The Heber Valley Railroad is working to restore and display a vintage Rio Grande sign that once stood upon the Rio Grande Depot in Salt Lake City before it was replaced a little over a decade ago.

The railroad wants to display it atop a planned extension for its shop building.

But, as Mark Nelson told the Heber City Council this week, the railroad first needs the city’s sign-off to display a sign that doesn’t necessarily fit the city’s ordinances.

He showed the council members a photo of the 114-year-old Rio Grande Depot in Salt Lake City and directed their attention to the illuminated “Rio Grande” sign atop the structure.

“The sign you see lit up here is the 75-year-old Young Electric Sign Company neon sign which they built way back in the ’40s or ’50s,” Nelson said. “About five years ago, they had Young Electric Sign Company build a new sign for them, and they took that sign down.”

He said the Heber Valley Railroad asked them for the old, now-replaced fixture, and he showed a photo of the sign hanging on the side of a storage building.

“We have had many meetings with a lot of individuals, but primarily Young Electric Sign Company and have signed an agreement with them to have them restore the sign, to remove the neon, to restore all the sheet metal that is bent and worn and to rebuild the sign with a new structure, and with LED lights that can be controlled the way LED lights do now,” Nelson explained.

He showed depictions of what the restored sign could look like sitting atop the Heber Valley Railroad’s shop building for someone standing on 600 West.

Then came his request to Heber City.

“I’ve met with (Planning Director) Tony Kohler and started at least the conversation and wanted to come here and ask Heber City to consider a conditional use permit or whatever might be required so that we could someday show the sign,” Nelson said. “I think we will have the construction of the letters, the restoration of the letters, done this year before the end of the year, but the coach storage building won’t be done this year or next year. And so I’m not sure about the when.”

The Heber Valley Railroad, he added, doesn’t intend to light the bright letters against Heber City’s sky every night, but rather on special occasions.

“It’s a very cool historic sign, and I remind everyone that these tracks are Rio Grande tracks,” Nelson said. “These tracks were built by the Rio Grande Railroad in 1899.” 

Beyond the tracks the tourist trains run on, Nelson said the company is connected with its Rio Grande roots through the paint jobs on its cars.

The company’s closed-window streamline cars sport a bumble bee paint scheme Rio Grande used in 1949, and its other Pullman green cars reflect what Rio Grande and many other railroads used in the ’20s and ’30s.

“We have several Rio Grande cars that we already own. We have a Rio Grande diesel,” Nelson said. 

The project will cost $100,000. So far, the Heber Valley Railroad has received a grant from the Utah Department of Transportation for about a fifth of that.  

Ostergaard was slightly concerned that the council’s decision to allow the sign could set precedence contrary to the city’s current ordinance, but Funk assured him the city could approve the sign through a legislative agreement to make sure that wouldn’t happen.

Nelson also informed the councilors that the railway is looking to begin extending a platform near the southwest corner of the crossing of 600 West and 300 South by the railroad station so it will stretch all the way to the intersection. While he didn’t believe he needed any permits or permissions from Heber City for the project, he did say it would be helpful if the company was able to also build a switch in the area with a track that would cross 300 South.

Nelson said had several conversations with representatives from local governments about the project. So far his search hasn’t shown who definitively owns the specific land and right-of-ways the project will use.

“Would we have to do — and this may be a question for (city engineer Russel Funk) — any signage, blinking lights saying train and stuff like that?” Councilor Sid Ostergaard asked.

Funk said there would definitely at least need to be signs. 

Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco said she thought the project would be a good opportunity to support the railroad.

“I think it’s fine as long as it’s not a parking place for old box cars,” Councilor Mike Johnston said. 

Nelson assured him the track wouldn’t be.

The railroad plays a significant role in bringing tourists to Heber Valley. According to Nelson, it carried about 135,000 passengers on 545 trains just last year.

The post Heber Valley Railroad pitches idea to install vintage Rio Grande sign appeared first on Park Record.

In the wake of three teenage girls being hospitalized after an e-bike accident Aug. 26 on Main Street, Midway’s city council this week took up the possibility of tighter restrictions.

“We were scheduled to talk about this before the accident happened last week. I think that accident just kind of brought it to the forefront,” city planner Katie Villani said. 

She informed councilors that while they don’t have the power to lift restrictions the state has already placed on the somewhat newly popular form of transportation, they can vote to add more rules that would apply to Midway specifically. The conversation didn’t revolve around any specific ordinance but rather was a chance for councilors to guide staff on what new codes they would like to see.

