Saratoga Springs's commitment to a proposed freeway through Lehi appears to have cost its residents access to Lehi community programs.

Call it retaliation or tough love, Lehi is moving to make it expensive and harder for Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs residents to join community programs, or even be buried, in Lehi.

Lehi Councilman Johnny Barnes gave a letter to Lehi Council members on Tuesday asking that beginning Jan. 1, participation in all community programs "be restricted to Lehi citizens first."

Residents from nearby communities may be invited to participate if there is space, but "the costs to those participants will reflect the actual cost of the programs," said Barnes.

Council members instructed staff to begin figuring new fees and participation rules for the council to consider.

Councilman Stephen Holbrook said the day has come for Lehi to make recreation fees for nonresidents "extremely higher, so our citizens can have first choice" and that increase should extend not only to sports programs but library use, senior citizen programs, park rentals, the literacy center, and burial fees.

"Two weeks ago in a pre-council meeting there were comments made concerning a letter sent out by Mayor Tim Parker of Saratoga Springs indicating their strong support of UDOT's (freeway) plan for 2100 North," Barnes wrote in his letter to council members. "I stated that in my opinion, this was a clear demonstration of Saratoga coming of age as a city, and felt that if they want to be a city, they need to act like a city.

"In making this statement, I hold firmly to the opinion that along with having the right to take a strong aggressive position comes the right and obligation to provide services to their citizens. This would include all services, not just the ones that are convenient to them or are able to be funded."

While "some may say that this is in retaliation to the letter sent out by Saratoga Springs," supporting UDOT's plan to put the freeway through Lehi, Barnes said that instead it is more like the attitude parents must take with teenage children.

"I believe it is maybe a type of 'tough love' that allows children -- and in this case, a city -- to mature to the next stage," Barnes wrote.

He went on to say that several years ago Lehi allowed Saratoga Springs to annex a piece of commercial property "with the sincere intent of helping them out in building their tax base, enabling them to fund services such as arts, recreation, swimming pools, libraries, etc. Since that time I have had several citizens approach me voicing their frustrations about the overcrowding in our recreation programs and Legacy swimming pool."

After hearing Barnes read the letter aloud, council members said the time has come for Lehi resident to end subsidies to residents of other communities using Lehi programs.

Mayor Howard Johnson said he had asked the council to do the same thing two years ago, and the council declined at the time.

"This comes across as we are doing this in retaliation, which is something I totally disagree with," Johnson said. "If we are overloaded, then we need to do what we need to do for ourselves, but let's not do it because someone did something that we did not like."

Johnson said he is going to write Parker a letter about the proposed changes and "I am going to sell him on the fact that what we can do is better for them and us. I hope they buy it."

Several council members said Lehi had asked Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs a couple of years ago to pay some money to Lehi to help support their residents' participation in Lehi community programs.

"They said thanks and no thanks," Barnes said. "They don't want to participate in the real costs."

Councilman Johnny Revill said the move may mean a loss of fees, and program managers may have to work with lower budgets.

About a third of all yearly passes to the city's Legacy recreation center are purchased by nonresidents not only from Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs but areas as far as Provo, Alpine and Highland, said assistant city manager Ron Foggin. Right now, nonresidents are charged about 10 percent more for an annual pass than residents, an increase that Barnes called a token amount.

Some Lehi residents have been turned away because gymnastics programs and swimming lessons were full, council members said. The new rules would ensure that Lehi residents got first access in the future.

Councilman Mark Johnson said Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs "are after freebies" and Lehi has been the only community to pay for land for roads through Lehi that benefit traffic primarily from Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs.

"It aggravates me that some have taken stabs at us saying we don't care about the (traffic) problem, yet we are the only ones that have put money into the problem," he said.

In addition, though there is much talk about bringing mass transit to Utah County, Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs have yet to join the transit tax district, Davidson said.

"If you want to be a city, be a city, but be accountable," Barnes said of Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs.