AUGUST 2022
COUNCIL CORNER The Holladay Foundation: Such potential! By Council Member Ty Brewer Having been raised in Holladay, one cultural element for which I’m especially grateful is the spirit of charity and goodwill that I’ve seen offered throughout my life by so many Holladay residents! As a 10-year-old, I remember masses showing up to help sandbag neighbor’s lots when Big Cottonwood Creek burst its banks in the floods of ’83. I know of many elderly residents whose neighbors clear their driveways of snow or regularly share meals with them. Youth service projects are commonplace, such as painting the pergolas at City Hall or cladding stone to cement bridge barriers to give added character. A good neighbor coordinated families making over a thousand sandwiches weekly for about a year for a downtown shelter. When attending Olympus High’s awards ceremony in May, I was impressed to see over $80k in scholarships provided by local residents to OHS seniors. Are you familiar with Friend 2 Friend, a Holladay-based youth service club? It’s amazing! Holladay is full of residents, many with considerable means, who recognize their stewardships, serve others, and create, lead and/or contribute to many wonderful charitable organizations. Holladay residents love to serve and are incredibly generous with their time and money. What a beautiful thing! Much of what differentiates government from charitable funding is the former being required of all and the latter, being voluntarily given. While taxation has its proper place, consider the difference between givers and receivers! The exacting of taxes can create sentiments of resentment by those taxed and entitlement by those standing to benefit. Charity, on the other hand, generally humbles those who give and evokes great gratitude in those it benefits. It is through charity, I believe, that the truest sense of community is fostered. Years ago, a group of good Holladay residents organized The Holladay Foundation, a 501(c)3, hoping it could serve as a vehicle through which generous residents could finance initiatives to benefit our community. It was through this foundation that funds were raised to supplement the development of the children’s playground at City Hall. The foundation also contributes to the Holladay concert series and has contributed to a Holladay Youth Council project. I’m so thankful for those who have contributed voluntarily and generously to these initiatives! An ideal that would be wonderful to see exemplified in Holladay is for our municipal government to increasingly only fund truly essential municipal services while a thriving and vibrant Holladay Foundation finances community amenities and events and helps fill needs for Holladay’s underprivileged. Park City has a community foundation that states it has brought over $30M in total impact to Park City and Summit County since 2007. Imagine what we in Holladay might do! The Holladay Foundation has tremendous potential but needs to be reinvigorated! We need people to come together to champion its cause. Does this message resonate with you or is there someone you could share it with to either be a potential donor or volunteer to help give the Holladay Foundation new life? Please reach out to a member of the city council to discuss! We hope to soon help bring this ideal to pass! —Ty Brewer, District 1
Adopt a Catch Basin It’s a great day to check the stormwater catch basin grates on your street! If there are leaves or debris covering the catch basin grate, rake them up now. Don’t sweep or blow your leaves into gutters or canals. If you have a catch basin in your neighborhood, adopt it and keep it clear of leaves and debris. Could someone on your block use a hand with their leaves? Adopt their catch basin to help. Keeping drains clear is a simple way to prevent flooding and keep our waterways healthy!
Speeding? Please Slow Down By Chief Justin Hoyal, UPD Holladay Precinct Over the last several months we have continually heard stories in the media of people driving at extremely high rates of speed all across Utah. We have even heard the tragedies of people being killed due to excessive speed. Unfortunately, we have recently seen these kinds of excessive speeds here in Holladay. We have also had an increased number of complaints from our community about people speeding in their neighborhoods. At the Unified Police Department’s Holladay Precinct, we have been actively working with the community to help address these concerns. Over the last several months we have been responding to each of the concerned neighborhoods and tried to influence motorists to slow down. In addition, we have done several directed enforcement operations where we had officers focus specifically on streets that are seeing continued speeding problems and complaints. As the school year starts once again, we want to ensure the safety of all our children as they go to and from school. We want to remind everyone that the speed limits in our neighborhoods are 25 MPH, unless otherwise posted. In addition, when the school zone lights are flashing, the speed is 20 MPH. As you travel through school zones, please watch for crossing guards. They do all they can to make sure that the children cross the street safely. Watch for their direction to stop. We have had many instances where motorists drive around the crossing guards while they are holding their stop signs. The crossing guards only stop traffic when kids are about to cross or are crossing the street. Driving around the crossing guard only puts the kids’ safety in jeopardy. We do not want our children to have to worry about the way others are driving while going to and from school. As a father myself, I want nothing more than for our children to be able to go to school, get an education and feel safe. Please do your part to help ensure they get to school safely. Officers will be strictly enforcing the speed limits in our school zones to ensure our students arrive at school and focus on what they are there for, their education. Additionally, as we have been throughout the summer, we will continue to be present in our neighborhoods and around the city to enforce the posted speed limits. In the end, our goal is to keep everyone safe. We do not want to have any preventable tragedies due to unsafe driving in our community. We want to work together to keep Holladay a great and safe community to live, work and recreate.