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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
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Despite misgivings, Heading to a new home state board finalizing AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS schoolNEWS grade formula ON THE MARCH
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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he state Board of Education is poised next Monday to adopt a formula for letter-grading schools that some members question – and that Kyrene School District officials are trying to derail. While the board is scheduled to vote Sept. 25 on the system, Kyrene administrators have been rallying other districts to pressure it into delaying a final vote so it can revise a formula they say penalizes high-performing schools and students. During a Sept. 6 study session, five of the 11 board members expressed reservations about the formula, which critics call unfair and so complicated that it will confuse students, teachers, administrators and parents. But even as he too expressed reservations about the formula, board President Tim Carter announced the board will still vote on
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS SWEET MONSTER
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NEW RESTAURANT
(Sherrie Buzby/Special to AFN)
Gene Taylor, a 15-year member of Mountain Park Community Church and scores of other congregants moved the cross from their old home on Pecos Road and 24th Street to their new church at 48th and Frye Road. Taylor had a dream that the cross should be moved by the people to the new location, instead of having it delivered by a trailer. The Sunday morning move followed an all-night prayer vigil at the cross’ old location. For a photo essay on the move, see pages 16-17.
See
GRADES on page 10
Big water bills fuel meter mystery in Ahwatukee BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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SQUEAKER
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ast month, Phoenix officials celebrated the city Water Services Department’s recognition as a “Utility of the Future Today” – one of 25 utilities across the country cited for “forward-thinking initiatives.” Don’t tell that to some Ahwatukee customers who have seen bills for staggering increases in water consumption that no one can explain. In recent weeks, customers have taken to social media to complain about meter readings that are significantly higher than normal. Among them is the Foothills Gateway HOA, a 225-home neighborhood that faces a $6,500 tab for a July meter reading of more than a million gallons of water – 20,000 times the 50 gallons a month normally clocked for watering two tiny parks.
“An engineer said that with a million gallons, the water in the park would be 23 feet deep,” said Steve Manolis, the HOA board’s vice president who lives less than 30 yards from one of the pocket parks. With the diameter of the pipe that waters the park, Manolis added, the engineer estimated “it would take 22 gallons a minute for 24 hours a day for 30 days” for that much water to be used. Water Services suggested someone might be stealing the water, but Manolis countered that 100 18-wheeler tanker trucks would have had to park on a small side street to carry away a million gallons. Manolis and his wife, Susan, were among the HOA representatives who went to City Hall expecting a meeting with ranking Water Services officials to discuss the meter reading. They got another surprise. “We wound up meeting at the downtown
payment center, not in private, but in front of other consumers,” Susan Manolis said. “The courtesy, or lack of, was uncomfortable as it was not in a private office; rather, we had to gather around chairs in the lobby of the payment center.” And when they suggested to a supervisor that the city might want to show more concern about the loss of so much of a “limited resource commodity,” Manolis said, “she stated that it wasn’t the city’s concern and gave us no direction as to what to do, other than pay the bill.” Since she posted the HOA’s experience on Facebook, other customers have come forward. The HOA for an office building on Chandler Boulevard near East Marketplace was billed for around $12,000 for July use totaling 2 million gallons of water. See
WATER on page 9