It was a busy year for Fountain Hills, with major development projects finally coming to fruition, buckets of monsoon rain (and the accompanying damage) and three major elections taking place in quick succession.

Plenty of “headline moments” were peppered across the past 12 months, with a couple more tragic events even earning national attention.

Amidst all of the hubbub, a handful of events helped define the year for the local community. As Fountain Hills heads into the New Year, here is a rundown of the top 10 stories from 2018.

Property tax

From talk around town to articles in the paper, letters from the community and buzz online, the biggest story of 2018 was the primary property tax election.

The ball got rolling on the property tax proposal in 2017, with the Town Council calling for the 2018 election as an attempt to offset increasing expenses of core services. In short, costs are going up while revenue refuses to move in tandem, creating something of a conundrum.

A property tax had failed a vote twice in the past but, after much deliberation, the Town Council unanimously voted to put the idea to the community for a third time.

There was much debate concerning the property tax in public settings, online and in the pages of The Times, including multiple weeks where letters to the editor topped 50 submissions.

When the May election finally rolled around, the property tax was once again defeated by a sound margin, with 6,705 votes in favor of the measure and 10,176 opposed.

New council

By the time the property tax election was wrapping up, the community had already moved on to the next set of major decisions: choosing new members of the town council.

This was an especially busy year for churn on the local council, with Mayor Linda Kavanagh deciding not to seek another term and Councilmen Nick DePorter and Henry Leger opting not to seek re-election. A fourth seat was made available when current Councilman Cecil Yates decided to run for mayor.

Now that the year of elections has concluded, several new faces sit at the dais. Ginny Dickey bested Yates in a tight race for mayor, with newcomers Mike Scharnow and David Spelich being voted to the group alongside Alan Magazine, who won re-election. Also joining the group is Sherry Leckrone, who was appointed to the seat left vacant upon Yates’ mayoral run.

Violent deaths

It’s not uncommon for a violent death or two to occur in Fountain Hills, but the town was the site of nine such events spread across 2018.

The first occurrence was in mid-March, when the community was shocked to discover two couples visiting from out of town had been struck and killed by a vehicle directly in front of Fountain Park.

Heading into the summer, Fountain Hills was part of the closing chapter of a bizarre killing spree, with Valley resident Dwight Jones murdering a local couple before dying in a confrontation with police in Scottsdale.

Then, just before the July 4 holiday, resident Anna Mae Blessing allegedly shot and killed her son following discussions about moving her to an assisted living facility.

Another homicide took place exactly one month later, a shooting involving an out-of-town couple at a Fountain Hills hotel.

Finally, in mid-October, a pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle in front of the Fountain Hills High School campus.

Park Place opens

The downtown Park Place development began hardhat tours in December of 2017, with the first tenants moving in as 2018 was getting up and running.

With Phase 1 of the project concluded, Park Place offers 32,000 square feet of retail space with 227,794 square-feet dedicated to 230 apartments.

Three businesses are in various stages of moving in to their new home at Park Place, including the women’s apparel store, Classy-Jazzy Cutique, Grand Canyon Title Agency and a Japanese restaurant.

After years of planning and around a year of construction, Park Place is now settling in at the heart of downtown.

Weather damage

Fountain Hills is no stranger to monsoon storms, but the amount of rain dumped on the community this past year was certainly a noteworthy occurrence.

The area recorded around 10 inches of rain throughout the stormy season, resulting in unexpected damages and the hundreds of thousands of dollars in repairs that must go with it.

The first major victim of this year’s storms was a 60-foot eucalyptus tree that’s been part of the community for decades. Formerly casting shadows right outside of Town Hall, an August storm toppled the tree, miraculously avoiding major property damage in the process. The removal of the tree was part of $80,000 in insurance claims for storm damage at the time, after a $10,000 deductible, but the worst was yet to come.

An October storm spurred on by Hurricane Rosa turned Golden Eagle Park into a temporary lake, with flooding measuring three to six feet deep in the popular community attraction.

