Happy New Year!

That phrase will be reverberating throughout the Hills and elsewhere this week and into early 2014.

Tradition is tradition, so once again we are presenting “review” stories for the year 2013 we’re now ushering out.

Starting this week and continuing with next week’s paper, The Times will present review stories detailing the news highlights of the past 12 months.

We’re also presenting our version of the “Top 10” local news stories for the year:

1. Elections

Likely the biggest impact won’t be felt for another year, but voters passed two major initiatives this past November.

The first was a town bond for $8.2 million to reconstruct three miles of Saguaro Blvd. from Shea to Fountain Hills Blvd.

The second item was on the same mail-in ballot – an $8 million bond for the School District along with renewing some budget overrides.

The bond money will be used for capital and other improvements on local FHUSD campuses, while the override extensions will continue pumping extra money into ongoing educational budget items for the district.

Meanwhile, FHUSD student enrollment continued to decline, resulting in some teacher layoffs and a slightly smaller budget.

2. CofC shuffling

The Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce was in the news quite a bit this past year, and much of it wasn’t favorable.

Its tourism director abruptly resigned and shortly thereafter its new board chairman and vice chairman resigned, apparently over differences in the Chamber’s direction.

Then its president and CEO, Frank Ferrara, announced he would be retiring at the end of 2014.

The Town of Fountain Hills was forced to resume tourism promotions once again after the Chamber gave up its contract with the town to perform those services.

3. Street work

Following the defeat of a giant $30 million bond package in 2011 designed for street maintenance, the Town Council had to come up with “Plan B.”

That plan included calling for the $8.2 bond issue vote for Saguaro Blvd. and then making some cuts in the budget to pump up the street maintenance line item.

The council has made street maintenance a high priority, dedicating $1 million annually to streets. The first phase was done this past summer and into the fall, including some resurfacing on major boulevards.

4. Gasoline spill

A gasoline tanker getting sliced open between McDonald’s and Senor Taco caused a giant gasoline spill and plenty of environmental damage.

Clean-up efforts, being paid by the tanker transportation company, are still ongoing and likely approaching the $1 million mark in cost.

Plenty of dirt removal has already taken place in a wash separating the Baptist church and Clear Aire subdivision, but more work will likely be done on Saguaro Blvd. in the weeks ahead.

5. Marijuana

Medical marijuana remained in the local news through the first half of 2013 as the town’s first (and only) dispensary opened up on Enterprise Drive.

Soon after it was announced that a separate clinic had opened in the same commercial strip where residents could obtain paperwork to be issued a medical marijuana card through the state.

After a flurry of publicity upon opening, however, the dispensary has remained in relative obscurity since that time.

Voter-approved changes to the state law a few years ago paved the way for the dispensaries to open around Arizona, although efforts remain to shut down the industry.

6. Vista Verde

Big news in the Verde Communities to the north was the sale of the Vista Verde subdivision, which currently contains a golf course and not much else.

TerraWest Communities bought the property and intends to develop the residential property.

Various zoning issues will likely dominate the news in 2014 in connection with Vista Verde, but the area will likely be a successful “sister” to previous developments Rio Verde and Tonto Verde.

7. Adero Canyon

Making the news later in 2013, this undeveloped parcel is located in the foothills of the McDowell Mountains west of CopperWynd.

Community developer MCO Properties is proposing to re-zone some of the land with higher density, thereby changing the marketability of the housing development.

In addition, the re-zoning could pave the way for unfettered public access to the Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve.

This comes on the heels of the City of Scottsdale buying some additional state trust land at auction to expand its preserve adjacent to Fountain Hills (including the “twin peaks” dominating certain McDowell landscapes here).

Look for the Adero Canyon project and proposed rezoning to dominate the news in 2014 as it winds its way through the town review process.

8. Area leaders

Two well-known community leaders were lost this past year – Fort McDowell Yavapai National President Dr. Clinton Pattea and Fountain Hills Fire Chief Scott LaGreca.

Pattea was the long-time tribal president who ushered through many projects and positive changes for the tribe over the decades.

LaGreca died in June after battling cancer for an extended period of time.

LaGreca helped guide the fire department through some transitions over the years after the Town Council dissolved the Fire District.

9. Amos Award

Our own Times Publisher L. Alan Cruikshank received the prestigious Amos Award this past summer from the National Newspaper Association.

The NNA held its annual convention in Phoenix and presented the award to Cruikshank at that time.

A former NNA board member, Cruikshank was honored for his decades of service to the community newspaper industry on many levels.

The NNA also distributes an annual scholarship in Cruikshank’s name, and he is responsible for many improvements and programs in Fountain Hills the past 40 years.

10. Stuff not done

That’s right – there was plenty of discussion in the news this past year on several things that haven’t been accomplished yet.

The Town Council voted to delay improvement work on the median strip on Avenue of the Fountains. That project may come back for consideration in this new calendar year.

The town also continues to study the possibility of building a new fire station in town. It would replace the one located on Saguaro Blvd. south of Shea.

The fire department wants the new station in a better location to improve response times and more evenly distribute the workload among the town’s two stations.