Once again, Draper City was all aglow for the holidays, but for the first time in a dozen years, the city used a different contractor for the lights at Draper Park. “I thought the lights looked as good or better than last year,” said Rhett Ogden, Parks and Recreation director. Rather than the city owning and storing the lights as in years past, this contractor leases the lights so the city isn’t burdened with maintaining and storing them. According to Ogden, it costs the city more initially, but in the long run, the city should save money because they often had to buy replacements for broken lights. 

“They bring them, set them up and take them down. If they’re broken, the contractor repairs or replaces them, so they’ll be new and bright each year,” Ogden said. And because the city still owns a lot of lights from years past, they put those to use to brighten even more locations throughout the city, including five additional roundabouts as well as South Mountain bridge, City Hall, Draper Historic Park and various street lights. Ogden estimates there were approximately 1.5 million lights throughout Draper.

In another holiday first, Draper hosted a Menorah lighting Dec. 17 at City Hall in conjunction with Chabad Lubavitch of Utah’s “Chanukah Across the Wasatch Front.” Rabbi Avremi Zippel joined Draper and Sandy’s mayors and members of the public in lighting a Menorah. Music, potato latkes and jelly doughnuts were enjoyed by those in attendance. 

Starting a new holiday tradition, Sandy Mayor Monica Zoltanski and Rabbi Avremi Zippel joined Draper Mayor Troy Walker and Councilmembers Kathryn Dahlin, Tasha Lowery, Bryn Johnson and Marsha Vawdrey for a Menorah lighting at City Hall Dec. 17. (Courtesy Draper City)