When we were in Fountain Hills a few weeks ago, we saw some of the improvements going on around town.

We drove around the roundabout that has been installed at the intersection of La Montana Drive and the Avenue of the Fountains.

Wouldn’t you know that a dark blue sports car almost hit our front bumper when he didn’t yield when he entered the roundabout from the Avenue of the Fountains? We were in the outside lane and going north on La Montana. He was headed west. And I think he was going a little fast for the situation.

The roundabout looks nice, but I still have to say as I did in several columns prior to approval, “I’ve never seen a roundabout that I like.”

With the recent change in the plan costing an additional $90,552 bringing the total project cost to $744,350, I hope our near-miss was an isolated occurrence.

I was really pleased to see that Fountain Hills Boulevard is finally being improved. It won’t be paved to the full four-lane width, but it will have bike lanes and curbing the entire length of the roadway from just north of Shea Boulevard to Segundo Drive near the Catholic Church of the Ascension.

I have been waiting 40 years for this roadway to be improved.

I, along with many others, felt this always gave the wrong first impression to first-time potential homeowners entering the community. Wouldn’t you expect to find a street named Fountain Hills Boulevard would be the main entrance into the community? After all, our town isn’t called The Town of Palisades or Saguarotown.

Anyway, I was glad to see that the Fountain Hills Boulevard Shoulder Pavement Project has been a high priority capital improvement project for several years.

The primary purpose of the project is to prevent erosion damage to the roadway from storm water. Since the town was utilizing Congestion Management Air Quality (CMAQ) federal funding, most of the costs were to be paid with federal funds, which requires ADOT to oversee and serve as the project engineer and project manager.

Shortly after phase one of the project began in the spring of 2019, unforeseen shallow utility lines on Fountain Hills Boulevard precluded completing the planned project as ADOT issued a change order to the contractor for the project change for the west-side curb and gutter, including the wider and thicker pavement structural section, with the town’s concurrence. The contractor proceeded with the construction concept based on the revised project plans. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, ADOT cancelled the contract which resulted in only the west side of the project being completed.

On August 24, 2020, the Town Council awarded a contract to Visus Construction Engineering Inc., to construct the shoulder widening improvements on the east side of Fountain Hills Blvd. The project is currently underway and scheduled for completion on December 26, 2020. It should be a good Christmas present for the town.

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I was saddened to learn of the recent passing of town pioneer Geri Nabers. She loved Fountain Hills and was always enthusiastic but soft-spoken in her sales presentations to clients. She told them that Fountain Hills was “the best place in the world to live.”

She and her husband, K.D. “Tex” Nabers, moved to Arizona from Texas in 1966, operating a farm in Willcox until 1971. They moved to Tempe where he obtained his real estate license.

He discovered Fountain Hills and became a member of the original sales team for McCulloch Properties.

I first met Geri when I did a story in 1973 on the opening of the first bank in Fountain Hills for the Fountain Hills Times monthly edition. It was a Valley National Bank branch. The manager was a man named Gordon Anderson. He introduced me to Geri, the only resident of the community on staff.

She had gone to work for Valley National Bank in Willcox, transferring to Tempe and later to Fountain Hills.

The family, with daughters Pam and Tina and son Mike, opened Nabers Realty in 1977.

But I will always remember Geri as Fountain Hills’ first bank teller.

Pam Nabers said she is going to miss her mom greatly, saying, “I’m going to miss our little chats. She was my best friend.”