Looking back over the past couple of issues of The Times, it’s clear that 2017 was a busy year for Fountain Hills. That made it a pretty tricky task to narrow the list down to our top 10 stories which ran in the Dec. 27 edition.

So how do we define what is and is not a “top story?” Is it the number of headlines concerning a given topic that popped up over a 12-month period? Perhaps it’s the number of letters to the editor an issue garnered? Or is it less about what makes it into the paper and more about how a topic becomes a major point of discussion around town, in general.

The truth is that all three of those things are taken into account. We feel the biggest stories of the year were the ones that stuck with us, whether it was in print or through community buzz.

Still, we’re fans of data-driven decisions, which is why we decided to take a gander at the stories that drew the most attention through fhtimes.com. While many factors likely contributed to which stories got passed around the most, we still find it interesting to break down the trends.

It’s always been held that three of the most read sections of a community newspaper are the obituaries, the letters and the crime log. That definitely holds true with your local publication.

Based on page views alone, four of the top 10 stories on our website last year were obituaries, with another three of the top headlines being news stories concerning deaths. The overall top story, by nearly twice the number of reads as the story in the number two slot, was “Body discovered in Fountain Hills,” concerning the fellow who passed away in the Safeway parking lot last summer.

The second most-read story on our website last year, however, was “Town considers swimming lagoon in Fountain Park,” a more controversial but decidedly lighter topic of conversation. The sale of the Palisades Center came in at number eight, with a story about an SUV careening into a wash off of Palisades Boulevard this past September taking the 10th spot.

From there, several stories on the Park Place development start popping up, with even more obituaries peppered throughout the top 50.

The remainder of the list servers as a reminder of all of the other big occurrences that took place around town in 2017. Gridleys closing after 43 years in business was high in those ranks, accompanied by the Chabad purchase of the same retail space.

EVIT opening its doors in Fountain Hills was a big draw, as well as a couple of stories we ran on the big monsoon storm that wreaked havoc around town last summer.

Plenty of folks read up on the retirement of long-time high school coach Mike Briguglio, as well as the fact that several former students have returned to Fountain Hills to teach and coach sports themselves.

Looking ahead, we’ve got several big projects underway, a property tax election this spring and a big town council election next fall. We figure there are plenty more big stories on the horizon, so start placing your bets for next year’s top 10.