PLEASANT GROVE — Pleasant Grove leaders opted not to ask voters to increase city property taxes 76 percent to pay for a new library and community recreation center.

A proposed $15 million bond issuance would have cost the owner of a $200,000 home some $216 a year more just on the portion assessed by the city.

"After they got all the information together and saw the effect it would have on property tax, they decided it was too much," said City Administrator Frank Mills. "They have to go back to the drawing board and look at options like phasing in or finding some grant money or other funding."

Mills said city officials didn't want to put the bond issuances up for a vote and be defeated.

"We want to have at least a winning chance," Mills said.

Meanwhile, the governing board of the library and recreation officials are regrouping, trying to figure out how to provide programs for a growing population in facilities that are too small.

"Obviously, I am disappointed," said April Harrison, the city librarian. "The need is there and so is the enthusiasm among the board members, the staff and, because we've been talking about it, among the patrons. They're asking when it's going to happen."

Harrison said she understands the rationale behind the decision to table the proposal to go into debt to construct the buildings but wonders if it isn't time to raise the property tax rate to pay for needs in the city.

"We're badly overcrowded. We don't have room for all of the collection, much less the patrons," Harrison said.

The building housing the library also is used by the Youth Theater Group, the Pleasant Grove Players, the Skyline Chorus, the local orchestra and for the police department's traffic school.

"We're just way beyond expectations," Harrison said. "There was no way when this building was built for the City Council to understand and anticipate the growth that would come."

Harrison said the library board will entertain all its options at its next planning session.

"We'll look at changing this building, at waiting. Everything is on the table," she said.

City Recreation Manager Jay Dee Nielsen said he, too, is disappointed but philosophical.

"First of all, the chances — if you look at past history — of getting a bond like this passed aren't very good," said Nielsen. "I wish things would've worked out differently but I understand their decision and I agree with it."

Nielsen said he's feeling the squeeze for space, especially with the adult-sports programs.

Pleasant Grove City borrows gym space from the high school, the junior high and an elementary school. The gymnastics program long ago outgrew the community center gym.

"On a scale of one to 10, I'd say our need is about an eight," he said.

He's thinking about charging a nonresident users fee for those who live outside Pleasant Grove and Lindon, which already pays a baseline fee for its residents.

Another would include starting with a much smaller building.

Nielsen estimates that a new 118,000-square-foot recreation center would cost $10 million. The facility could be built next to the high school on property owned by Alpine School District.

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