If you’ve been picking up the paper these past couple of months, you’ve likely noticed that there have been a lot of letters to the editor. Topics range from town governance, to the lagoon concept to the Park Place development and beyond.

That’s a lot of voices chiming in on some understandably divisive topics, which means separating the fact from the fiction can become a bit tricky. While we provide straight reports across the news section, plenty of our readers have chimed in on a regular basis. That means there are a lot of stats, figures, prices, names, dates and the like flying around. That can, understandably, start to muddy the water.

One concern we’ve seen echoed throughout all of this is that folks want to hear more information provided directly by their elected officials; they desire more opportunities to hear and be heard in regards to topics important to the community.

Councilman Art Tolis is providing just such an opportunity Thursday night, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m. in the community center. Several of the topics mentioned above will be discussed at this meeting, meaning residents have a chance to hear the latest information firsthand.

Again, if you check recent letters, folks have been getting a bit heated concerning several of the items that will be up for discussion Thursday night. We’d like to echo Councilman Tolis’ request for civil discourse. We encourage everyone to attend, listen, speak if given the opportunity and remember that, more than anything, we all want to see Fountain Hills succeed. Just because we don’t all see eye to eye on how to best achieve that goal is no reason to abandon decorum.

Finally, revenue options will be a major topic during the Tuesday, Oct. 10 Town Council meeting. For those of you who want to enjoy information directly from the source, that will likely be an especially beneficial meeting to attend.