The Washington County Water Conservancy recently reported area residents decreased water use by more than 1 billion gallons between 2010 and 2015, despite being one of the fastest growing communities in the nation. Water conservation is an essential part of our water supply plan for Southern Utah. In a year like this, with our sole source of water, the Virgin River basin, flowing at only 20 percent of normal, it’s essential we use water as efficiently as possible. The District and its municipal partners, including Santa Clara City, have invested more than $60 million in water system infrastructure improvements, rebate programs and other con-servation efforts. Thanks to all residents for their efforts to conserve our most valuable resource, but there is more we can do. Let’s all set a goal to do more to conserve water and encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same. For more information and water conservation tips visit wcwcd.org.

The City Council was invited recently to meet with the Washington County School Board to discuss education challenges, needs, anticipated growth and problems facing the school district and the city. Student counts in our area elementary schools are holding steady so Santa Clara does not need additional schools right now, but the district is faced with increasing building maintenance costs for our existing schools. A new school bond is being proposed to fund the required maintenance and upgrades to the schools serving our community. If our children’s education is important, then we need to support the school district when asked to.

The increasing lack of affordable housing for teachers and school district staff was also discussed. Despite recent increases in teacher salaries, housing costs in Washington County have outpaced teacher income. This is also a problem for city employees as well including new police officers, fire department, public works and parks employees. It’s not an easy problem to solve given the limited developable properties and the high demand for land; increased construction material costs and the shortage of qualified labor force in the construction trades. This issue is anticipated to continue moving forward, I hope the public and private sectors will work together to address it and soon.

The City Council approved the FY 2018-19 Budget at their last meeting. The new budget projects residential growth to continue next year, projecting for 110 new building permits (143 have been issued to date this year). The total General Fund Budget is over $5.7 million, compared to slightly over $4.7 million in 2017-18, the largest increase resulting from the merger of the Fire Department with Ivins. The budget projects a slight increase to the reserve funds within allowable limits imposed by the state, meeting a goal the City Council set following the last recession. Copies of the approved budget are available from Town Hall upon request.

If you haven’t noticed its hot and extremely dry outside, summertime has truly arrived in Utah’s Dixie. The area vegetation is extremely dry and fire restrictions are in place. This includes restrictions on fireworks within the city. No fireworks are permitted in the undeveloped areas of the city including the lava fields, washes, farms, vacant lots and river floodplain areas. A map showing the Fire Restriction Zones is available on the city website at sccity.org under the Public Safety/Fire Department tab. Please be very cautious with fireworks on the Fourth of July and 24th of July Holidays. No one wants to see our neighborhoods and homes damaged by wildfire.

Have a great summer and be safe Santa Clara.

Mayor Rick Rosenberg mayor@sccity.org

Be sure to save the dates for Santa Clara Swiss Days September 20-22. This year’s theme is “Celebrating Traditions”. Come help us celebrate Santa Clara’s rich traditions both old and new alike. You can share your family traditions by participating in the displays to be set up in the Town Hall Banquet Room. We encourage you to gather photo’s, memento’s and whatever items you have that represent the traditions that are special to your family and how you celebrate those traditions. Displays will be set up Wednesday Sep.19th. Please contact us if you would like to participate as we would like to get an approximation of how many displays we need room for. Contact Brooke at sccityevents@gmail.com or the city office at 673-6712 X 201.
Of course most Swiss Days traditions remain the same including the Thursday Opening Ceremony and Community Dinner, fol-lowed by a full schedule of events on Friday and Saturday including the Swiss Miss/Mister presentation, Pioneer Hands-On activities, Friday night concert, 5K race, pancake breakfast, best area parade, arts, crafts & food vendors, games for all ages, continuous entertainment , heritage displays and more!
There are also great sponsorship opportunities available for businesses that can help gain exposure for your business while supporting the event.