I was discouraged to see the headline of the May 17 Fountain Hills Times stating that the Discovery Center received $10 million from the state budget. Did anyone ever think of doing a poll as to how many Fountain Hills residents want this project built? Almost everyone I have spoken to is dreading the much-increased traffic and they believe the facility will be much too big for our special town. Most of us moved here because of the quiet small-town feel. The article mentions that there have been 241 Launch Crew donors. That is only about 2% of Fountain Hills households. Could this be a sign that perhaps the other 98% do not believe this is a worthwhile project to invest in.

Traffic has already increased in town exponentially since the council approved the location of the project four years ago, with the building of Park Place, Havenly and Trilogy to the north. Do we really want thousands more people from all over the state coming to our town every year? What will all those extra cars and school buses do to our already crumbling streets? Will the Town have to add stop signs and traffic lights to accommodate the increased traffic? Was a traffic study ever done? Will there be enough parking for the library and Community Center users? Where are all those buses going to park?

Most construction projects these days run over budget – who’s going to pick up the tab for the possibly millions of extra dollars needed to complete the facility? Could the Town Council please relook at the huge project again, and ask for resident input, before proceeding further on a facility that will significantly alter our wonderful quality of life and potentially have significant fiscal impacts on the Town.