Whenever I walk down the Avenue of the Fountains, I cringe at the sight of the Park Place project looming over the Avenue. I, like many others, addressed Town Council about the project.

A primary objection was the height and style of the development. Town Council, of course, dismissed our concerns and approved the project. When I questioned whether our fire department would be able to handle a fire in this structure, I was assured we were fine. Now I see the Chief wants a new aerial truck. I wonder why? Aerials run from $650,000 to $1Million.

And to make matters worse, the developer owes our town over $400,000 in fees and unfortunately may get away with not paying them. These development fees would definitely help the town, which is supposedly struggling to make ends meet. Our town buildings need to be re-roofed, the Fountain Lake needs a new liner and our roads need repaving. On top of that, the cost of public safety will continue to rise. We need this money.

So the question becomes: was this mismanagement, ineptitude or something worse?

President Truman had a sign on his desk which read, “The buck stops here.” Ultimately, the buck stops with council, the mayor and the town manager. Our building department, which reports to the holy trinity, should have issued those permits to start construction once the fees were paid. The other company should have performed the inspections and reported their findings to our building department and nothing else.

Having moved here full-time from Michigan a year ago, all I can say is that if this had happened in my old community, recall petitions would already be circulating. Time for me to look up recalls in Arizona statutes.

And don’t even get me started about the lagoon!