Lehi City News
City Council allocates $550,000 of PARC tax funds, asks for more oversight on park portion
On Tuesday, the City Council voted to disburse this year’s arts and culture PARC tax funds based on recommendations from the PARC tax committee presentation.
Lehi residents passed a 1/10th of 1% sales tax increase in the 2021 General Election for the community’s parks, recreation, and cultural needs. Revenues have exceeded original projections, totaling about $1.5-1.7 million annually.
After voters approved the tax, the Council divided the funds into two buckets: parks and arts and culture. The Parks and Recreation Department receives approximately 70% of the revenues, while Arts and Culture receives 30%.
To assist the Council in reviewing applications for fund disbursement, Mayor Mark Johnson formed a PARC tax committee to vet applications and send recommendations to the City Council for the Arts and Culture portion.
Lindsay Gehman, Chair of the PARC tax committee (who replaced previous chair Nicole Kunze after Kunze’s appointment to the Planning Commission), presented the committee’s recommendations to the Council.
This year, the committee received 32 applications with $922,000 funding requests. The committee recommended fully approving 19 applications, partially funding three, and denying 10 applications. The committee allocated the maximum amount of $550,000.
The funded projects include:
Thanksgiving Point Institute ($200,000) for Jurassic Hall exhibit barriers
Just For Kids Utah County ($92,993) for Curtis Center gym upgrades
Lehi City Arts Council
($32,823) for theatrical royalties and set building
($9,541) for electrical work
($7,189) for house lighting
($7,087) for a new light board
($5,097) for new computers for graphic arts classes
Hutchings Museum
($45,000) for an Education and Events Coordinator salary
($15,000) for display cases
($8,000) for collection storage and security
Harrington Center for the Arts ($35,392) for Chalk It Up Festival 2024 and 2025
Lehi Music Association
($9,000) for the Silver Band trailer
($2,700) for Silver Band rehearsal space
Lehi Historical Society
($18,000) for a part-time assistant salary
($8,960) for a new website
Wasatch Contemporary Foundation ($8,000) for a dance performance
Wrap the World with Quilts
($18,056) for a year’s worth of operating expenses
($12,150) for a workspace expansion
($4,913) for a sewing center
($4,678) for a quilting workshop
The unfunded projects were denied due to a shortfall of funds, lack of relevance to Lehi, or lack of direct connection to arts and culture. The denied organizations included:
Alpine Community Theatre
Artic Rescue
One Voice Children Choir
Utah Foster Care Foundation
“I just want to say thank you. You guys had lots of work and did a great job with great detail,” said Councilman Chris Condie, who led the meeting in Mayor Mark Johnson’s absence.
Councilwoman Heather Newall concluded the presentation by asking city staff to work with the Parks Department to craft a similar presentation to share how PARC tax funds are disbursed in the Parks Department. Newall and Councilwoman Paige Albrecht also suggested the possibility of a citizen recommendation body for park funding instead of just adding PARC tax funds into the park general fund.
“When residents are asked to vote on this again, we should be able to show them where the money was spent,” said Newall.
