As I said in wrapping up last week’s column, 1981 was a time of many news stories that foresaw changes coming in the community. This week’s Fountain Hills History Lesson continues our look at 1981.

In those days, Fountain Hills had a system of four Road Districts and together with a Sanitary District, they acted as a quasi-governmental agency for installing the community’s infrastructure before incorporation.

The initial development of 25 square miles of raw, rugged and mountainous ranchland into what is today Fountain Hills, required a tremendous amount of investment capital.

Early on, McCulloch Properties determined that the funds required could be raised by utilizing the formation of special districts as provided for in the Arizona State Revised Statues of that time. In essence, those statutes allowed the developer to form districts with public bonding authority similar to school districts for the purpose of providing essential infrastructure for such things as fire protection, sanitary services and road construction.

The local road districts were having their problems during 1981 and underwent some changes. The districts’ long-time manager/controller, Fred Allgower, resigned and was replaced by Pat Harvey who was named the district operations supervisor, and by Harris Christensen, who was hired as controller.

The districts’ problem in 1981 was – and a community problem as well – a lack of funds for new paving and an inability to raise new money for paving. Residents voted 445-396 to increase the districts’ bond sale interest rate to 12 percent but six residents contested the outcome in a lawsuit and a Superior Court judge overturned the election.

As a result of the situation, the districts declared an indefinite moratorium on new paving, while the district appealed the election.

The Sanitary District constructed a new office building in 1981 and was nearly completion of a $360,000 expansion of its sewage treatment plant.

More bad news for the community came when the Sanitary District was directed by the Maricopa County Health Department to abandon 11 temporary “leach” fields in the community, after raw sewage was found above ground.”

Just when everyone thought things couldn’t get any worse, the Arizona Registrar of Contractors cited 12 Fountain Hills contractors for operating without licenses.

On a lighter note, several large celebrations here put smiles on lots of faces.

The annual “8’s Great Sunday drew 50,000 people with an art show, a hot air balloon launch and a variety of stage entertainment.

The Chamber of Commerce sponsored the second of six White Castle hamburger promotions. The highlight of the 1981 event was the original Lone Ranger, Clayton Moore, leading the large refrigerated moving van down Saguaro Boulevard riding on a white horse.

1981 also saw formation of a new organization, the Fountain Hills Merchants Association. The group sponsored several major events and sought ways to increase customer traffic to local stores and businesses.

Another significant change in 1981 was the laying of groundwork for a proposed merger of the community’s two prime civic organizations, the Civic Association and the Community Association. The merger would not be fully actualized until legal paperwork was completed in 1982.

Les Winter was named Fountain Hills Citizen of the Year at the annual Noon Kiwanis banquet.

Fountain Hills teachers received a 14.4% pay increase and students got their first computer lab at the elementary school.

With the slowdown in new construction in 1981, local contractors teamed together to build a new library, contributing all their time at no cost. Building supplies were donated by the general public. Local builder Gil Knoll coordinated the other builders in town to see that the project was built to standards. His efforts led him to be named Fountain Hills Citizen of the Year in 1982.

Well, that wraps up another year of highlights and lowlights for this week’s Fountain Hills History Lesson.