The restoration work and drainage improvements are underway, with a final bill expected to reach hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Trailhead/Fire station

More than a decade’s worth of work on two separate projects finally came to a close in late 2018, with Fire Station #2 opening for business and work reaching completion on the Adero Canyon Trailhead.

Land acquisition for the McDowell Preserve began 25 years ago, with a centralized trailhead being part of the vision from the very beginning.

While water and sewer lines, as well as about a mile of road paving, still needs to be completed, the majority of the work on the trailhead is complete, boasting a central building featuring restrooms and picnic tables, as well as plenty of parking. The grand opening was hosted in mid-November.

The relocation of Fire Station #2 was a similarly lengthy process, though crews are expected to start operating out of the building as the New Year gets rolling.

The new station is located on Fountain Hills Boulevard just north of Shea Boulevard, where Rural/Metro expects to be able to provide more prompt fire suppression response and emergency medical services to the community.

Closure/opening

Fountain Hills lost one of its longest-running businesses as MCO Properties announced its closure on June 15.

MCO Properties is the development firm credited for the growth of the Fountain Hills community. When they took over operations from McCulloch Properties at the town’s formation, the company began creating neighborhoods such as SunRidge Canyon, North Heights and FireRock.

Closure of the office is attributed to the business selling its remaining lots in Eagle’s Nest and turning over Adero Canyon development to Toll Brothers, bringing an end to decades’ worth of work in Fountain Hills.

Another community staple, Gridleys, closed its doors after 43 years in business during the summer of 2017 but, in 2018, the downtown property was taken over by another growing presence within the community, Chabad of Fountain Hills.

After the closure of Gridleys, Chabad began a redesign process, converting the space to meet the needs of the place of worship and its members. It took a year to get everything in order but, as of this fall, Chabad of Fountain Hills is hosting services, special events and more.

Band success

One of the smallest marching bands in recent Fountain Hills High School history has also proven to be one of the mightiest, earning first place honors on Nov. 3 at the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association State Marching Festival.

This was the first time in school history that the Fighting Flock of Falcon Fury has brought home the state title, but their season of success didn’t end there.

The band returned to competition just a couple of weeks later to take part in the final competition of the year, Super State, where the Falcons once again brought home top honors.

School performances

The Arizona State Board of Education’s annual assessment of public and charter schools was bittersweet for Fountain Hills this year, with Fountain Hills High School managing to earn high recognition while a difficult year for the Fountain Hills Charter School resulted in low marks.

Each year, the State Board measures student academic growth and proficiency in English language arts, math and science utilizing an A-F scale. While the Fountain Hills Middle School held strong at a B grade this year, Fountain Hills High School moved up to an A.

Of all the public 9-12 schools in the state, FHHS outperformed neighboring peer districts and earned an eighth place ranking for proficiency points in the entire state.

Following a tumultuous 2017 at the Fountain Hills Charter School, however, an F grade was originally offered from the ASBE assessment.

The Charter School appealed the board to avoid the assessment, citing an adjustment period as new teachers and management joined the campus.

In late November, the Charter School received a unanimous vote from the ASBE appeal committee to remove the F grade with FHCS President Doug Pike explaining that action have already been taken, and will continue, to address the situation.

Retirement

This past year saw a changing of the guard at The Fountain Hills Times, as former publisher and paper co-founder Alan Cruikshank retired from day-to-day operations, passing on the mantel to son Brent Cruikshank and remains as the company president.

Cruikshank has been involved with the paper since its first issue on June 27, 1974. He received the James O. Amos Award in 2013 from the National Newspaper Association for distinguished service and leadership to the community press. With the paper set to celebrate its 45th anniversary in June, Cruikshank has watched the community grow from day one, and he’s been there to help report on that growth every step of the way.

Cruikshank officially passed off the publishing reigns to Brent as 2018 got rolling and, living between Fountain Hills and Henderson, Nevada, he still works out of the local office on his frequent visits to town.