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TOOELE — Tooele County has seen its ups and downs over the years.
“When the [Tooele] Army Depot closed [in 1993,] we lost 3,500 high-paying jobs,” said Rep. Doug Sagers, R-Tooele. “When the incinerator closed [in 2012,] that was another 1,200 high-paying jobs.”
Sagers said the county lost a large titanium plant last year as well. But the county continues to bounce back each time.
“You have to be adaptable and you have to overcome the changes to your external environment in order to progress and grow,” said Shawn Milne, a county commissioner.
And progression is exactly what is happening in the county. Milne said 2016 was a record year for growth, with more than 700 new home building permits issued. That is three times more permits issued than three years ago, Milne said.
But with all that fast growth also come problems.
“That’s a challenge to local governments, from municipal, to special service district, to the county’s school district, because you have an influx of demand when you maybe haven’t gotten quite the tax base yet to afford what your citizens are demanding,” Milne said.
One struggle that growth brings is a crowded school district. Doelene Pitt, the assistant superintendent for the Tooele County School District, said they currently have 14,300 students and expect that number to go up.
“We have a difficult time finding teachers," Pitt said, adding that on average they hire 80 to 100 teachers annually.
The county is trying to stay ahead of the growth, but the last three elementary schools the district opened started out completely full as soon as the schools were completed, Pitt said. Two more elementary schools are under construction with another junior high and high school being planned.
Many of the people moving to Tooele County are not working in the county. Milne estimates that at least 60 percent of the county’s population commutes to work in Salt Lake County and end up spending a lot of tax money outside the county.
“I think a lot of people say, ‘I can buy a bigger home for the same amount of money, I have a better commute. Tooele County looks pretty darn good,’” Sagers said.
Sagers says commuters can go from Stansbury Park to downtown Salt Lake City in less than 30 minutes, making the commute and cheaper housing attractive incentives for people to move in. However, that commute estimate is on a good day.
All of those commuters create a choke point on State route 36 connecting to I-80 since that is one of the only routes between Tooele and Salt Lake counties. County officials and the Utah Department of Transportation are hoping to alleviate that issue by building another highway into Tooele Valley. There will be a 4-lane highway leading into the center of the valley and an interchange seven miles west of the Lake Point exit, Sagers said.
Not only will it help with traffic, but Sagers hopes it will also make the area more appealing to companies looking to set up shop in the valley.
“In the last couple of years, we’ve had a number of opportunities for people wanting to look at our valley for commercial purposes and the biggest problem we have had is access to the freeway,” Sagers said. “They say, ‘What happens if your one road is closed down?’ And we say, ‘Well, we’re shut down.’”
Construction for the new highway should begin next year, Sagers said.
Contributing: Alex Cabrero, Marc Giauque
