The Times is continuing its series of questions to the candidates running for mayor and town council this week. The question posed this week is: Do you believe the Town should plan and work to upgrade infrastructure to keep up with newest technology to support economic development?

Joe Arpaio: As mayor I will keep up with the newest technology and support economic development. We should review other municipalities and federal government agencies to determine the right course to take. I will also look into the Fountain Hills government functions to determine if reorganization/consolidation is necessary to be more efficient.

Also, it is important that the business community and developers have a say in this very important subject. We must keep up with all technological advantages that are available. Last but not least, we must have a leader that will lead and keep abreast of all changes in a positive manner to achieve the best results.

Ginny Dickey: Technology has indeed become a larger part of the infrastructure conversation, particularly since the pandemic changed the way many of us conduct business, education, and our daily lives. Whether the move toward virtual meetings, learning, working and even socializing from home is permanent, connectivity has become more of a focus.

The Town has improved technology in Council Chambers and the Community Center, be it sound equipment, visual enhancements or expanded online, Channel 11 and Zoom activities, and adding charging stations, providing better access to all. Free Wi-Fi available along Avenue of the Fountains, unfulfilled by previous commitments, remains a goal we will reach ourselves.

After receiving communication from residents with concerns about their high-speed internet service, Town staff researched our options and reported to council and the public in 2021. While the individual issues had been resolved, we were interested in knowing what was available then and into the future.

We have a franchise cable license agreement with Cox, the wired service available to Fountain Hills. They have made many significant upgrades and continue to do so, with speeds up to 1GB/second.

Wireless options are growing by the minute, as are the questions surrounding them. Small cell wireless towers are the subject of many studies. The Town, while limited by state and federal regulations – as with several other issues – will be assessing our existing ordinance, which was modeled after the League of AZ Cities and Town legal language.

I want to assess our technological needs scaled to community-wide applications, not solely based on individual outages or incidents. Being aware and addressing them with council and staff is part of attracting and serving residents, schools, and businesses. Like everything else, there is a balance to be considered as relates to quality of life, health and aesthetic concerns expressed.

Cindy Couture: Picture this: Robotic carriers deliver food to our homes from Fountain Hills’ Restaurants. (They already do so at the ASU campus.)

Drones fly overhead to license construction, allowing builders to complete projects sooner.

Smart devices operate lights at the sports fields, ensuring no energy is wasted.

3-D printers produce needed materials at an instant at retail stores and businesses.

This could be the town of the future, and the world we must prepare for.

Yes, Fountain Hills must upgrade technology infrastructure to continue our support of town businesses. To compete, businesses need the newest technology we can provide. We need to keep up with the times if we expect businesses to locate here and remain here. Economic development requires that we continually keep up with a moving technology target.

One example is 5G Internet, which is the fifth generation of cellular network technology, running the Internet 100 times faster than 4G. It runs on radio frequencies, the same as in our smartphones. This ground-breaking technology removes the time between a request and an internet response. Its broader bandwidth allows for more people to simultaneously connect to the internet.

Our business community will need the town to allow 5G service. Our state law, House Bill 2365, requires us to allow 5G installation and access.

Are there downsides? There may be. Our Council will need to research whether health problems might accompany 5G, and what steps need to be taken to protect our community.

Yet, no matter what the future holds, we must have a Town Council that keeps our businesses on a level playing field and simultaneously protects our residents. I am up to wrestling with that challenge.

Brenda Kalivianakis: This is an excellent question, what at first glance seems like a no-brainer, has inherent difficulties of success and fraught with many complications. As a Town seeks these upgrades, there tends to be a mind-set of, “we have always done things this way, why change?” This sort of intransigence is common in business and municipal government, it takes strong leadership to effect useful change.

To upgrade the IT services and infrastructure, planning is critical. There must be a seamless integration of current technology, applications and services that must work congruently together and efficiently. The upgrades must be agile and flexible to scale. Once again keeping in mind, the upgrades must work seamlessly with existing technology and infrastructure.

To address the changes, the town must collect data, that way it knows how to best serve the citizens. However, in collecting that data the town must protect the privacy interests of its citizens. We must keep in mind the collecting of that data must be done legally, responsibly, and ultimately in the interest of the public.

With money being spent and priorities established, unfortunately political considerations can be a roadblock to making these critical improvements. The Mayor and Council must have keen interest in public service and the general good; wasteful pet projects and hidden agendas are the enemy of growth and success, chose your leadership wisely.

Lastly, cooperation and coordination between private sector and public sector is crucial. Various agencies can be reluctant to share data or standardize common networks, tools, and infrastructure. The town leadership must be uniters and have an attitude of public service to accomplish efficient upgrades to the technology and ultimately support economic development.

Allen Skillicorn: Yes, I would like to have cutting edge technology infrastructure in Fountain Hills. Great infrastructure without wasteful pet projects is another reason I am running for town council.

Let me expand on why I support this. In this arena I am using a three-part test:

First, does this have a return on investment (ROI)? Yes, the town can expect additional sales tax revenue from additional businesses and better sales.

Second, is this consistent with similar infrastructure that benefit both the residents and businesses? Yes. For example, if the town offers public high speed wifi internet in the business district, residents and visitors can hang out along Avenue of the Fountains and also use this amenity. Serving both residents and businesses is very important to me.

Third, is this the proper role of our government? The town is not in the business of competing with the private sector. This last test needs to be the crucial check and balance against the two previous tests.

With common sense, I see great things for our small town, while protecting what we already have.

Hannah Toth: I believe that we should continuously research our options for infrastructure upgrades and understand what comparable communities are doing to reduce long-term costs. Whether we implement these upgrades or not may depend on several factors.

We need to consider the importance of budget prioritization. I believe that we first and foremost need to focus on addressing our immediate needs. This being said, it’s important not to fall behind on our infrastructure and therefore, create a whole new backlog. For this reason I believe that the answer to this question is: it depends.

If the technological upgrade is of a direct benefit, reduces long-term maintenance cost, or truly encourages economic development and is something that we as a Town can afford, absolutely! However, if the technological upgrade does not appear to be of significant benefit, or a direct influence on economic development, it may need to wait until we have had the chance to properly address our $60 million to $70 million problem regarding our roads, have properly saved up to replace the Fountain liner, and have essentially “caught back up” to where we should be financially.

This is the unfortunate reality of what we’re facing as a Town: certain budget sacrifices are going to have to be made in order to properly address this backlog on street maintenance. However, speaking of street maintenance, we have many technological advances to research and explore that may even reduce our long-term cost or increase the lifespan of these roads as we repair them.