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Wednesday, November 18, 2020
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Open Lakes course by 2022 or pay $3.5M, judge tells Gee BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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wner Wilson Gee’s company must pay $3.5 million in cumulative penalties if he does not have an 18-hole Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course and all amenities restored and ready for duffers by Aug. 31, 2022, a Superior Court judge decreed on Monday. In a blistering and detailed 24-page opinion, Judge Theodore Campagnolo set three deadlines with accompanying penalties for Gee to meet in order to end two homeowners’ sixyear legal fight to reopen the course he closed in 2013. The judge ruled Gee’s company, ALCR, must pay $500,000 if he has not finished design and
other pre-construction work by June 21, fork over another $1 million if construction has not started by Sept. 1, 2021, and cough up another $2 million if the course is not open a year from that date. Campagnolo’s order is not clear on whether ALCR would get the money back if it eventually completes the work but misses those deadlines. The judge alternatively used the words “fines” and “sanctions” in his ruling. Regardless, however, Campagnolo’s ruling makes it clear that Gee must obey his directive – and so must anyone who might happen to buy the 110-acre site. Campagnolo swept aside Gee’s contention that the 2018 judgment by another judge to restore the course was too vague and didn’t
say what kind of course can be built. “The judgment was clear and unambiguous as to ALCR’s obligation to restore and operate an 18-hole executive golf course,” Campagnolo wrote. “ALCR knows exactly what needs to be restored and operated,” he added. “There is nothing in the judgment that places any burden on plaintiffs to dictate the design of a golf course. ALCR’s claims are baseless, and further demonstrate its contemptuous behavior.” Campagnolo’s order came only a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Gee’s request to hear his contention that ordering him to run a business that he calls unprofitable was
see LAKES page 18
Ahwatukee Bowl 2020 Local dance world ‘won’t be the same’ mourns its star Ahwatukee Bowl preview: pages 41-44
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hen the bright lights of Karl Kiefer Stadium flicker on Friday night as Mountain Pointe and Desert Vista football teams take the field for the 24th Ahwatukee Bowl, the atmosphere surrounding one of the state’s best and longest rivalries will be different. There will be no band. There will be no student sections shouting across the field. The crowd, limited to a couple hundred spectators per team, will be spaced out with masks on. Nobody but the winning team will rush the field when the final
see TUKEE BOWL page 12
AFN NEWS STAFF
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BY ZACH ALVIRA AFN Sports Editor
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This year, the Ahwatukee Bowl trophy likely won’t be given in a crowd. (Special to AFN)
hwatukee’s large and vibrant dance community is in mourning and shock over the sudden death of Antoine Olds, co-artistic director and co-founder of the Phoenix Dance Cooperative and director of the Soul Shock Dance Company. He was 37 and died Nov. 9. Students, parents and other supporters maintained evening vigils last week in front of the Cooperative’s studio at 12020 S Warner-Elliot Loop, Ahwatukee, festooning the windows with hand-made cards of condolence, hanging balloons and lighting candles in his memory. The award-winning Soul Shock Dance Company is a reg-
ANTOINE OLDS
ular participant in the Ahwatukee Kiwanis Easter Parade. For the complete story, see page. 3.