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COMMUNITY GETOUT C O M M U N IP.27| T Y AROUND P . 2 2 |AF BP.31 U S| IOPINION N E S S PP.34| . 2 7BUSINESS | O P IP.37 N I O|REAL N PESTATE . 3 2 P.RE1| | SPO R T S PP.41 . 3 |6SPORTS | C L P.45| A S S CLASSIFIED I F I E D P .P.47 40
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Wednesday, August 4, 2021
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Lakes course progress in dispute as new court round looms BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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ust when they thought the condition of the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course couldn’t get any worse, homeowners around the beleaguered site are up in arms over the trees, bushes and other vegetation growing out of filled lake beds. Neighbors also complained of a smell last week that they attributed to the stagnant water, though they said the stench dissipated over the weekend. The complaints come as lawyers for course owner Wilson Gee and the two homeowners suing him prepare for yet another courtroom showdown Aug. 18 before the third Superior Court judge to preside over the case since homeowners Linda Swain and Eileen Breslin filed their suit in 2014. They want Gee to restore the 18-hole executive course that he closed in 2013 after he declared it had failed to make a profit for the seven years he owned it. The hearing before Judge Alison Bachus is on a request by attorney Tim Barnes to hold Gee’s company, ALCR, in violation of Judge Theodore Campagnolo’s Nov. 7 order imposing a $500,000 penalty if design and pre-con-
Homeowners along the perimeter of the beleaguered Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course are fuming over the vegetation growing out of at least one of the refilled lakes. (Pablo Robles/AFN Staff Photographer) struction work are not completed by May 31. Campagnolo, who at the beginning of this year was moved to a different division under Superior Court’s normal annual rotation of most judges, set another $1 million penalty
if construction has not started a month from now and an additional $2 million penalty if the course is not open by September 2022.
But school bus passengers in both districts must wear them, largely because a federal law requires masks on all public transportation. Attorney Jordan Ellel, who represents both districts as well as Tempe Elementary, advised against defying the mask mandate ban that the Republican majority in the Legislature passed in the waning hours of the 2021 session. Phoenix Union School District became the
first in the Valley to challenge that ban by requiring all staff and students to wear masks on campus as school there resumed two days ago. That drew the ire of Gov. Doug Ducey, who called it unenforceable. Ducey also is in a battle that’s so far been only of words with two Arizona school dis-
see LAKES page 12
Only optional on campus, masks required on buses BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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he law banning facemasks and COVID-19 vaccination mandates has no penalties and doesn’t even take effect until Sept. 29, but neither Kyrene nor Tempe Union High School District will require masks on their campuses.
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