There are many activities and events planned this year to help celebrate the milestones of 30 years as an incorporated township and the 50th anniversary of the Fountain, notably by The Fountain Hills Celebration Committee. Many of these activities are event related, and many are historical in nature.

We are a dedicated group from the most recent Fountain Hills Leadership Academy with the goal of supplementing these efforts by quantifying some of the accomplishments and achievements that have helped make Fountain Hills the unique place that it is. Our focus is data-driven. For example, Fountain Hills is unique in that our town’s budget is 50 percent lower than other cities in Maricopa County, on a per capita basis. We believe that by putting information like this in the form of dollars, hours contributed, number of people touched and other numerical metrics we can help increase the pride in Fountain Hills and the support of the town in the future.

We have identified two categories of contributions: Volunteers, and grants and donations. These are supplementary funding sources for the town that contribute to Fountain Hills’ quality of life in the form of free labor, capital additions and cash. This is what allows many of the cultural and activity-based programs to be offered at minimal or no cost for the enjoyment of residents and visitors.

Over the course of this year we will drill down further on these areas. You can expect to see a number of articles in The Fountain Hills Times, on the Town website and online newsletters giving more details.

A brief overview the categories: There are currently over 800 active volunteers engaged in almost every aspect of the town’s affairs. As an example, and to show the scope of activities, these include Home Delivered Meals, Community Center activities, the seven Advisory Commissions, the Crisis Team, the Technology Learning Center, the Trailblazers, the River of Time Museum and the many service clubs. In addition, volunteer support is provided for annual events such as the two Festivals of Fine Arts and Crafts, the Thanksgiving Parade, disc golf tournaments and bike/running events. In 2019 volunteers contributed more than 14,000 hours of service, conservatively adding $350,000 of value towards the quality of life in Fountain Hills.

Grants supplement a number of the town’s capital improvements. Examples include the complete refurbishing of the six tennis courts and the new basketball court at Four Peaks Park. Just these two projects alone represent more than $300,000 in grant funds. There are also a number of grants directed toward road improvements, such as the recent $600,000 grant from the Department of Transportation/Maricopa Association of Governments for the Fountain Hills Blvd. widening project. In addition, another $250,000 was received for our pedestrian and bicycle master plan, the Safe Route to Schools, Palisades sidewalk design and $90,000 for storm drain maintenance.

The Town staff applies for a number of these competitive grants each year. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and the Arizona Office of Tourism combined grants amounted to more than $75,000 this past year.

Donations in the form of both money and capital assets from individuals and service clubs have led to the large public art collection throughout the town as well as the Splash Pad and Music Park. The Sanitary District recently installed the new Fountain Park restrooms at no initial cost to the town. Other examples include the Community Garden, Greening of Downtown and the Desert Botanical Garden.

As mentioned, we are data-driven and hope that by better quantifying the support to the town that volunteers, contributions and grants make, this will help inspire even greater recognition and pride in Fountain Hills in the future. Look for more details, and more data, in the near future!