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TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION December 3, 2025 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills History and Culture Advisory Commission was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 4:00 p.m. Members Present: Chairperson Bob Burns; Vice Chairperson Toni Lepoer; Commissioner Tim Yoder; Commissioner Peter Gallagher; Commissioner Chandler Harper Members Absent: Commissioner Bonnie Kline; Commissioner Tiffany Titus Staff Present: Recreation Manager Ryan Preston; Administrative Assistant Stormy Mazeikis TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 1 of 15 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills History and Culture Advisory Commission Meeting December 3, 2025 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 DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 2 of 15 BURNS: Call this meeting of the History and Culture Advisory Commission together for December 3rd. I know there was a second show in here at 5:30 today, so we don't have a lot of leeway. So let's get started. Roll call, please? MAZEIKIS: Yes. Can I start with Chair Bob Burns? BURNS: Present. MAZEIKIS: Vice Chair Toni LePoer LEPOER: Present. MAZEIKIS: Commissioner Tim Yoder. YODER: Here. MAZEIKIS: Commissioner Peter Gallagher? GALLAGHER: Gallagher. Yes, I'm here. MAZEIKIS: Thank you. Commissioner Bonnie Klein. Commissioner Chandler Harper? HARPER: Here. MAZEIKIS: And Commissioner Tiffany Titus. BURNS: Okay. I've got a couple of additional things here. First off, heard from Bonnie about an hour ago. She said that her husband passed away yesterday. So she's not making it with us today. Obvious reasons. So and I'm going to ask for your indulgence a little bit. My voice is not good, and my hearing is not great on the best conditions. So I'm a little congested and I'm not sure why. So I probably won't hear much. So if I give you a blank stare, that's -- don't be. It's not to be rude. PRESTON: We'll use some hand signals for you today. BURNS: And I would like, if I'm not out of line, Ryan, to ask Stormy to give us a little introduction of herself. PRESTON: No, I was going to -- I was going to mention Stormy and this being her second ever commission meeting. And she's doing a fantastic job. So yeah, if you would like, Stormy? You don't have to. MAZEIKIS: No, I don't mind. Thank you. Oh, my gosh. I was with the State Gang task TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 3 of 15 force and contracted with the Department of Corrections, and I did that for a decade. Still, to this day, I'm the only female in the nation that had that position. After that, my husband and I, we opened up an automotive shop. And we did that for a decade, and then now I'm here. So that's a little bit about me. I love horses and I don't have horses anymore, but I do have a Cane Corso, and he's 151 pounds. Just a fun fact. BURNS: Well, yeah. Well, we look forward to working with you. Thank you. MAZEIKIS: Thank you. BURNS: Any other commissioners have any comments or updates? PRESTON: So we actually -- that is not part of the agenda anymore moving forward on all future agendas, actually. BURNS: Okay. PRESTON: So we can move straight to -- BURNS: I recognize that, but it's still on there. PRESTON: Is there? Okay. I'm looking at the agenda here. I don't think we have one. But yeah, we can jump straight to presentations, would be great. Thanks. BURNS: All right. I think moving down, discussion or motion on the minutes. YODER: I move to approve. BURNS: From the November 5th meeting. HARPER: I'll second that. BURNS: Okay. PRESTON: So we'll take a vote? BURNS: All in favor? LEPOER: Aye. GALLAGHER: Aye. HARPER: Aye. BURNS: Like I said, please bear with me. PRESTON: And that'll pass 5 to 0. MAZEIKIS: Thank you, Ryan. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 4 of 15 BURNS: Yeah. PRESTON: Bob's moving quick. It's all right. BURNS: Where is that? Does that bring us to. Discussion in historical registry of the fountain. You have my notes included in the packet there. And I don't know if Ryan has had any discussion with the State commission or not that he can add to that or we're where we're at. YODER: I'm sorry. Do we need to fill in the other members of the group here? PRESTON: Yes. So you can do that if you'd like. Tim or Bob or I'm happy to jump in and discuss what happened at the meeting. BURNS: I'm sorry. YODER: Well, I'll just state for Chandler, and Peter, and Toni that the effort to get the fountain listed in the Arizona, as an Arizona landmark went down. It did not pass. And so that's where we are right now. Bob was there for the meeting online, and Ryan knows some other things, I think. So that's the update. PRESTON: Yeah, exactly. So we got some feedback. It was feedback. Unfortunately, a lot of the feedback went in contrast to a lot of how we were advised by our Shippo representative moving forward with how he thought that would go. The town has that information now above my level and deciding if they want to pursue the angle for which we were encouraged to pursue. For that, I know, Tim, I read your remarks and I agree with a lot of what you said in your statement, and we don't know if we are going to put forward a document that talks about the land before our control, essentially. And so they're looking into that now. But as of now, it's put on hold. We are not yet planning on moving forward with the resubmission with the -- until I get a chance to talk to our Shippo representative, which I have not gotten ahold of yet until I'm able to work with the town manager and attorney as well, to see what we want to put forward as far as a secondary application. BURNS: For the time being, we're not moving? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 5 of 15 PRESTON: Correct. For the time being, no action on it. We are in a holding pattern at the moment. BURNS: Okay. LEPOER: Do you think we'll try again? PRESTON: It'll depend on my conversation with our -- with the Shippo representative. The direction they were pushing us to go. I don't know if it's the is a direction the town is going to go as far as the application. LEPOER: Based on the feedback, I'm guessing. PRESTON: Correct. GALLAGHER: I'm sorry, what direction is that they wanted you to go? PRESTON: a lot of it was highlighting the, the native land the relationship with that, the Orme Dam, the Orme Dam conflict. Some things that weren't part of the town itself and maybe more of the County and the State. And so just deciding of what of that we want to put on record as far as town responsibility with what we're moving forward with our submission. GALLAGHER: So that's all history. But what does it have to do with the fountain? PRESTON: There's the main question that we're working on answers to, and I don't know, Chandler's buzzed in a couple of times, so I'll let him maybe talk on what he's got to say. HARPER: Yeah, I was just going to ask. So the town is working on these applications themselves rather than utilizing a historic consultant? Is that -- PRESTON: Yes. So we did utilize this commission. We were working with Doctor Collins with the State Historical Preservation Society, so he did advise us throughout the process. This commission wrote many of the narratives, which we then tweaked a little bit based on feedback from Doctor Collins with Shippo. Everything we did was at mostly at his direction, and then he actually put the final packet together for us for submission. And so that's a conversation I have yet to have with him and kind of where we went sideways with being off with what he thought we should put forward and what, what TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 6 of 15 the board was actually looking for. HARPER: Got it. I will note just to for your guys' information, historic consultants who specialize in this space typically do have better luck with those commissions and those meetings. Obviously, there's an expense with that that we'd have to consider hiring someone for that. But those guys usually have a pretty good relationship with those boards and know exactly what they're looking for and how to sort of get things moving. So just if the town does decide to move forward, I would have them consider that. PRESTON: Yep. And that's a good suggestion, is something we looked into on one of the consultants that has been helping me with this process is actually our Developmental Services Director who worked in this field in Mesa. And when they did their submission, they did hire somebody to work with so that that was an option. We were hoping to avoid that option. But it may be something we may look at again. BURNS: Just as -- forgive me if I repeat anything, but from my perspective in sitting through the meeting, I think, you know, when we get to it or when we want to get back to it, I think the issues they brought up can be handled. There might be a couple of holes there, you know, just take a little more research. So just keep us posted on and we'll get back to work when ready. PRESTON: Yeah. YODER: I'm sorry, I have only one question, I guess now. For now. And that is, if this doesn't happen, does that prevent or preclude us from going to the national level? PRESTON: That is correct. This is a precursor to national. It has to be state approved first. And yes, don't worry. If there's work to be done, it'll make its way back here. So don't you worry about that. BURNS: Okay. I guess next up, we have discussion and possible action. The 250th anniversary for the United States. I was going to rely on Tiffany to go over this. She got into this very enthusiastically. And did a great job putting together the notes and the information we discussed. And I don't know if anybody's had time to go through this or whatever. You got any questions or ideas that otherwise, maybe I really would prefer TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 7 of 15 her to address it right now, but. PRESTON: I've had a chance. I've had this for a little while. I've had a chance to read through it in detail. I'm happy to give a quick recap, and I can kind of give you a couple of yeas and nays off the bat. I'm happy to scratch a few off the list that I know just aren't feasible. So a lot of what we put out there as well might be outside the scope. There's a lot of reference to the museums and some other groups that we don't really have purview over. So great ideas, but a little outside of our scope as this commission and as well as the town so they highlighted a few here. One is you know, lighting ceremony, red, white and blue for the fountain. That is something that will be done. It's not nailed down exactly when that will happen. But that will happen. A large America 250 cutout to place somewhere around town that is actually being actively looked into as well. So that is something we hope to do right now. It's a couple of quotes we got are not exactly cost effective