While explaining the different classifications and state regulations on e-bikes, city planner Katie Villani pointed out to the council that one state code provision — a rule requiring that all motorized vehicle passengers only use designated seats — could have potentially mitigated the recent accident if it were applied to e-bikes and appropriately followed.

As an example of a restriction they could set, she said the City Council could create that e-bike restriction to match what’s expected of other vehicle operators carrying passengers in Midway.

“We’re looking for guidance,” she said.

Jeff Drury didn’t skip a beat to offer his suggestions.

“If you’re under 18 and it’s got a motor, you’ve got to wear a helmet, I don’t care where it is. If you’re on a road, or a bike path that is connected to a road, you have to have a learner’s permit or a driver’s license. If it has a motor, you’ve got to understand the rules of the road. If you are on a sidewalk or any other path in the city, something that has a motor, you’ve got to be 14, you’ve got to be wearing a helmet” he said. “Boom, we’re done.”

Other councilors largely agreed, though Mayor Celeste Johnson said she didn’t want e-bikes on the sidewalk.

“I would say that the state’s pretty close to where I would start,” Councilor JC Simonsen said. “The biggest problem we have is we can’t enforce anything really right now. The mayor has tried telling them. … But we do need to enforce it.”

He wasn’t sure much more than the state’s requirements were necessary.

“The only other thing I think we could discuss would be a speed limit thing for an e-bike bike,” he said. “I’m not sure where to start with that. I mean, a pedal bike can go pretty fast too. Really, at the end of the day, all of this is a little bit about maturity.”

He said he’s glad e-bikes can help people get out and exercise and doesn’t want to stop their enjoyment. Because of that, he was hesitant to set age restrictions like Park City did when the community’s leaders decided only people ages 65 and up can use an e-bike on sidewalks and natural surface trails.

Drury said the issues he’s seen have come from riders under 14 who don’t understand how roads work and don’t have the judgment to make safe choices.

Some councilors wondered if a speed limit on e-bikes could be helpful, but Councilor Craig Simmons doubted it would be effective.

“You’re not going to control their speed,” he said. 

He mentioned how riders had ignored people trying to restrict their e-bike use in the past.

Other councilors thought a legal regulation tied to a possible fine would be enough to get people to tap their brakes.

A speed limit, Villani said, could be used as an enforcement tool for riders who are riding at unsafe speeds.

Johnson said she’s seen young kids on a trail who have caused walkers or runners to jump out of their path because they haven’t been able to control their e-bikes. An age limit is critical, she said.

“And, you can’t use your motorized thing to go through the grass,” she said. “It’s chewing up our parks. … You’ve got to stay on the designated trail.”

The post Midway City Council considers e-bike regulations appeared first on Park Record.

The new high school that Wasatch County School District is constructing is well underway to being complete and, according to district officials, is on track to be finished in time to open for fall 2026.

Compared to an earlier look at the building given to representatives from different media groups in late last year, a similar tour taken with district officials last week showed that what had resembled a group of organized foundations last winter has now been solidified into the barebones of the current Wasatch High School.

An orchestra pit in the ground has been built into an auditorium, concretes and rebar have become a building and sections of the site have been worked into classrooms, shops and lecture halls within the last several months. Several components still remain to be finished — the auditorium, while recognizable, still needs a roof — but it’s coming along. And, according to Kirsta Albert, the district’s public information officer, it’s doing so within its anticipated timeline of completion and still expected to open in time for the 2026-27 school year. 

According to Superintendent Paul Sweat, the building’s resemblance to Wasatch County High School is no coincidence. He explained the same architectural design is being used, though with differences that came at the behest of teachers and other school staff who were given the opportunity to bend the district’s ear about things they think could improve.

That process gave birth to the current Wasatch High School design, which he said has been used by three other school districts around the state.

“Seventy percent of this building is patterned after the current Wasatch High. It’s the same architect, which helped us a lot,” he said. “Some of the components have been moved around. There’s a few things we changed, and we learned something living there for 14 years, some things that needed to change and that we wanted to change.” 

Still, he emphasized that just as the district was willing to tear a page from its book, it was willing to stick with the aspects of its buildings that had proved faithful to their students’ needs. Walking around the new site, he looked at sections of the building and recalled how similar they were to Wasatch County’s old high school, one he worked at as principal that’s been torn down for years.

One aspect of construction within the district that he pointed out was officials’ willingness to listen to teachers and principals rather than only administrators and final decision-makers.

“The standard in most districts is any time you let the principal and the teachers get involved, it just adds money to the process and drags it down,” he said. “We spent a lot of time with (Architect Curtis Livingston) at the old high school on 6th South talking about these types of issues.”

