2026.0324.TCWS.VERBATIM.TRANSCRIPT
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TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL MARCH 24, 2026 A Work Session of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 1:01 p.m. Members Present: Mayor Gerry M. Friedel; Vice Mayor Gayle Earle; Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Rick Watts; Members Attending Remotely: Councilmember Hannah Larrabee Members Absent: Councilmember Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Allen Skillicorn Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Clerk Bevelyn Bender; Town Attorney Jennifer Wright TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 53 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Town Council Meeting Minutes March 24, 2026 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC * * * * * Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. * * * * * TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 53 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Call this meeting to order. Roll call please. BENDER: Mayor Friedel. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Present. BENDER: Vice Mayor Earle. EARLE: Present. BENDER: Councilmember Kalivianakis. KALIVIANAKIS: Here. BENDER: Councilmember Watts. WATTS: Present. BENDER: Councilmember Larrabee. LARRABEE: Present. BENDER: And Councilmember McMahon, and Councilmember Skillikorn are absent. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. Rachel? GOODWIN: Mayor, Council. I have a couple of words. I just want to sort of to introduce our meeting today. Remind everybody what we're doing, why we're doing it, and how we will be proceeding. So bear with me here. Today's capital improvement program work session. I want to take a moment to frame the importance of the discussion in front of us. The CIP at its core is our long-range plan for investing in the community's infrastructure, facilities, and assets. It reflects not what we build or repair, but how we prioritize service, delivery, safety, and quality of life for our residents over time. These decisions are always a balancing act. And Mayor, you and I talked about this a little bit. While the CIP identifies important capital needs across the departments, we are continually weighing those investments alongside other critical priorities, particularly roadway maintenance and reconstruction, which is, as we know, one of the community's highest expectations. Our goal is to ensure that we are making thoughtful, strategic investments without losing sight of the fundamentals. I also want to emphasize that the projects presented TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 53 to you today have been carefully developed within our current financial capacity. What you see before you is a program that is aligned with our available funding and fits within our budget expenditure limits. In other words, this is a plan that currently fits in the FY '27 budget. So as a reminder, we use a red, yellow, green framework to guide our discussion and provide clear staff to direction. Green items are those projects that Council is comfortable with moving forward with. These allowed staff to initiate work and proceed without needing to return, unless there are significant changes. Changes might be the scope, price, price point, things again, that are outside of what we present. Yellow items signal that we will budget for them. However, additional information or discussion is needed before moving forward. And of course, red items are those projects that Council does not wish to pursue at this time. This process is intended to make your direction clear and allow staff to move forward efficiently with -- when there is consensus. We will be looking for your feedback on each project in order to assign it to the proper category. And lastly, today's opportunity for open dialog between Council and staff to answer questions and refine the plan. Today's project -- basically, today is to let us know what projects you want us to move forward with and include in the budget proposal. A reminder that we will be bringing forward the budget proposal in a few weeks, in April. So we need to make sure that those that are projects that you'd like to include are mentioned today. We note them. Anything you don't, we will remove. And then one aside, I had one earlier conversation. This is the chance to add projects if there are, if there's something you have heard or would like to see on here outside of streets. So not including streets, but other projects. If there's something that you would like to see staff consider, now's the time. All right. With that, I will turn it over to staff to begin the presentation. Paul, are you kicking us off? PAUL: Actually, no. GOODWIN: Okay. We're going to go right to Kevin. The community services director is TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 53 going to lay out the projects specific to the Parks Department. SNIPES: Alrighty. Well, we've talked about some of the capital improvement projects, but not all of them. So today is a chance to see all of them that we've kind of whittled down for this year and to get your feedback on each one of them. One that we've talked about several times that we did the design side of this, this year. And so in next fiscal year, we'll be looking to add the structure around the irrigation pumps and controllers at Desert Vista Park. This is one we talked about where we actually had a leak inside the little green box there that houses the pump about a year and a half ago now, I guess, and it fried all the computer controls that are in there with it. So the idea of this being that we can get things out and get them better protected and both from the sun and from possible leaks that could occur. We're looking at doing several different turf improvements at Fountain Park, one of which, there on the left, you can kind of see there's a berm that's always right behind where the stage goes up for all of our major events. What we'd like to do is cut that berm down, and flatten out, and expand that event area out to where that we can move that stage back closer to the lake, which would allow us to have a lot more people in the flat area of Fountain Park's event space. The ridge originally was part of holding water back. If there was a massive flood that would come into that area. We have since re-delineated the property and so we can now take that berm out and make it so that we can have a larger useful space there at Fountain Park. The picture on the right there is another example. It's looking at getting rid of some turf that's in a difficult area, often leading to water overflow -- over throwing into the street because of the strange round corner that's on it. Makes it much harder to irrigate. It would also help protect both our monument sign from getting watered every day, and the electrical boxes from SRP getting worn out there on that corner as well. This is one that we've talked about a few different times over the years, and this seemed like a good time to work on tackling this -- both of these projects. And there's TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 53 one other space that has -- that's right next to the Great Lawn, that also has a dip in it that holds water. And so we're looking at leveling up that area as well, using some of the material that we pull from this berm to help do that. WATTS: It'll still be turf though? SNIPES: It will still be turf, yes. The area by the corner there, that's going to go to landscaping, and that's going to be eliminating the turf, and the one that's red and crossed out. Does that make sense? UNKNOWN SPEAKER: So no grass? SNIPES: Yes. Yeah. We'll do granite, and plants, and stuff in that same area where the turf is. That's the corner of El Lago and Panorama. Any other questions on that one? Does that make sense? Okay. Uh-huh. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Kind of one other question. Will that be done with staff? SNIPES: Yes. We're looking at the. The one on the corner. Could be a combination of the two. We're looking to do as much in-house as we can in all the turf sections. And just making it so that we can provide a much better space. And there's not much to -- it's just grading. So 90 percent of it will be in-house. GOODWIN: Kevin, I have a question for you about that one, too. SNIPES: Uh-huh. GOODWIN: Timing on that one, I know you do overseeding obviously in the fall and stuff like that. How does that factor into all of this? SNIPES: It's 100 percent what we're planning on doing. GOODWIN: That's the plan. SNIPES: So what we'll look at doing is when we shut down the irrigation to prepare for overseeding, that's when we'll come in and do all the projects that are in the turf. The one on the corner is less problematic as far as that goes. So that one could really be done at just about any time. But the one in the Great Lawn area will be geared around not only our events, but our overseeding to where that we won't interrupt anything. Anything else? EARLE: Do I -- do I need to ask your permission to speak in this meeting? Would all this TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 53 be done for 75,000? SNIPES: Yes. WATTS: Oh, nice. SNIPES: Yeah, that's. That's the key to doing it a lot in staff. So in house. WATTS: That was easy and almost painless. I'd like to go back one slide to the pump house. I didn't know we were going to ask questions as we were going. So my bad. SNIPES: No problem. WATTS: What did we have allocated in '26, and how much of that did we spend? Do we have any carry forward from that or -- where are we? SNIPES: So are we -- in '26 we did design only at 60. We're currently working with a person that's -- that we're talking about potentially doing a block building around it that he thinks he can do for cheaper than what we can. So if that's the case, then we won't need to spend that money either. And so we'll be giving that money back to the CIP and then moving forward with doing a block building around it. WATTS: So we had $60,000 allocated last year. We haven't spent that yet, and we may or may not spend it going forward. SNIPES: Yep. It all depends. We should find out something next week about where we're -- if we're able to do it the way that we think we can. And if so then we won't need as much. It'll help save more money for -- WATTS: So to put words in your mouth, in your typical fashion, you're going to come in about 150,050 percent savings on your estimates? SNIPES: I always hope that. WATTS: Pretty close to that? SNIPES: And I've done it a few times. WATTS: Thank you. SNIPES: I don't do it every time, but I've done it a few times. WATTS: Thanks. SNIPES: Uh-huh? It was 50 -- it was 50,000 towards design, not 60. Yeah. Either way, money not spent, so. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 53 The bollard lights around Fountain Park, as anybody who's been here for a while have known since they've been put in, they've been challenged a few different times on how bright they were, and how it interacted with people that were walking around the park. We found a company that can do just -- this is just the light pack. We've now found out that the bollard drivers that can -- that turn the lights on and off, they're not manufacturing those any longer. We bought the last 11 that they had. So that creates a problem. This is something that could be that would be an ongoing solution to this. We've worked with a company that's -- does a lot of retrofit, and they're helping us out with our basketball court lights at Golden Eagle right now, as well as we're involved with our lighting around the Centennial Pavilion, and for the shade, and for the shoe box lights that are around there. And so they did one of them. They brought it out. We've been working with our Dark Sky group. This is provided by Ted Blank. The pictures of the three different ways that it looks. The one in the middle there is what it would go to. It's definitely a more amber color. But it still provides -- my big thing was, do we get the same candles per square foot to where that we're getting the same brightness out of it. And as you can see in the in these pictures, it's better than one and less than the other, but the one that it's less than is the top left one there. And that's one that's not one that's clear around the park. That's the black ones that we have just by the Veterans Memorial area there. Any questions on that one? WATTS: Who's up first? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Vice Mayor. EARLE: Well, thank you, Mayor. Are you replacing the whole bollard or you just the lighting, because you're saying a new -- SNIPES: Just the -- just the guts of it, so it'll just be the light and the driver that that would be being replaced on this. We did find a company that makes just the shell. And so that way, if we do need to do that, we can do that along with for the outer part of it, where the manufacturer that makes the actual -- the entire bollard doesn't sell it in TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 53 parts, they only sell it in wholes. EARLE: But you're just changing -- SNIPES: Trying to make it so that we can get these to last as long as we can. EARLE: And you're just changing the lighting. It's not reflecting down. You're not having a reflector on there? SNIPES: No. It's -- EARLE: I see it. Just -- yeah. It looks like you haven't changed that part. Okay. SNIPES: No. WATTS: Kevin, somewhere in the 109 pages of detail that were supplied -- SNIPES: Uh-huh. WATTS: There was a mention of more efficiency, and efficiency to me is cost saving. SNIPES: Yes. WATTS: So did the lighting company that proposed these do an analysis of what the effective cost savings would be versus what we're paying today? SNIPES: We have not done a full-on -- because this started out as a very small like, are we going to do ten at a time and work our way through? These are running at 27 -- 2700 Kelvin. So they'll definitely use less electric. I don't know the total cost savings on that, but the old ones were at three. And so they were less efficient than what the new ones will be. WATTS: Not to split hairs, but 3000 Kelvin and 2700 Kelvin is the color of the light -- SNIPES: Right. WATTS: -- on the light spectrum. The amp draw is what I'm looking for. The reduction in amp draw when you go from an incandescent or some sort of fluorescent back to LED. SNIPES: So what they did say was, these drivers are more efficient than what the other than the original ones were. It's ten years' worth of technology that's making them more efficient. It was something that we reached out to see if there would be a substantial if there would, if it would fit with the SRP rebates. And it was not because of -- I can't remember what the exact was -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 53 WATTS: It probably doesn't fit for the SRP rebate program. SNIPES: -- but it doesn't fit with their thing. Yeah. WATTS: But on the other hand, most good salesmen say you're going to save $50,000 in utility costs over the life cycle of these things. So if we could do that, and we ended up taking from 300,000 down to 250, that would be good to know up front, to see. SNIPES: Sure. WATTS: Okay. Thanks. SNIPES: Yep. MAYOR FRIEDEL: One other quick question. How many bollards are down? SNIPES: There's over 300. Yeah, it's 326 or something like that. KALIVIANAKIS: Just one quick question for you too. You said you picked up 11 drivers. Did we ever have an inventory of drivers? Would that be on top of what we had? SNIPES: That was because we were -- we were running out of drivers that we ordered, and we had two or I think we had three or four that were still left on hand. So we do have enough to last for a little while, but -- KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. How many do we have in inventory? Any rough idea? SNIPES: Less than 20. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. And how long does the driver usually last? SNIPES: It is so random. I wish there was a direct number, but we had -- when we first put them in, we probably had ten percent of them that failed -- KALIVIANAKIS: Uh-huh. SNIPES: -- within the first year. And then since then, it's been hit and miss here and there where they fail. But we probably go through eight to 10 a year at least. KALIVIANAKIS: So we have like a year, two year max supply. SNIPES: Yeah, we'll have to figure out something. Uh-huh. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. And is that kind of like just a ballast for a light bulb? SNIPES: Yeah. Something like that, uh-huh. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Thank you. SNIPES: Yep. All right. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 53 GOODWIN: Kevin, I was just going to emphasize -- the Mayor kind of got beat me to it, that there's more than 300 of these down there, and they were in -- in '16. SNIPES: Uh-huh. GOODWIN: So they're ten years old. We know that this we knew that this was a cost that was coming. But the discussion we've been having internally is just like Kevin said, do we take this on in stages, doing ten at a time. Between the color change and the cost savings of a bulk order, that doesn't make the most sense. We save significantly if we order and do this project in one fell swoop. SNIPES: Correct. GOODWIN: Is that accurate? SNIPES: Yeah, because they're all being made specifically for our lights. There's definite cost savings in doing all versus one. Anything else? All right. The Fountain Park Lake liner replacement design. So this is one that we've talked about a few different times. So this is where we're looking to actually get into the nitty gritty of how we can get 100 million gallons of water out and replace or -- the coffer dam we talked about potentially doing, or seeing if there's other avenues that we need -- that we haven't even looked at, that we need to. We've looked at several but we'd really like to get this playbook, as we've talked about having it ready to go for if there's an emergency and something happens that's catastrophic, or as we go through time and we know that we'll start seeing -- like, if it's a leakage thing, that's going to happen in a slow process, but it doesn't mean that someone couldn't come off the road and drive up into it and tear the liner. And then we're still going to be in this exact same spot. And so this is so that we can be ready for that if and when the time comes. Any questions here? Okay. Fountain park remodel replacement. Down in the bottom left corner, there is the shape of the structure. It won't be that big. We're looking at 25 by 25 foot structures, but TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 53 that's the style that it'll be. We're in the process right now. We have it out to bid for the -- for this project. This is a two year project. So this year we're scheduled to do three and do two next year. So this is just both an update and for what -- for the ones that will be doing in next year's process. Any questions on these? EARLE: Did the old ones have lights? Because it looks like -- SNIPES: The old ones do have lights. EARLE: It's nice. And it's called Barrel Vault? WATTS: Yes. SNIPES: They're from a company called Cedar Forest. EARLE: Oh, that's the company name. It's not going to be saying Barrel Vault? SNIPES: No, it won't say that. There -- that's just the name of the product. EARLE: Okay. SNIPES: Anything else? KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. And then again, looking at the pictures on the right, is there a public safety hazard right now going on here? SNIPES: Yeah, it's close. We're keeping an eye on it. KALIVIANAKIS: Because it's -- with the cracks, and the pillars, and the falling -- SNIPES: We keep an eye on it on a daily basis if we need to pull stuff down. KALIVIANAKIS: -- down. SNIPES: And no, it's more the -- it's more the -- so the way that the original one was designed, it had a layer of metal, a layer of insulation, a layer of metal. So what happened was somewhere along the way, moisture got in between the two layers and got wetness. And so it's rotting from the inside out. And so that's where we're seeing the holes start to pop up in a few of them that are out there and other ones aren't far behind, so. And we did look into just replacing the roofs. That was the thing that we thought would be the cheapest. And I had, I think, three different vendors come in and look at them, and each one of them were over $100,000 just to do the roof. And I was like, well, we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 53 can do the whole structure and then some for that. So that's when we started looking at it a different way about three or four years ago. And so that's what got us to where we're at. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. It's just -- it just -- again, just to a layman, it looks dangerous. And I think this should be a priority item to get this thing going as soon as possible. Thank you. WATTS: And Kevin, just so I'm clear, all five of them are $200,000. $40,000 a piece, installed? SNIPES: No, this is -- this is -- so we're doing three this year and we're doing two next year. So there's 300,000. There's 320 on this year's and 200 on next year's, for five total. WATTS: Oh, on '26, we've got $320,000 for three of them? SNIPES: Correct. WATTS: So $167,000 apiece. And next year we're going to have about the same thing for the other two? SNIPES: For the other two, correct. WATTS: Okay. Thanks. GOODWIN: Kevin. Not to steal your thunder on this because I know you'll do a SIP update about this year's project, because it is a bridge project, but you expect this probably to all be done -- kind of a summer effort? SNIPES: This one we're trying to finish. Be somewhere -- we're hoping to get everything in in the June, July carryover so that it'll all look like one seamless project. And we'll do it in the hottest part of the summer to where that most people won't be out when it's 115, to sit in the shade, even to sit in the shade. So that's the impact that we're trying to -- as long as we can get them produced in that amount of time, then -- then we should be all good. GOODWIN: Thank you. SNIPES: Uh-huh. Thank you. Another electrical building that we talked about that we did the design for this year, and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 53 it's in the exact same line as the other one. When we found that out, we said, well, let's try and save both of these projects from having to pay for the design side. If we can just build a block building around it, there's a pad already there. So we've had a contractor out taking a look at those, one of our JOCs. And so we're working our way through that right now. We're hopeful that we can do both of these buildings at less than what we originally anticipated. Anything else on these? WATTS: Easy question. What -- are you just putting a new building around it? The four walls foundation is going to stay the same. No movement of the electrical or any of the sub -- the sub panels that are in there, transformer, et cetera? SNIPES: What we may do is -- what we're looking into is everything that's on the left side of that picture is swinging that around to the outside wall, because that little building there is going away. WATTS: So it seemed like $200,000 for that size building was a little expensive. SNIPES: Yep, because there's all that electrical involved. Yup. WATTS: So with all the electrical, it wouldn't be relocating all of that stuff. SNIPES: Exactly. WATTS: Okay. Thanks. SNIPES: Uh-huh. This next one we talked about, I think once a little while ago, about taking the irrigation that we're currently sharing a lake across the street from Golden Eagle Park. And the golf course uses the lake for their irrigation, as do -- as does the park. And so all of our pumps are in the same room. We're sharing the same body of water. And it has had some issues, definitely over the year with -- over the years with doing that, with discrepancies on what type of injections we should use, how to treat the lake, all that sort of thing. What we're looking at doing here is putting in an in-ground storage tank, doing a direct feed from the sanitary district. That middle picture there is approximately where the water line runs that goes over to fill the lake. So we could tap into it in that location. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 53 Put a small pump house in the bottom right corner of the picture there on the right, where the red box is. And then put the tank in that turf area below the turf. We think this can be a cost effective way to do this and give us total control of our irrigation water. We'll have better water quality because we'll have control of how we treat it. As you can see, that picture there on the left, that's an every year scenario for our park guys. And when you have 1000 sprinklers in the park, it turns into a lot of work having to clean those. We do do chemical treatments of our lines to try and help minimize it, but we still run into having to clean out a lot of sprinklers, usually in the June, July timeframe, which is a great time to have to do a lot of work on your irrigation system. So for both of those reasons, we would like to get away from having to do that, and we think this is the best way to do that. We've already talked with the Sanitary District about it. They're on board with it. So it would just be a matter of doing some modifications to the line to pull it off. So this would be -- this is looking at getting the design done this year, and then in two years starting on the actual construction for three years. WATTS: But the 75,000 doesn't include construction costs. This is purely design, right? SNIPES: Right, this is just design. Correct. The three -- yeah. WATTS: Right. SNIPES: We're -- because of how much stuff's involved. I didn't want to make a guess on that, because I felt like that was a little bit above what I could guess. WATTS: But you've got four -- oh, so construction is going to start at FY30. SNIPES: Yeah, 30. So that -- that was because of how our CIPs were lining up. WATTS: Right. SNIPES: We felt like that was a good year to do that. WATTS: So no estimates yet on construction, $75,000 for design. That's it. SNIPES: Yes. WATTS: Thanks. SNIPES: Uh-huh. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 53 UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Two questions. Do we have this issue anywhere else in town? SNIPES: This is the only spot that we have anything close to this. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yet you anticipate the storage tank to be below ground? SNIPES: Below ground? UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Will that be a block? SNIPES: No one will see the water supply. It'll all be below ground that way it -- we can make it the exact size that we need it to, so that we know. We turn it over as often as we need to minimize the amount of treatment we would need to do. And it just gives us total control of the irrigation for a critical piece of infrastructure. GOODWIN: Kevin, I've chimed in on every one -- SNIPES: Sure. GOODWIN: -- so I'm just going to chime in on this one too. I apologize because this is something Kevin -- I've talked about quite a bit over a number of years, so this has really been something in the background for a while, so I'm a little more familiar with it. But one thing I wanted to mention, particularly for you, Councilman Watts, is you had asked about offsets. What we didn't mention is we pay an annual fee to access the lake that's across the street, so that savings would be realized year over year after -- once we got this up and running. WATTS: I bet you the order of magnitude, the labor costs are significantly more than the fees that we pay. GOODWIN: You'd be surprised. SNIPES: It's a -- it's a -- it's a reduction, not a total cost coverage. WATTS: Right. GOODWIN: Yes. Yes, but there is -- there is that savings to be -- to be -- just to be clear. SNIPES: Anything else? All right. The next one was -- is Sierra Madre Park, which is a location that's north of Golden Eagle Park. You can kind of see it on this map. There in the top center, is the location of it. It butts up to the property that the school just sold. And so with the development that could be going in there, if that development does go in, we feel like it TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 53 would make the most sense to try and capitalize on development already going on. And then adding in a new park along with that. Feeling like -- and then being able to -- we've already had some preliminary discussions with them about maybe with them having their heavy equipment out here, helping us out, and doing some grade work. And wanting to do that, we have to have a plan in place to be able to pull that off. So what we're looking for this year is to get the design done, so that we know where we need material, where we don't. Start looking into the challenges of having a dam at the top of the park versus at the bottom of the park, which is kind of where we're at Golden Eagle right now, where everything backs up into the park. This would kind of be on both sides of the dam. There's ten acres on the upstream side of the dam, and there is 20 on the down side. You can kind of see that better in this picture. So you can see the new development there in that top left corner. And Sierra Madre Park has access to a couple different streets there, we're looking at. There is some amazing views down through there. We were out walking the space not too long ago. And it's just a -- it would be a nice size community park that would have a lot of great views, and we could really capitalize on some views of nature in that area. EARLE: Kevin? SNIPES: Yep. EARLE: Has anybody talked to Toll Brothers that they might help pay for it? SNIPES: That's where we're talking to them about helping out with doing some of the groundwork and doing some of the grading side of it, and that sort of thing with that as -- yeah, we certainly have had those discussions. Yeah. Like I said, we have to have the plan in place to where that we know what we want to do before we can do that. We're also looking at partially funding this with some development fees to help with that cost mitigation as well. EARLE: Is the 6,000 just design, or is that doing the park? SNIPES: It's 600,000. EARLE: I'm sorry. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 53 SNIPES: Yes. EARLE: Yes, 600 -- SNIPES: That's just design. EARLE: Just design. SNIPES: Yep. EARLE: Oh. SNIPES: Yep. WATTS: How receptive is Toll Brothers been? SNIPES: Fair. Yeah. Yeah, they -- WATTS: Yeah, they got a smoking deal on the land. So they've got a little bit of latitude. SNIPES: They were -- they seem like they -- when we were having our preliminary discussions with them, they said yeah, let's have -- let's have those discussions down the road. WATTS: So the 600,000 then is inclusive of the 200 from the development fees. And that development fees come from Toll Brothers, the construction side, from there? SNIPES: No, no. Not directly, no. WATTS: That was quick. GOODWIN: There it is. WATTS: That was quick. PAUL: Mayor and Councilman Watts. So it's just from the existing development impact fees that we have. We're planning to spend most of it this year, potentially on Skyview Park. So we have about 1.44 million today. If the budget that we're asking for is around that amount, because of the expanded scope and stuff, and Kevin will talk about that more, so but we are projecting to bring in additional revenues. The fees are -- is it almost April 6th? Almost April 6th. So the new fees are going into effect in a couple of weeks. Our projections have gone up for those revenues, so that's probably a conservative number. We're projecting over $400,000 of parks impact fees next year. So we're just earmarking some of that money to go towards this, and through the entire process, if we do move forward on this, we would use basically as TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 53 much of the parks impact fees that we're bringing in. That's what we would earmark to try to offset the cost of the entire park construction. KALIVIANAKIS: And as long as you're up, Paul -- SNIPES: Come back. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. Just one quick question for you. I know development fees, if you don't use them within ten years, they revert back. PAUL: Uh-huh. KALIVIANAKIS: And so do we have any development fees that are close to expiring that we should be using up right now? PAUL: Yeah. Great question, Councilwoman. We don't have any that are approaching the ten year mark. We track that every year. I think we have some -- I don't know if it's parks or our streets impact fees that are close to six or seven years old are the closest to the ten year mark, but we're going to spend that on the street widening pretty soon here. KALIVIANAKIS: Right, right. PAUL: It's just getting started. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Good. Good to know, but thank you. PAUL: Before I get down or let Kevin come back up. But I did want to mention that -- and I'm sure Kevin will get into this, but it makes me a little antsy with moving forward on a park like this, it does bring an operational aspect. It will cost money to staff and utilities and things like that, and it's included in the book, and I'm sure Kevin will talk about that as well, so. SNIPES: With that, I'll take any other questions on the park itself. Design. EARLE: He mentioned more staff. SNIPES: Uh-huh. Yeah. Taking care of 30 acres of park is definitely going to take some more staff. We're planning a multi-year approach to this. I think we have it scheduled out, five years at least of doing a phased approach on it. Because it is going to be -- I mean, it's -- 32 acres is not going to be -- doesn't build for free, and it won't, and making sure that we have the money. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 53 So we've been looking at all those numbers and seeing where, where that puts us at. And so far, we're all on the same boat as thinking that this does work, it is a good time to do it with what's happening in that space. If it wasn't, then we probably wouldn't be looking at this project today. It was something that Rachel and I had earmarked, I don't know, probably seven or eight years ago, as far as this being a great spot for a community park. And with the new development coming in, we were like, if the school builds there or that's where we thought we could tag into and now with the development going in, it makes the same sense with a new development going in to come in at the same time. WATTS: Is this a good time to ask him the question? Okay. EARLE: How much staff are we talking about? GOODWIN: Well, and we don't know yet, is the answer, because as Kevin just said, it's a -- we're visioning building this over five years at least. So each phase of the park will determine what staff, if any. Meaning if it's a highly active park where we have -- and I don't know this, again, this is where we don't know we need. That's why we need to build a design and plan it out. Does it have high-use amenities? Are we getting people -- are we getting hundreds of people through there every day where we need to be checking trash multiple times a day and cleaning restrooms and things? Or is it more passive use where we're not seeing that type of high traffic number, where we have people -- and it's really going to be dependent on what elements are included in the park, what type of amenities, and how fast they're added, i.e., the first phase of this is probably going to be much more low impact, right? With some trails and some things, as we add a playground or as we add a restroom, or as we add other things that will determine those staffing elements as well as the operational costs, whether that's for supplies, materials, that type of thing. The idea for today in this conversation is, none of those questions can be answered until we have a design, until we know what the park will include or won't include. SNIPES: Certain -- if you'll let me step in. GOODWIN: Please do. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 53 SNIPES: So given the size of this, think about Fountain Park at 60 acres. 30 of it is Lake, right? So the outer 30 is going to be similar to this. So the max that I can see us needing there would be two staff. And depending on the impact, like Rachel said, it could be that it's one. It just kind of depends on what all ends up going there and -- like Golden Eagle, has two staff because of the activeness of the space and how much we're having to turn over fields and get everything ready. So you can kind of look at it from that, and it'll be two or less. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I have two questions. SNIPES: Uh-huh. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we -- and I won't hold you to this. Do we have any idea what the value of Toll Brothers moving, grading, what that brings to the table for us? Do we have any idea? Estimate. Ballpark. No. SNIPES: I'm not sure. MAYOR FRIEDEL: All right. SNIPES: You're talking heavy equipment. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah. SNIPES: So it's -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah, it's -- SNIPES: It'll be considerable. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I was going to say, it's costly to do that. SNIPES: Uh-huh. MAYOR FRIEDEL: So there's -- so there's some -- certainly some value to having that done. SNIPES: Yeah. MAYOR FRIEDEL: The second question I have is with this design. They're going to be there putting sewer lines in and all kinds of stuff. Are we anticipating that our design is going to say, hey we need a sewer hookup for potential washrooms down in here. Will that all be taken care of with the design work? And can we get Toll Brothers to put a hookup in there? Anticipating the fact that we're going to be able to have a restroom TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 53 down there at some point in time. SNIPES: It would all depend on where that needs to go to. But without the design, we don't know any of those answers. So we need to figure out the design and where the location will be for things that need that, and restrooms, or even our irrigation hookups and things like that. And so that'll be what will help determine what we can and can't easily do. GOODWIN: Mayor, I think you kind of hit the nail on the head in that question is that we can't give Toll any direction. We can't make any of those requests or partner with them or collaborate on any of this until we know what we need. And that plan is really the catalyst for that conversation. Toll has been very open to dialog with us and have asked, well, what is it that you want? And I can't answer that until we have more concrete plans, until we have a design, exactly. So a lot of this is all turning on that conversation. And again, Kevin mentioned it. We wouldn't be having this conversation today. This wasn't really on our horizon until that development process triggered. And then it made sense to piggyback. If there's going to be development in the area, we should capitalize on that in terms of timing. SNIPES: And it certainly takes a fair amount of time to develop a park to get the design for a park of this size, as we all know. And so we need to move on this quickly to be able to catch when they still have their heavy equipment on site. So there's definitely a ticking clock as far as -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: You need us to delay this -- I'm just kidding. SNIPES: Yeah. