Tucked away in the Wasatch County Parks and Recreation building during the annual Fair Days event was an array of projects with no common denominator other than that they were made, grown or baked by hand. There were countless cakes, a crocheted, two-foot-tall dragon and a 51,300-piece puzzle laid out on several tables assembled by seniors from the Wasatch County Senior Center.

The 29-by-7 foot masterpiece took five months to assemble and depicts 27 wonders of the world, from the Statue of Liberty to the Taj Mahal. 

The puzzle is far from the only contribution the Senior Center made to the Fair Days exhibition, which showcases and judges community talent in categories ranging from horticulture to arts and crafts. In total, the county’s seniors submitted 109 exhibits, earning 16 first-place ribbons, according to Candie Bonner, activities coordinator for the Senior Center.

Heber City senior citizen Sharon Michael won a first-place ribbon in acrylic painting for her depiction of a hunched-over king vulture. 

“When you get old, you develop some things,” she said — namely, “talent.”

When Michael started painting in a course at the Senior Center last year, she whined through the entire class. She found herself apologizing to the teacher when she realized her wildlife paintings turned out surprisingly well. 

The Senior Center offers a wide array of classes — tap dance, tai chi, watercolor painting and pool, to name a few. It also organizes get-togethers at concerts, plays and restaurants. The seniors even visited Strawberry Reservoir recently to watch a fish hatchery release 10,000 trout.

“(The Senior Center does) a tremendous amount to include all the senior citizens that have varied interests,” Michael said. 

Bonner is the force behind the classes and events. A Fair Days exhibitor herself, Bonner began encouraging seniors to participate a few years ago after noticing how proud they were of what they were making in classes.

“The talent of our senior community is amazing, and sometimes, I feel like they get overlooked. So, it’s been really neat to see them come and share their talent,” she said. 

Heber City resident Nancy Geisler said the Senior Center’s handling of the submission process makes it easy to participate.

Geisler has sewn her entire life. This Fair Days, she won a first-place award for a folding screen. Inside the oak frame, she sewed an intricate pattern using white thread and a technique called net darning. 

“It’s not as tedious as cross-stitching. It’s kind of the same thing because you’re working in squares, but it goes faster,” Geisler explained.

Meanwhile, Midway senior Cheryl Long made quilts with her granddaughters, Evalyn, 7, and Teagan, 9. The girls chose fabrics patterned with ice cream cones and hummingbirds, respectively. 

“I loved it. It was tedious for them at different points,” Long joked.

For Bonner, the appeal of the Fair Days exhibits is their celebration of talents that can be considered “a forgotten art.”

“It’s just awesome to see people remembering how to preserve food, how to hand-make quilts,” she said.

Bonner’s first Fair Days exhibit was a bookmark she submitted when she was 5 years old. This year, she submitted various canned goods, from jams to chicken, and floral arrangements. 

“It’s a good place to gather, to share your talents, to have joy,” she said about the Fair Days exhibition. “(For) the senior community … to remember, ‘I have talents. I can do these things and share them with people.’”

The post Seniors sweep awards for Wasatch County Fair Days exhibits appeared first on Park Record.

Heber City Councilor Yvonne Barney recently qualified for Social Security.

“I know most of you don’t believe that I’m that old, but it’s true,” she said, which was met with laughter during the Heber City Council meeting Tuesday. “But I qualified and received the amount that I would have to exist on. And let me just say, I would be living on the streets. … It was absolutely horrible, and I’m so grateful that I have a wonderful husband who still likes me and is willing to help me out.”

The bleak fiscal situation of many of Heber City’s seniors is exactly why Mayor Heidi Franco has devised a property tax abatement program for them. If passed by the City Council, the program would begin in January.

Franco began her pitch with some statistics. Heber City’s median household income is about $110,000, according to 2024 U.S. Census Bureau data. In 2010, the median income in Heber City households was almost half of that — about $56,000. 

“I think many of our seniors bought or built their homes before that time period,” Franco said. “That was the economic standard in our city. We were not a high-income city. Now, it’s really increased, and we believe it’s only going to continue to increase.”

Local utility rates have risen as much as 36% since 2025, Franco said. The city is also considering a 5.2% property tax rate increase, which the City Council will vote on following a public hearing on Aug. 5. 

Factored in with rising property values in Heber City and nationwide inflation, it’s clear to Franco that seniors are facing a “ginormous need” for relief.

“We have senior citizens that are stuck between when they bought their houses 20, 30, 40 years ago and … the incredible inflation that’s happened,” she said.

Franco’s proposed tax abatement program would distribute lump sum payments to qualifying seniors. These funds would provide relief for seniors’ city and county property taxes from the prior year.

