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The Great Salt Lake, as viewed from Bountiful, UT.

Happy Monday, Eagle Mountain. Colten here.

Buckle up. There’s a lot to cover today. Let’s get into it.

Do you find these newsletters useful? No obligation, I'll keep writing every issue either way, but I have a Venmo (@eaglemountainvalue) if you'd like to help support the work. Really appreciate it.

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Own a local business or have an event coming up? Reply to this email or reach out at [email protected]. I'm always looking for things to share.

UTILITY BOX

☀️ Mon 17: 95°/64°
⛅ Tue 18: 94°/66°
⛅ Wed 19: 95°/66°
⛅ Thu 20: 98°/67°
⛅ Fri 21: 96°/68°
⛈️ Sat 22: 92°/64°

🎒 School starts Wednesday, August 19 for Alpine School District students.

🚌 UTA On Demand launched its North Utah County zone on August 16. $2.50 a ride, or $1 reduced, transfers included. Call 385-217-8191 to book without the app.

🚧 Cory B. Wride Memorial Park: parking lot construction begins this week, running through November. Events at the park continue as scheduled.

💧 The state's lawn watering guide.
🔗 Eagle Mountain City's Linktree.
📱 The Eagle Mountain City App: App Store or Google Play.
♻️ 2026 Recycling Calendar.
🏛️ Civic Roll Call — Tool for tracking what's happening at City Hall.

AT CITY HALL

Tyson Foods is closing its Eagle Mountain plant. 723 jobs will be lost.

Tyson Foods announced on Thursday, August 13, that it is closing its Eagle Mountain beef facility. Operations will stop around October 12, 2026. A notice the company filed with the Utah Department of Workforce Services lists 723 affected employees.

The plant opened in 2021 after a $300 million investment. It was built to employ 800 people, with room to grow to 1,200.

Tyson says the closure is not about anything specific to Eagle Mountain. The company points to a national cattle shortage that has left its beef plants with less to process than they were built to handle. Tyson is consolidating its beef work around three larger plants in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, and says the capacity from Eagle Mountain will shift to those locations. The company is also closing a beef plant in Joslin, Illinois, which employs about 2,500 people, and is looking for a buyer for a plant in Pasco, Washington.

Image source: KSL

Kelly Pehrson, Utah commissioner of Agriculture and Food, told KSL the shortage comes from drought, wildfires, a closed border, and the high cost of feed. He called the plant a great investment and an asset to the community.

Abby Ivory, Eagle Mountain's economic development director, told KSL the city is concerned about the job losses and is working with the state and with Tyson to make sure workers have what they need to move to new work.

What this means for residents: If you work at the plant, your job is not ending today, and there is help available before it does. If you do not, this is still the largest single job loss in the city's history, and some of your neighbors are dealing with it right now.

Where to find help:

  • 211 Utah is a good place to start. It is a free, confidential service that connects residents with local help for food, rent, utilities, health care, and finding work. Phone lines are open seven days a week from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and you can text your ZIP code to 801-845-2211 on weekdays.

  • File for unemployment benefits online at jobs.utah.gov. Claims cannot be filed over the phone. Filing takes about 30 minutes, and you will need your Social Security number, a driver's license or state ID, and the names and dates for every employer you have worked for in the last 18 months. The Utah County claims line is 801-375-4067 if you need help.

  • Utah runs a program called Rapid Response for large layoffs. It sends a team to walk workers through unemployment benefits, health insurance options, and job searching, usually on site before the last day. Employers arrange it, so watch for notice from Tyson about a session.

  • The city keeps a Community Assistance Resources page covering food, utilities, housing, health care, and transportation. It was updated on August 13.

  • The Eagle Mountain Public Library has a food pantry open to anyone. No registration, no questions, and it is stocked by donations from neighbors.

  • The city's Utility Assistance Program helps low and moderate income households with utility bills. It is funded through the same federal Community Development Block Grant I wrote about on August 13. Funding is limited and applications are handled first come, first served, so applying early matters. The number is 801-789-6609.

  • SNAP food benefits can start the day a household applies, and households with low income and savings may receive them within seven days. The same application also covers Medicaid, CHIP, child care assistance, and cash assistance.

