Verbatim MM HCAC 250904
Town of Fountain Hills — History and Culture Advisory Commission (2026-01-07)
Extracted text (via pymupdf)
27654 characters
TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION September 4, 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 4:01 p.m. Members Present: Chairperson Tim Yoder; Commissioner Bob Burns; Commissioner Bonnie Kline; Commissioner Peter Gallagher Members Absent: Commissioner Toni Lepoer Staff Present: Recreation Manager Ryan Preston; Executive Assistant Patti Lopuszanski TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 1 of 14 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills History and Culture Advisory Commission Meeting September 4, 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 SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 2 of 14 CHAIR YODER: Good day, everybody. I'd like to call to order the September 4th, 2025, meeting of the History and Culture Advisory Commission at 4:01 p.m. May I have a roll call, please? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Of course. Chair CHAIR YODER. CHAIR YODER: Here. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Commissioner Burns. BURNS: Here. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Commissioner Kline. KLINE: Here. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Commissioner Gallagher. GALLAGHER: Here. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: And Commissioner LePoer has called in, and she will be absent. CHAIR YODER: All right. Thank you. Next up, a call to the public. I see, Patti, that you have included a ARS paragraph there. That's just for our notes. LOPUSZANSKI: That is correct. It just needs a new posting that we've had to put on for ourselves, so you do not have to read that. And we do not have a call to public. CHAIR YODER: Very good. Moving on. Statement of participation is the item number 4. Same. LOPUSZANSKI: Also, it is an informational piece just for people to know, just if they want to participate in how they must do so. But we need to have this formally admitted in all of our agendas now. CHAIR YODER: Next on the agenda item number 5, reports by commissioners. So we have reports by commissioners. No. That's the -- LOPUSZANSKI: Chair, this -- CHAIR YODER: I'm waiting for the update. We don't have -- yes. Are there reports by the commissioners? GALLAGHER: No. What I have to report is an agenda item. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 3 of 14 CHAIR YODER: Yeah, it's an agenda item. Anybody else here? BURNS: Well, I'll throw this in. Doesn't really pertain to this in particularly, but I have made it official with the office that I'm going to be retiring at the end of the year from the news business, so -- but I plan to continue this, so as long as they'll have me. CHAIR YODER: Did you ask any of our permission before retiring or? BURNS: I'm sorry? CHAIR YODER: You didn't ask if you could retire or not, so I guess -- BURNS: I'm not asking you. CHAIR YODER: I guess it would have been nice. KLINE: So how many years is that, Bob? BURNS: Thirty-eight. KLINE: Thirty-eight. Wow. BURNS: Thirty -- I'm sorry. Thirty-seven. I lose track. KLINE: I can speak from seeing you work that you've done a great job and you're going to be greatly missed. CHAIR YODER: Yes. You have served the community well. BURNS: They've already hired my replacement, so. So I guess I can't change my mind. CHAIR YODER: Funny. KLINE: So I'll just mention something I saw on Facebook. Actually, it was something that Mark Gridley wrote about his early days in Fountain Hills. And it was reposted just recently in the historical society or not the historical society, but a historical group of Fountain Hills online, and it was really fascinating to read through that. And I don't remember where the Fountain Mountain Inn was. CHAIR YODER: The Fountain Mountain Inn later was called the Silverstein. KLINE: Oh, okay. That explains it. CHAIR YODER: Yeah. Uh-huh. I would like to state for the record that my brother sent me a photograph today of the Dan Kuchan residence, another very long-time resident, who has a flag banner waving now in his front yard for the 250th anniversary of the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 4 of 14 nation. Real nice, colorful banner. So people are -- KLINE: Good start. CHAIR YODER: -- getting ramped up for this already. Okay. If that's it, let's move on then to the regular agenda items. Consideration and possible action approving the minutes from our June 4th meeting. Anybody have any comments, or can I get a motion to approve the minutes? GALLAGHER: I do have one comment. Having not been at the last meeting, I read them with interest, and I found Doug Katonak's name spelled about five different ways. So that needs to be corrected. Otherwise, I would say they're fine. CHAIR YODER: I believe that's just the machine's transcription problem, but. LOPUSZANSKI: Yeah, it doesn't -- CHAIR YODER: They have an actual recording. LOPUSZANSKI: It doesn't recognize a specific name kind of thing. So a lot of times it's just a verbatim that's going off of the software program, so. But if it's just a spelling, we can still approve the minutes. CHAIR YODER: AI will fix that up in another year and a half. Can I get a motion to approve? BURNS: Move to approve -- KLINE: I'll second -- BURNS: -- the minutes. KLINE: I'll second that motion. CHAIR YODER: All in favor? ALL: Aye. CHAIR YODER: Any opposed? LOPUSZANSKI: And chair that gets approved 4-0. Thank you. CHAIR YODER: Thank you. Next on the agenda is public art applications. Do we have any coming in? LOPUSZANSKI: At this point in time, no, we do not. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 5 of 14 CHAIR YODER: Moving on. The historical registry for the Fountain -- getting the Fountain registered as a national landmark. GALLAGHER: Yeah, I think I can give a quick update. Although if you read the paper recently, you may have gotten also another update, but we were able to get it submitted kind of first round submitted to the State Historic Preservation Officer, that's Dr. Collins and his team. It is currently under review by them. They like to review it and make sure everything's good to go before they then push it to review, the State review process, which is going to be in November. And that review process just ensures it's ready to go to the federal level after that to the national park service. So that's kind of where we're sitting at now. We expect to get it back here in the next week or so with some requested edits. We will take care of that in-house, any edits they request. If we need information, we may ask you guys to dig a little deeper, but I got a feeling he said it's mostly going to be just structure of the submittal more than content, said the content looked good for the most part. So it's more my errors and how I submitted it. So anyway, that's what we're looking at. They said it could be up to about six months after it gets pushed from state, so we're hoping for everything to be settled no later than May of '26 for that. That's kind of where we stand at this point. CHAIR YODER: That's great news. I'm really excited about that whole thing. GALLAGHER: Yeah. Thanks. I mean, you guys did the vast majority of that work, so I really appreciate the work you guys put into it. So it came together really well. And like I said, hopefully, we get through the first time around. CHAIR YODER: Yeah. Okay. Any other further comments? We'll move on then to the 250th anniversary of the United States and that work group. BURNS: I think Bonnie probably has something she wants to say. I don't -- I haven't done much work on it over the summer. KLINE: So yeah, I would like to do some more. But one thing that I found was that there's an America 2 -- Arizona celebrates the 250th anniversary, and they have a program with a logo that towns and other groups can use on their publicity. And there's TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 6 of 14 a passport of 250 places to visit in Arizona. And I looked through it, signed up for it and looked through it, and Fountain Hills is not on there yet so I would like to see if we can change that. CHAIR YODER: Is that a website then, Bonnie? KLINE: They have a website. Let's see. CHAIR YODER: State governments? GALLAGHER: Yeah. KLINE: Yes. GALLAGHER: There's a website. It's a state site. And there's a form you can fill out. So right now, they're still gathering the information. They're not I mean, you can view it, but it hasn't really been pushed out yet. So there's a form you can fill out. So Bonnie, you mentioned this to me. You left me that voice mail. I emailed you back earlier today. Basically, there's categories to choose from. It can be things like, obviously, restaurants, but also landmarks. There's dark sky focused stuff. So there's a lot there that we can submit. And so you know what, I could ask for that workgroup's help on would be maybe choosing which categories and what we can submit to possibly be on that list. And then I think it's number five and six on that form, there's some more questions that require a bit of a narrative and maybe asking for that committees, subcommittees, or workgroup's help with those narratives -- KLINE: Okay. GALLAGHER: -- on those two questions. The other questions we can answer, no problem. But those two, we could use some help on. I think that's a cool thing to get on and see if we can submit and see what gets picked up. KLINE: Okay. GALLAGHER: Uh-huh. KLINE: All right. I'd be glad to help. GALLAGHER: Excellent. I know, like I said, off the top of my head, obviously, the Fountain. Any other historical places we can think of? Dark Sky Discovery Center still won't be open probably for at least half of next year. And so I'm not sure, but we do TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 7 of 14 have some stargazing spots and things like that, and maybe we can highlight the dark skies as well. And like I said, there's a lot of categories to look through and make recommendations. And feel free to do that within the workgroup and see what you guys come up with. KLINE: Okay. GALLAGHER: And just update, I didn't see a deadline on that. I assume the sooner the better. KLINE: Yeah. GALLAGHER: I assume they're going to start pushing it