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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
MASSAGE ASSAULTS
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
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No bang, just whimper ends freeway fight
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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fter 11 years of work and thousands of pages of legal arguments and exhibits, this is how the fight to stop the South Mountain Freeway ended: With a 12-page opinion whose conclusions could fit on a napkin. The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Dec. 8 left opponents with virtually no hope of stopping the 22-
mile, eight-lane highway from opening in late 2019. The ruling upheld U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa’s August 2016 decision that the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration conducted a proper environmental study in determining the location of the freeway, which will connect the I-10 interchanges in Chandler and at 59th Avenue in West Phoenix and open in late 2019. Pat Lawlis, president of the 11-year-old, Ahwatukee-based Protect Arizona’s Resources
and Children, threw in the towel after attorney Howard Shanker saw little chance of getting even another hearing on his case to stop Arizona’s most expensive highway project in history. The Gila River Indian Community, the other major party in the long court fight, did not respond when asked if it would seek another shot to stop the $1.7-billion freeway it claims desecrates South Mountain – a site Native Americans consider sacred.
AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS NEW SCHOOL STAFFER
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FREEWAY on page 16
Sky’s the limit for Ahwatukee’s freeway aerial historian BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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COURT IN SESSION
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s Ahwatukee’s eyes in the sky, Tom Sanfilippo keeps one on history and one on the future. As he closes in on retiring at age 56 next year from a 27-year career in information technology at Rio Salado College, the Ahwatukee man lately has been earning a reputation with his mastery of drones by recording the South Mountain Freeway’s progress with stunning aerial views from 250 feet above ground. From the demolition of the former Mountain Park Community Church to the erection of 20-foot sound walls along part of Pecos Road, he has become the freeway’s aerial historian of sorts. “I like the historical value in this change. The freeway being over 30 years in the planning seemed to be a strong and sides issue among Ahwatukee residents. I thought it would be a good practice field to master my skills. It’s turned out to be a really positive learning experience,” said Sanfilippo, whose Facebook group, Drone 202-The South Mountain Freeway Project, has been attracting scores of followers. But Sanfilippo is just not using drones for
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ABOVE: Tom Sanfilippo’s drone shot the beginning of sound wall construction on Pecos Road. (Kim Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
LEFT: Tom Sanfilippo holds two of the drones he uses to take stunning aerial shots of the progress of South Mountain Freeway construction.
purposes of history. He is in the midst of setting up his business, Inside Out Aerial, which already has taken him to 12 different states on commercial projects as well as various places in Arizona. Not bad for a guy whose first drone was a post-Christmas purchase not even a year ago. A native of New Rochelle, N.Y. – the setting for the old “Dick Van Dyke Show” – SanFfilippo moved to Arizona in 1987, settling in Mesa before moving to Ahwatukee in 2010.
Technology is a staple of his home, as his wife Andrea is director of Sunsounds of Arizona, a radio reading service for folks whose physical disabilities make them unable to read. “I took up droning as the technology interested me, and well, the photography and videography have always been a plan B passion,” he said. “It was a natural progression See
DRONE on page 17
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