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MORE SRO'S ON THE WAY
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VEGGIE QUEEN'S BOOK
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
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Parent pleads for Kyrene to change outdoor mask mandate BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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icole Koester of Ahwatukee is no flaming anti-masker and her 9-year-old son Nicolas is an obedient student at Kyrene de los Cerritos Leadership Academy, wearing his mask just as most Kyrene students have been doing since August. But Koester drew the line last Thursday, May 13, when Nicolas “almost passed out at recess playing soccer in the heat wearing his mask.”
see MASKS page 12
Staff Photographer)
WEDDING INDUSTRY REBOOTS
More COVID bucks heading to city coffers BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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STAYING ON TRACK
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@AhwatukeeFN
Nicole Koester of Ahwatukee wants Kyrene to drop its mandatory mask policy for students playing outside after her son Nicolas, 9, nearly fainted playing soccer during recess. (Pablo Robles/AFN
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hoenix officials expect to receive $396 million in the third round of pandemic relief funds in the next 14 months. This time the money comes courtesy of the American Rescue Plan and the City Manager’s office released a strategic plan to City Council last week on how it proposes to spend it. The plan and preliminary approval of the 2021-22 budget were scheduled to go before Council yesterday, May 18, after AFN’s deadline. While the $396 million is $20 million less than the city initially expected, the report said it still funds a “robust list of programs” for Council to consider. The funding also will be broken up between
this year and next, with $198 million being released to the city at each time. “According to federal guidance, these funds may only be used to cover costs that are necessary expenditures caused by COVID-19 incurred between March 3, 2021, and Dec. 31, 2024,” the staff report noted. That includes the city’s response to the public health crisis created by COVID-19 and addressing negative economic impacts by providing assistance to businesses, households and nonprofits. Money also can be used, the report states, “to respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency by providing premium pay to eligible workers of the state, territory or tribal government that are performing such essential work or by pro-
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viding grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers who perform essential work.” And they can be used to backfill any revenue shortfalls created by the pandemic and “to make necessary investments in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.” The plan is based on input from council members as well as federal guidelines and includes proposed continuation of those programs funded last year by two rounds of Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding. The report breaks the $198 million into three categories of funding: $118 million for community investment, $70 million for city operations and $10 million for “future opera-
see RESCUE page 14
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