In the new school’s shop, he pointed out long bays built into the room’s walls. These, he explained, came from the district being willing to listen to their employees when the district went to construct Wasatch High School.

He said teachers came to the district with concerns that their shop material would sometimes arrive 40 feet long, making it impossible to haul it through hallways into the shop without getting stuck around corners.

“This was designed so it would come right off the truck,” Sweat said. “Then as it comes into the shop, it’s cut to order for whatever project it’s being made for.”

There are even differences between the two high schools. One, for example, is the new school’s focus on its common area and making sure the school is centralized. With the exception of classes that will be held at the school’s separate athletic center, most parts of the school will be built around the large centralized area. The lunch room itself will also serve as an overflow to the commons to allow room for more students.

“That’s one of the great things about plans,” Sweat said. “It’s made to draw the kids back to the center of the school at every pastime. So the kids come in, it’s easier to keep an eye on them and supervise them. And as big a campus as that is, you can pop back into the commons area and then go in any direction from there. It’s pretty functional that way.” 

Another change students and their families will see at the new high school will hopefully save some parents from having to pick a favorite child when the day comes that their different basketball games or wrestling matches happen on different courts at the same time in the athletic center’s auxiliary gyms.

The courts will be positioned so spectators can get a view of both gyms simultaneously.

“That’s one thing we did a little differently,” Sweat said. Instead of having two auxiliary gyms totally separate, there would be two in here, and you can sit on the bleachers and see both gyms,” Sweat said. “We have a lot of families that will have a girl playing on the JV team and maybe a freshman playing on the boy’s team, and they might be playing at the same time in two different gyms over at the other school.”

The district began construction on the high school in May 2023. According to an analysis released last year by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Wasatch County is expected to grow rapidly in the coming decades while other areas of the state are expected to stagnate or even shrink in student enrollment.

Wasatch County’s enrollment is predicted to increase by about 4,000 students, and the new high school is just one of the many projects on the district’s master plan list. 

The post New Wasatch County high school construction continues appeared first on Park Record.

In November, a group of Wasatch County property taxpayers filed a lawsuit against county assessor Todd Griffin, deputy attorney Jon Woodard, the county itself and several members of the Utah State Tax Commission alleging that Griffin had failed to appropriately assess all properties in 2022.

His mistakes, the lawsuit claimed, led to 34% of property taxpayers getting a reduction while 59% faced a large increase. Meanwhile, the state tax commission failed to fulfill its oversight responsibilities.

On Aug. 22, Utah Judge Anthony Howell released court documents that indicate the case may be merited.

He denied the county and tax commissions’ motions to dismiss with only one exception, stating that one of the plaintiff’s claims for relief that would see Griffin unseated from his current position would be “best presented to the presiding judge in a separate document rather than a claim for relief in the Amended Petition.”

If the plaintiffs want to continue their attempts at Griffin’s removal, the court document continues, they “should submit to the presiding judge, Hon. Kraig Powell, an accusation specifically Mentioning Utah Code § 77-6-1, et seq.”

Whether or not plaintiffs pursue that legal option, Griffin’s term in office is quickly approaching its end as he was eliminated in the primary election. Currently, Bob Adams is the lone candidate for assessor.

The other parts of the motion to dismiss the lawsuit, however, were denied, leaving the state tax commission, the county and Griffin on the hook for the issue raised by the group of concerned taxpayers.

The court found other claims for relief center on having “Griffin, the County, and the Tax Commission Respondents perform their statutory duties which they are alleged to have failed to perform.”

A findings and conclusions document shows Howell weighed that — if the allegations brought forth in the lawsuit are found to be accurate — if would mean Griffin failed to fulfill his duty to update property values yearly as is required in state code.

In the same vein, since the state tax commission is responsible for certifying a county assessor’s appraisal technique and taking corrective action if assessors’ appraisal efforts fall short, they remain on the receiving end of the legal complaint.

In the conclusions made under “Findings of Fact,” the document states that about 8,869 properties in Wasatch County were not reassessed in 2022 while many other properties “received significant increases in assessed value and tax.”

“Wasatch County reappraised only around 59% of the properties in the county for the 2022 taxes,” the court document says. “Properties that were reappraised had an average market value increase of roughly 87% for improved properties and 284% for unimproved properties.”

According to the findings about a third of the county’s properties were assessed based on their 2021 values, and about a third of them maintained the same 2021 values.

“Because of the lack of the county-wide appraisal, the assessed values of Wasatch County are largely undercalculated. An inequitable tax was therefore applied because certain properties were taxed based upon higher assessments and other properties were taxed based upon stale and dated assessments,” the document states. “This places a higher tax burden on property owners who had their property assessed in 2022.”  

