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UNIQUE MINISTRIES
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
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Infected mosquitoes on the rise BY CECILIA CHAN AFN Staff Writer
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@AhwatukeeFN |
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ector control specialist Jason Gillette checked a funky-looking mosquito trap hanging from a tree in an East Valley neighborhood. The gallon cooler was filled with dry ice and poked with holes that emit carbon dioxide – mimicking respiration and attracting mosquitoes that were then blown into a cylindrical net by a hand-size fan. “We catch mosquitoes year-round,” said Gillette, gathering the trap – one of 29 he collected that morning in Gilbert and part of Chandler for the trip back to the Maricopa County
vector lab. “This season seems like it’s a little busy.” Not only is the mosquito season an active one, but the county lab is seeing a significant number of traps testing positive for West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis, said Johnny Dilone, spokesman for the county Department of Environmental Services. As of July 1, the number of mosquito traps testing positive for West Nile in the county was 315 and 153 for encephalitis, Dilone said. For all of 2018, the county reported 138 positive traps for West Nile and 106 positive traps for encephalitis. “If we keep on experiencing the same trend this week, we would most likely see those
numbers go up,” Dilone said. So far, only 12 traps have been set up in Ahwatukee, according to an interactive county map at fightthebite.org. Fogging has occurred only in two areas of Ahwatukee – one around Elliot Road and 48th Street and the other an area bordered by Chandler Boulevard, Pecos Road and 40th and 48th streets. But the threat of disease-bearing mosquitoes isn’t that far away. West Nile virus, which can lead to neuroinvasive disease in humans such as meningitis and encephalitis, is the most common mosqui-
see MOSQUITOES page 6
Ahwatukee author ready for the silver screen BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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rin Jade Lange fretted a bit about this week. After all, there aren’t any guidebooks on what you should wear to a Hollywood movie screening – especially when the film is based on your own book. But in the long run, excitement overcame the fretting as the Ahwatukee author anticipated seeing the movie of her first novel, “Butter,” which she published in 2012. “I don’t really understand how all this works because it’s a screening, not a premiere, which means that just because we go see it doesn’t mean everybody else can suddenly see it,” she said. Lange already spent a day on the set watching the filming of the movie, which stars Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino. “I’m learning a lot about the business,” she said. And over the next few months, she’s likely to learn a lot more as director Paul Kaufman shops the movie to studios at upcoming film festivals.
As an author of popular young-adult novels, Erin Jade Lange of Ahwatukee now is on the threshold of seeing her first book become a movie. Her novel “Butter,” with the tagline “Popularity has an expiration date,” is a cautionary tale of how social media can amplify the angst of high school society. (Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
If Kaufman scores a big studio – or one of the streaming giants like Amazon or Netflix – Lange could be catapulted into a whole new level of stardom from the one she enjoys as writer of young adult fiction. People who don’t know Lange might know her by her professional alter ego and married name – Erin Helm.
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Helm is the communications director for Kyrene School District, the former spokeswoman for the Scottsdale School District at a time when then-Superintendent Denise Birdwell’s administration was the subject of a state Attorney General’s investigation, and a MEDICATION A
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