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Connection

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I want to thank Gerry Friedel for sharing his opinion in The Times’ June 23 piece and showing the business community you hear us regarding the recent sign ordinance change. Hopefully, the amendments to be discussed/added will consider a collective of businesses and residential input in their creation.

While you mention 40 percent of business is attributed to the use of signs, I would think on the surface this is a correct statement. But, like most things in a community, everyone is more intertwined than what appears on the surface. Our industry, title insurance, doesn’t use temporary signs. However, we are 100 percent reliant on the real estate market in this community.

This trickles right back to the signs an agent uses to host an open house for a current client while prospecting for future clients.

We, and other businesses, may not use temporary signs – such as mortgage companies, home warranty, insurance, home inspection, interior design, builders, landscaping, window cleaners, carpet cleaning and even housekeeping – but they are all dependent on the sale of homes in Fountain Hills. This connection can be parallel for all businesses using temporary signs, not just real estate.

Consider how this impacts restaurants, hair salons, boutiques, galleries, dentists, veterinarians and florists. Everything is connected.

For real estate and many other businesses, at the end of this intertwined system is the product of the community. If the product you’re selling is a home in Fountain Hills, don’t you think these businesses are 100 percent behind the beautification and are on the same page as to what will make the community the best? The business community should absolutely be part of the solution; a solution that doesn’t hurt local business.