The City Council will cancel its property tax increase Tuesday night, then vote on a new one

Eagle Mountain residents during the Truth-in-Taxation public hearing on August 6, 2026.

On August 6, the City Council approved a property tax increase of 183.02%. On Tuesday, August 18, the Council is scheduled to cancel that increase and then vote on a different one. So, what's going on?

After the August 6 vote, 13 residents filed a referendum application. A referendum is a petition to put a decision the Council already made on the ballot and let voters decide whether it stands. To get there, the sponsors would need signatures from at least 8.25% of Eagle Mountain residents.

The Daily Herald reported that after the filing, Mayor Jared Gray and Council members reached out to the sponsors to talk about a compromise.

So now the Council plans to repeal the 183.02% increase and take the question up again Tuesday night. The Daily Herald reported that Alex Washburn, one of the sponsors, said the compromise being discussed would bring the increase down to somewhere between 99% and 106%. That range is his account of private conversations. It is not on the agenda, and it is not in the meeting packet. In full transparency, I have no idea what the Council plans to do.

Here is what is on the agenda:

  • Item 13.A cancels the 183.02% increase passed on August 6.

  • Item 13.B sets a new rate. In the draft resolution, the rate, the dollar amount, and the percentage are left blank, to be filled in during the meeting. The new rate cannot go higher than the city's original proposal, because state law caps a city at the rate it advertised and held hearings on. Anything below that is on the table.

  • Item 13.C is a public hearing and a vote to adopt the city budget, totaling $363,992,973. That budget is still built on the 183.02% rate. The packet does not include a version built on anything lower.

A lot of residents do not want this increase. The city says it needs the revenue. Both of those have been true since June, and Tuesday night does not settle that argument. It sets a number.

To help you work through this property tax scenario, I recommend the following resources:

  • Civic Roll Call has a tax estimator you can run against your own home's value, along with a breakdown of the city budget.

  • A resident writing at EM Town Square published a detailed argument in favor of the increase, walking through where the money actually goes and how the data center agreements fit in.

  • The Daily Herald's report on the referendum filing.

  • My July 3 breakdown of the original proposal. The numbers have moved since then, but the shape of the decision has not.

How to make sure your voice is heard

The meeting is at City Hall, 1650 E Stagecoach Run. The work session starts at 4:00 PM and the evening session starts at 7:00 PM.

Items 13.A (canceling the 183.02% rate) and 13.B (deciding the actual rate) are not public hearings. Item 13.C (the budget vote) is. To speak about the tax rate itself, you can use general public comment, which is Item 7 near the start of the evening session and is limited to three minutes per person, or the Item 13.C hearing.

You can also reach the Mayor and City Council directly, use the city's public comment form, or contact city staff. In my experience the city would rather hear from you than not.

An update on the Smith’s and Lowe’s retail center

Digital rendition of the new Smith’s. Source: Agenda Packet page 842.

On Tuesday the Council takes up four items tied to the 53 acre Smith’s and Lowe’s retail center east of Pony Express Parkway, south of Old Airport Road. Among those four items, there are agreements that name Smith's Food & Drug Centers and require a Smith's Marketplace and fuel center. If the Council approves them, the developer has eight months to break ground on the road and infrastructure work. The city's presentation puts the Smith's opening in spring 2028.

During the meeting, the Council will vote about how the road work gets paid for.

According to the agreements, the developer is responsible for the road work, including widening Pony Express Parkway, a new traffic signal, and building out Lake Mountain Corridor and Old Airport Road. The city is expected to cover the cost, putting in $2,270,000 in grant money from Utah County, $1,000,000 in interest earned on an earlier road bond, and borrowing the rest. The city does not owe the developer anything until at least one building is up and has a temporary certificate of occupancy.

The project area map for the Mid-Valley commercial area. Source: Agenda Packet page 898.

That repayment does not start until the first store opens and makes its first sale. From then on, the city keeps 45% of the sales tax collected at the center and puts the other 55% toward the debt. That split lasts 20 years, or until the debt is paid off, whichever comes first. The city estimates its 45% share at $1.2 to $1.4 million a year. Once the debt is cleared, it keeps all of it, an estimated $2.5 to $3 million a year.

