American Fork residents will be paying more in property taxes next year, but it's not as much as most had anticipated.

The City Council on Tuesday approved a certified tax rate of 0.002426, which would bring in $500,000 in additional revenue. On an average $240,000 home, it would amount to a $28.11-per-year increase, roughly 9.6 percent. When Council members originally looked at the budget, they had a "shopping list" which would have amounted to a more than 40 percent tax increase. Since then, they pared the projects down to just one.

The Council said it would put the entire amount into a fund to go toward road repairs and maintenance. Those repairs are ones the city is finding necessary after work is done to install lines for a secondary water system.

It took numerous motions to find one that a majority could agree on to finally settle on the tax rate.

Councilwoman Heidi Rodeback made the first motion, which would have kept the same tax rate as last year; Councilman Rick Storrs made a motion for a tax decrease. When Councilwoman Sherry Kramer made a motion for a rate which would have brought in $600,000 for the road repairs, Councilman Shirl LeBaron applauded her courage. He subsequently made the motion for the $500,000 increase. The final vote was 3-2.

Engineering personnel gave estimates of the cost of repairing the roads beyond what was anticipated when the bonds were approved for the pressurized irrigation system. Director of Public Works Howard Denney said there had been a shortfall of about $200,000 on each bid, and that there were four such projects going on now, with more to come. That would make a total of around $2 million in increased costs over the entire project.