CAREFREE
– Water is the number one priority for newly elected Carefree
Mayor Wayne Fulcher.
Fulcher,
along with Vice Mayor Lloyd Meyer, sat down with The Desert
Advocate last week to talk about their priorities heading
into the next two years.
The
mayor related that budget discussions are coming up and
that their priorities will be framed around what the budget
will allow town council to do.
“We’re
talking about our priorities in that context,” he said.
While
Carefree has enough CAP water to serve its residents through
buildout, Meyer said the town has to look at maintaining
and improving infrastructure. “For example, fire protection
wasn’t a big issue up here many years ago; now it is.”
Both
the mayor and vice mayor pointed to an increase in the
number of fire hydrants, the one million‑gallon
storage tank and the generators added to water pumps as
examples of what the town has done in the last few years
to improve infrastructure.
“In
case of a power outage, we can continue to pump water,”
said Fulcher about the generators.
As
for water bills and water rates, the mayor’s goal is to
be “up front” with town residents about the whys and hows
behind those bills.
After
water, Fulcher said the town council needs to keep an
eye on roads, traffic and law enforcement.
“As
the town grows, more resources are going to be needed
to protect it,” stated Meyer.
“The
traffic is not going to go away; you have to manage it,”
Fulcher added.
To
that end, the mayor commented that he has already talked
to the Maricopa Association of Governments about improvements
to Carefree Highway and looking at certain other intersections,
such as Pima Road and Stagecoach Pass.
“There’s
an increasing amount of traffic there, but that intersection
is Scottsdale’s,” said Fulcher, pointing to the need to
be “proactive” and sit down with Scottsdale leadership
to work out what needs to be done with common intersections
that will need to be upgraded.
“You
have to look at the trends and come up with a plan,” said
Meyer.
A
plan is what already is in place as far as fire protection
goes, according to Fulcher and Meyer. With construction
of the new fire station underway and the increased number
of fire hydrants, the two council members said the needed
infrastructure will be in place should Rural/Metro ever
decide to pull out of this market.
“All
residential and commercial properties are covered by a
municipal agreement,” Fulcher noted. “If our provider
decides to exit the market, we can go somewhere else.
The infrastructure is already there.”
Other
issues on the mayor’s radar screen stem from communication
with the public. He said he would like to expand COINS,
the Carefree Official Information and Notification System,
grow the town’s Web site to make it more interactive and
user friendly, and tweak the newsletter to make it more
readable.
