After more than a decade of planning and execution for each, the town completed to major capital projects during the past calendar year. Both will be off the books for the fiscal year that begins in June 2019.

Work was wrapped up this fall on a roughly $2 million trailhead project to create a gateway into the Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve.

As the year ends, crews are putting the finishing touches on the new replacement for Fire Station #2 in Fountain Hills. Planning began about 10 years ago to relocate the fire station to a more effective site in town.

Trailhead

The first land was acquired for the mountain preserve about 25 years ago with a land deal with developer MCO Properties. Soon after that, voters in town approved about $13 million in bonds to purchase additional land. Just as construction was wrapping up on the trailhead, the homebuilder in Adero Canyon agreed to trade an additional 82 acres to the town, bringing the total land area for the Fountain Hills Preserve to 1,000 acres.

A centralized trailhead was the dream of Preserve planners since the very beginning. The town was able to set aside nearly $2 million in development fees dedicated for open space. That money built the trailhead, plus some additional funding from the Capital Improvement Fund.

There is parking for more than three dozen cars with a control building that includes restrooms and an adjacent ramada with some tables and benches for resting or munching a lunch.

Water and sewer lines are yet to reach the trailhead site, but will be connected after road improvements in the coming year.

The trailhead provides access to about 10 miles of trails within Fountain Hills and additional access to hundreds of miles in McDowell Mountain Park and the Scottsdale Sonoran Preserve.

Better service

The new fire station is located on Fountain Hills Boulevard just north of Shea Boulevard, across from Muskrat Lane.

Rural/Metro Fire Department provides fire suppression response and emergency medical services to the town under a contract. As the town grew, Rural/Metro found it was falling short in response time requirements from the station on Saguaro Boulevard, south of Shea. That was a deciding factor in pursuing the new site.

The town looked at a couple of sites and was able to make a land trade with MCO Properties for the selected location. Another bonus is there will be a better balance of call load between Fire Station #1 on Palisades Boulevard at Avenue of the Fountains and the new station location.

An ambulance crew now housed at the shopping center where Fry’s grocery store is located will be relocated to a home base at the new station. There is also space dedicated to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in the new building.

The facility is designed at 9,600 square feet with three truck bays and personal space for six firefighters. The project bid was for $4,058,000.

In 2009 the town applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for a grant available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama Administration program to stimulate the economy out of the Great Recession.

Though hundreds of such grants were awarded for fire stations across the country, Fountain Hills did not receive one. The project has been on the sideline since that time.

Fire Station #2 opened at its current location on Saguaro Boulevard south of Shea Boulevard in 1993. At the time the Fountain Hills Fire District was under contract to serve the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, and growth in the western parts of Fountain Hills was just beginning.