Isn’t it great when it’s so obvious who to vote for? For our town council, two votes are a piece of cake: Alan Magazine and Mike Scharnow.

As we started working on Dark Sky designation for Fountain Hills, critical to the process was educating the town council about all the factors associated with that effort. Early on, Alan Magazine stepped up to the plate to help us. He quickly understood the potential benefit and shared those sentiments with his fellow council members.

The end result was unanimous support from the mayor and council, which ultimately led to Fountain Hills being designated as an International Dark Sky Community and receiving national coverage. Alan will have my enthusiastic vote not only for this, but for all the other level-headed contributions he has made to the council for the betterment of our community.

As for Mike, is there anyone who knows this town better? As a long-time editor of The Fountain Hills Times, it was his job to understand what was going on in town; the issues, the news, the council actions, etc. He took his job seriously and did it well. But despite the hectic pace of a newspaper editor, Mike always found time to volunteer many hours on behalf of this community. In fact, I wonder if Mike has served more hamburgers and brats than anyone else for his Kiwanis Club at the Fountain Hills fairs.

Mike’s new job as a financial planner adds a new dimension of expertise; a knowledge that will be extremely helpful as the town seeks a cost-effective path forward to solve its financial challenges.

Having the right people on our council is critical to our future. Please vote for Alan Magazine and Mike Scharnow.