Free of charge WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 Today: High 90, Low 77, Chance of storms Tomorrow: High 93, Low 76, Sunny
CITY ID CARDS New Phoenix ID cards won’t be of use to Ahwatukee residents, official says. 13
Celebrating 38 years of service
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As opponents seek construction halt, ADOT begins work on freeway
TRAILHEAD PROJECTS City to improve South Mountain trailheads. 19
By Paul Maryniak AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS EDITOR
GERMY CARTS Ahwatukee woman invents germ guard for shoppers. 34
KEEGAN’S IS BACK Keegan’s Grill, an Ahwatukee favorite, has a new look. 40
8-year-old Ahwatukee boy launches successful business
PRIDE POUNDS Mountain Pointe High trounces Chandler on the gridiron. 43 Main Street 37 Community 19 Around AF 21 Opinion 30
(Cheryl Hasselhorst/Ahwatukee Foothills News)
Connor Koestner, 8, of Ahwatukee, runs his own business, renting out party favors that he separates by themes in more than 25 bins he stashes at a nearby storage facility.
Faith 38 GetOut 40 Sports/Rec 43 Classified 49
COVER STORY By Coty Dolores Miranda AFN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Connor Koester of Ahwatukee just turned 8 years old on Saturday, but he’s already making his mark on the world of business. The Cerritos Elementary School second grader rents out party decoration sets through a business he founded and named Bins of Fun.
The name was inspired by the large, rubberized containers he uses to store all of the decorations, divided into 25 themed batches. Though he gets help from his mom, Nicole Koester, and picked up some lessons from a Junior Achievement class at school last year, Connor brings his own business acumen and sense of popular taste to the enterprise. >> See BUSINESS on page 10
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Both sides in the ongoing controversy over the South Mountain Freeway took major steps this week. Opponents asked a federal judge to stop the project pending an appeal of her ruling, and construction crews began the first of what likely will be many construction-related traffic disruptions. Both the Gila River Indian Community and Ahwatukee-based Protect Arizona’s Resources and Children filed separate requests for an injunction with U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa, who last month rejected their arguments that highway planners’ environmental and cultural impact studies were flawed. Meanwhile, the Arizona Department of Transportation rolled out a schedule of lane closures that will occur throughout this week along Pecos Road and adjacent arteries so that crews can take soil samples and locate underground utility lines. Additionally, a city source disclosed that crews will place temporary concrete barriers on the eastbound shoulder of the Loop 202 Santan Freeway between 48th Street and the I-10 on Monday, as a prelude to >> See FREEWAY on page 9