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Sugar Days and America250 Celebration! State-Wide Drought Declaration

Sugar Days 2026

Sugar Days is just a couple months away: June 20th. 

We plan to have the traditional community breakfast 8-10am, followed by the bounce houses, rock wall, music, and vendors running through the day. We'll raffle prizes for the kids on the hour, every hour as well!

This year we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, so we have some America250 activities and events we're planning this year. We applied for and received a special state grant to help fund some of our America250 Idaho activities.
Some of the ideas we're considering and/or working on:

  • Patriotic music performances by residents and choirs and bands throughout the day
  • Dramatic speeches celebrating our nation and Idaho or reenactments of famous patriotic speeches
  • Commemorative clothing or other tokens for participants
  • Patriotic-themed children's parade
  • Red, white, and blue balloons for kids
  • Kiosk with US, Idaho, and Sugar City history information
  • and more
If you want to participate by performing, we'd love to hear from you! Also, if you're interested in serving on the Sugar Days Planning and Volunteering Committee, please contact city hall. We'd love to have more residents help plan and carry out this special event.

We're blessed to have generous sponsors for the various community events we have during the year. What we need are more residents to help with the planning and doing. Come be a part of the community family through volunteering.

State-Wide Drought Declaration

In less happy news, I see that the Director of Water Resources and the Governor have signed a drought declaration for all 44 Idaho counties. This declaration allows the director to approve applications for temporary shifts in water allocation and use. (For more info see the declaration here or go to the ID Department of Water Resources.)

I hope our SE Idaho farmers will be able to do well this season. I'll be praying for their success and for the moisture we need.

For the past number of years, the City Council has voted for Sugar City to participate in the Eastern Snake River Plain Aquifer (ESPA) Cities' Mitigation Plan. It costs a relatively small amount and helps to ensure our continuous ability to access the water we need throughout the year.

One goal I have for the city is to eventually get all of our parks off of ground water use by developing the infrastructure necessary for us to more efficiently use our surface water rights to keep our parks green. It's a plan that we've brought up now and again over the past few years. I think it's time to move it up on our list of priorities.

Well, that's all for now. Summer is coming, but not too soon, I hope!


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