Last week’s State of the Town proceedings gave Fountain Hills residents an opportunity to look back over the previous year, as well as consider lingering challenges that need to be overcome while heading deeper into 2021.

For those who still haven’t had a chance to take in the State of the Town address from Mayor Ginny Dickey and members of her staff, page 1A of this week’s issue is primarily dedicated to a full rundown of the information shared. In her own remarks, Mayor Dickey spoke of 2020 in more broad strokes, touching on the challenges presented by COVID-19 and the efforts the Town made to overcome them. She also looked ahead to 2021, sharing a message of hope as the community deals with the continuing pandemic and, hopefully, a return to normal following the upcoming months of vaccination.

Also on offer in this week’s reporting is a rundown of 2020 accomplishments from Town directors and an update from the Recreation Department. Both of these reports go more in-depth with the various activities and projects everyone managed to pull off throughout the past 12 months, a testament to the hard work and creativity exercised in a year of cancellations, postponements and additional restrictions.

In a year overflowing with lemons, the community managed to set up lemonade stands with regularity. Whether we’re talking about our philanthropic clubs, local churches, schools, volunteer organizations or the Town projects highlighted in this week’s reporting, Fountain Hills has done an admirable job of addressing this past year’s hardships and planning for the (fingers crossed) better times ahead.