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I think we should take every advantage possible if they're going to be down there and we're going to need it at some point anyway. SNIPES: Any other questions? All right. Our next one is Skyview Park Construction. We have the design done. We are out to bid. The number that we put in the book was 1.4 that was based off of some engineering estimates and a little bit of contingency as well. We're still hopeful that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 53 we'll come in under that. Some of the things that we're in the -- in the original cost, we think we'll have taken care of some of the issues that were in that engineering estimate before they start working on it. This has been a project that we've sat in several meetings with our Dark Sky folks and made sure that we're looking into all the details possible to make sure that it's a success when it opens. And so there was a lot of design things that had to be thought of, especially with a hillside coming down on Golden Eagle. We've talked about this before, about the headlights coming down and around that corner, as well as vehicles turning on to Bainbridge. And so to help with that -- the center, we have the big structure that had to have a top and sides on it to where that we could capture more of the light and make sure that it doesn't ruin the experience. We're doing red lighting inside, push button activated to where that we can turn on and off the lights and make it so that it's usable. Both if we want to have something that's not directly to Dark Sky viewing, but just towards having a place in the evening, it will be lit normal. And then when you go to doing Dark Sky viewing, you can push a button, it switches it to red lighting, and so it won't affect your eyes. And then there's walking trails that'll be around it, that'll add in a bunch of different and unique styles of plants so that we can show our residents there's more to landscaping than Lantana. And we're always trying to get people to use different things. We certainly do in the parks. And so this provides a nice space and with its heavily tree oriented as well to where that, as the trees grow, they'll help to protect from the lights coming into the space. So you can see. And I know this is hard to believe, but we're about 75 percent less vegetation in this than it originally came to us. Because architects love to put more plants than what you need to if you let them grow to their full size. So we did that reduction and so we think this could be a very useful space, not only at night, but also during the day, being able to have outdoor yoga, which we're already doing in some of our other parks. But this TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 53 would be a quieter, off the beaten path space to do that at as well. And hold other classes at as well. EARLE: How much parking is there? SNIPES: So it's -- so along -- we did parallel parking there in the parking lot to where that no headlights could turn into the space. That was a big concern from -- for the light pollution coming in and affecting it. I think there's 13 to 16 spaces, something like that, in that area. And then we're also going to restripe Golden Eagle Boulevard, like we did down around the ball fields, to where there could be some on-street parking as well if needed. EARLE: I'm hearing lots of complaints about the narrow road there because they've done that by Golden Eagle. So then this would be narrowed near this as well, just like Golden Eagle? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Correct. Yep. EARLE: Well, I'm still hearing complaints, so. Okay. I don't know if I like that reducing the road that way. GOODWIN: Well, it's also feasible that we can give the parking lot a chance to see what type of traffic you're seeing. SNIPES: Uh-huh. GOODWIN: I think the question becomes -- is if the use demands more parking, that's our best option is to create on-street parking. SNIPES: But I don't think it needs to be there out of the gate. I think it will be something where we see how it -- how it functions. GOODWIN: See how it functions. Uh-huh. EARLE: Yeah, I'm just -- I mean, but we want to be prepared for the future. GOODWIN: Yeah. SNIPES: Because it is a really small park. And so if you have, I mean, with that many parking spots that are in there and the number of people, that would be a pretty sizable event in that space for that time. So the idea is, this should sustain itself. If we found that it was that popular that we needed to expand, there is a solution to that. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 53 EARLE: But it's a potential we got to think of what we, you know, down the road. WATTS: Kevin, are you -- for walk walkway lighting? Are you going to do the same type of bollard lighting? SNIPES: It's it is a low-level bollard-type lighting. WATTS: Same thing as we've got around the fountain now, basically? SNIPES: Not the exact same, but similar. WATTS: Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: There is a church right across the street to -- SNIPES: Uh-huh. MAYOR FRIEDEL: -- for with a big parking lot as well. So that's something we could always explore as well. Maybe we can get an agreement to allow some overflow in there. SNIPES: Uh-huh. Any other questions? Okay. This next one is back behind the community center there next to the Centennial Pavilion area. We have a turf space back there that's so sloped, it's not usable. And so what we would like to do for this coming year, is bring that grade up to where that we activate that space for things like cornhole or could be -- anything that -- that needs that flat space. And I know that Kathleen's talked about activating that space for several different things, and it just isn't usable the way it is for any of the events we have back there or on the day-to-day basis. And so we'd like to get that space to a level that we -- that is much more usable, and get it done before the property behind it gets developed, to where that we're not matching their grades, but they're matching ours. And there is a storm drain that's in there that we've talked about, that we can bring up some that will help us also with making that grade much more flat. And so that's the main part that's on for this fiscal year. And then the next part is over next -- right behind the building. Putting a shade structure over that section of turf that will help shade that hallway that is usually around 95 degrees when you walk down TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 53 through it in the middle of the summer. And it'll also provide an outdoor seating area next to the building. And then doing a balance type fitness area where the turf is there currently. We've been doing a lot more balance and core strengthening type classes, and they've been doing so well, we had to move them into the ballrooms, so we know there's a demand for it. One of the problems that -- that I've heard several times is they wish there was several of those. This would provide a way to be able to do it on your own -- on your own time. It would be open to the public. It wouldn't be part of the membership of the community center. But I think, all things considered, adding in the shade blocking the sun from hitting that side of the building is going to be a huge asset as well. Several years ago, we talked about expanding the community center into this space and having this be a fitness area or a coffee shop area. We had several different ideas for it, and that price number was knee buckling. This is a slightly different beast to that. And so this is what we're recommending for both of those spaces. Questions? Uh-huh. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: So the shade, at some point, we talked about the need to replace the windows and doors that won't have any impact on -- SNIPES: Now, what we're looking at is doing a cantilever from the shade structure side and having it tilt up towards the community center building. And so that way it would go vertical enough to make sure that the sun never comes through those windows. But it has to be ten feet away from the building itself because of building codes. And so we'll design it to where it's able to accomplish both of those tasks and still maintain a safe distance. MAYOR FRIEDEL: To change the codes. SNIPES: We're going to change everything today. Other questions? All right. The next one, we pushed back for the third year of the linear park development to do the shade structure on the west half. This is a similar design to the one that's on the east half to where we maintain consistency through that group. We've TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 53 noticed a lot of people using it and -- using the shade structure that's on the east half. When they come down to the west side the avenue, we're seeing a lot of people sit in really tight groupings in this area to find the shade that comes from the trees that are there, but there just isn't much that's there midday or even into the evening hours, where adding a structure where we could place the picnic tables in that area to where you could be in the shade would be as -- is definitely something that's been asked of us, especially during farmer's market days, but also during regular days out there as well. And this is something that we're not looking at doing this year. This is '28. We're just -- I'm just kind of getting you sharing the stuff for the future years as well. Questions on that one? EARLE: I don't know if I want to say it. We had some people very unhappy with the first one. So is there anything different from this one to the other one, or have you found -- SNIPES: We could certainly do something different. I think that if we're not maintaining consistencies with the two halves, I received a ton of compliments on it. And so I know that there's certainly were some people that weren't happy with it, but a lot of the things that they were bringing up didn't come to fruition. Blocking views of the fountain, or issues of walking down the pathway and not being able to see. It just -- when it got put in, and you walk down through there, none of those factors were actual factual. EARLE: So that's what I was wondering. Yeah, talking about the views are from people. There will be the apartments above these? SNIPES: Huh-uh. This is straight out from the parking lot. That's just on the end of the building here. EARLE: Oh, okay. SNIPES: This is straight out from the sheriff's office parking lot. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Based on this upper left, what you're talking about, I believe, comes in further down. EARLE: Okay. SNIPES: Correct. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 53 EARLE: So the other one people were saying was going to block view. So it's -- SNIPES: Yeah. And it's definitely not. You can't you don't even see that structure until you get down to it when you're walking down the hill. All you see are trees. And so until you get past -- until you get within about 100 feet of it, you don't even see the structure because there's too many trees down there that block it when you're walking down the path. EARLE: So I want to say this very gently, the little circle thing. SNIPES: Yeah, I know. EARLE: It's not aesthetically pleasing to me, but is that the only way it can be built this way? I guess it is, because that circle is over the fountain. There'd be no posts there. SNIPES: Yeah, we can look at that. I mean, we're still not looking at this year. We're looking at next. EARLE: Okay. SNIPES: But if that's something that we want to just. EARLE: Just putting out there. That's all. SNIPES: Uh-huh. EARLE: Thank you. WATTS: All right, Kevin, I think the uniformity of one shade structure and the another is important. I know we got a lot of criticisms from 50 percent of the people, but the other 50 percent of the people like it. So it's six one, half a dozen of the other. My question really is what are we spending in '27, if anything? Or is this all in '28? SNIPES: Uh-huh. We just pushed everything back. Yeah, all the '28. Uh-uh. WATTS: Okay. Makes sense. Thank you. SNIPES: Uh-huh. This next one is also a future project that we're looking at. This one we're looking at fiscal year '30 for. This is the hillside that goes up from the back of the skate park. It's super steep right there. And having that turf up there has been problematic. And so what we'd like to do is bring in a shade structure down closer to where the bowl is of the skate park. And in part of helping to be able to do that, you can see the picture on TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 53 the right there is looking kind of from the street yard entrance close to there, and it goes uphill before it goes downhill. So what we want to do is cut that hill off and make it to where that -- that slope doesn't have to be near as steep. It's about -- it's probably a four- or five-foot-high berm before it starts going downhill. That doesn't serve any purpose other than making that hill steeper. So what we want to do is come in and cut that down to where that we can have a much less steep area. And then we'll come in and do some landscaping on that hillside versus having that hillside be turf. So that will be something that will be bring back to you at a later date. But just wanted to start getting it so you can see what we're looking at for down the road. Any questions on that? MAYOR FRIEDEL: I have a question on that. SNIPES: Uh-uh. MAYOR FRIEDEL: At one point, I thought we had kicked around the possibility of putting some bleachers or some kind of seating in there. Is that still something we're going to think about? SNIPES: Yep, yep. That would -- that's part of what we're looking at doing with the shade structure. Uh-huh. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we have any kind of grant money or anything like that we can look at for that? SNIPES: Not yet. MAYOR FRIEDEL: No? SNIPES: No. Doesn't mean that we won't be looking for it, but right now would be too soon to have that. Any other questions? All right then. This is a cut out straight from the budget book. So you can kind of see the where we're looking at years out into the future and the total cost for each one of the projects that we're looking at. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 53 And then I'll take you to the next slide, and we can start looking at red light, yellow light, green light information. Any questions on this page? WATTS: Do you have a total down on that? EARLE: That if you keep going down, is there a -- SNIPES: So for '27 it would be 4.2 million. For '28 it's 2.5. '29 is 5 million, and '30 would be three million -- a little over three million. GOODWIN: And just for reference, it's also in your packet if you want to scroll. If you head over to like page 15, there's a good bar graph that kind of shows the amounts each project and then where the funding is coming from. And you can kind of scroll down from there to see the totals that Kevin just called out on page -- looks like page 16. SNIPES: So then we can just go through each one of the projects. I did the green highlight over the three projects that are this year and next year projects. Because we're hoping that if you guys were on board with those last year, that we'll stay on board. But just so you know, those were the three that were greenlit last year, and this year is looking to be the construction side of those. The first one there, the Fountain Park Lake liner replacement design. We'd like to get kind of a your opinion if so you know, if we should red light, green light, yellow light that one. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: And what do you think? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Hannah, can you -- do you want to weigh in on that one? LARRABEE: I think I'm a green light. Thank you, Mayor. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. SNIPES: Okay. Sounds like we got a consensus there to green light that one. Sierra Madre is the next one. Thoughts there? EARLE: Is that the one that's actually 400? GOODWIN: That's 600 total with two of it will come from. EARLE: So it's 400. SNIPES: Yeah, we'll take that. One has 200,000 coming from the development fees, and 400 would be coming from. EARLE: Is it a complete definite it's going forward with Toll Brothers? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 53 WATTS: That's up to you guys. MAYOR FRIEDEL: That's up to us at the Council. EARLE: So I'm wondering I know, I think that was a rhetorical question. SNIPES: And what we could do is we -- could -- we could green light it with the understanding that if -- EARLE: That's what -- SNIPES: -- one doesn't happen, then the other does. EARLE: Yes, that's what I would do. Okay. SNIPES: Thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: That's fine. And that's at least $200,000 in development fees. It could be more depending on what happens. SNIPES: Yeah. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah, I think so too. SNIPES: Yeah. Okay. We'll add that asterisk to it that we'll green light that one with the understanding that if the Toll Brothers development doesn't happen, then that one goes back on hold. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Let me ask Councilmember Larabee if she has an opinion. Hannah on the Cedar Park, Sierra Madre Park, 600 grand, at least 200 coming from development fees. How do you stand on that one? LARRABEE: I agree with the -- with the understanding that we just mentioned. SNIPES: Perfect. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. LARRABEE: So yes, with the asterisk. Thank you. WATTS: I think so much of it is not so much whether that the Toll Brothers project will go forward or not. It's what concessions are going to be made by Toll Brothers to be able to support some of this. So it's a little bit nuanced in the concessions. SNIPES: Okay. WATTS: But yes, I'm in favor of it. SNIPES: Yeah. We'd have to have the development to be the plan to be able to figure TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 53 that out, too. Uh-huh. Sounds good. Skyview Park. That one's being paid entirely with development fees. That is not out of the CIP budget. But where are we at with that one? GOODWIN: Kevin, just to clarify to you that 1.4 is a estimate. SNIPES: Estimate. GOODWIN: It is out for bid now. So we don't actually have the final bid on -- SNIPES: Right. GOODWIN: -- cost yet. Is that accurate? SNIPES: Correct. GOODWIN: Okay. EARLE: Will that be -- is that okay? Will that be depleting our developmental fees? SNIPES: Yeah. It'll take -- it'll take some out of that. But that's exactly what development fees are earmarked for. These development fees are only able to be used for new -- for new development in parks. EARLE: In parks. Okay. And they're going to -- oh, there we go. The expert. Thank you. PAUL: Today we have about 1.44 million. So just above that amount in parks impact fees. So hopefully, the bids come in lower, and we spend from that. And to Kevin's point, that's the -- really the development impact. Fees are only for capital projects for the most part. So it would be what we would use as a funding source for this project. EARLE: All right. Thank you. Green light. KALIVIANAKIS: If I may, just the Skyview Park, it's a lot of it's going to be contingent on whether it's going to be passive park, active park for the for the eventual funding. Correct? GOODWIN: Well, so that's more what we were talking about in terms of funding. That was more Sierra Madre. This park is it's only 3.3 acres, not even one and a half acres one and a half. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah. GOODWIN: And so it's designed for extremely passive use and is designed for the access to the Dark Sky. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 53 KALIVIANAKIS: Right. GOODWIN: Essentially, it was all born out of the concept that we are a Dark Sky community, but we have nowhere to send our community to actually look at the dark skies because none of our parks are -- or meet those standards. So people were trying to find dark parking lots, go to the trailhead. All these places that were closed are not meant for those purposes. This is designed to give 365 access to sky viewing and complement our dark skies. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. And so we're not going to deviate that much from our plan? GOODWIN: No, no, that's the intent. KALIVIANAKIS: Okay. Great. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I was going to say you could just say, you know what? We only have so much so many dollars to spend, and you can get that to come in under budget then. SNIPES: Right? So Hannah. Hannah? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Hannah, how do you feel about Skyview Park? LARRABEE: I like it. I'm only a yellow light because I want more information. I'm a yellowish green. How's that? MAYOR FRIEDEL: Thank you. SNIPES: Okay. Do you want to talk about the next three, or are we good with the three that were green lit last year for design and implementation to move into construction? WATTS: I'm good. SNIPES: Okay. All right. We'll keep those in the Fountain Park turf reduction, grading and drainage work. Where we talked about the event space, and the corner, and doing some grading around. Are we good with that one? What do you -- is there something that you're wanting to see more of or -- WATTS: From my perspective, I don't know what we have saved from last year or we will roll over this year. We haven't done really a consolidation and elimination on a financial statement. When you look at different and the buckets, I'm going to go back to the buckets. So what have we been able to save and accumulate that we haven't used. So I was really hoping Paul would be up first and I could ask him those questions. But as TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 53 we get there, some of this is contingent upon what we haven't spent yet. Like you said, these three we've approved, but we haven't spent the money. So if we haven't spent the money but we've got it from last year, then I'm good with it. PAUL: Then we don't need more money. WATTS: Yeah. Then I'm good with that, so. GOODWIN: Well, and I think Paul's probably going to tell you this already, but we don't know what that consolidation is until the end of our fiscal. I mean, we're in the last quarter of the year and cranking on CIPs right now so that we won't know what's left in the bucket. But that's why this plan was built on what we do know, what we do have in the bucket, not based on what we might have. WATTS: So everything that you have here, we can pay for today? GOODWIN: Correct. PAUL: I can touch on that, too. So Mayor, Councilmember, we're projecting to have somewhere in the 8.8 to $9 million left over in the CIP fund at June 30th. Considering we get a lot of these projects done that we're talking about, a lot of that hinges on street widening and how far that progresses. But around 9 million, and we're projecting 1.5 million or so in ongoing revenues next year from construction sales tax and investment earnings. So that's 10.5 right there. We also have general fund excess reserve savings at the end of the year. So once this year's audit is closed out around November, we'll bring that to Council most likely. And right now we're projecting about $4 million just based on projections. I do want to clarify projections are projections. They can change throughout the end of the year, but we're projecting somewhere around $4 million of general fund excess reserve savings at the end of this year. WATTS: Perfect. That's exactly what I was looking for. And really, if it had prefaced all of this, I wouldn't have to think so hard. So. Yeah. SNIPES: Relax. WATTS: Thanks. I'm good, I'm good. PAUL: And just because I like to get in the nitty gritty of things, the other thing to think TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 53 of is with -- we are bringing on a large project now with Sierra Madre Park. Of course, like Rachel mentioned, we need to do the design to really we put numbers in the budget for the next five years just to get an idea. But when we know that number and the downtown, which Justin will talk about to those change things, and that's why we're kind of trying to stagger some of these projects, but it is a bit aggressive the next three years with a big project coming on. So we can't expect that fund balance to start going down. But right now we're at a pretty historically high level for our capital projects fund. WATTS: Right. And thank you. MAYOR FRIEDEL: The other note, the other note with that Sierra Madre Park, we can do the design. That doesn't mean we have to carry everything forward right away. SNIPES: Yeah. The one of the big things that we did this year was, when we came up with all of our capital improvement projects, both Justin, and myself, and Paul got together, and we just started talking about which ones made sense to move which ones. And that's why you're seeing some of these projects are pushed for future, because we didn't have the money to do them all this year. And so we start staggering those out where all the ones that we have listed on this page did fit within our capital improvement for this year. GOODWIN: And some of it didn't also have to do with money. It had to do with our expenditure limitation. How much could we actually do based on those caps that we have. So it's a -- yeah. So pulling those different levers. But that's why we also wanted to take a little bit broader look than sometimes we have in the past with our CIP. Sometimes we get sort of focused on just one year or two years. But looking at a horizon kind of helps know what's coming down the pike. SNIPES: So with that, are we agreeing on the turf reduction grading at Fountain Park? GOODWIN: Yes. WATTS: Okay. Next one. The Golden Eagle Park pumphouse, storage tank design for the irrigation system. That's just the design side of that. Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Let me get Hanna's weigh in. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 35 of 53 SNIPES: Yeah, that's my fault. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Councilmember Larabee, how do you feel about the storage tank? LARRABEE: I'm all good with it. Thank you. Mayor. Yep. