P.22| OPINION P.30| OPINION | BUSINESS RE AL P.37 ESTATE P. R E1 | GETOUT P.37 | P.41 SPORTS P.43| CLCLASSIFIED ASSIFIED P.49 INSIDE: COMMUNITY P.27| AROUND AF P.31 P.34|P.33 BUSINESS |REAL ESTATE P.RE1| GETOUT | SPORTS P.45| P.47 INSIDE: COMMUNITY
www.ahwatukee.com
MAPPING BOLIN PLAZA
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
. 22 ABOUT THOSE FIRST TIME ‘REENACTMENTS’ NOVELIST
@AhwatukeeFN
Brownies’ project provokes GOP leader attack BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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@AhwatukeeFN |
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n Ahwatukee Girl Scout Brownie Troop of third graders may one day learn the lesson in Arizona hardball politics that their environmental project triggered. But for now, the 15-girl troop – whose identity is being withheld by AFN at the request of their anxious parents and Scoutmaster Heather Sapp – hasn’t been told that their monthslong effort to curtail the release of balloons
in Arizona provoked an unusual and strident news release from House Majority Leader Warren Petersen. And even if they eventually learn about the tirade, the girls will likely continue to seek a law that drastically limits the release of balloons into the air, Sapp said. Many bills are introduced in the State Legislature every session that never get a hearing and subsequently fade into oblivion without a mention – or a press release noting their demise.
But on April 12 Petersen issued a press release to celebrate the fact that HB 2664 was one of them, stating he “applauded House Republicans for killing” it. “If enacted, HB 2664 would have prohibited the releasing of balloons into the air, as well as mandating expensive warning label requirements for manufactures to affix to balloons prior to sale,” the release began. It then quoted Petersen as saying:
see BALLOONS page 9
We love a parade! QuikTrip case raises hazmat escape concerns BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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mid rising residents’ concerns over a QuikTrip’s proximity to their 185home Ahwatukee subdivision with only one way in and out, a Phoenix planning department hearing officer last week delayed action on a zoning modification for the proposed gas station at 40th Street and Cottonwood Way. While the delay of up to 30 days came April 17 because a new site plan had been submitted for the service station, it also was partly related to a request by the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee that more time be given for the site owner and the Arizona Department of Transportation to resolve the highway agency’s refusal to give QuikTrip a driveway on 40th Street. But the delay also has given Foothills Paseo II residents a
KEYSTONE
MONTESSORI A Foundation for a Lifetime of Learning
chance to lobby elected officials about their concerns over the absence of an escape route in the event of a gasoline spill, fire or other hazardous event at the site. Ironically, those concerns echo the alarm that a number of local elected officials had several years ago over the existence of only one emergency route for Desert Vista High School and other schools because there was no initial plan for a 32nd exit on the South Mountain Freeway. Several legislators and City Councilman Sal DiCiccio then worked with ADOT to develop a secondary route for emergency vehicles. It is now likely no longer necessary because the agency last year decided to add a freeway-32nd Street interchange. So far, no elected officials have entered the QuikTrip dispute, which some Foothills Paseo resi-
see QUIKTRIP page 12
The Ahwatukee Kiwanis Club’s Easter Parade drew scores of entries and hundreds of spectators last Saturday as Lexi “Sonshine” Garnice rode her minicar as part of the Ahwatukee Recreation Center’s entry and Nehemiah Rodriguez played with the Akimel A-al Middle School Marching Band. Full coverage begins on page 19. (Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
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