DECEMBER 2023 – JANUARY 2024 IN THIS ISSUE:
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Z News................................................ 1 Code Enforcement Corner .................... 2 Sandy City General Plan....................... 2 Holiday Sounds ................................... 2 Sandy Arts Volunteer of the Year ........... 3 HR Job Corner ..................................... 3 Waste & Recycling Calendar ................ 3 Alta Canyon Sports Center.................... 4 River Oaks Golf Course ........................ 4 Sandy Arts: The 39 Steps ...................... 4 Parks & Recreation .............................. 5
Winter Parking ..................................... 5 Sandy Youth Court Highlight ................. 5 Heating Safety ..................................... 6 Sandy City's New Passport Office. ......... 6 Holiday Card Design Contest. ............... 6 The Nutcracker .................................... 6 Shop Sandy. ........................................ 6 Roads & Neighborhoods Safety............. 7 Christmas Tree Collection. .................... 7 Calendar of Events............................... 7
Photo contest winner: Brandon Handman
Z News — The Holiday Magic Hello Sandy Friends, It’s the holidays – a time of year when we are all looking to create and enjoy magical moments. If you’re like me, the smell of a freshly cut pine tree or the sight of snowflakes frosting a home outlined in twinkling lights brings a rush of memories of the sights, sounds, smells, and feelings that characterize the holiday spirit. I have fond childhood memories of growing up in rural Northwest Ohio. The Christmas season began the day my family went out to cut our own Christmas tree. When we found that perfect tree we cut it, hauled it inside, and covered it with the long, silver strands of shiny tinsel and spools of lights that, amazingly, never set fire to the trees! (There were no running LED lights then—it was the opaque, 1-inch, individual bulbs that would get terribly hot to the touch and quite dangerous as the wires weakened.) On Christmas morning, we opened our bags and gift boxes of the traditional socks, underwear, and pajamas and enjoyed the magic of the holiday captured in the lights sparkling off the tinsel icicles. My mother’s birthday was also on Christmas Day and we always loved singing Happy Birthday on Christmas morning. With the years came the wisdom to understand that magic happens when we make it happen. It was the work of my parents and my eager siblings to cut, haul, and decorate that tree. That experience created an enduring memory of teamwork around a shared purpose. When I S S U E # 110
we set our mind to something with that shared vision, together, we work to achieve it. It’s in that same spirit of making magic that I look back over the past year and recognize the many gifts that have come to our city as the result of hard work, community involvement, a fantastic team, and a vision. 1. Fire Station 31a. My wish list last year began with improving our public safety. I’m pleased that we’re moving forward with plans to replace our fire department headquarters, where the walls and foundation are cracking, and the roof is leaking. With your support of the general obligation bond on election day, we are closer to construction of a new fire station in the heart of our city’s growing Cairns District which will allow a stronger, better response to our community needs. 2. Public safety fundinga. Another public safety need was especially apparent during our last winter season. Many of our older police cars were unable to navigate the terrain in the thick snow and icy conditions. With the passage of this year’s budget, we are now able to begin replacing the old fleet vehicles with police cars designed to handle Sandy’s diverse terrain. 3. Compensation packagea. With the passage of this year’s budget, we were able to reward our great Sandy City employees for their dedication and professionalism in providing quality services to you, our residents. We have a great team and we want to reward excellent work with fair compensation. 4. Enhanced eventsa. The year was packed with memorable events that bring us together as a community. From last year’s Light up the Cairns, to the 4th of
D E C E MB E R 2 0 2 3 – JA N UA RY 2024
July Celebration, the Heritage Festival and Horse Parade, the Balloon Glow, and Trunk or Treat at Halloween, our community celebrations are bigger and better than ever. Hopefully you’re enjoying these great celebrations. 5. Communicationa. We’ve grown our communications to connect with you– to share information and listen to your concerns. To date, Sandy City has 46,577 followers across our social media platforms. Our Citizen Connect feature makes it easy to report problems such as potholes or a tree blocking a roadway. Our city-wide emergency notification database is growing with 40,086 subscribers to the alert list. This helps us notify you immediately when a threat exists. 6. Residential survey feedbacka. We’re getting regular feedback from you through our city surveys. With FlashVote, we can quickly get your views on issues of importance to our community, such as rebuilding Fire Station 31, managing traffic in Little Cottonwood Canyon, city building priorities, our “Pace of Progress” master plan, and Sandy’s parks general plan. Your input is shaping the future of our city. Upon returning to my childhood home, I’d expect to find dozens of stumps among the trees representing Christmas of the 1970s. They also represent the magic of a big family of 12 and many wonderful memories. As we each look back on the work of the city in 2023, we can more clearly appreciate the rewards, or gifts, that have come this year. May we all continue to create that magic! Yours in Service, Mayor Monica Zoltanski P A G E
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