Mark your calendars for the big night that is being planned to pay tribute to the couple you see at the right, Jerry and Jackie Miles.

It’s funny how things work out. Jerry and Jackie and Diane and I have become very good friends. I never would’ve imagined that happening when I first met him. I was covering a Town Council meeting when Jerry showed up the first time on the local political scene.

I remember him turning around and introducing himself to me. But, it seemed like we were on opposite sides on many issues.

When Jerry decided to run for mayor, we endorsed John Cutillo, the incumbent. He had led the successful campaign that incorporated our community into the Town of Fountain Hills.

Jerry’s campaign theme in that 1992 election was “no more armadas of yellow bulldozers.” I and others took that to mean he was anti-development. He lost that race by just three votes. We at The Times were ecstatic about the results.

I didn’t think I would hear from Mr. Miles unless it was to complain about the results but, to my surprise he remained friendly and even invited me to lunch to discuss things I would like to see happen in our new town.

One of those things I brought up was to start a Sister Cities program in the community. I had become familiar with the program when I was Chamber president three years in the early to mid-1980s. My mom had been sent a magazine story from her brother on Australia and the Captain Cook Memorial Jet in the capital city of Canberra.

It looks like our fountain and the surrounding terrain looks similar to Fountain Hills. The mountain range in the background is called Red Mountains and we have Red Mountain.

It seemed like a natural for a Sister City. Problem was when I checked in 1980 I found an area needed to be incorporated as a town or city to be a part of the Sister Cities program.

Well to make a long story short, Jerry won the next mayoral election and three days after his election, I got a call from him. I thought he was calling to say something about his getting elected without our endorsement. I was reluctant to take the call.

“Hello Alan,” he said in a friendly manner, “Remember that conversation we had about a year ago about Sister Cities?

“Would you be interested in heading up a committee to look into that for me. I think we could have some fun with this.”

That committee was formed under the auspices of the Civic Association. as it turned out, Canberra would have no part of us, and a year-long search turned into a partnership with Kasterlee, Belgium.

The basic premise of Sister City as Pres. Dwight Eisenhower had envisioned was to build better relations among people by communicating thus creating better chances for peace among the nations of the world. An exploratory trip to Kasterlee, Belgium was arranged for May 1996. I accompanied the official delegation of Mayor Jerry and Jackie Miles, Vice Mayor Marianne Wiggishoff and husband Cyril and Sister Cities committee members Bob and Phyllis Horan. It was an amazing trip. The Kasterlee group, including Mayor Walter Otten, met us at the Brussels airport.

During our time in Belgium, we returned to Brussels for a session with the U.S. Ambassador to Belgium, toured the site of the Battle of the Bulge and were wined and dined in Kasterlee.

On Sunday morning of that week a leisurely walk down a tall tree-lined street in Kasterlee forever changed my view of Jerry Miles. On that walk, we came to understand each other better, I learned that his “armada of yellow bulldozers” was not just a campaign theme, but a vision of something that could be done better. He was against the way it was being done.

“Fountain Hills is a special place,” he said.

“You can have development without tearing up that beautiful landscape. Granted it’s a more expensive way to develop, but in the end you have a town that will be worth a lot more and we’ll all benefit.”

I had to travel halfway around the world to gain a better understanding of Jerry and where he was coming from. That walk was one of the best half hours I ever spent.

In keeping with the Sister Cities theme we had a better understanding of each other through communicating.