And, “The Utah State Tax Commission has failed to fulfill its oversight obligations and has failed and refused to correct the foregoing errors, and others, existing in Wasatch County with respect to the assessment of property taxes.”

The tax commission respondents, the document specifies, acknowledged the complaints and shortcomings but did not notify the Utah State Auditor as they were mandated by statute.

According to a press release from Bill Quapp, one of the plaintiffs, the lawsuit will now enter a discovery phase.

“The taxpayer plaintiffs will continue to ensure that the County Assessor and Tax Commission fulfill their obligations,” the release states.  

The post Property tax lawsuit against Wasatch County and state tax commission officials continues appeared first on Park Record.

It was about five years ago when — after deciding that Salt Lake City’s pride festival had grown too commercialized for his liking — Heber City local Joshua Knight decided to forgo the event and host a weekend celebration in his own backyard.

“My brother does drag in Salt Lake,” he said. “We kind of had this harebrained idea while he was up here. I’m like, ‘Why don’t you bring your drag stuff up, perform a little bit, and we’ll have a great time along with Pride. And afterwards, I think a couple of people shoved money in his décolletage, his cleavage.”

Thus, the idea for Heber Valley’s annual Not Your Mama’s Backyard Drag show.

The first formal show was in 2021, when Knight’s brother returned to the valley with several of his friends and fellow queens. 

“We had just broken free from COVID, and we had 107 people in the backyard. My neighbor had the food truck, we had Porta Potties, we had the whole nine yards,” Knight said.

He said the had a “rinky-dink” setting that included lighting he bought from Amazon, a rented sound machine, and a back porch with black sheets that served as curtains.

“We sold tickets on Venmo, and we donated the money in the first year to the Encircle House here in Heber,” Knight said.

The next year, they sold out of tickets, and the show has only gotten bigger.

Now they hold the event in his other brother’s house in Daniel, and attendance is only growing. This year, they had 365 attendees.

Though he was still crunching some numbers, he estimated the event had raised over $10,000 for the Cavalier Crazy Rescue in Salt Lake — where he got his furry companion, Walter —  and The Horse of Many Colors, a nonprofit group supporting cancer patients and their loved ones. 

Despite the positivity Knight aims to promote, he acknowledged it hasn’t always been easy to find community support for his drag show, or even to live as a gay man in Heber City.

The first two years he held the event, he said it went without a hitch.

He told neighbors there might be some attendees parking on the street, and he asked people not to block driveways.

Last year, they got a dozen complaints.

“My brother got calls from Daniel township’s mayor saying that there had been complaints, emails, phone calls,” Knight said.

He doesn’t know who filed the grievances. He doesn’t want to.

“Their complaint was parking. We all know it wasn’t about parking. I will put my neck on the line about that,” he said. “We took care of everything we needed to with the city and the county.”

As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it wasn’t the first time he’s felt pushback because of who he is in Heber City.

“We were tiny growing up. … I was born in 1982, was educated here in the public school system in Wasatch County, and I was bullied, teased,” he said. “There wasn’t a day that went by walking down the high school hallway that I wasn’t called a fag or a queer or a homo. And it definitely opened up my eyes to a different aspect of my community where hate could lie in a place where everyone professes to be religious and Christ-like, and it definitely opened my eyes to the true meaning of what it means to be an active member of the community.”

On a religious note, he added, it taught him something further about what it really means to be Christ-like as people who preached divine peace on Sundays made his life hell between school classes.

“I didn’t come out until I was 32. I was scared. I owned a small business here in town, I just bought a home. My mom had passed away a couple years prior,” he said.

When his brother came out, it helped. But it still took him seven more years.

Though he still faces slurs today, it’s a less common occurrence, and he said it’s completely different from Heber City in the ’80s and ’90s.

Still, he sees first hand the mountains left to climb.

Just this year, someone has twice ripped down the Pride flag that hangs next to the Stars and Stripes in front of Knight’s home and business, Five Penny Floral.

The hateful act won’t deter him.

“I grew up on the back of a horse. I tried to play the part. I tried to do the role. In my late 20s and early 30s, I said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ I needed to live my authenticity and be who I am,” he said. “I’ve never looked back.”

He’s working to be a part of a welcoming community he didn’t have growing up, one he doesn’t think Heber City was ready to provide back when he was young. It takes generations to break cycles of harmful ideologies, he explained, and many that target members of the LGBTQ+ community are still alive and well.

With his drag shows, he hopes to change that, to show the community that it’s “an expression of elevated art.”

