A recent topic of interest is our town’s decision to spend $38,800 to study a swimming lagoon at Fountain Park, with the potential to spend multi-millions to build it. The citizens of Fountain Hills will ultimately make their own decision on the matter.

We might decide on a bond or other tax to build the lagoon, and we will ultimately decide through the ballot box on the elected officials who are pushing the idea.

How can we decide wisely? Answer: By having accurate information.

In the July 19 edition of The Fountain Hills Times we heard from the politician pushing the lagoon that our independent Sanitary District is “supportive of the lagoon concept for the park.” The politician stated that the estimate to build the lagoon “might be less because of the amount of infrastructure already in place. There would be no need for excavation he noted.”

Facts say otherwise. In meetings and in a letter the Sanitary District (whose water fills the town lake) advised the politician and others that it had “significant concerns” with the lagoon project.

Specifically:

1. The lake stores the Sanitary District’s non-pure “reclaimed water.” Under Arizona law, spray from the fountain cannot “be allowed to drift into the swimming lagoon.” “With the lagoon in its proposed location, the fountain may not be able to operate as it does now.”

2. The Sanitary District has invested millions in infrastructure in the lake. “The proposed location of the lagoon would require many of these facilities to be relocated.” The substantial costs to relocate the Sanitary District infrastructure will be “part of the project’s expense, not the District’s.”

These are important facts. Lagoon decisions should be based on facts, not fables or wishful thinking.