for a temporary installation. So we are looking at options for that. The America number three on this list is America 250 branding. Again, that is we are actively working on a logo. We're working on t shirts right now to replace our fourth at the fountain t shirts. So they'll be updated t shirts that will have pre-sales before that that you can get your shirts before the event. So we are working on both a logo and a new shirt to celebrate the 250th. Number four, she mentioned the concert series. There's the music fest has been set for a while, so we're not going to tie much in with Music Fest. However, we are looking to do a tie in with our concerts on the Avenue series to tie that in somehow, whether it's more Americana, whether it's a decades thing. So we are working on tying the theme in with that. So that was another big part of this. This workgroup was how do we tie that in with already running signature events? And that is something the town is actively working on itself. The Pony Express mural. You guys mentioned that last meeting. Murals are put on hold right now, and you actually see it coming up on one of the counsel agendas as a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 8 of 15 discussion point, as well as being discussed internally with the mayor. Murals, they're tricky. Once you allow one, we can't then -- we can't yay or nay based on content. So it kind of opens a lot of doors for those. And then also with it being on a federal building, obviously we have no say over that one way or the other. BURNS: On that item. Just a thought. It occurred to me, I know I think I even mentioned at the time she brought this up that it's not going to happen on the post office wall, but I was kind of wondering because I think there's still painting utility boxes around town. I was wondering if there was a maybe a couple of those that could be dropped into the theme. PRESTON: Right. Yeah, those are all set and done, and we're actually not doing any more other than the ones you see being done now. And there's just there's reasoning behind it, some I don't know. And I do believe it's going to be discussed. Just the idea of murals in general will be discussed at an upcoming town council meeting. So they're not going to be moving forward with any new ones as of now. BURNS: Okay. GALLAGHER: One quick question. Has anybody considered at least consulting with the Postal Service since the Pony Express is kind of an historical part of the Postal Service? PRESTON: I have not. No. And I don't believe anybody with the town has. I know for an example, they did not want the Pony Express ending at the post office parking lot last year, so I don't know how that it's not a direct relationship right now. It's a group that does that for the Pony Express. And so I don't know if we have a liaison with the town that would do that, that would make that contact with the federal government and who that contact would be to try to make that happen. GALLAGHER: Probably the manager of this post office would be a place to start. PRESTON: Right. GALLAGHER: And no is an acceptable answer. PRESTON: I could put you in charge of that, Peter, if you'd like to reach out to the manager on behalf of the commission. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 9 of 15 GALLAGHER: I will happily go visit the postal service and see what they have to say. PRESTON: I love it. Perfect. And we can make that happen. And I'm just going to kind of move down the list here a little bit. There's American 250 Art walk. I was wanting to get a little more information on that, but I know both Bonnie and Tiffany being out. I don't know how much additional information you had on that, Bob, and what we would do to tweak that. So I'll follow up with the workgroup offline, maybe on that item. There's a few things, you know, we've talked about time capsules. That's been mentioned internally as well. However, we just did one five years ago, so we don't plan on doing another time capsule within that time slot. They talked about the Thanksgiving Day parade. That is a chamber initiative. So we can maybe put a -- if they want to put some ideas together to push to the chamber, that's fine. But then that's one of the things that are beyond the scope of the town. I did reach out. There's been a lot of things about the stories of people in town, historical stories, whether it's veterans, whether it's part of the native groups. That's something I did reach out to the community center. They run a series of presentations, and they would love to have something like that. We have struggled finding veterans who want to speak about their experience to a large group of people. So that could be something we can have the work group work on in the future is maybe finding people who actually want to get up and speak about their history in that respect. So they're open to it, and they'd love to plan some, especially in the summer months. So just on that note there's a lot of talk about new sculptures and things like that. I can let you know the town doesn't do their own sculptures. Sculptures come through development. And so we wouldn't be pursuing any new sculptures for the 250th initiative. Curriculum packet for teachers, again, that's not something the town would take on. That's something we could again recommend to the school, but that's not something we would take on and push out ourselves. And then the oral history project that was mentioned could tie into the