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Fountain Hills is a town in Maricopa County, Arizona, USA, neighboring the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and Scottsdale, AZ. The population is 24,669, as of the 2006 Census.[2] It was the eighth fastest-growing place among cities and towns in Arizona between the 1990 and 2000 census. It has the world's fourth tallest fountain.
Law and government
Fountain Hills has a Council-Manager system. The current Mayor of Fountain Hills is Jay Schlum, elected in Mar 2008. The current Town Council consists of the Mayor and six Councilmembers: Vice Mayor Dennis Brown, Councilmembers Henry Leger, Tait Elkie, Dennis Contino, Ginny Dickey and Cassie Hansen. Rick Davis is the Town Manager. Among other council appointed staff are Town Attorney Andrew McGuire and Town Magistrate Mitchell Eisenberg.
The town does not have its own law enforcement. They are patrolled by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office with the elected Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who lives in town.
The Town contracts with Rural Metro for staffing of its fire department. Scott LaGreca is the fire chief.
Public schools
Fountain Hills Unified School District #98 has four schools. McDowell Mountain Elementary School for Kindergarten-2nd grade, Four Peaks Elementary School for grades 3-5, Fountain Hills Middle School for grades 6-8, and Fountain Hills High School for grades 9-12. There is a Charter School, which has all grades up until high school.
Geography
Fountain Hills is located at 33°36′17″N 111°43′43″W / 33.60472°N 111.72861°W (33.604811, -111.728526).[3] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 18.2 square miles (47.2 km²), of which, 18.2 square miles (47.1 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.27%) is water.
Fountain
The eponymous fountain was built in 1970, by Robert P. McCulloch, the year before the reconstruction of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, another of McCulloch's projects. The fountain sprays water for about 15 minutes every hour between 9am and 9pm. The plume rises from a concrete water-lily sculpture in the center of a large man-made lake. The fountain, driven by three 600 horsepower (450 kW) turbine pumps, sprays water at a rate of 7000 gallons per minute through an 18-inch nozzle. With all three pumps and under ideal conditions, the fountain reaches 560 feet (170 m) in height[4], though in normal operation only two of the pumps are used, with a fountain height of around 300 feet (91 m) feet. When built, it was the world's tallest fountain and held that record for over a decade.
Demographics
As of the census[5] of 2000, there were 20,235 people, 8,653 households, and 6,515 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,113.8 people per square mile (430.0/km²). There were 10,491 housing units at an average density of 577.5/sq mi (222.9/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 96.26 percent White, 0.59 percent Black or African American, 0.49 percent Native American, 0.89 percent Asian, 0.06 percent Pacific Islander, 0.66 percent from other races, and 1.06 percent from two or more races. 3.05 percent of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 8,653 households out of which 23.5 percent had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.7 percent were married couples living together, 6.1 percent had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.7 percent were non-families. 19.9 percent of all households were made up of individuals and 7.8 percent had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.67.
In the town, the population was spread out with 18.5 percent under the age of 18, 4.4 percent from 18 to 24, 24.6 percent from 25 to 44, 33.3 percent from 45 to 64, and 19.2 percent who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46 years. For every 100 females there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.1 males.
According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the town was $70,096, and the median income for a family was $82,114.[6]
Males had a median income of $50,324 versus $32,307 for females. The per capita income for the town was $32,230. About 2.2 percent of families and 4.1 percent of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.0 percent of those under age 18 and 3.8 percent of those age 65 or over.