Seniors would qualify by applying for Wasatch County’s two existing low-income tax abatement programs, which are available to residents 66 and older. 

The county in January will share the list of qualifying Heber City seniors with city staff. The city will then distribute funds for its own tax abatement program to those who qualified for the county programs by the end of February. 

One of the county’s tax abatement programs is available to seniors whose annual household income is less than $44,221, and the other is for those making between that amount and $65,534. Franco tentatively plans to distribute $700 to each Heber City senior who qualifies for the former program, and $400 to those who qualify for the latter. That’s in addition to any funds applicants may have received from the county.

The funds for Heber City’s program will come from the Upper Jordanelle Ridge development. The developers in March amended their development agreement with Heber City by dedicating $1,500 per residential unit, or $4.5 million, to the city. Developers dedicated the funds as a show of good faith amid ongoing negotiations around the project’s open space, trails, design and layout, explained City Attorney Jeremy Cook.

Franco expects 150 qualified applicants in January, based on the number of citywide applicants last year. She projects the city spending up to $85,500 on the first round of the program in 2027, and up to $165,000 in 2028.

“I don’t think we’re going to need it for years and years and years to come. I think it’s … a short-term economic crunch for longtime citizens that own property in the city,” she said. “But time will tell.”

Although the City Council did not take a vote, all members were receptive to the idea. 

“I know several (seniors) that were my teachers in school … and those tax numbers are crazy compared to what they have coming in for income,” said City Councilor Aaron Cheatwood. “I think it’s a great thing we probably should have done earlier.”

It is not just seniors who own homes who are financially struggling in Heber City. U.S. Census Bureau data shows that 5.3% of city residents are impoverished — or about 3,700 people, according to Franco’s estimates.

“That’s not a number that any of us should be comfortable with,” Franco said.

City Councilor Mike Johnston said he hopes the tax abatement program is only the first step the city takes in helping residents who are financially struggling.

“I want to continue talking together and figuring out, ‘What can we do?’ because I think it’s bigger than just this. I mean, we’re talking about a welfare program, and I’m just as interested in helping people with their food insecurity and … utility rates,” he said.

The City Council will vote on the tax abatement program on Aug. 18. That’ll be less than two weeks following its decision about whether to raise property taxes.

Seniors can apply for Wasatch County’s existing tax abatement programs by visiting tinyurl.com/288bmckx. The county also has programs for residents who are disabled, low-income or veterans.

The post Heber City considers property tax abatement for low-income seniors appeared first on Park Record.

In its 25 years of operation, Kentucky-based developer Völker has built over 60 affordable housing communities across 12 states. One of its most recent developments, Blossom Commons in Westminster, Colorado, broke ground this month, offering 50 affordable apartment units to seniors.

Now, Völker is eyeing Heber City for a similar project. 

Managing Director of Development Lauren Schevets approached the Heber City Council on Tuesday with an initial pitch: a community of 25 one-bedroom and 25 two-bedroom apartments for individuals and couples 62 and older. The project would cost $22 million.

“Seniors are facing a gap. It’s too expensive to remain in or downsize within market-rate housing, and there’s limited dedicated senior independent living options locally,” Schevets said. “The combination of rapid growth, high housing costs and an aging population is creating a clear and increased need for attainable senior housing options in both Heber and Wasatch County.”

The apartments would be affordable to those earning between 20% and 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), which is between $23,600 and $94,400 for an individual in Wasatch County. Schevets said rent would be approximately 30% of the individual or couple’s income and that residents would sign one-year leases.

The catch: Heber City’s support of the project. Negotiations about what a partnership could look like have not yet occurred, but it could entail the city assisting Völker in navigating zoning and land entitlements or pitching in financially.

Most immediately, Völker is requesting that Heber City send a non-binding letter of support of the project to the Utah Housing Corporation by the end of May. The following month, Völker will apply for the Utah Housing Corporation’s competitive 9% tax credit, a subsidy awarded annually to select low-income housing developments.

All five members of the City Council were supportive of Völker’s plans to develop an affordable housing community for seniors but agreed that the proposed location was “questionable,” as Councilor Sid Ostergaard put it.

Völker’s plan was to purchase a plot of land at the corner of Heber Parkway and U.S. 40. Schevets pointed out that the site is within walking distance of Heber Valley Hospital and within a mile of several grocery stores and the Wasatch County Senior Center.

But Councilor Mike Johnston pointed out that the hospital would be on the opposite side of U.S. 40 as the housing development, and that U.S. 40 is “impossible” to cross on foot at that intersection because there are no crosswalks or traffic lights.

Councilor Yvonne Barney also criticized the site’s proximity to a busy intersection.

“There’s a lot of safety issues. I’m elderly, so I think I can definitely speak to some of those concerns,” she said.

The City Council declined to write a letter of support for the development but agreed to meet with Schevets next week to discuss alternate sites for the project. Johnston said that he had already found five vacant plots in the surrounding area that may be more suitable.

Schevets acknowledged that identifying a new site and working through conceptual planning before June would be “a challenge,” but she said she was open to work with the City Council.

All members of the City Council hope to come to a consensus with Völker.

“We really need this kind of thing. You’re talking 20% of AMI for an older person. I know those people, and they’re desperate to have a place,” Johnston said. “We absolutely don’t have that, unless someone is kind and lets them stay in their basement apartment for a significantly reduced amount.”

The post Affordable housing development for seniors may come to Heber City appeared first on Park Record.

On 80-year-old Sharon Carlson’s crown of pink dyed hair, she’d donned a similarly pink flapper’s feather headband. It read “Happy New Year!” in silver glitter. 

“I’m always much happier when I’m wearing pink or purple. Today, I wore this color,” she said, gesturing to her beige sweater. “But I was trying to be the Happy-New-Year type.”

When Carlson turned 50, color “happened” to her. She can’t exactly explain her affliction, but she’s certainly felt the symptoms. 

On Carlson’s farm in Wallsburg, where she raises chickens, goats and a basket’s worth of fruits with her son, you’ll find purple fences and an orchard adorned with fairy lights. In Carlson’s room, there’s an explosion of pink. 

Her flowing pink locks are the latest evidence of her obsession. Carlson had her hair dyed in 2025 with Allie Mecham, who she calls the second of “The Three Stooges” in her close-knit friend group. 

Carlson was one of about 120 seniors who crowded into the Wasatch County Senior Citizen Center on Tuesday to ring in the new year over lunch. To mark the occasion, Carlson brought her grandmother’s velvet coin purse, which was adorned with a button from her grandfather’s suit. 

“She gave it to me four years before she died,” Carlson explained. Her grandmother lived to be 104. 

In 2026, Carlson will be expressing her burst of color through oil painting.

Carlson wasn’t the only partygoer planning on picking up new talents through the senior center’s programming.

Last year, Shelly Hokanson resolved to learn something new every day.

In August, she began her learning journey by taking the senior center’s ceramics course. By Christmas, she’d made gifts by hand for each of her 22 grandchildren. Chess sets, piggy banks, dinosaurs, jewelry boxes — she sculpted it all in those feverish four months before the holiday.

In 2026, Hokanson will first set her sights on tai chi.

“I think it’s a martial art, but I don’t really know. That’s why I’m going to go try it out,” she laughed.

Hokanson said the senior center has been the perfect place to make friends. Her husband died in 2020, and her 11 kids have left the nest. 

“Going from 13 to one is really wild,” she said. “I needed to just be around friends. … I’m trying to fill my life with something that keeps me happy.”

Mike Winward, the senior center’s director, said that participation in the 60-plus social club has grown significantly in his past four years of leadership. That can be owed to an increase in programming, which stemmed from Winward’s desire to change the culture of the senior center to “someplace where you could just relax and kick back,” and word of mouth. Winward said lots of people insist, “I’m not old enough for that,” before realizing they’re not being invited to an “old folks’ home.”

In 2026, Winward said the senior center is going to continue to “party like crazy.”

Lifelong Heber City resident Vickie Todd remembers dropping off both her mother and grandmother at the senior center. Now 75, Todd herself participates. She’s seen an increase in activities and has made more friends through the center than she can count.

She’s also observed plenty of change in Heber City. Todd said that when she was growing up, kids rode bikes and horses to school, and there were barely any cars. With U.S. 40 now feeding into Main Street, that fact has certainly changed.

Meanwhile, Merrill Hall sticks to Wallsburg, where she has lived for over 30 years, for its small-town feel. It reminds her of growing up in Slaterville in Weber County.

Other than turning 100 in April, Hall can’t quite remember what she accomplished in 2025. 

“I’m too old,” she cackled.

Hall’s resolution is to stay active in the New Year. Although she has difficulties standing, she refuses to use a cane or walker and continues to climb the stairs at her home. She even stood for the Pledge of Allegiance before lunch.

The centenarian’s advice to Wasatch County residents going into 2026 is simple: “Be good and enjoy life.”

The post Wasatch County seniors ring in the new year appeared first on Park Record.

The Park City High School soccer team honored their seniors before the game against Tooele High School Monday afternoon, May 1, 2017, at Dozier Field. The Miners beat the Buffaloes 5-1. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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