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Good. Thank you. SNIPES: Okay. Next one there, the community center. And this is just year one of just doing the turf grade that's out the back there that we looked at first. It'll just be a matter of leveling that up and putting in -- changing that irrigation system for the back section. It'll still be turf. But getting it so it's level and usable, versus a space that never gets used. KALIVIANAKIS: And then this is the actual work. Not this -- not the study. SNIPES: This is actual work, yes. KALIVIANAKIS: Right. Thank you. SNIPES: Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Hannah, on the turf design for the back of the community center. How do you -- how do you stand? LARRABEE: For the turf design, I still am a little hesitant, but given that it's only at 50, I'm going to say I'm a green light. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. Thank you, thank you. SNIPES: Then the last one there, the bollard light replacement. That's just the light part, not the fixtures. It's just the guts out of it. Uh-huh. Yep. WATTS: Yeah, I'm good with that. I'd still like to know what the savings is converting from what we've got to LEDs. SNIPES: Let's get those. KALIVIANAKIS: I'm kind of a yellow on this one. I'd just like to bring it back in a year from now. I think we have time on our side since we do have replacement parts. And it'd be nice to trim some -- something from this list. So I'm kind of a yellow. SNIPES: Okay. So we got two greens and a yellow. MAYOR FRIEDEL: I'm a green. Hannah, how do you -- how do you feel on the bollard light replacements? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 36 of 53 LARRABEE: I'm also agreeing. I know we've had a lot of feedback on those lights over the last few years, so I'm kind of excited to get this done. SNIPES: Okay. All right. That's all that I have. So thank you, everybody. And I'll hand it over to Justin. WELDY: It's my first day with a computer. GOODWIN: Mayor, as we -- as we get, as we get pulled up here for the next set of projects I wanted to throw out, and we were discussing that nothing was pulled from this, you know, item we didn't red light. I said, well, arguably, you actually gave us the red lights at the staff retreat or the budget retreat that we did in February. We did modify some of these and pulled them out. So arguably, we did try to bring back a plan that was consistent with what we heard, so that there was some stuff down the road. MAYOR FRIEDEL: You adjusted it? GOODWIN: We did. We adjusted some things. We pulled out -- actually, one of Amanda's projects that had gotten a no-go. We pulled that back. So I joked that I was going to put in a red light project just so that you guys had the opportunity. But we -- that is why you're seeing what you're seeing is that these are projects that kind of pass muster internally, and aligned with what we talked about in February. So while there's not a direct red light list. We did try to make sure that we only brought forward what we heard was consistent with your initiatives. All right. Director Weldy, are you ready to go? WELDY: Yes, ma'am. GOODWIN: Fantastic. Take it away. WELDY: Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. We're going to expand a little bit on the opening statements from the town manager at the beginning of this meeting. She is, in fact, telling you that we spend not just days or weeks, but months, oftentimes years on these projects. When it comes to public works and capital improvement, our primary focus is always going to be on public safety. Public safety includes all modes of transportation. Obviously, the infrastructure, which is not just the streets, but it includes the infrastructure that services the parks and the buildings. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 37 of 53 As we drill down deeper into those infrastructure and multimodal needs, then we start looking at the past. What feedback have we received? Who have we heard from in regards to the elected body, the public as a whole, town management, and what have we observed? And then we go out and look at those locations, sometimes multiple times. The stuff you're going to see here from Public Works today is based on needs. It includes infrastructure flexibility in regards to mobility and the opportunity for people to move freely around the community in a safe environment. It also includes placemaking. Infrastructure includes that segment, simply because when you have an area such as the downtown, it literally takes more than a decade or two, sometimes even three, to take that vision through development and design and implementation. I'm going to give you just a brief example. The Avenue of the Fountains between La Montana and Saguaro, the sidewalk program took multiple years of planning and budgeting, and then phase one of that section was built. That is the section that we currently walk on that ended, most recently in front of Park Place. And then there was an interim sidewalk placed in that area that connected to another one that would take you down to Saguaro. That also included lighting upgrades, and it also included some seating, and the palm tree islands that we are all familiar with that currently house the lights. Another example is the Linear Park. For the longest time that was not referenced as a park nor technically used as a park. It was an area that was primarily inaccessible to those with any physical challenges. It had a dirt trail that went down through the middle of it. It had a lot of trees that needed help and an incredible amount of water features that were mostly donated items from the residents. That took almost 15 years of planning before it became what you currently see, excluding some minor recent upgrades, which I refer to as kites. But Kevin says shade structure. I had -- I was trying to time his return. With that said, we're going to have a discussion. As part of my opening statement, we discussed placemaking. The downtown as a whole, which depending on who you're TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 38 of 53 talking to and what generation of the downtown you're discussing. When I referenced the downtown in this, I consider the downtown the area from El Largo basically, to Palisades and La Montana to Saguaro. There are different definitions of what the downtown is. This section right here, we've discussed over many, many years, not only with this elected body but previous elected bodies. And rest assured, we will. We will discuss it with the future. This is the Verde River Park view. We came to Council some time back, asked for permission to get started on the design. We've been working on the design. It's on a relatively fast schedule. We met with them just a few -- week before last. I believe it was, and discussed the need for some drainage improvements that will be necessary on the Park View segment of it. As a reminder, this is split up over several years, with the focus being the design for Verde River Park View and an initial construction actually taking place on the Verde River section of it. I've already been talking for a considerable amount of time. Are there any questions before we move on here? We had discussed multiple years that it takes to plan stuff. This is Ashbrook Wash. Ashbrook Wash runs primarily east and west just north of Palisades. It originates up in the McDowell's and then enters into Golden Eagle Park, and it joins two others in that location. Downstream from Golden Eagle Park, it crosses several of the roadways, including the area adjacent to the high school, which is Hampstead, and then the next undercrossing is Fountain Hills Boulevard. That's the section we're focusing on. During some storm events over the last five to seven years, some of them had a very negative impact on Golden Eagle Park. It also had an impact on the area that you see on the screen. In this area there was lateral migration. Lateral migration is when the flow of water eats away at the slope of a wash. In this particular case, the lateral migration was 70 to 80 feet wide, and when nature was finished with its artwork, there was a seven to eight foot vertical wall, one foot adjacent to a home that is in view here. With the support of the previous town manager and the incoming town manager, we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 39 of 53 worked to secure contractors. We had an abundant supply of donated boulders at various locations throughout the town. We worked to stabilize that area and backfill it as part of that. We immediately began to work to establish the Ashbrook Wash Stabilization project. The intent of this project is to control the flow on the town's property between Hampstead and Fountain Hills Boulevard. For clarification on that, the area that is west of Hampstead, between Hampstead and the Golden Eagle Dam, is private property and belongs to the school district. So we're challenged on what we can do in that section of Ashbrook Wash. The intent was we would take donated materials, which you can see here on the screen. We would utilize that to create the first slope on the north side. And as part of that, began to work with the Maricopa County Flood Control District in regards to grants, while we secured donated materials for the south side. We have been very successful on the north side, as you can see. For any of you that have been in that area, it is a clear walking path, and there is a pedestrian gate there that remains open. The intent is we continue to move forward and we apply for grants to help with the stabilization. The finished product would be a 50-foot bottom with two to one slopes with riprap on them, and then the top area would be for recreational walkers and or riders. That kind of thing. Any questions related to this one? This is a multi-year -- WATTS: Hang on a second, Justin. The riprap. Have you already collected that -- is that sitting in one of the washes today? WELDY: Mr. Mayor, Councilmember Watts. No. So we do not have the adequate amount or size or gradation of riprap for this project. That will have to be sourced as part of the project. WATTS: But we're still using the washes as storage area for the millings and some of the larger boulders and so on? WELDY: To a lesser extent, in one location, but several other locations are nicely stocked right now. We are currently using some of them that we have stored to stabilize the slope in Bristol Wash, adjacent to Palisades -- excuse me, Golden Eagle TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 40 of 53 Boulevard at Golden Eagle Park. WATTS: But Sycamore still being used as storage area as well? WELDY: No, sir. WATTS: No longer? WELDY: We have a small amount of material there, but we've primarily moved that material out. WATTS: Are we covering the materials that we're storing now to camouflage them to some degree? We've talked about that a year or two ago. WELDY: We have not done any camouflaging to the balance of the material that was there. There's a couple of reasons that we were moving that material. The one is we did receive complaints, and then those complaints stopped after a while. We've not heard from that group. And the second one is that area is identified as a future park. And we don't want to impact the use of that land for that purpose. WATTS: Thank you. WELDY: The sidewalk infill and design. This is a multi-year project. We've all had an opportunity to look at it. The most recent additions were on La Montana, fronting the Bashas Shopping Center and a couple of other locations in town. We still have a couple of small areas to complete before June 30th of this year. This is part of what we discussed -- when we talk about multimodal and or an area where people feel comfortable walking. This is this sidewalk infill has generated an incredible amount of positive feedback over the years. Again, this is a multi-year project. Any comments related to sidewalk infill? Awfully quiet. KALIVIANAKIS: Is there any going to be any grant money? I know you've received grant money in the past. WELDY: Mr. Mayor, Councilmember. So the grant money for this type of thing is a considerably more limited now. And the reason for that is the government that offers -- the federal government and state government to a lesser extent, that offers that grant requires or at least asks that you have a master transportation plan, and we do not have one of those. So we will certainly apply for grants like the $4 million one we used. The TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 41 of 53 likelihood that we would be selected is very, very limited. They're going to go first to the communities that have already completed their master transportation plan. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, because I think that last one was like 1.8 miles of the sidewalks. WELDY: It was a little bit more than that. Yes. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, yeah. WELDY: For just around $4 million. KALIVIANAKIS: So yeah, it would be obviously better if we could get the grants, but yeah. Thank you. WATTS: So you've got $325,000, and that's per year. You get '26 and '27. But on the spreadsheet, it's got 1,625,000 over five years. Is that correct? UNKNOWN SPEAKER: I'm sorry. Go ahead. WELDY: Councilmember, I'm not -- I'm not actually looking at the spreadsheet, so I'm not sure what you're referencing. PAUL: Councilmember, I work with the departments, put the five year outlook together. This is basically a year to year project that we just are, including the budget to continue doing sidewalks around the town, but the Council can change that at any time. WATTS: So ignore the million six. Pay attention to 325. Right. 