Telegraph Road Update

I thought I would give you an update on how things are progressing along Telegraph. We are in our home-stretch and should be completed by mid October. Street lighting has been installed throughout the project. The planter boxes, which are the work of a local artist Mike Upwall, are being installed and planted. These planter boxes are a unique design feature which will not only house large, shade producing trees for our downtown but will provide sitting benches for those who desire. The sidewalks are being installed at the bridge deck and then they will begin to do the beautiful rock work on the parapet walls of the bridge. Turn lanes are being installed and they will be of a stamped, colored concrete. All intersections will have turning capability. One of the final items will be the staining of a portion of the all the sidewalks. I believe that you will really like the final product of this long-awaited project.

I hope you have paid attention to the installation of the old bell tower. We look forward to making the chimes a permanent part of the downtown when we officially open up the new Telegraph Street. We have had some interested businesses watching the development and making some inquiries about our downtown.

We believe that the downtown will be inviting to new businesses but still maintain that small community charm that makes Washington "feel like home."

Sustainable Community

In local government these days we use the word "Sustainability." The definition of this word can mean "conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources." We believe that one of the most attractive qualities of Washington City, is its natural beauty, clean air, and good quality of life. It has been our desire to preserve these wonderful attributes even as we have grown. In fact, we believe that this is largely one of the reasons Washington City has been one of the top five fastest growing communities in the state.

The avoiding of depletion of natural resources is so important to us that we have one of the most stringent Hillside and Ridgeline building requirements, so as not to deplete the natural beauty of our bluffs and mesas. Our recently constructed buildings include the use of natural lighting and the burning of our own waste oil, generated by our vehicles, for heating. We are doing all that we can to reduce our carbon footprint and be good stewards with our natural resources.

CNG Pump at Washington City's Fueling Station.

A significant sustainability issue that Washington City has been working on for some time, is the conversion of our city vehicle fleet from oil dependent gasoline to more cleaner natural gas. We partnered up with Clean Cities Utah and secured grant funding to open a natural gas fueling station as well as convert a large number of our fleet over to gas. This conversion not only will preserve our clean air and help reduce our oil dependency but it has come with some substantial cost savings. To give you an example, after the first month with having only six vehicles converted to natural gas, the city has already saved over $800 from what would have been paid for gasoline or diesel fuel. This means that once this first round of fleet conversions have occurred, we should be regularly saving about $3,200 per month by using natural gas rather than fuel.

We look forward to continuing to make steps to preserve all the beauties that this area has to offer and to be a responsible government with our resources. If you have other ideas that the city can pursue, please let one of us know. After all this is our home as well and we love it!