"Thomas Jefferson said a democracy is dependent on an informed citizenry. I don't care whether it sounds corny or not. It's the truth." -Jim Lehre
Carefree Truth
Issue #1125, July 5, 2026
Giant Arches and Roundabouts:
For those of you who were not Carefree residents at the time and are unaware of this, and as a reminder to those who were here, current mayoral candidate Melissa Price was a Carefree Town Council member several years ago. She pushed extremely hard to build the two giant arches adjacent to Tom Darlington Drive and to Cave Creek Road, leading into downtown Carefree. Although many Carefree residents repeatedly spoke out at Call to the Public and/or contacted the Town via email or phone strongly opposing these arches, Councilwoman Price pushed ahead, blatantly ignoring the wishes of the residents. In fact she advocated placing FOUR of these giant arches at entry streets, as well as smaller monuments at other entry streets. Fortunately, saner heads prevailed and Carefree ended up with just two giant arches. Even so, the vast majority of Carefree residents expressed disgust at the esthetics of the two giant arches after they were built.
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
The Town had hired consultants who stated that if these arches were built there should be roundabouts on the streets across from the arches to direct traffic into the downtown. If four arches had been built it would have required two additional roundabouts, one on each of the arterial roads, along with the existing ones on Tom Darlington Drive and on Cave Creek Road. Councilwoman Price wholeheartedly agreed. If she had succeeded in attaining her "vision", drivers coming from the south on Tom Darlington Drive and turning right onto Cave Creek Road would have felt like they were riding on a Loop-D-Loop, with four circles in close proximity.
The Town had hired consultants who stated that if these arches were built there should be roundabouts on the streets across from the arches to direct traffic into the downtown. If four arches had been built it would have required two additional roundabouts, one on each of the arterial roads, along with the existing ones on Tom Darlington Drive and on Cave Creek Road. Councilwoman Price wholeheartedly agreed. If she had succeeded in attaining her "vision", drivers coming from the south on Tom Darlington Drive and turning right onto Cave Creek Road would have felt like they were riding on a Loop-D-Loop, with four circles in close proximity.
Photo by Herbert Hitchon
Water:
Some of the Council candidates have been critical of the Town for bringing over 500 residents and several businesses onto Carefree water not long ago. They are complaining that the 80% of existing Carefree water customers are paying for the 20% who were added, and that it is "unfair". When the Town of Carefree bought the privately owned water company, it was in a sad state of disrepair and in danger of failing completely. At the time of purchase, the Town did what it could afford to do to repair and upgrade the infrastructure. The customers that came with that purchase were already customers of that company, and the intention was to add the remaining Carefree residents and businesses serviced by the privately owned Cave Creek water company in the future. The division of customers was previously dictated by the Arizona Corporation Commission, which controls such details of private companies.
In fact, when Carefree purchased the much contested "20%" and added the infrastructure to hook up that 20%, the Town also upgraded some of the infrastructure of the 80%, with no additional cost to those customers. The entire cost for adding the 20% is being paid by those customers, spread over 30 years, making that additional monthly cost to the 20% minimal. All this was financed by a 30 year bond at an extremely advantageous rate. In addition, Carefree's water supply was not overburdened by adding the 20% since, by contractual agreement with Cave Creek, their allotted CAP allocation accompanied those new customers.
Property tax:
Another campaign platform of these candidates is opposing a Carefree property tax. The property tax in question that the voters declined to approve addressed Carefree's joining the Valley-wide automatic response network for fire protection. Carefree has had a many decades long relationship with Rural/Metro, which is not a member of the automatic response network. The property tax issue that was put to a vote of the Carefree residents would have covered the additional costs of joining the automatic response network, which required numerous purchases of expensive equipment that would not have benefited Carefree directly but would have benefited the network as a whole. If approved, monies from the tax would have been placed in a restricted account to be used solely for fire protection, like HURF is restricted solely to street repair and maintenance, and would not have been placed into the General Fund. I have seen the signs of one candidate around town that read, "Keep Carefree Tax Free". This candidate doesn't seem to realize that Carefree, like towns and cities nationwide, has a local sales tax, and is not "tax free" now.
Despite the sections on water and property tax in this issue of Carefree Truth, I believe that the candidates who are campaigning on those points are simply misinformed, rather than malicious, and are listening to a man who has historically been negative and vocal in his accusations against Carefree, even going so far as to claim that the Town was going broke a number of years ago, ignoring the fact that Carefree had the highest reserves of any town of comparable size in the state. I suspect that, with time and experience, these 3 candidates will come to recognize what a well run and fiscally conservative town Carefree has always been, and how lucky we all are to live here.
Lyn Hitchon
"Many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans--anything except reason." -Thomas Sowell
Water:
Some of the Council candidates have been critical of the Town for bringing over 500 residents and several businesses onto Carefree water not long ago. They are complaining that the 80% of existing Carefree water customers are paying for the 20% who were added, and that it is "unfair". When the Town of Carefree bought the privately owned water company, it was in a sad state of disrepair and in danger of failing completely. At the time of purchase, the Town did what it could afford to do to repair and upgrade the infrastructure. The customers that came with that purchase were already customers of that company, and the intention was to add the remaining Carefree residents and businesses serviced by the privately owned Cave Creek water company in the future. The division of customers was previously dictated by the Arizona Corporation Commission, which controls such details of private companies.
In fact, when Carefree purchased the much contested "20%" and added the infrastructure to hook up that 20%, the Town also upgraded some of the infrastructure of the 80%, with no additional cost to those customers. The entire cost for adding the 20% is being paid by those customers, spread over 30 years, making that additional monthly cost to the 20% minimal. All this was financed by a 30 year bond at an extremely advantageous rate. In addition, Carefree's water supply was not overburdened by adding the 20% since, by contractual agreement with Cave Creek, their allotted CAP allocation accompanied those new customers.
Property tax:
Another campaign platform of these candidates is opposing a Carefree property tax. The property tax in question that the voters declined to approve addressed Carefree's joining the Valley-wide automatic response network for fire protection. Carefree has had a many decades long relationship with Rural/Metro, which is not a member of the automatic response network. The property tax issue that was put to a vote of the Carefree residents would have covered the additional costs of joining the automatic response network, which required numerous purchases of expensive equipment that would not have benefited Carefree directly but would have benefited the network as a whole. If approved, monies from the tax would have been placed in a restricted account to be used solely for fire protection, like HURF is restricted solely to street repair and maintenance, and would not have been placed into the General Fund. I have seen the signs of one candidate around town that read, "Keep Carefree Tax Free". This candidate doesn't seem to realize that Carefree, like towns and cities nationwide, has a local sales tax, and is not "tax free" now.
Despite the sections on water and property tax in this issue of Carefree Truth, I believe that the candidates who are campaigning on those points are simply misinformed, rather than malicious, and are listening to a man who has historically been negative and vocal in his accusations against Carefree, even going so far as to claim that the Town was going broke a number of years ago, ignoring the fact that Carefree had the highest reserves of any town of comparable size in the state. I suspect that, with time and experience, these 3 candidates will come to recognize what a well run and fiscally conservative town Carefree has always been, and how lucky we all are to live here.
Lyn Hitchon
"Many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans--anything except reason." -Thomas Sowell
Prepared by Carefree Truth
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Copyrighted
Visit our website at www.carefreetruth2.com If you know anyone who would like to be added to the Carefree Truth email list, please have them contact me. Feel free to share Carefree Truth with others on your list. Please support our Carefree merchants.