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www.ahwatukee.com
PACKING IN
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
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BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
READY TO PLAY
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ne was the object of a bitter and expensive campaign and the other inspired a plan hatched by an Ahwatukee man while he was on work release from the County Jail. But by this time next week, the ambitions inspired respectively by the Ahwatukee Lakes and Club West golf courses will expire once and for all as Wilson Gee gets them back. “We’re not holding back on the foreclosure sales,” Gee told the AFN last week. With a trustee sale of both sites set for Tuesday at his lawyer’s office, Gee said he is “99 percent sure” that The True Life Companies has no intention of paying off its $8.6 million note for the Lakes course and that Richard Breuninger won’t be ponying up the $1.3 million he owes for Club West. “I believe the Lakes owner is walking away for sure,” said Gee, who held out an olive branch to Lakes residents in the hopes of reaching a settlement on the course’s future. Nonetheless, he also is prepared to continue the court fight over it. “With the Lakes, we filed our appeal,” he
said. “But once the foreclosure is completed, there are legal technical issues we have to settle in terms of taking over the lawsuit. But we’d like to sit down with the plaintiffs and see if we can work something out. I’ve gone through this so long and I think everyone in the community is tired of this eyesore.” Gee is so convinced that True Life is walking away from the 101(Tom Sanfilippo/Inside Out Aerial) acre Lakes site that he had a work crew go there to clear weeds and Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course won’t be an agrihood now that The other debris that residents have True Life Companies no longer will have claim to the site. been complaining about for more than a year. The site was so unsightly that nearly four dozen citations filed by city inspectors against True Life are pending in Phoenix Municipal Court, carrying fines totaling $330,000. Two Lakes residents sued both Gee and True Life and won a Superior Court judge’s ruling that (Tom Sanfilippo/Inside Out Aerial) they had violated the covenants, See
GOLF on page 14
Wilson Gee is optimistic that the Club West Golf Course no longer will face irrigation woes.
Tempe Union, Kyrene board races take shape
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@AhwatukeeFN
Club West, Lakes plans heading to a final end BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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@AhwatukeeFN |
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he makeup of both school boards that impact Ahwatukee will change in January after two members on each of them have decided not to file for reelection. The deadline to file passed last week without Kyrene Governing Board President Kristin Middleton filing for a second term and Bernadette Coggins going for a third four-year stint. Likewise, Brandon Schmoll, the only
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Ahwatukee member of Tempe Union High School District’s board and longtime board member DeeAnn McClenahan did not file. Four candidates in Kyrene and three in Tempe Union will be squaring off Nov. 6 to take their place. The four Kyrene candidates include Middleton’s Realtor father, Mike Middleton; David Hoye, a journalist and 10-year veteran grade school teacher who also holds an Arizona principal’s certificate; Kevin Walsh, an attorney; and Margaret Pratt, a former speech therapist and small business owner.
Two of the three candidates in Tempe Union unsuccessfully ran for that board two years ago. They are Andres Barraza of Tempe and Ahwatukee attorney Don Fletcher. Also running is Brian Garcia, an ASU law school student living in Tempe. Schmoll, who is seeking another term as constable in the election, said he decided not to run again for the Tempe Union board because “have accomplished everything I sought out to do when I originally ran for the school board.” See
BOARDS on page 16
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