“They say we’re groomers. They say that we have issues. They say that we’re pedophiles,” he said. “Most of us have been victims to a pedophile or a predator. … We are capable of amazing and incredible things. We love. We give back to our communities. We are about love and compassion.”

He said he giggles when people say drag performers are grooming kids. For his nieces, he explained, the drag community has been a way to promote inclusion.

Drag queens, he said, don’t make bank-breaking salaries through their performances. What they have to gain is expressing themselves, things they’ve had to hold inside.  

“They do it because they’re passionate about it, and they do it for the sisterhood, and they do it for somewhere that 9-year-old boy,” he said of queens. “It’s giving that 9-year-old boy hope that there’s a beautiful world out there, that that 9-year-old boy has a home and has a place to be creative and to express and to be who they want to be.”

The pride flag still hangs from Knight’s porch, and he’s still an active member of the community. He plans to continue to make the drag show even bigger in future years. 

“Drag has been around for centuries. It has taken different shapes, different forms. We have all been entertained: ‘Bosom Buddies,’ ‘Mrs. Doubtfire,’ Klinger off of ‘Mash,’ ‘Tootsie’ by Dustin Hoffman,” Knight said. “To anyone who doesn’t understand, open your eyes. … I’m a proud member of this community, so is my brother, and so are many, many of my friends and supporters and clients. We’re not going anywhere. We will continue to get better. We will continue to raise more money for causes that are near and dear to our hearts.

“To anyone who doesn’t understand, you’re not going to lose a recommend, you’re not going to lose friends over coming to a show. We are about love, we are about inclusion, we are about hope. We are about hope that your children will not have to go through what we had to go through with chills saying that your friend has taken their own life.” 

The post Heber City local raises $10,000 for charities with Not Your Mama’s Backyard Drag appeared first on Park Record.

While schools across the state and country struggle to get students up to the standards they were meeting before the COVID-19 pandemic, Wasatch County School District and Park City School District have managed to not only make up lost ground but also surpass their 2019 standings.

The Utah State Board of Education released its 2024 student proficiency data based on two standardized tests: the Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment given to third-eighth graders and the Utah Aspire Plus administered to students in grades nine and 10.  

In 2019 — the school year before the COVID-19 pandemic — students’ test scores throughout the state showed that 47% were proficient in English language arts, 45% in mathematics and 46.6% in science. 

In 2021 — the year after the worst of the pandemic and the effects it had on schools and students — had passed, its effects on education were noticeable. The proficiency rates had dropped to 43.3%, 39.2% and 44.1%, respectively.

While Park City School District and Wasatch County School District stayed a cut above average both before and after the pandemic, neither community was immune to the proficiency-dropping effects the vast majority of districts throughout the state and country faced. 

In 2019, Park City’s students tested to be 54.3% proficient in English language arts, 50.5% in math and 54.1% in science. In 2021, those numbers changed — most notably math proficiency — to 54.5%, 46% and 53.3%, respectively.

In neighboring Wasatch County, students’ 2019 test scores scored proficiencies of 51.6% in English language arts, 46.2% in math and 49.8% in science. In 2021, those proficiency rates became 50.4%, 45.7% and 44.4%.

Regardless of the pandemic, both of the largest districts in the Wasatch Back also continue to improve their proficiency numbers.

According to the newest reports, Park City’s tests taken in 2024 show 61.8% of students were proficient in English language arts, 56.2% in math and 65.5% in science.

In Wasatch, test results showed students were 59.3% sufficient in English language arts, 56.7% in math and 55% in science. 

Despite obvious adjustments that the district had to make due to the pandemic, Wasatch County Superintendent Paul Sweat attributed the district’s success in the situation to using technology efficiently, implementing as few changes as possible and keeping kids in school buildings when possible.

Similarly, Park City officials also worked to maintain in-person learning as much as possible.

The post Park City and Wasatch County schools continue upward after pandemic bounce back appeared first on Park Record.

Grand Hyatt Deer Valley — the large building that looms over U.S. Route 189 across from Jordanelle State Park — is on track to open its doors to guests in November.

Extell Executive Vice President Kurt Krieg spoke about the project — and where his company will next spend its time within Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority — during Thursday morning board meeting.

“Everything at the end is always a push, but we’re working through with Wasatch County MIDA staff — so the building department, the fire department and the (Jordanelle Special Service District) — and are very appreciative of those efforts,” he said. “We have sold 100% of the project. So the 55 private residences are all contracted and will start to close in October.”

Further, he said, Extell has scheduled punch walks for September, and the first three stories of the hotel have been turned over to an operator.