out, November, December, really, January 2026. KLINE: Yeah. I was looking for the deadline. I didn't see one. GALLAGHER: I didn't see either. KLINE: Like you said 2025, so. GALLAGHER: Uh-huh. So I figured if we get it in before November, would be great by the end of October if we have that ready to go. CHAIR YODER: Okay. Very good. Anybody else on that? All right. Moving on now to the historical art and essay contest. That we have proposed to the Fountain Hills Unified School District. Pete and I went to the meeting as we planned there in mid-June, and I think it was good. But Pete, maybe I'll just let you take over for this and then maybe make a final comment, but -- GALLAGHER: Okay. CHAIR YODER: Pete put together a nice display and let him talk about that. GALLAGHER: I put together a PowerPoint presentation so we could show them some pretty pictures while I talk to them about the contest. But for some reason, my slides blew up, and the fonts were wrong, and you couldn't read them, and everybody enjoyed that quite a bit, but they actually enjoyed the briefing even more. I think they were very excited about the contest that we want to run, and the school district seemed to be very interested in supporting it. Certainly, Dr. J was very, very interested in supporting it, and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 8 of 14 I didn't get any pushback from anybody, actually. So I feel that we're good to go. I have a copy of it if it needs to go into the record, but otherwise that's all I have to say. CHAIR YODER: I double up on what Pete said. I saw Dr. J again after that meeting in a social occasion and unsolicited, he came to me and he said, by the way, you're all good with that. You just let us know when you want to go. And so, as we've discussed, I was hoping to kick that off, like, right before their Christmas break. So hopefully, we can have the website information or the formalized application information somewhere available that we'll need from the town. And then it's just basically, I think a matter of Pete and or me or us going over to the school district and knocking on the door and saying, here it is, we're ready to go. PRESTON: Did you have anything actionable at all for you guys at that point? What to kind of do next, or is it more like you said ball's in our court for following up? CHAIR YODER: I think it's ball's in our court. I kind of suggested that at the meeting that we were in. I said, we'll come back to you in the fall and write ahead of time. And I think I mentioned something like late in September or in October and then go to the -- another meeting and say, we're ready to go. We just wanted to remind you, and we'll bring the materials or make the materials public. We have to decide that on November the 30th or something like that. PRESTON: Right. Okay. And then in your guys's vision, when is the judging taking place? When are we revealing the winner? Like, how did you guys discuss yet? How to kind of wrap that up? BURNS: I have some notes on a schedule, as Tim said, we'll kick it off in December or the end of November with a due date of early March, and then make decisions before the end of the school year and perhaps be able to do our presentations in May for the winners of the contest. CHAIR YODER: So just for clarity, Ryan, all of this scheduling and stuff, I basically just took directly from that earlier Mesa City thing, and they did -- their whole thing was designed because May is Historic Preservation Month. PRESTON: Right. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 9 of 14 CHAIR YODER: So they wanted the students to hand in their materials in mid -- early mid-March so that they could be evaluated and judged and then be like displayed in May, which is coincides with the end of the school year, too. So I mean, we don't have to follow that. But I thought, well, you suggested that we look at that, and I just mimicked it. PRESTON: Right. Okay. Yeah. No, that's I think that could work. It just it depends on how we want to present the winners as well. I know we had discussed previously doing it at a -- maybe a town council meeting. So it's also looking at those agendas and seeing if we can get on those agendas. I know May is typically pretty packed for agenda items for the town council meeting. So those could be tough to get on to squeeze into. So that's something we'll have to look into a little bit as far as timeline is concerned. CHAIR YODER: Tell me, when are the town council meetings each month? Are they -- LOPUSZANSKI: Usually, it's the second and the fourth Tuesday of the month. CHAIR YODER: Okay. LOPUSZANSKI: Uh-huh. CHAIR YODER: So maybe what we could do -- LOPUSZANSKI: Wait, first. I'm sorry. PRESTON: First and third. LOPUSZANSKI: First and third. Sorry, first and third. CHAIR YODER: First and third. LOPUSZANSKI: Yeah. CHAIR YODER: So maybe we could have them ready to go if May is not good, maybe at the very end of April, we could have them all. I mean, it's probably all still cramped then too, but that might be better. BURNS: Could we at least try at this point to get on the May agenda? One of the two agendas for May? GALLAGHER: Yeah. I mean, I'm not saying we can't. I'm just saying it's a difficult time to get something like this on the agenda as a recognition, just because of how packed those get and how often things like this may get bumped. And so that's why I don't TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 10 of 14 want -- I wouldn't want it to get bumped if we had set up, had the kids in. So I'd like to pick a time where maybe there's a guarantee that we're going to be on it and stay on it again, it's not a no. I just wanted to bring that up as a possibility. And maybe having a backup plan of -- if we can't do it through the town council podium, maybe there's something with the school district we could partner with at the same time where we can join up with and maybe do it with the district or at a district event, as well school district event. So just kind of keeping that in mind as we look at this. But I'll see -- but we won't know how packed that May agenda is going to be until fortunately closer to May. BURNS: Another suggestion or question, I suppose, is if we can't get it on a town council agenda, would it be appropriate for the History and Culture Advisory Commission to do the presentations here? GALLAGHER: Yeah. I mean that's definitely an option. We can do it at one of our meetings as well. CHAIR YODER: We could do that early May thing, or that'd be cool because the parents would come in, and we got plenty of space here. Another option might be backing up to your suggestion, partnering with the school district, doing it maybe at the school, maybe some of us and maybe we could convince the mayor to show up also or something like that just like on their schedule some Wednesday afternoon at a rally or I don't know what. GALLAGHER: Right. Yeah. Like I said. So I'm just, you know, we'll have a couple plans, couple backup plans as well. And I'll try to get more ideas about what the possibilities are that time of year for getting on the agenda. And so I think it's something like this they would want to push and promote, but again, it's things like this often get pushed toward the end of the year because that's the last meeting I believe. Is there a June meeting? LOPUSZANSKI: There is a June meeting. GALLAGHER: Okay. LOPUSZANSKI: But you're right, May is really tight because we're doing budget and then TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 11 of 14 it goes into June with the final, but they're always pretty well packed. There's a lot going on for the end of the year, but we can kind of check to see what the timeline compared to what it was last year, and we'll go from there. CHAIR YODER: Well, just casually speaking for myself, I like that Pete's suggestion maybe we just do it here, May the 4th or whatever that day will be. But we've got some education specialists here, and I think the grading and evaluation process will be fairly straightforward and easy for us to do sometime in late March. And we don't even have to know the exact details of the awards recognition when we start in November like that. Some of that could be the nuts and bolts. GALLAGHER: Correct. Yeah, a lot of that can be to be announced. CHAIR YODER: And if we can figure it out in January or February. GALLAGHER: Okay. And so, the presentation or the information you guys have is pretty standard from what was there before, as far as the talking points or the criteria. Okay. I wouldn't mind taking a look at the PowerPoint. So if you have it, I can grab that from you. And if you need to pick up the jump drive later, I can pull it on my computer, you can take it back. BURNS: I rather dump it on your -- I'd rather leave it on your computer now, because there's other information on here that I should not be sharing with anyone. GALLAGHER: Gotcha. Okay. All right. So maybe we can figure out a way to get that just so I can see it, and then anymore -- and just maybe just re sending me some of the other documents. We can start putting a package together for the school. CHAIR YODER: Okay. I'll forward you the rough draft that I had created. I think that's what he worked off of to create what he did. GALLAGHER: Okay. So I made -- if that's all we have then that's probably -- CHAIR YODER: I had sent it to you guys already, but yeah, sure, I'll resend it. GALLAGHER: Perfect. Okay. BURNS: I'll email the presentation -- GALLAGHER: That'd be perfect. BURNS: -- with includes the script and everything. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 12 of 14 GALLAGHER: Okay. Perfect. CHAIR YODER: Okay. Moving right along to point F, public art identification. Anything? No. GALLAGHER: I believe part of that work group isn't here today, so maybe we can get an update time. Oh, yes, I can update you. We had talked about the software. It's called SeeMyLegacy. I did a small presentation on it, I think last time we were together, about the QR codes on the art, the art walk, kind of updating that. So we have purchased that software and I have gotten started on some of the updates. I am just waiting for some updated descriptions for those, but then we'll -- basically, what I'll do is we'll start adding these little QR codes, which we've already purchased, metal QR codes, that'll start being placed on the art pieces, and then it'll be a really upgraded digital tour for that as well. So that is in the works. That is something I'm currently working on. I just know the workgroup is helping us put together some of those packages and some of the -- what they call the stories for each of those art pieces. We already have a lot of that already, but we're looking to kind of add a little more meat to what we already have for those. KLINE: So I did bring some notebooks from when I was an art docent to give to Toni, but she's not here today, but I will make sure she gets that if there's any information in there that might be useful. GALLAGHER: Yeah. Perfect. Because, like I said, a lot of what we have, at least a lot of what I have access to is a little older, maybe not. It's more informational, more dry. And we're looking to get that information in there, but also, we want to tell whatever story we can behind that art piece as well. And so that's more the information we're looking for at this point, so yeah, that'd be great. CHAIR YODER: Okay. Very good. Very good. Last but not least, future agenda items and presentations. KLINE: I can speak to that if we can start with -- in October, I know that Chair CHAIR YODER has decided that he wanted to step down as chair. He's still staying on the commission. His term is up October 31st. We are in the process of subcommittee TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 13 of 14 interviews, which will be on Monday afternoon. I'm hoping that there will be a second. So we have two vacant positions. So we will be interviewing with our council members on Monday. Unfortunately, Susan decided to step down. She had some personal issues that she was taking care of, and so she didn't feel she could commit to them, the History and Culture Commission. So she will be recognized at a future town council meeting. And right now, it's tentative for October 21st. I will send you all out an email and let you know we would like to have everyone there to recognize. If she's able to make it, I will be able to tell you, and the mayor would be presenting her with the appreciation plaque. So that is all I have for you right now. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Is that a Wednesday? KLINE: It is a Tuesday. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: A Tuesday. KLINE: Tuesday. Uh-huh. GALLAGHER: And I just have another quick thing maybe to add next time, depending on what I hear back. So there was a question, I think a couple times ago about the work done with the Fountain Park signs. The new signs, kind of the big placard, informational signs at Fountain Park. I think we have three of them that this commission had worked on, I think before. Maybe any of you guys were actually on the commission. And Susan had been asking about that, but we are in the design phase of that now that has actively been working on for the design because you guys, this commission came up with, again, what are we going to put on there? What's the text going to look like? What's the copy? So we're now working on the design. And if I have an update, we'll add it to that. Otherwise, just kind of stay tuned for that as well. So that is actively being worked on at this point. BURNS: Are those replacements for the existing signs? GALLAGHER: Yes. Yeah. The ones that you can't see or read anymore. BURNS: All right. GALLAGHER: Yeah. Uh-huh. So like at the end of the avenue -- BURNS: Other than potential updates, you're probably just kind of using the same copy TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SEPTEMBER 4, 2025, HISTORY AND CULTURE ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 14 of 14 and stuff, aren't you? GALLAGHER: I think it's pretty well updated. Yeah. It's completely different -- BURNS: Oh, okay. GALLAGHER: Yeah. -- brought in and we're hoping to use that same QR SeeMyLegacy things where they can actually scan a QR code depending on where you are. For example, I have a bunch of aerials now of Fountain Hills. I've had both the whole town. I also have focused on the park through the years as well. So that's where things like that will be uploaded as well, and then there'll be a lot of information from those QR codes that are going to be on there as well. And they won't be printed. They'll be metal laser engraved on there so that it won't fade either. CHAIR YODER: Anybody else? All right. Next meeting date is October the 1st, 2025. Can I get a move to adjourn? BURNS: I so move. KLINE: I'll second the motion. CHAIR YODER: All in favor? ALL: Aye. CHAIR YODER: Any opposed? LOPUSZANSKI: Motion passes, 4-0. Having no further business, Chairperson Burns adjourned the Regular Meeting of the History and Culture Advisory Commission meeting held on September 4, 2025, at 4:28 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS ________________________ Tim Yoder, 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 7th of January 2026. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 7th Day of January 2026. _________________________________ Stormy Mazeikis, Administrative Assistant