“We’ve got to think outside the box.” Over the past several years, that’s a phrase we’ve heard thrown around in conversations concerning education, business, government and beyond here in Fountain Hills.

If you want to attract and maintain families, students, business owners and visitors, you have to be willing to at least consider coloring outside the lines from time to time.

That’s exactly what we saw last week while attending a meeting on the local campus of the East Valley Institute of Technology. The event was geared at introducing stakeholders and the press to a partnership between the school and FTS, who plan to open a watch manufacturing facility right here in town.

During the event, EVIT Superintendent Dr. Sally Downey spoke about the various reasons these types of projects are a good fit for Fountain Hills. The school recently leased the former Four Peaks campus from Fountain Hills Unified School District, with an initial batch of their own classes kicking off this past fall.

Anyone who has been on that campus, though, knows that there is plenty of room to grow. Faced with all of that empty space, Dr. Downey said the question became how EVIT could best utilize it rather than simply let it sit unused.

The answer was to fall back on that phrase at the top of this column. On top of classes, the campus is now home to Bob’s Free Bikes, a business that recycles bicycles to be given to Valley youths, and will soon house the watchmaking training and manufacturing facility mentioned above.

On top of moving jobs and a whole new industry into Fountain Hills, Dr. Downey spoke to the educational portion of the project. The plan is to open classes to all comers, be they locals or from out of town, high school students or adults.

It’s easy to say we need fresh ideas to keep the town thriving in the years ahead, but it’s an entirely different thing to actually put those ideas into motion. It’s far too early to know if this new venture will soar, but one thing’s for certain: We’re happy to see them trying.