“Most importantly,” Krieg said. “The military concierge and lounge is on track to being completed in October, which is a big initiative.”

The large development is the result of collaboration between Wasatch County, MIDA and private developers.

MIDA — a governmental body made up of appointed officials — exists in Utah to fulfill projects with military incentives and promote economic development. It’s been around since 2007, when it was first formed to help develop the Falcon Hill National Aerospace Research Park at Hill Airforce Base after state officials wanted to cement the military location’s importance in the eyes of the federal government.

Over a decade later, the group made an agreement with Wasatch County to declare undeveloped land near the Jordanelle a military recreation facility, a place where service members can take their families to enjoy activities at reduced prices.

Sticking with that part of their mission, 100 of Deer Valley Grand Hyatt’s 387 rooms will be available to active military service members and veterans who served for at least 20 years before their retirement. 

One tool that MIDA uses to fund its development projects is tax increment financing from partnering governments. In the case of its project area near Jordanelle, MIDA has partnered with Wasatch County, Wasatch County School District and smaller taxing entities in the area.

Those entities’ tax revenue within the project area is paused; any increase is split between them and MIDA, with MIDA receiving 75% in most cases. The agreements last for 40 years.

With Grand Hyatt Deer Valley quickly approaching its opening, Krieg said the company’s construction crews are starting to look toward other hotels slated to go up in the area.

The post Grand Hyatt Deer Valley approaching November opening, other hotels going up in MIDA project area appeared first on Park Record.

There are a lot more people on a road less traveled, and peeved Summit County residents are beginning to take note.

Summit County Council and Wasatch County Council met congruently Wednesday afternoon to discuss concerns over W. 200 South, a road shared by the two jurisdictions. The road has served as the primary construction route for the Tuhaye development east of Jordanelle Reservoir, which will consist of 728 homes when completed, and it’s also the lone route that allows access to Wakara Ridge, a 176-home development approved by Wasatch County in April. 

A Summit County staff report stated Summit County residents had complained several times about the construction traffic, citing their concerns about dust, diesel exhaust, the time of day trucks were using the route, safety, damage to roads and “disruption of peaceful way of life.”

Portions of the road — which is also known as “Gun Club Road” and “Old Valley Highway” — have been vacated by Wasatch County to become privately held by Tuhaye since 2000, and as part of agreements, Tuhaye paved the Wasatch portion of the route and granted easements to property owners who relied on it. 

Wasatch County Executive Dustin Grabau said that at the time he thought Wakara and Tuhaye would work to reach an agreement that would allow Tuhaye access through its private roads.

The agreement never materialized, and Wakara residents rely solely on W. 200 South.

Summit County Councilor Chris Robinson expressed surprise that Wasatch County approved the subdivision with the basis that it would allow it to use the small, rural road as its primary path without getting involved in negotiations between developers. 

David Thomas from Summit County Attorney’s Office said Summit County’s portion of the road — known as the Gun Club Road as it provides access to the Kamas Valley Lions Gun Club — “was not designed for heavy motorized traffic or construction traffic and is best classified as a rural local road, not a collector or arterial road.”

“We’ve been looking at this a couple of months now,” Summit County Chair Malena Stevens said. “We had initially determined that we were likely to put up a crash gate as it was intended to be a secondary access as far as we were apprised.”

After gaining a deeper understanding of the road’s use, she said the council decided to bring in Wasatch officials for a fuller conversation.

“We were not aware of the development and particularly the intensity of development that was taking place with access along that road,” she said.

Jon Woodard, Wasatch County’s deputy attorney, said he thought approval notices were sent to Summit County.

“This catching everybody by surprise is certainly not by design,” he said. “There were ways that this could have been discovered through paying attention to the noticing that’s given.”

He described the conundrum as a “tricky situation” as approvals have already been given to developers in the area.

“We can’t just decide all of a sudden without having to change things, without having a big impact on approved projects,” he said.

Stevens assured him she wasn’t concerned about any malicious intent.

Summit Councilor Canice Harte asked Thomas what issues the county could face if they decided to install a crash gate despite Woodard’s worries.

“As a highway authority, you would have the ability to go through a public hearing process and decide what you want to do with the road,” Thomas said. “You could vacate it, you could certainly make it a limited-use highway. You could close part of it.”

But whatever their course of action, he advised, there will be a response from those who use the road.

His fear of possible litigation was validated by multiple lawyers representing developers who attended the meeting and spoke about their concerns on what it could mean if the road were closed or access to it limited.

