Last week The Times asked me for a comment regarding the difference in the town administration from the early days to today from my perspective as the first town clerk and now as councilmember for a 25th anniversary story.

A comment turned into the following thoughts.

Being the first town employee of the newly-incorporated Town of Fountain Hills 25 years ago and now serving my second term on the Town Council has been a unique experience.

In the blink of an eye, we have progressed from my dining room table and home computer to a two- story building and technology that brings council meetings into citizens’ homes.

Starting the town with a handful of employees, a dedicated council and a brigade of citizen volunteers resulted in the “family” atmosphere that permeated the early culture in Town Hall.

From Mayor Cutillo washing his office windows and helping to answer the telephones, Paul Nordin’s regular outreach to update councilmembers or even the clerk’s personal delivery of council packets…it was just a different time.

Those involved were all about establishing a town…now we’re about sustaining a town. The only agendas were those handed out at meetings. Things were less formal and meetings more crowded as citizens engaged in the process of building a town from scratch.

“Progress” has produced more policies, procedures and protocol, inevitable as a community grows and matures, but it is important to remember the roots, the community culture of comradery, kinship and shared purpose that gave us our heart.

Each decade since incorporation has witnessed challenges and solutions, setbacks and successes, controversies and conciliations, disappointments and celebrations.

We’ve come a long way and accomplished much, but challenges remain. As we greet the next 25 years let’s blend the best of the past and present to benefit the future.