(Google maps overview of closed Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course)
By Paul Maryniak | Ahwatukee Foothills News
A hearing on two homeowners’ request that Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course owner Wilson Gee’s company pay at least $500,000 in penalties resumed Sept. 29 and will be entering a third day Oct. 6.
During three hours of opening statements and testimony in an online hearing before Superior Court Judge Sara Agne Sept. 29, Attorney Tim Barnes, representing homeowners Linda Swain and Eileen Breslin, began taking Gee through a painstaking examination of the work he has done so far to restore the course.
Barnes used photos and drone video of the course taken in July by Ahwatukee resident Tom Sanfilippo, owner of Inside Out Aerial, making Gee explain why some work did not appear finished and why other scenes seemed to contradict parts of his testimony.
Gee’s company, ALCR, is under the order of another Superior Court judge to have the 18-hole executive course open for business by fall of 2022 – nine years after he closed the course after what he said was a constant money-loser since he bought it in 2006.
Judge Theodore Campagnolo last year said Gee must pay $500,000 if he didn’t complete design by June 1, 2021; another $1 million if he didn’t start work by Aug. 31, 2021; and another $2 million if the course isn’t open by September 2022.
But Gee asserts he not only has started work, but intends to have the course open for play before the end of this year.
