When a female patient chooses to undergo radical cosmetic facial surgery, for example, it doesn’t look too pretty at first blush.

No, there are bandages, stitches, painkillers, swelling, bruising, blood loss, potential for infection and more.

Instead of an improvement for such elective surgery, often times the initial “look” is quite the opposite – destructive and harmful.

Such patients typically hibernate for a while until the short-term negative effects gradually give way through the healing process to that shiny and taut new face ready to be shown off in public.

That’s how I envision the median strip on Avenue of the Fountains.

Some Facebook and other chatter last week was rather negative toward the Town of Fountain Hills and what was being done to the Avenue.

Granted, slicing down mature trees on April 22, Earth Day, probably wasn’t the smartest political move ever done by town officials, yet I’m thinking it likely never really dawned on anyone until it was too late.

And from a practical standpoint, would it have really mattered to wait an extra day to start? No.

Some folks were complaining the town didn’t do a good enough job communicating about the project and its details, but I would disagree with that assessment.

This particular project has been seriously discussed and debated in public circles for several years. There have been numerous front-page stories in this publication and other publicity surrounding this project for years.

Sometimes it’s the responsibility of citizens to help themselves a little bit and stay abreast of local topics – maybe even attend a public meeting or two, watch Channel 11, read a story (or column) to the end…

Sure, it’s a shock to suddenly drive by one day, see a temporary fence installed and witness construction and landscape guys cutting down trees, ripping out oleanders and breaking up concrete basins that were once decorative fountains (especially if you had no clue it was going to be happening).

I’ve written on this topic before, but I personally think many of those trees should have been cut down and replaced with a more modern landscape palette conducive to public spaces.

In my humble opinion, the Avenue was beyond looking worn out and old – definitely time for a facelift. And the town has been saving sales tax proceeds for something like this downtown. Will it magically bring new businesses and customers to the downtown area? No, but it certainly isn’t going to hurt the long-term prospects…

Sure, it looks rather bad this week, but a couple of years from now and we’ll be wondering what all the fuss is about.

Once that swelling goes down and the bandages come off, it’s going to be a nice looking median – shiny cheeks and all.