I have some questions about the Swimming Lagoon being proposed for the northwest corner of Fountain Park.

First, I would like to thank Councilmen Art Tolis and Cecil Yates

for showing some creativity in making Fountain Hills a more attractive place in which to live and visit. You can hear the buzz all over town about the positives and negatives of such a creation in Fountain Park.

As for the letters to the editor, they are about evenly split between the pros and cons. The project would cost $4 million to build. The cost of operation and maintenance are unknowns at this point. I’m afraid I can’t support this project. We have two upcoming major expenditures that we need to maintain our reputation as a unique town.

Drive from one end of town to the other. You’ll see our roads are falling apart. They have from years of neglect and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t do something now. I’m afraid it’s going to cost us every penny of that $4 million and a whole lot more.

The other major expenditure is maintenance of our namesake fountain. I don’t think we know how much this is going to cost us. But, we are Fountain Hills and if there is any way to enhance the operation of the Fountain I think that should have priority over another project that has so many unknowns associated with it.

But wouldn’t it be nice to lay claim once again to being “Home of the “World’s Tallest Fountain.”

Getting back to the Lagoon, there are lots of potential liability problems that go along with any water park.

And how many feet would have to be treated for burns from the hot sand that would result from these 110-degree plus days which we seem to have more of every year.

Two celebrity deaths in recent weeks brought back memories of when they appeared at functions in Fountain Hills.

Legendary ASU football

Coach Frank Kush played in a celebrity tennis tournament at the Fountain Hills Swim and Racquet Club in the late 1970s.

I played against Kush in a doubles match. My partner was Dewey Hopper, a Channel 12 weatherman, who was very popular with the ladies. In fact, he was welcomed to Fountain Hills by members of the Fountain Hills Women’s Club prior to the start of play.

Kush played with Marty Pincus, former ASU tennis coach who had just been hired by Racquet Club owner John Stelzmiller as the new club pro. The duo of Kush and Pincus defeated Hopper and me, 6-3.

At least we didn’t get shut out,” Dewey said to me after the match. I told him I thought we did just fine. After we played, I asked Kush if he would mind having his picture taken with my kids, Brent and Holly.

The other celebrity, who passed away recently was Adam West, TV’s Batman.

He was here with other celebrities and radio personalities from K-104 radio for the third White Castle Day celebration in 1982.

A total of 104,000 of the sliders were sold that weekend.