Typical Fountain Hills government…put a committee together of politicians to promote the bond instead of putting experts in transportation together as a bond commission to make sure the bond money is spent wisely…

We know Saguaro Blvd. needs attention, but apparently the town does not have the expertise to do the engineering analysis correctly.

For example…AOTF/Saguaro… staff puts out a golden apple vs. orange comparison and council believes them…

Staff added a number of unnecessary costs to the roundabout that were not included with the all- way stop… parking space removal, pedestrian view deck, storm drain, pedestrian refuge near hotel, on-street parking, half mile of pedestrian lighting all added unnecessarily to roundabout estimate, but not on all-way stop option…and then they say if the capacity is an issue they can just add a signal…which they did not account for in the cost, but the signal replacement cost at Palisades/Saguaro is $400,000 plus the ongoing costs for electricity and maintenance (about $5000/year).

As a transportation engineer, I was embarrassed by the comparison Fountain Hills staff provided. Some may support not choosing the roundabout and that is fine, but the analysis should be done correctly to properly spend our money…no bond commission, no analysis, no oversight …all too typical.

(Editor’s Note: To clarify, the current bond proposal for Saguaro Blvd. does not include a roundabout. Mr. Williams is referring to an earlier staff comparison report given to the council that ultimately led to the council choosing this bond proposal before voters, which does not include the Avenue/Saguaro roundabout.)