2731. So the 325 is what you anticipate spending every year. PAUL: That's the budgetary amount that we will be including as a multi-year program every year until Council changes that. WATTS: Thanks. WELDY: Talking about long range planning, Shea Boulevard has been in the works since it was gifted to the town for Maricopa County almost 35 years ago. As part of that gifting, we agreed to continue the master transportation plan that had been put together by the County in the State. We are currently working on that phase eastbound between Palisades and Fountain Hills Boulevard. We anticipate that we will not be completed with the project this year, and we're asking for a placeholder in next year, for the ability to pay for the balance of the agreement. Any questions related to this one? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 42 of 53 Pedestrian marked crosswalks. The feedback from the public is primarily positive on this. There is an exception to a retired gentleman, a well-respected engineer that is not happy about how many times he has to slow down and or stop on the way to his favorite tavern. Outside of that, it's been quite successful, and we would like your permission to continue that. We came to the Mayor and Council over the past couple of years with proposals and locations. We have several other ones that we have identified prior to the closeout of this year, which is June 30th. There will be one additional one appearing on Saguaro at La Montana on the South Lake, so on the south side of that intersection. Any questions related to that last one? We've discussed this for a considerable amount of time, and this is the rehabilitation for the town hall campus roofs. We had anticipated that this would be a much, much larger number, but the architects and engineers have come back with a solution overall, reducing that substantially by over, well, 75 percent. This is our estimated cost based on their assessment. We are not quite 100 percent on the plans for that, but we believe that we'll be going out for bid for that later on this fiscal year or early next fiscal year. Questions related to the roofing? WATTS: So you're doing an overlay over the existing structure? WELDY: Councilmember, that is correct. It's going to be a repair overlay type process. So there are some areas where it's going to be a little bit more. They refer to it as destructive removal and then replacement but primarily an overlay. WATTS: Address some of the slope and drainage issues that are on the roof at the same time. WELDY: They're going to address some of the slope and drainage issues. They're also going to address some of the failure of the ceiling of the parapet walls. There are a large number of penetrations that are not properly secured. It's a pretty comprehensive list of items that they're working on. WATTS: And I assume the engineer is looking at the structural integrity if it can take the overlay, because I think there's been a couple of overlays already done, haven't there? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 43 of 53 WELDY: To my knowledge, Councilmember, there's only been some minor repairs, but nothing substantial. No full overlays. WATTS: Thanks. WELDY: You're welcome. Any questions related to the roofs? KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, this -- this isn't really a question, but just an observation. I know when you brought this before the Council years ago, the number was eye-popping. It was. And then we went with an experimental fill, and that didn't work out, which was disappointing. And I just can't imagine how much work you took to get this number so manageable. So I just want to appreciate that because the numbers come down considerably. Must have been a lot of work. So thank you. WELDY: Thank you. I will share the kind words with staff, of which -- well, there is one right here in the building, facilities, and also Alana Buick and Beers. So they worked hard on -- and again, it's a -- it's a little bit misleading, destructive investigation where they came out and cut numerous holes into the roofs to determine what they were made of and what would be necessary to repair them. So I will share those kind words, or Mark will, with the group. Thank you. This is a multi-year project. This is its first year. This is the dam sediment removal and improvements. Several of the dams, and this is a good example, have never received the proper maintenance in the impoundment area. For clarification, the impoundment is the area on the upstream side of the dam where we're intended -- the design is to hold water temporarily, and then it flows through the dam at a slower rate. Our capacity at several of them, including Golden Eagle Dam in the past, was at such a rate that we had backwatering and or overtopping in some of the areas. So this is a multiyear project to remove that material, that this material, when practical, possible, and suitable, will be used on other town projects for fill dirt, so we can reduce the overall cost there. One of those locations is Ashbrook wash. In the event that the community center project goes through the very bottom layer, but not the top, one could utilize some of this material. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 44 of 53 Any questions related to dam sediment removal? Library Museum. So this is the air handler. And Mark is certainly the leading expert on this. But this one will replace that aging infrastructure that services those buildings. It's a pretty elaborate project. And I do believe this does come from the facilities reserve fund, but is technically a capital project with a different funding mechanism. Questions? Seems a little odd. Golden Eagle impoundment. Boy, have we discussed this multiple times for multiple years. So this is the final phase for the impoundment. To be clear, the impoundment is the dam in the area in front of the dam, and to a lesser extent, the three washes that feed into that. The spinel phase will include the removal of the sediment and the vegetation in the impoundment area adjacent to the multi-use path that runs along the outside of the ballpark. It will also install trash racks on the two inlets. And this is a mostly grant- funded project from the Maricopa County Flood Control District. They'll fund up to 75 percent of it, and the town will fund 25 percent. Right now, the plans, which are as close to 100 percent as you can get, are at Arizona Department of Water Resources, ADWR, and the Maricopa County Flood Control District for review. That review process takes a little while, but once again, we anticipate that we'll be ready to go to bid, if not late this calendar year -- excuse me -- fiscal year early next fiscal year. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Question for you. Scott asked me yesterday. We did all that work in Golden Eagle, and there was a little bit of an eroded area, and then we were going to do some vegetation in that area, too. Where are we at with that? Do you have -- WELDY: Earlier in this conversation, I had discussed moving some of the boulders from different areas. So that's one of the areas that we're going to work on. We have been working with Kevin and Kyle so that the director and the superintendent of the parks -- on that area that you're describing in their opinion, and I don't disagree with this, we should not be placing any vegetation there because it is likely to be washed away during future events. So we're going to do a little bit of modification, and we're going to add TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 45 of 53 some strength to that area. And then the plantings will take place elsewhere in the park. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: So it'll just grow back naturally? WELDY: Yes, nature will restore it to the extent that it can. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Thank you. WELDY: Any questions related to this one? WATTS: So we have to turn plans around in ten days, but the County doesn't have to adhere to the same thing? WELDY: To my knowledge. WATTS: I'm looking at John thinking, yeah, so what's good for thee is not good for me type thing. WELDY: Here's -- so there's different types of applications, and I can only comment on the applications that we were involved with. For the application to review an existing shallow system in Panorama down by Panorama Park, the review period is 487 days on their side. WATTS: I shouldn't have asked. WELDY: For the impoundment, it's up to 18 months, is what they're allowed. UNKNOWN SPEAKER: That's why it's important to get out in front. Yeah. WELDY: This is a new project. This might come as a surprise to you, but probably last fall, while I was walking over to check on progress from a new structure being built on the town's property, I discovered water backed up against the museum library. I did go to my boss and expressed the frustration in myself for not having noticed it over -- I don't know, 18 years that there were sandbags up there. Once again, we have a building that was built approximately 2/10. That's a little bit more than two inches below the surrounding grade. I simply never picked up on that, and I feel terrible about that. Having said that, we reached out to Alana Buick and Beers. They secured the services of Kimberly Horne. This is the design that you're looking at right here. So the intent is that we would do this in fiscal year '28, but we want to finish the design now. So there's a little bit in this year for that. And if TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 46 of 53 necessary, we may have to put some in the next year. But we don't see that right now. So again, this is designed now, and then address it in '28. Questions? This is a multi-year. In the coming weeks, you're going to see some activities on Palisades where the guardrail out there is simply dilapidated and has to be brought up to the standards. We can no longer make repairs to it. And then the outlying years there will be additional locations on Palisades that we will address. This is one that we've had numerous internal discussions about, including yesterday. We received a large number, not unreasonably large, but considerable amount of complaints about the lighting on the avenue being out related to the palm trees. So the pilot program that's out there is just that, and the type of lighting that was used to demonstrate how it could be with appropriate funding, and appropriate lighting. Well, they have a tendency to either, one, fail, or two, we have a number of walk by electricians that make adjustments and or fix things on their own. It's not just limited to Avenue of the Fountains, it's town wide. So we are proposing that not only the infrastructure be corrected, which is necessary, but that a more durable industrial type of lighting be placed in this location, and to a lesser extent, and I don't mean any offense to anyone, tamper proof most of them. So we don't have some of these challenges that we're facing. Any questions related to this one? All right. Here's the summary of all of them, including the total. It also includes the five year horizon. That five year horizon can be a pretty big number. Keep in mind that each year, staff comes back to the Council after weeks and months of internal reviews, and some of these are subject to change. We look pretty successfully at the next year. Beyond the one year horizon, I feel a little bit uncomfortable. I can't imagine how Paul feels about the five and ten year, but he can describe that certainly better than I can. WATTS: Justin, do you know what the what the rotation rate, so to speak, is? When this starts to occur again, you get five to ten years out of each of these projects. Then you have not only the maintenance costs but the replacement costs. So when we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 47 of 53 design, what are we designed for as far as a life cycle? WELDY: Depends on the different type of structure, Councilmember. WATTS: But just on average, I mean. WELDY: So if we're looking at concrete structures and roads, we're looking at a 25 to 30 year and depending on the level of cost, it's capitalized. And then we put in funding for maintenance throughout that lifespan. So every time we create a capital project, or we renew it, or we keep it in the -- in the multi-year horizon, there's a cost associated in the book that's related to maintenance, and eventually it'll -- at the capitalization point, ideally, there would be funding in the Capital Reserve to replace it. WATTS: That hasn't always been done, though, has it? I mean, we're being proactive now, which is a good thing. But historically, we weren't that forward thinking. So we're -- we kind of get jammed up a little bit. And that's an observation. Just an opinion on my part. WELDY: I think the thinking and the planning was in a good part. It was just the budget restraints that kept it from happening. WATTS: I hear you. So because a lot of these things are subject to nature, subject to weather, subject