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IT’S KICK-OFF TIME!
Thursday, November 28, 2019
. 17 HELPING THE NEEDY
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SHOPPING MARATHON
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HOLIDAY IDEAS
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@AhwatukeeFN
QuikTrip plan still fuels residents’ anxiety BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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@AhwatukeeFN |
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ore than seven months after it generated the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee’s most fractious public hearing of 2019, QuikTrip’s plan for a service station on 40th Street continues to generate anxiety for a 185-home community. There wasn’t much the planning committee could do beyond reviewing and approving a few changes in the site plan for the facility. And, Phoenix City Hall so far has been un-
able to reassure homeowners in Foothills Paseo II they have nothing to worry about a gas station at the mouth of the only road in and out of their community. Aside from getting the attention of the Legislative District 18 delegation, principally state Rep. Mitzi Epstein, most Foothills Paseo II homeowners have only grown more troubled in the wake of city officials’ reaction to their concern. But as recently as late October, QuikTrip’s plan continues advancing through the city’s bureaucratic machinery without producing a convincing response to the big question on homeowners’ minds: What will happen if
there’s a gasoline spill? “The people here have invested in their homes and this neighborhood, raising children and living out retirement. There are currently two, soon-to-be three, assisted living facilities operating here. We are taxpayers and constituents of the City of Phoenix and we want answers to our questions,” residents Brie Nielsen and Alvaro Diaz wrote City Manager Ed Zuercher on Oct. 23. “We have collectively spent hundreds of hours of our personal time gathering research, contacting City and State represen-
see QUIKTRIP page 10
Ahwatukee’s Santa Train is ready to roll BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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f all the many Ahwatukee homes sporting stunning holiday decorations this year, one stood out in the mind of some HGTV producers. This time of year, Frank and Dianne Polimene’s Club West house fits the goals of a network devoted to real-estate and home-improvement reality programming. The Polimenes’ home at 541 E. Mountain Sky Avenue, is a dazzling DIY holiday display that has evolved at Frank’s hand over 41 years, 29 in Ahwatukee. The couple’s “Santa Train” display is featured today, Thanksgiving Day, in a HGTV special titled “Outrageous Holiday Houses.” In Arizona, that debut is midnight but the show will be repeated through December. By the time it airs, the Polimenes will already have thrown the switch on the 2019 version of Santa Train. Every night until 11 p.m. through Jan. 1, you can drive to their home and marvel at
Frank Polimene has invented or crafted just about all the parts of his massive Santa Train that turns his Club West home into a Christmas wonderland. Among them is the control panel he is adjusting here. (Pablo Robles/AFN Staff Photographer)
what Frank, a self-described “big tool guy,” built and tweaked since 1979, when he lived in Baltimore.
His story began a year earlier in Baltimore.
see TRAIN page 16