KAYSVILLE, Utah — Add Kaysville to the list of cities planning to cut back their water usage. They announced that their irrigation water may not be available as soon as mid-August.
Some public spaces in Kaysville will be going brown. The city’s splash pad will not be operating this summer.
“It’s probably going to get hotter and hotter and I think that means restrictions will probably just stay as it is just based off of how winter went,” one community member, Bailey Makaimoku said.
Kaysville Mayor Tami Tran says that over 16 weeks, the splash pad uses about 5.2 million gallons of water.
“This system uses culinary water, but it does not use recirculated water, meaning that what goes into the system doesn’t come back out,” Mayor Tran said.
She said they’re not running out of culinary water at this point, but they want to be conserving.
“We do want to be mindful of setting a good example for other people especially since other people are going to be required to let their lawns go brown,” Tran added.
Right now, she said they’re prioritizing their athletic fields and cemetery. She said it’s important to keep the fields in good shape so that no one gets hurt while playing sports. For those who have loved ones buried in the cemetery, she said it is a sacred place, and they want to keep it in nice shape as well.
Another community member said she’s disappointed that public spaces like the splash pad, won’t be up and running.
“It is discouraging with little kids because you want to take them out to the splash pad and cool off, but it’s hard when the park doesn’t offer that,” Marae Fuller said.
Mayor Tran said she understands the disappointment, but she wants to make sure the city is doing their part to conserve.
At Heritage Park, another neighbor, Terry Hanrahan, said she expects this year’s drought to be worse than others.
“I ski and our season was extremely short. The creek behind us, unless it rains, is very low. I think we’ll all have to conserve and I think there will be restrictions on watering your grass,” Hanrahan said.
Mayor Tran said there will be a public meeting next Thursday and the community is invited to share their concerns and input.
She also said that Kaysville City is offering a friendly challenge to other cities in Davis County, to see which city can get more participation in “flipping the strip.”
Tran said they’re flipping all of their park strips and hope others will try to conserve water as well by trying out new landscaping options.
