September 2025 | Vol. 19 Iss. 9
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Summer Q&A with Draper Mayor Troy Walker By Mimi Dutton | m.dutton@mycityjournals.com A lot has happened this summer, so instead of an in-depth story on one topic, the mayor answered questions on a variety of subjects.
Q
: Who does the city’s water rate increase affect and why did it happen? A: It affects everybody Draper City serves for water, not WaterPro customers. The water infrastructure has to be maintained and reconstructed to deliver water to customers. We don’t have our own water, we’re buying it from Jordan Valley, but we’re in charge of delivery, including the system and maintenance. Water is a commodity and its costs have gone up like everything else. This is likely not the end of the water rate increases. We’re trying to do it in increments. If we don’t pass on the costs of the system to the customers, the General Fund would have to subsidize it, and we’re not going to do that.
Mayor Troy Walker and his wife Stefani at the Draper Days parade with Councilmember Fred Lowry in the background. (Photo courtesy Draper City)
Q: The city held an August Truth in Taxation hearing. What’s the purpose of the tax increase? A: There’s a bond issuance that we’ve now paid off, about $1 million worth of
revenue we were getting. The bond is paid off but we want to keep the revenue stream. It’s going to keep the same level of taxation in place. It goes right into the General Fund for police, fire, roads, etc. We could let the bond expire and stop taxing for it and raise property taxes again, but if we keep this rate everybody’s used to paying, we have a decent chance of balancing our budget going forward without a tax increase. Since it’s a tax we want to keep in place, we’re required to do a hearing. Q: What happened with the water cross-contamination that led to a 24-hour boil order for 1,300 customers and caused businesses to shut down in June? A: This was a WaterPro issue, the system they maintain and provide connections for. One of their customers didn’t have their backflow device working correctly and irrigation water got into the culinary system. They know exactly when and how many gallons. Out of an abundance of caution, they shut the system down, flushed it and tested it. This was not the city’s problem or liability, all we did to assist was get the information out. Continued on page 4
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