Millcreek council approves funds to go to Willow Glen Fire victims

MILLCREEK, Utah (ABC4) — The community outpour of support since the fires at the Willow Glen Apartments in Millcreek has amounted to $41,000 of monetary donations as of Monday at 5pm. Millcreek city council has approved a resolution to add to that total.

Mayor Jeff Silvestrini proposed contributing $11,000 from the city to the donation fund, $500 per 22 households impacted. There are 23 households total but the city says one of the families requested their cut go to the fund for the others.

“I can only imagine what it’s like to lose everything that you have.”
Mayor Jeff Silvestrini, Millcreek

In figuring out where the funds would come from, the finance director presented the council with four options. Option one was to take money from the city’s rainy-day fund. The second option was to subtract the funds from the planning for the city’s 10-year anniversary celebration. Third was taking the funds from the communication department’s budget after learning they had new savings to report from being able to secure a bulk price for newsletter postage. Finally, the last option would have had multiple departments make cuts to cover it.

The council unanimously approved option three, benefitting from the savings of the communications department. Mayor Silvestrini said of the move, “It’s not a lot of money, but it’s something and I’m gratified that the public has chosen to make donations that really augment that amount so we can give a substantial, you know, significant amount of money to these folks to get restarted.”

Money from the donations and the city’s contribution will be held in a separate account under the line item of the Promise Department. Council said checks can be cut on Tuesday with this approval. A total of $55,000 split 22 ways for a total of around $2,300 per household. The city is still taking donations and will issue another round of checks as more money comes in.