When the members of the Holladay City Council recently emerged from their annual retreat, they had four pages that constituted their ‘wish list’ for the year.  That was considerably whittled down from the 11 pages that came out of their very first retreat many years ago. 

“These are our marching orders for the year,” City Manager Randy Fitts said. “Everyone walks into the meeting with their laundry list of ideas, and then we decide what really might work and what improvements really can and should be made.”

Fitts estimates the city will have a budget of about $14 million, which is up slightly from last year.  But he says the costs for the newly annexed area are the unknown.

After all the bills are paid, the council decides what to do with the balance. Last year, a good portion of the remaining budget was spent on the new park construction behind city hall. This year, Fitts hopes the money will be allocated to address roads.

“Our roads are in pretty good condition right now. But we have to keep up with maintenance or we could be faced with a big, expensive problem,” he said.  “We haven’t completed an inventory of all the needs in the new annexed area.  So we don’t know what kinds of expenses we face there.”

Other public works priorities include fire hydrant maintenance, storm drains, canals, sidewalks and bike lane striping.  Other general fund priorities include the general plan update, park renovations and completions, the radon program and outreach and education programs.