“This gentleman asked what would happen if you closed the gate or restricted access,” Wakara lawyer Jeremy Reitzel said. “I think it’s pretty clear under case law is if a road authority cancels a road and there is a landowner that relies on that road for access, that cancellation does not strip them of their access rights to continue to go through that road. … You can’t take our private right to access that property through the road because that’s a public road.”

He added Wakara wants to work cooperatively to solve the problem.

Thomas advised that there are legal avenues through which Summity County could close the road and access, though he said it probably wasn’t the best option.

Wakara’s in-house legal counsel — Russell Skousen — took a more gentle approach, proposing potential solutions like redesigning the road with medians, making the path less straight, imposing a 25-mile-per-hour speed limit and constructing asphalt walking trails on either side.

The two councils ultimately agreed to form a subcommittee, though everyone present realized the need for better communication between the counties in the future to resolve and prevent further conflicts. 

The post Wasatch and Summit counties work toward road solutions appeared first on Park Record.

Republican Utah House District 59 incumbent Mike Kohler arrived to an interview appearing less like a long-time politician and more like a long-time Midway local — jeans, a sweatshirt and a baseball cap. He explained he spent the morning working at his job with Midway Irrigation Company managing secondary water throughout the community.

The career makes sense for him, a generational farmer who sold his stake of his family’s dairy to his brother in the late ’90s. His lobbying work for the dairy industry and agricultural interests as an elected official are all indicative of someone who’s kept a close tie to agriculture.

Kohler grew up in Midway. He saw the community grow in the wake of the 2002 Olympic Games, and he saw it grow even more drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before running for a seat in the Utah House, he was a lobbyist for the dairy industry and served on the Wasatch County Council. 

In 2020, he was elected to Utah House District 54 for the 2021 legislative session. After the state went through redistricting, he was elected to represent District 59 in the 2023 Utah House. 

“I was a lobbyist prior,” Kohler said. “I actually represented the county because I was County Council, so I’d go and enjoy the processes on the state, and I know how much it can affect us, some of the decisions they make.”

As well as supporting agriculture through development easement purchases and greenbelt zoning options, Kohler said he hopes to keep community decision-making power in local hands.

Balancing state and local control

In his time working within state legislation — and looking back to some of the initiatives he was involved in back when he was an elected representative of Wasatch County — he listed several issues he’s felt he’s worked to help solve, but also a general concern that the state government has and continues to give itself too much control over what local counties and municipalities should be able to do.

“We try to micromanage the locals,” he said.

Over the last several years, Utah lawmakers have severely limited communities’ ability to require developers to allot a certain amount of moderate-income housing in their projects (House Bill 303 in 2022), pushed Summit County to potentially allow the widely controversial Dakota Pacific development (Senate Bill 84 in 2023) and has continually allowed quasi-government organizations such as Utah’s Military Installation Development Authority more and more authority.

Kohler said he pushed back on the state requiring Dakota Pacific and wanted to leave affordable housing in the hands of communities, but he did vote in favor of both S.B. 84 and H.B. 303.

Concerned with the possible consequences after S.B. 84 was passed, Summit County brought Dakota Pacific back to negotiations after filing a lawsuit against the development company and the state of Utah.

Kohler explained that he wasn’t aware of the problematic sections of S.B. 84, amendments that were made shortly before the bill was voted on, until after the vote had already taken place. Since then, he said he’s apologized to Summit County leaders for what he considers a mistake.

“I try to push for local control in Park City and Summit County, especially out there by Walmart and (S.R. 224), and some of that with Dakota Pacific has been a problem,” Kohler said. “I’ve been working with trying to keep the state legislature to leave it alone and let the process work and not try to play favorites, pick winners and stuff like that, and I think we’ve been somewhat successful.”

He also said he was one of the first Wasatch County councilors to invite MIDA to begin a project area by Jordanelle Reservoir.

“We had Jordanelle sitting up there with nothing happening,” Kohler said. “I figured if we could get them started in the limited way that they proposed at the time, one hotel, that maybe it could start a parade that everybody wanted to be in.”

Since his initial interest in the government entity — which uses tax increment funding from different groups and entities to promote military goals and push economic development in Utah — he has grown concerned over how powerful the group and its appointed board have become. 

“They changed the assessment time from 25 years to 40, putting off paying locals back,” Kohler said. “I’ve tried to get more local control on those boards. … MIDA has expanded drastically.”

He shared similar worries over other groups in the state: the Point of the Mountain State Land Authority and Utah Inland Port Authority.

“I’m not sure I support the authority system as much as I used to,” Kohler said.

He stressed that if he could go back and decide to advocate for MIDA in Wasatch County again, he would. But he thinks local communities need more say and a faster investment when working with the institution.

