7:15 PM at Corpus Christi Church on 3550 E Knox Wed 8:00 PM at Community Center, 4700 Warner Rd Fri

"Women s only" 9:00 AM at Mountian View

Luthern Church 11022 S 48th St , Sat "Men's stag" 12PM at Mountian View Luthern Church 11022 S 48th St Rita 480-496-4535

Meetings/Events

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS SENIOR ASSOCIATION (AFSA) will be celebrating an early Thanksgiving at their monthly meeting on Thursday, November 10, at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel located at 51st St and Elliot Rd in Phoenix Doors open at 11am and lunch is at noon

Cost is $13 Open to all Seniors 55+ Deadline for reservations is Saturday November 5 For further information, please contact Sue McCann at (480) 469-9388

Widowed-to-Widowed Grief Support Group every Monday at 6pm, Pyle Adult Recreation Center, Tempe (SW corner of Rural & Southern) Call Kay at 480 861 8031 for more information

TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) is a weight loss organization that is over 60 years old We meet at Ahwatukee Rec Center on Cheyenne between S 48th St and S 51st St on Wed eve ' s from 67:30 p m For more information Terri at 480-893-6742 Alcoholics

Meetings/Events

PARENTS OF ADDICTED LOVED ONES

Are you affected by someone who is dealing with an addiction? If so, know that you are not alone and that the PAL (Parents of Addicted Loved Ones) group can help The group is available to provide education and support to anyone 18 years or older who is dealing with a friend or family member with an addiction See our local meeting list at palgroup.org

Democrats and Donuts

This monthly gathering is held the third Wednesday of each month from 8 - 9:30 a m at Denny's, 7400 West Chandler Boulevard, Chandler. Sponsored by the Legislative District 18 Democrats, speakers cover current issues of interest Meetings are free and open to the public, breakfast may be purchased For more information, visit www ld18democrats org /meetings or email mariec9@q com

GAMBLERS ANONYMOUS & GAMANON for meeting information 602-266-97846

Dining For Women (DFW) diningforwomen org inspires, educates and engages people to invest in programs that make a meaningful difference for women and girls living in extreme poverty DFW helps women find dignity and strength develop skills and opportunities, value and support their children s education We have a local chapter in Ahwatukee which meets the 3rd Thursday every month from 6 30 p m -8:30p m If you'd like to know more on how you can transform lives and reduce poverty contact Mary

Social hour starts at 11am and lunch

(including coffee/tea a

All work guaranteed ROC# 100401-L42 ROC# 132572-C42

Call Carl 480-895-3425 or 602-432-9183

AHWATUKEE/CHANDLER Bosom Buddies We meet the 2nd Saturday of the month, 10:00 AM-12:00 noon in the Conference Room at Dignity Health Urgent CareAhwatukee 4545 E Chandler Blvd Phoenix, AZ Please contact Deb Sidman 602.460.9893 or Devon Pollard: 602 318 8462 See more at: http //www bosombuddies-az org/ At Bosom Buddies of AZ we support women of all ages and in all stages of breast cancer

GROWING TOGETHER:

That s the motto of The Ahwatukee Community Garden Project Get your hands dirty while learning about desert gardening Join us every Sunday morning starting at 8 A M in the Garden at 4700 E Warner Rd north of the Farmers' Market acgarden org

UP TO $5,925 IN REBATES OR 0% APR FOR 48 OR 60 MO.* Fall Tune-up

$5,925 $5,925

10-Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty* *On Selected Systems ($1,295 Value - No Charge)

Up to $800 in Utility Rebates*

*Up to a $2,825 Brewer’s Dealer Rebate, up to $800 Utility Rebate, up to $300 Federal Tax Credit & up to $2,000 Trane Trade In Allowance. See your independent Trane Dealer for complete program eligibility, dates, details and restrictions. Special financing offers OR trade-in allowances from $75 up to $2,000 valid on qualifying equipment only. Offers vary by equipment. All sales must be to homeowners in the United States. Void where prohibited. *The Home Projects and Home Projects Visa® credit cards are issued by Wells Fargo Financial National Bank, an Equal Housing Lender. Special terms apply to qualifying purchases charged with approved credit. The special terms APR will continue to apply until all qualifying purchases are paid in full. The monthly payment for this purchase will be the amount that will pay for the purchase in full in equal payments during the promotional (special terms) period. The APR for Purchases will apply to certain fees such as a late payment fee or if you use the card for other transactions. For new accounts, the APR for Purchases is 28.99%. If you are charged interest in any billing cycle, the minimum interest charge will be $1.00. If you have a Visa card and you use it for cash advances, the cash advance fee is 5.00% of the amount of the cash advance, but not less than $10.00. This information is accurate as of 07/01/2016 and is subject to change. For current information, call us at 1-800-431-5921. Offer expires 12/15/2016.