Tonight is the annual Lower Verde River Valley Hall of Fame dinner.

While it won’t be the fancy affair it has traditionally been, organizers are still planning to make the night a special one for the honorees.

In the past, this has been a $150 per plate formal dinner. But with the state of the economy, the board of directors of the River of Time Museum Foundation, which sponsors the Hall of Fame, decided that maintaining the price would be difficult, especially in light of how attendance has been down for other fund-raisers in town.

The first thought was to lower the price to $100 per person, then someone suggested $75. That prompted Sharon Morgan, who plans most of the major dinners in town, said we wouldn’t be able to make any money at that rate since all of the locations that could accommodate such a dinner would have fees totaling very close to that figure or more.

Then someone in the room suggested, “Why don’t we make the Hall of Fame installation ceremony a part of the March dinner meeting of the Fountain Hills and Lower Verde River Valley Historical Society.”

Other than Bob Thomson and I, the board members jumped on the price of $25. Bob and I were holding out for the $100 a plate dinner charge, so that we could make some money.

But from all indications, we should have a lot of fun tonight and maybe the 50/50 raffle pot will grow to a considerable amount. There were 230 advance reservations.

The selection committee was chaired this year by Barb Hansen. Bob Lickman had chaired tha committee the previous five years, but he asked to step down due to other activities. Barb implemented a secret ballot system that worked out quite well for the committee members.

The committee members from the Verde Communities and Fort McDowell selected their one honoree from each community. The late Harry Jones was the selection from Fort McDowell and Jim Urban is the honoree for The Verdes.

After reviewing all of the previously submitted nominations and the new ones that came in this year, the committee selected a list of this year’s 16 finalist candidates from Fountain Hills. The selection committee members then voted by ballot for their top five from the list.

This year’s honorees from Fountain Hills are Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Dan Foster, Linda Kavanagh, Wally Nichols and our editor, Mike Scharnow. I want to congratulate all of you on becoming members of the Hall of Fame. Our new seven inductees brings us to 92 members in the Hall of Fame.

You can read the profiles of those 92 people by going to the Lower Verde River Valley Hall of Fame website,
www.lowerverdevalleyhallof fame.org .

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There are two much anticipated open houses in two weeks. The totally remodeled and expanded Bashas’ will be available for viewing on Tuesday, March 31, with festivities beginning at 4 p.m.

An open house will be held April 1 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the new Fountain Hills Medical Campus. Located at 16838 E. Palisades Blvd. in the three-building complex that formerly housed the Town Hall offices, there are now six tenants in the facility.  It was originally built as the headquarters or the community’s original master developer, McCulloch Properties.

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We had a wonderful visit last week with Diane’s oldest daughter, Tammy, her husband, Brandon LaBanca and our grandson, Brandon, Jr.

When we visited them in New Jersey last August, the temperatures were in the high 70s most of the time. We repaid them with  70-degree temperatures all week. 

We started calling our grandson Brandino during the week. He is so smart and huggable. And that infectious laugh is something else. He will be celebrating his first birthday on April 1. That doesn’t seem possible.

And just as unbelievable, my daughter Holly’s daughter, Brooke, was six months old this past Sunday.