to just wear and tear, tamper-proof things that don't have the same life limit, it's good to know we're taking them into consideration now. WELDY: I'm fresh out. I thought I had a -- no, I don't. I thought I had a red, yellow, green light, but we'll have to go back. I seem to have misplaced that slide. GOODWIN: Justin, can you just go back to your list then? EARLE: That was going to question on there, maybe to Paul. Did we do we determine that we have all the money set aside for every single one of those? WELDY: Gentlemen, come on in. PAUL: So Mayor, Councilwoman, I have the spreadsheet in front of me. Looking at the five year outlook, we do -- we have enough money for all these. We specifically earmarked certain funds to pay for certain things that would fit that. Like those types of projects, such as the Parks Development Impact Fee fund. So of the $9.3 million that's in the CIP plan, we'll add some contingency when we bring the proposed budget to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 48 of 53 Council. So it's going to be around ten million as a full CIP budget, but just for the 9.3 million, about 4.9 million would be coming directly out of the Capital Projects Fund. And like I mentioned earlier, we already have -- we have over nine million today in that fund. And we'll continue to add to it 1.1 million. If the whole project -- the whole plan goes through as -- as planned, we'll be out 1.1 million of grants, development impact fees, about 1.9 million and facilities reserve, including the lake liner design 1.4 million, at this point, but that's subject to change by the time we bring you the proposed budget. Today is about getting that feedback from you. Thank you. GOODWIN: In the sort of with time in mind, I know we're getting on to almost 3:00. I guess, because there wasn't a lot of questions, maybe we take this one in reverse and go, are there anything that you don't want to green light on this list that we need to note? WATTS: Not for me. I think -- GOODWIN: Okay. WATTS: I think Director Weldy did a good job of presenting and answering questions. GOODWIN: Great. I'm glad to hear that. I think so, too. Again, because I didn't hear many questions, that's why I'm going this route. I mean, and Hannah, please feel free to chime in as well. Because the next question for this Council is, are there any projects on here that you didn't see that you would like to see? WATTS: Bingo. The one that is kind of haunting is A DOG, and I'm looking at Kevin because with the dissolving of the A DOG entity, we have a choice. We can either make this a local park. We could change the profile and make it an access control park, much like we do other facilities around town. So what I'd ask is that maybe we do a little bit of brainstorming and figure out which is the best avenue to go, because without some sort of oversight, even though A DOG's oversight wasn't necessarily the best in the world being nice. Can we make it better? Can we keep it as a as A DOG park? Can we manage the processes? The -- everything goes on, and it's extremely complex, from access, to the dogs being neutered, and not neutered. Big dogs, small dogs. I mean, there's 100 different components. Or do we -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 49 of 53 which would probably include access control gate and making the fences higher so people can't get in. Or do we just simply take the fences down and say, let's make it a local park? So why don't we think about those and see how we can address it, how we want to move forward with it? Just something to think about that I'd ask for some consideration. So thanks. EARLE: Can I ask about that? If you were to make it a -- the access required dog park, would you then need another employee for that? SNIPES: So with having checked into that zero times, my answer would be I have no idea. The reality of it is anything that you change is going to require something to be different. So with that, I can see that stirring up some disbelief from residents for sure. If we're, if we're charging to come into or -- depending on how that access is done, is it free access and you just have to have a card to be a member? Is -- are we changing times on it, are we -- there was a lot of things thrown out. Are we turning it into just an open park area? so it, you know, if -- if it's -- if it's just the access side of things, we would have to at least have somebody manage and run that side of things. So the cards, the -- how you get them is it a third-party? Is it done in town hall? All of those things would have to be looked at as well. WATTS: I think to Councilwoman Earl's point, if there's a cost, then all of the costs, the maintenance costs, the whatever it is, labor costs, et cetera, should be rolled into the accessibility to that park. If residents want something that is so specific, then how do we make -- how do we keep it up? And so I think it considers all of the things that you identified. And like I said, there's 100 plus things that need to be considered, and how are we going to pay for all those things? GOODWIN: So in the interest of this conversation, typically I need a majority of you guys to want to go down this path for us, the staff, to go and do this level of research. So I'm looking for that direction. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Do we know that A DOG is totally gone? SNIPES: I do not at this time. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 50 of 53 MAYOR FRIEDEL: Okay. So. GOODWIN: I know that they are -- I know Denise has stepped down, and she is no longer interested in maintaining it. I know there's been some -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: There'll be a survivor group of some sort, is what I know. SNIPES: There's -- GOODWIN: There's been some chatter. SNIPES: I've heard so many different things that I would not want to say -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: Yeah. SNIPES: -- where things are at, but I know that there's certainly -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: So are we going to proceed as though A DOG will never be coming back? Is that -- is that what I'm hearing here or. SNIPES: Well, the -- so I'll say that we've always run the park on how we think that it should be -- MAYOR FRIEDEL: Right SNIPES: -- with their input to help guide anything that -- to help try and make it run smoother. No different than what we do with other groups like say, Little League playing on the ball fields, and them having input on how we do things as well. The dog park's different because it's typically louder, and so everybody hears more of what goes on there. But as far as the town operating the facility, we've run it with the budgets that we have to do the things we do, and A DOG has supplemented that, to add things that they wanted, that we approved of. They've wanted things that we have not approved of, and we haven't gone down that road in the past. But if they wanted it and were willing to fund it and we approved of it, then we would go down that path and figure out exactly what to do and how to do it. If that money source was not there, then we would run it within our operating budget and continue to function like we do with any of our other parks. WATTS: So isn't -- don't you have three choices? You can leave it as is, run it the way we've been doing it without input from A DOG, assuming that they're dissolving -- SNIPES: Uh-huh. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 51 of 53 WATTS: -- you can change its profile into a local park, or you can better control and manage it to avoid some of the fisticuffs that have gone on, and the screaming and yelling, and big dogs biting little dogs and so on and so forth. And how would you do that? So you've really got three, three ways to look at this. And I don't know that one is better than the other. All I'm asking is that we look. GOODWIN: I kind of need a little more information on it. I don't know the whole history of A DOG and how much they really actually did with it. So like, was there a monitor of the dogs biting each other, as you said? And was that something just recently starting to happen, or has this always been the case, or is it getting kind of more volatile recently? SNIPES: It ebbs and flows. I mean, you know, it just takes one person that goes every day that has issues with others to stir something up, because they are in a confined space and everybody has their opinion on their dog versus other dogs. And so sometimes it's hot and heavy, and sometimes it's pretty relaxed. And here recently I haven't been hearing a lot, but six months ago or so, Rick and I met with the A DOG group, we were hearing a lot of stuff at that time. So it just kind of depends on who's going and how they get along with each other. EARLE: So what is your thoughts on your department running it as you have been moving forward without A DOG? SNIPES: Honestly, it doesn't concern me. I -- I don't have any problem with us. I mean, like I said, A DOG was the extras that came in, not the day-to-day. They didn't fund any of the things that went on in the park that was treated just like our other parks. Now they would come -- we had some complaints the last couple years about how no money was being spent there, but that wasn't true either. It was that we did a big push eight years ago. And then it has to wait its turn to get back in line. No different than all of our parks do. We did -- we just did the Avenue. We did a couple years there. We did a couple years at Desert Vista. We did a couple years at -- or five years at Four Peaks Park because it was so far behind. So our parks are cyclical on when they get that update, and repair, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 52 of 53 and remodels, and playgrounds, and you know, all that sort of stuff. So it's more a matter of if they want better than that, then they have to help supplement that cost. If they're happy with what we do and how we do it with the budget that we're held to, then we'll keep running it and make it a successful park. But if you want something above that, then there's a cost associated with that. EARLE: Yeah, I'd hate to see it go away. I wouldn't want to make it just a regular park. I mean, I don't hang out there, but just from what I know, it's popular. I know it's popular. SNIPES: Uh-huh. KALIVIANAKIS: I would just say, just keep running the park as you are, without the advice and consent of A DOG and not doing any more studies or staff time on it, that would be what I would suggest. SNIPES: Okay. Hannah? LARRABEE: I think at this moment, because we don't know what the future for A DOG will be -- or could be, I guess. I think for now, let's continue as we have with Kevin running, and maybe there will be kind of a branch off of volunteers that take on the role that A DOG had, hopefully. So at the moment, I don't feel we need to make an emergency plan and make it so that no one does take up that mantle, if that makes sense. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Sure. SNIPES: Anything else? GOODWIN: Mayor, are there any other projects or anything else out there that we have not covered today that you'd like to consider? I know streets is another big conversation. But we'll be bringing that back. MAYOR FRIEDEL: Uh-huh. GOODWIN: We'll be bringing that back another time. Just for everybody's awareness, I think I mentioned this at the beginning. We'll be taking the direction from today, integrating it with the rest of the budget discussions that we've had, and we'll be bringing forth the proposed budget in early April for full discussion. Is that right, Paul? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 24, 2026 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Page 53 of 53 PAUL: Yeah, April 14th. GOODWIN: April 14th. Mark your calendar. [CROSS TALK] PAUL: No, Councilmember, I was just saying that the proposed budget will be on April 14th. It will be a work session here in the Council chambers. I believe 5:30 is what I was told. So. EARLE: So it's an all-nighter? PAUL: It'll probably be -- it typically goes about two to three hours, but I'll try to make it as brief as possible. I know we've had a lot of conversations already about the budget, so. GOODWIN: Well, I would say it's actually scheduled at 1 on my calendar. WATTS: Oh, is it 1? [CROSS TALK] SNIPES: That's our numbers guy. GOODWIN: It's like, that is what this group has decided as a body, that work sessions are at 1. That's why they're scheduled at that time. So if this body would like to make that change, we can do that. But it is on calendars at 1:00. Okay. Anything else? Okay. MAYOR FRIEDEL: We're adjourned. Having no further business, Mayor Gerry M. Friedel adjourned the Work Session of the Fountain Hills Town Council held on March 24, 2026, at 2:56 p.m. APPROVED: TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS _______________________ Gerry M. Friedel, Mayor ATTEST: __________________________ Bevelyn J. Bender, Town Clerk CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Work Session held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 24th day of May 2026. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. _____________________________ Bevelyn J. Bender, Town Clerk