"We thought it would be a good thing to go back and do, now that it's back on the ballot," says Lewis Garrett, executive director of Davis County Health Department.

And, yes, the numbers are higher - $4.34, per person, per year, instead of the $2 that the Health Department estimated in 2000.

"We already knew they would be [higher]," acknowledged Garrett, who was not part of the cost-estimate process four years ago. "But we did it because there is a lot of talk out there and the voters need to make an informed decision."

David Hansen, who led the drive to get a fluoride revote, hopes news of the bigger per-person bill will bring more people to the polls on Nov. 2.

"There are a lot of people who didn't vote the last time, who are just kicking themselves now," says Hansen, who contends that fluoride is dangerous and unnecessary. "This has really energized us, and people are kicking into gear."

Hansen promises billboards, lawn signs and "a flier for every house in the county" to try to defeat fluoride, which won in 2000 by a narrow margin - 52 percent to 48 percent.

Proponents, however, are not battered by the figures, which show that cities in Davis County spent anywhere from $618,000 in Layton to $4,500 in West Bountiful for equipment and installation costs.

"We are here to remind folks that water systems are safer today; the equipment has been purchased and is in place, and [it] will have to be paid for no matter the outcome of this election," says David Irvine, an attorney representing Utahns for Better Dental Health.

Irvine says the costs varied from city to city because fluoridating systems "could be whatever the city councils wanted them to be." Some opted for more sophisticated - and expensive - systems than others.

In Centerville, where the city hoped to opt out of the county mandate to fluoridate its water, it meant chemical mixers for the system and showers for public-works employees in case of acid spills.

"If you're going to have fluoride, why not have it be safe?" Centerville Mayor Michael Deamer said. "There are tremendous costs associated with it, and I wonder how many fluoride tablets we could buy and hand out to people who wanted them for the $45,000 it's going to cost us each year."

lorib@sltrib.com

November decision

l The question on the November ballot will ask voters for a "yes" or "no" vote on whether "fluoride should continue" to be put in the public water systems in Davis County.