The nearly an inch of rain we had this past weekend made another installment payment on what should prove to be the best wildflower season we have seen in years.

It turned out to be a good thing that the hot air balloons were not a part of the Great Fair activities this year. At 8 a.m. Sunday morning, there was still a steady rain falling and extremely low ceiling of clouds.

It wouldn’t have been fun for the spectators nor for the balloonists. There was no way that they could have launched. Maybe, we’ll have better luck next year, or maybe the Chamber can come up with another attraction that can be added without much cost.

If the Phoenix Open is going to be held the same weekend in the future (It previously was held on Super Bowl weekend.), then we need another attraction or two to compete for visitors.

As I said, it doesn’t necessarily have to cost a lot of money.

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The new phone books are here!

Yes, providing it doesn’t rain again this Saturday, delivery of the latest edition of the Fountain Hills and Verde Communities Telephone Directory will begin in the residential neighborhoods. We are projecting it will take about three weekends to cover the entire community.

This year’s book is slightly smaller due to a drop in the number of businesses advertising or others reduced the size of their ads. With the state of the economy, we had expected a bigger dropoff.

A number of businesses have closed or stopped doing business in Fountain Hills this past year, particularly in the building trades and real estate.

We still consider our White Page section to be the most up-to-date and accurate of all the books that may be delivered to your door. And we know you get a lot of different ones.

If you need additional copies, please stop by our office at 14508 E. Laser Drive. We’re in the last building on the right.

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In closing this week, I want to point out that we have a sale going on that we hope will encourage you to use our Classified section.

With this being my favorite month for sports since my favorites are college basketball (the NCAA tournament and Major League Baseball (Spring Training), I’ve created a sales promotion that runs all month.

It’s the March Madness Classifieds Sale. All line ads, charged by the word, will be discounted 25 percent during this month. That includes highlights and other up-grades you may do on your ad as well.

You can place your ad on line or call our office and ask for Dani or Tammy. The website address is fhtimes.com.

The weather should start settling down now, so it’s a good time to have a garage sale.

Advertise it in our Classifieds section. You’ll get a lot of response.