stories and the presentations through the community TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 10 of 15 center. But we wouldn't have the resources to go out and film these stories like it suggested in the packet. BURNS: Well, this really was an exercise in putting everything we could think of out there. And I know there's a lot in here that's just not practical so -- PRESTON: I wanted to run through the whole list. So I got on record because I did look into quite a few of these things for you guys, just to see what we can do. There's an idea of the 250 Volunteer challenge. I'd love that idea. That is a maybe not a very realistic number of volunteer hours. Even our top volunteers from last year don't come close to 250 hours. There could be a play on that. We could do with less hours. But I did like that idea. It's got a lot of community involvement in it. It's got, you know, what we're looking for. So that was a really fun idea. There's a local business one, like a local business passport. Again, that's an idea that we could push on to the chamber. But they would be better suited for that. I love the idea of the heritage tree planting initiative. The 250 trees. I've reached out to parks. They're out right now. But I'd love to get something moving on that. I think that's a really great idea. We've talked about rededication of memorials, and I've been told that's a no go for the most part. There may be something we can do with the presidents, but as far as rededicating anything that most likely won't be happening. And I think that that's everything. And a lot of this stuff, Bob, I know you're in the work group, has a lot of collaborations with you know, our native neighbors. Just keep in mind they may see the 250th celebration differently than we do, and there may not be as much collaboration as we hope. But if somebody knows anybody in that regard and wants to reach out, that would be something. BURNS: Something that, you know, I had noticed in contact and everything that one thing that you know, the native people around here take a great deal of pride in is their service. So they're, you know, that that might be a direction to approach. PRESTON: Yes. Traditionally, the 4th of July has been used as a celebration of native TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 11 of 15 services, of armed services. So and native veterans. Correct. Okay. Well, that's kind of my update. That's me being Tiffany for a second, just to kind of give you guys an idea of what was in that packet, kind of what is feasible, what is, what is not feasible, and what may be better for a different group outside of the town as well. BURNS: All right. LEPOER: (inaudible). PRESTON: What's that? LEPOER: Tiffany, you've changed. PRESTON: Yeah. Thank you. BURNS: Anybody else on this one? PRESTON: Oh, sorry. And the other, one of the other main points was to try the town to use its power of communication to put out to all these groups that we are looking for their ideas. They can bring them to us so that we can create a centralized web page of all the activities. And that is something that we will work towards doing as well. BURNS: Okay. And let me -- give me a minute to see whether that brings us. Oh, okay. Historic art and essay contest. Tim or Peter? You got anything? YODER: I have nothing since last month. BURNS: Okay. GALLAGHER: I was waiting to hear something from Ryan on this. PRESTON: Yep. Ball's in my court on that one. So we did -- so quick update. We were able to create an online form that we've now QR code linked to the to the flier, which we've now finished. And it's everything's updated. I don't have a copy with me now or attached here, I apologize. I just put that together, the form together yesterday. I did reach out to both Christy and Dr. J at the school just to remind them it's upcoming. Kind of give them a heads up of what our deadline and everything was. I unfortunately sent that out, like the day before Thanksgiving break. So I'm sure it got buried. I haven't heard back yet but I am going to follow up with them tomorrow. To try to get a response and just an acknowledgment that we're going to be pushing that out first of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 12 of 15 the year is kind of the goal. We'll be starting pushing that in January. We learned you can't push anything out in schools in December if you wanted to stick past January. So we'll be pushing that out in January. And like I said, the fliers two sided. Now it has everything, and it's got the QR code that will link to the sign up page where they enter the contest, which will then tell them to bring in their art piece. If it's a visual art piece, they bring it in to Town Hall or if it's they can also email us the if it's a written essay. We beefed up the -- I didn't use I signature page as well for both the kids and the parents. BURNS: All right. And Public art information updates. Ryan or Toni? LEPOER: Ryan, I think that's you. And then I'll say I do have one question after you give the update. PRESTON: Okay. Not a big update on this end. Not much progress since last meeting. It's been a pretty busy month for our department. We are hoping to continue moving forward with getting the QR codes assigned and up and geo coded. As I mentioned, there's about 106. So it will take some time. Right now the avenue is finished. The Centennial Circle has been finished. The plaques haven't been physically put on the items yet. But on the digital end, everything's been taken care of and updated. So it's just a matter of eventually making that public and getting those QR codes out. Next -- the next thing we're attacking is Fountain Park. I wouldn't expect us to move on that until probably second or third week of January, realistically. LEPOER: Ryan, did you have any luck getting me access to what's there now? Just so I can look it over. PRESTON: Yeah, I apologize, I think -- I thought I sent a link, but I'll send it again. LEPOER: I didn't see. PRESTON: Okay. I'll send it again right after. First thing tomorrow morning. Because I'm not heading back. Okay. LEPOER: Do you know which email you would have sent it to? PRESTON: Whatever email you use for this. LEPOER: Okay. I didn't see it. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 13 of 15 PRESTON: Okay. I'll send it again. No problem. Or I'll send it for the first time possibly. Yeah. BURNS: All right. Public art applications. Up next. I take it there is nothing to discuss there? PRESTON: No new applications. BURNS: Yeah. Okay. Any thoughts or ideas on future agenda items or presentations? Anything scheduled or planned there? YODER: I just regarding the school project, the history, Historic art and essay contest. So we'll have a little bit of go time at the next meeting or right there in early January as school gets back into session I take it. So should I plan to attend a school board meeting that week, the next week or whenever, so that I can report something in February? PRESTON: Good question. Let me, let me let me hear back from Doctor Jay. And I can ask him that and see what he thinks if it'll be necessary, or if we can just go with pushing it out. YODER: Okay. Yeah. Please. You know, tell him that I was specifically my name, that I was wondering because you know, he knows me well, and. PRESTON: I will always name drop you. So don't you worry about that. YODER: Well, you know, tell him if I don't need to go there and he makes me go there, I'm going to be very upset with him. PRESTON: I will let him know that Commissioner Yoder would love to sit through another school board meeting, and you would love to be there. BURNS: All right. PRESTON: Did anybody else have anything they wanted to see on the next agenda? Any ideas for presentations? GALLAGHER: Is there a deadline for getting something on to the next agenda? PRESTON: One week before our next meeting. GALLAGHER: One week. Okay. Because I promised last meeting that I would speak to the museum director about doing a presentation, and I have not yet asked her, so I will TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 14 of 15 try. PRESTON: So you know, one week before the next meeting will be New Year's Eve, I believe. GALLAGHER: Yep. PRESTON: So you may want to give a little more leeway than a week. GALLAGHER: I'm going to see her this week or next week, I think. PRESTON: Excellent. And update you on that as well. So community Services Director Kevin Snipes will be sitting in in my place for the next meeting. I will still be out of town from the holidays. But Kevin will be here to answer any questions. YODER: Also, regarding few future items. I did speak with -- oh, I texted you, I think or emailed you the head of the operations over here at the Dark Sky Community, and he said he would be willing to come in sometime in the future and talk to us about his side. And he thought others would be willing also. PRESTON: Yeah, I definitely know they're trying to do some outreach. And I know specifically Michael is happy to come in and speak. So if you want, I can probably work on setting that up. It will probably be for the February meeting. But if you guys are interested in that, I can move forward with getting something set up from them. Yeah. YODER: I mean, I for one would like that. I think that'd be good for us. GALLAGHER: Either Michael or Donna Wright. Dr. Wright is the education director. So -- YODER: Michael was telling me, you know, his specialty is the structure and the operations. And then he recommended the director of the education program. Also separately, maybe for another time or maybe ahead of him. He said she would be. It's a she? PRESTON: Yes. YODER: Yeah. Yeah, she would be great. GALLAGHER: She is very good at doing presentations. So just a thought. BURNS: All right. Ready to move on? I think we're looking at next meeting Wednesday, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS DECEMBER 3, 2025 HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 15 of 15 January 7th. I presume the same time, same place? And with that, I'll take a motion to adjourn. LEPOER: I motion. BURNS: Have a motion. And a second? HARPER: Second. BURNS: All in favor? YODER: Aye. GALLAGHER: Aye. LEPOER: Aye. BURNS: Okay. Having no further business, Chairperson Burns adjourned the Regular Meeting of the History and Culture Advisory Commission meeting held on December 3, 2025, at 4:29 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS ________________________ Bob Burns, Chairperson ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: _________________________________ Stormy Mazeikis, Administrative Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the History and Culture Advisory Commission of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 3rd of December 2025. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 3rd Day of December 2025. _________________________________ Stormy Mazeikis, Administrative Assistant