Kohler also hopes to help Utahns with concerns over their property evaluations and subsequent taxes.

“It didn’t really get serious until the COVID move-in started changing our dynamic and running our prices up,” he said. “The differences and inconsistencies in property evaluation created some problems.”

He believes the Utah State Tax Commission needs to have a larger rule in helping local assessors ensure they do their jobs fairly.

Answering Monahan

When asked key differences between the two candidates, Kohler’s Democratic opponent, Julie Monahan, pointed out bills that service political cultural wars that she doesn’t think were real issues within the state. These included recent laws that restrict transgender individuals from using bathrooms in government facilities and allow a handful of school districts to ban a book in public schools throughout Utah.

Kohler said he believed that while many bills Utah’s legislature tackles are somewhat of a waste of time, some social issues should be addressed by the government, and he stood by his decision to vote for both of those bills. 

The post Utah District 59 Rep. Mike Kohler hopes to help keep local power local appeared first on Park Record.

Heber City Manager Matt Brower expressed a lot of optimism for the future of the municipality while discussing downtown plans last week with the City Council.

“You’re starting to see a very dynamic change in downtown as we speak,” he said. 

He mentioned that the Ideal Theatre is selling out events, with 50 to 75 people waiting out the door. The Timpanogos Valley Theatre has a full lineup this fall and winter. And construction for Heber City’s bandshell between 200 South  — which is being converted into a street more accommodating for community gatherings and festivals — and Main Street Park is well underway.

“We have a synergy that is happening already. You have people coming downtown that have never come downtown before,” Brower said. 

Now Heber City officials are gearing up to again approach the Wasatch County Council and Wasatch County School District to get them on board with Heber City’s community reinvestment agency, a tax-increment funding program that would allow for each taxing entity to continue receiving the property taxes they currently get from the downtown area while devoting 75% of tax revenue increases from the area to downtown projects.

The hope is that when the deal expires after 20 years, the tax base of the area will have increased enough to make the investment well worth it.

Heber City has presented this plan before to the county and school district with lukewarm results. Now, as they prepare to again bring the pitch before the elected bodies, Heber City officials are defining projects, refining details about the potential downtown project, and hoping the county and school district will agree that the cause is well worth it.

“In your mind’s eye, be thinking about the meetings, our messaging, what we want to say, how we want to say it,” Brower said. “We’re going to be asking them to vote on those interlocal agreements in November of this year. We have to have those interlocal agreements adopted by Dec. 31, 2024.” 

One thing Mayor Heidi Franco believes has helped the city grow closer to securing the county and school district’s support is becoming more specific in what projects the CRA will focus on.

“I’ve always pushed that we needed to specifically list the projects and the cost to the county and the school district. We didn’t do that for several years, as we’ve been trying all this time, as we really need to show good faith with the county and the school district that this is exactly how the money will be spent,” Franco said. “We’ve talked a lot about the projects and the cost to them, but we haven’t specifically listed them except until earlier this year. … We need to share a good faith effort to them that this is exactly how the money will be spent and let that be in the agreement.”

She said another ongoing obstacle is a legal dispute about whether the school district or county place their own representatives on the CRA’s advisory board, and those disagreements are still being worked out, but overall she believes there is common ground.

“The county and the school district are not against any of the projects. They all want downtown parking. We all want revitalization, and we know that 10% of the CRA has to go to affordable housing, which we all want and are committed to,” Franco said. “It’s just that this is tens of millions of dollars.”

She said she doesn’t blame community leaders for being concerned about the project, but she believes they will find the redevelopment and its yield of a higher tax base to be worth it.

While the end of 2024 isn’t a hard deadline to get the school district and county to sign on to the CRA and while Heber City could potentially engage in redevelopment without the municipalities’ tax increments, Brower said downtown projects would take much longer and the CRA would lose millions in revenue.

“If the county and district do not execute interlocal agreements with the agency by Dec. 31, 2024, the property taxes generated by Smith’s $40 million investment in their new grocery building could no longer be used as increment in the CRA,” he said. “Heber could pursue downtown revitalization without the tax increment, but the rate of revitalization would be much slower. The CRA partnership would afford significant return on investment.”

In anticipation of the meetings next month, he said the city is working on a website with basic information about the CRA as requested by members of the school board.

“The city has been engaging the county and school district for nearly two and a half years, seeking their support of the interlocal agreements,” he said. “Nearly every request of the county and district has already been incorporated into the interlocal agreements. The city will continue to consider specific requests for the county and district.”

Brower said the city plans to meet with the county on Sept. 4 and the school board Sept. 28.

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