The city's presentation also lists Lowe's Home Improvement as a second anchor and calls the center Eagle's Landing. Lowe's does not appear in any of the agreements.

Landscape Treatments design for Mid-Valley commercial area. Source: Agenda Packet page 899.

Juniper Basin Elementary is now open

Alpine School District held a ribbon cutting on Wednesday, August 12, for Juniper Basin Elementary at 5407 Slate River Road, just west of Cedar Valley High School.

The Daily Herald reported the school will have roughly 800 students and up to three teachers per grade, according to district spokesman Rich Stowell. It serves students from Eagle Mountain, Cedar Fort, and Fairfield. John Emett is the principal.

The building was paid for through a $238 million bond that also funds a second high school in Saratoga Springs. The opening follows the closure of Cedar Valley Elementary in Cedar Fort, which the Alpine school board voted to close in December 2025. That school had 130 students last year.

The Daily Herald's coverage of the opening

Juniper Basin Elementary before the ribbon cutting. Image source: The Daily Herald.

Road work starts August 24 on Woodhaven and Silverlake

The city is adding right turn lanes onto Pony Express Parkway at Woodhaven Boulevard and at Silverlake Parkway. Construction begins Monday, August 24, and is expected to run through October.

Red River Drive will be closed at Woodhaven Boulevard during construction. If you normally use that road, you will be routed to High Noon Drive or Moon River Drive instead. As an important note: This starts five days after school begins, and these roads are busy. So plan your routes carefully and give yourself plenty of time to navigate the detoured routes. City notice with the detour details

Also on Tuesday's agenda

  • A $4,053,663.19 contract for the wastewater treatment plant. Right now the city is using a temporary pump to keep sewage moving through the plant at an acceptable level, and the agenda packet describes that as a short term fix. This contract pays for upgrades that hold the city over until a much larger expansion is finished. That expansion is why the budget looks the way it does. The city is planning to borrow $200 million for it, which pushes the wastewater fund from about $17 million this year to more than $217 million next year, and it accounts for most of the $363,992,973 total 2026-2027 budget.

  • Last year's audited financial statements. State law requires an independent audit every year, and the accounting firm Gilbert and Stewart reviewed the city's books for the year ending June 30, 2025. The Council is being asked to formally accept the results and direct staff to file them with the state, which is what makes them public. The audit itself is not included in the meeting packet, so the findings will not be visible to residents until it is filed. This is on the consent agenda, a group of routine items approved together in a single vote.

  • Two ordinances about how streets get named in new neighborhoods. A developer recently submitted plans where a single road would change names in the middle, at an intersection, so the same street had one name on one side and a different name on the other. The city wants to stop that from happening. According to the staff report, the Fire Department prefers street names stay the same all the way through, since a road that switches names can slow emergency crews down and make an address harder to find. The Planning Commission has already recommended approval. Both are public hearings, so residents can speak on them.

THIS WEEK IN EAGLE MOUNTAIN

Happens Every week (Usually)

  • Senior Arts, Crafts & Lunch, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Eagle Mountain Senior Center, 1632 E Heritage Drive

  • Senior Exercise Class, Thursdays, 11:00 to 11:30 AM, Senior Center

  • Eagle Mountain Food Truck Rally, Thursdays, 6:00 to 9:00 PM, Cory B. Wride Memorial Park, 5806 Pony Express Parkway, running through September

  • Eagle Mountain Farmers Market, Saturdays, 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Cory B. Wride Memorial Park, free, running through October 10

This week

Silverlake Amphitheater

WORTH THE DRIVE

LOOK AHEAD

COMMUNITY NOTES

Places in Eagle Mountain that could use volunteers

  • Eagle Mountain Public Library — working in the library, reading aloud to kids, and helping with the summer reading program. Volunteers need to be 14 or older, and anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian to sign the application.

  • Birthday Box Foundation — putting together cake kits and party packs, running supply drives, and making birthday banners and cards for kids whose families are having a hard month.

  • Haven Ranch Animal Sanctuary — animal care, garden work, and help planning their seasonal community events.

  • The city's volunteer list — sign up and the city will let you know when opportunities open up.

Wishing you all a merry Monday.

See you around,

— Colten

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