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Fed up with Peachy keen local streets? Help on way BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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urns out that an increase in traffic, especially on Chandler Boulevard and Ray Road, wasn’t the South Mountain Freeway’s only impact on Ahwatukee’s streets. The Phoenix Streets Transportation Department curtailed repaving and other work here, a city official told the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee last week. But motorists can expect that to change as work on the freeway barrels toward an end-of-the-year completion date, according to Mark Glock, deputy director of the department’s Street Maintenance Division. Thanks to City Council’s decision to accelerate the street maintenance program, more
see STREETS page 14
Basis Ahwatukee students are preparing for the biggest show in the school’s history with a production of “James and the Giant Peach.” During a rehearsal last week, ensemble members who were among the students belting out some tunes were, from left: back row: Arnob Kabir, Spencer Hachtel; middle: Noah Bayih and Nathan Greenman; front: Natalie Ellis and Miriam Sow. For details, see page 29. (Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
FAA sets workshops on noisy flight path changes . 39
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BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
For nearly three years, Karen Starbowski has gritted her teeth over the sound of commercial passenger planes that fly over her Ahwatukee neighborhood relentlessly almost any time of the day or night. “It’s worse now because the windows are open,” said Starbowski, who lives in the general vicinity of Corpus Christi Church. “The other night one woke me up at 1:30 in the morning.” The 20-year Ahwatukee resident recalled that she first noticed the changes around nearly three years ago. “I could see there was a definite change,” she said. “It went from two random flights at high-
er altitude to a lot of flights at lower altitude.” This month, Starbowski and other Ahwatukee residents who have complained to the Federal Aviation Administration about the constant roar of airplanes flying in and out of Greater Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport will have a chance to tell the agency why those flight patterns should be changed. But whether the FAA will heed their complaints is another story altogether. In announcing three workshops for later this month – including one at Desert Vista High School – the FAA last week said it was about to begin Phase 2 of a court-ordered process to address noise complaints by examining the impact of the flight changes throughout the Phoenix area, but added:
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“The FAA recognizes the importance and value of public input and will consider comments received. However, the FAA is not committing to make changes as a result of this input. The decision to implement potential airspace or route changes during Step Two will be at the FAA’s sole discretion.” Starbowski is not the only Ahwatukee resident to complain – and Ahwatukee isn’t the only community where residents are upset with the FAA for changes to flight paths that arose from the FAA’s 2014 decision to implement its NextGen plan in an effort to streamline arrivals and departures at the airport. Residents at the far western reaches of Ah-
see FLIGHTS page 12
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