P.29| AROUND AROUND AF AF P.31 P.32| OPINION | OPINIONP.34| P.35|BUSINESS BUSINESS P.38 |CHAMBER GETOUT INSIDE: COMMUNITY P.27| P.37 |REAL ESTATE P.41| P.RE1| GETOUTP.42 P.41| | SPORTS SPORTSP.48| P.45|CLASSIFIED CLASSIFIED P.57 P.47 INSIDE: COMMUNITY
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Wednesday, October 3, 2018
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Roof rats find shelter in quasi-abandoned homes here BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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@AhwatukeeFN |
oof rats are making themselves at home in Ahwatukee – literally. They’re invading unattended houses – even coming from the sewer system and up through dry toilets to get inside – destroying carpets, ventilation ducts and anything else they can gnaw their way through and creating a potential health hazard for the entire
neighborhood. “In one of the retirement subdivisions between 48th and 51st streets, they absolutely devastated a home that hasn’t been lived in for a few years,” said Karen Young, assistant general manager for the Ahwatukee Board of Management. The rats also “opened the door” for rabbits, added Young, who said that neighbors who entered the house found a dead baby bunny and roof rats, a ruined carpet and a bathtub
full of droppings. The discovery points to a problem that ABM is wrestling with. “Many dozens” of homes in retirement subdivisions have been left unattended, Young said, because the owners are in assisted living residences or deceased and their relatives live out of state or haven’t been able to visit the home for some other reason. See
RATS on page 9
Ready to rumble
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RIDING A WAVE (Cheryl Haselhorst/AFN Contributor)
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ALL’S FAIR
Desert Vista High football Coach Dan Hines, left, and his Mountain Pointe counterpart Rich Welbrock are bgetting their respective teams ready for one of Ahwatukee’s biggest annual events – the 22nd annual Tukee Bowl. The game will be played at 7 p.m. Friday at Mountain Pointe. For a special report: Page 48.
Golfing at Club West course lost for the season BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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here will be no golfing this winter at Club West. Owner Wilson Gee said that with a bankruptcy end-run around his foreclosure not completely resolved and – more significantly – untold damage to the course’s irrigation system, over-seeding the Club West Golf Course for play this year is virtually
impossible. “It is lost for this season,” Gee told AFN. Although his lawyers have asked federal bankruptcy court to toss out a request by the former owner, Inter Tribal Golf Association and CEO Richard Breuninger, to reconsider a bid to maintain ownership of the course, “the judge hasn’t closed the door.” More importantly, Gee said, 200 irrigation heads were discovered on the site, “and we don’t even know where they belong.”
Deprived of water since the city shut off service in February for a delinquent bill now totaling close to $300,000, the pond that feeds the irrigation system has dried up and needs a new liner. “We can’t test the system until we put water in the pond, and we’d be throwing away $300,000 if we filled the pond without a liner,” said Gee. See
GOLF on page 22