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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is the fastest growing state in the nation, and for good reason.
The state offers an array of outdoor recreation from skiing to hiking to boating from southern Utah all the way to the north. Pam Perlich, the director of demographic research at the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said that economic opportunity is also driving the population growth.
But there isn’t growth in every county. Many of the rural counties are seeing a population and economic decline. Natalie Gochnour, director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, said the state is really divided into two Utahs: urban and rural.
Gov. Gary Herbert took it a step further and said the state is even more diverse than that.
“It’s not just two different Utahs, it’s 29 different Utahs in all of our 29 counties,” Herbert said. “And maybe you can break it down even further to 245 different Utahs representing our 245 different cities. And they are all different.”
The governor said listening to each other and working together is the best way to solve problems.
“We don’t want to be a dictatorship from on high because there’s nobody that knows the issues better than those that live there with the problem. It’s their backyard,” Herbert said. “We ought to see what they want to do to solve the problem and then see if the state can’t step in and help them.”
During the Road to Understanding, KSL visited Piute County, St. George, Emery County, Moab, San Juan County, Uintah County, Provo, Lehi, Tooele County, Box Elder County, Cache County and the west side of Salt Lake City.
Managing growth was the biggest issue in St. George, Tooele County and along the Wasatch Front. Many of those cities are seeing a boom in population that leads to traffic congestion, teacher and school shortages and a lack of affordable housing.
Sometimes the issue comes from being a popular destination. Moab has a population of about 5,000 people, but on any given weekend during the summer, the amount of people in town can skyrocket to 25,000, according to David Sakrison, the mayor of Moab.
“It kind of caught us unawares,” Sakrison said. “There's been some unintended consequences that we've had to face.”
But in other parts of the state, the issues are different.
In Piute County, population around 1,500, intergenerational poverty is a growing concern. The county is also having a hard time providing job opportunities for the younger generation.
“Right now, a lot of our youth when they graduate from high school, they can’t afford to live here,” Bill Sudweeks, Kingston’s mayor, said. “That’s the reason I left. As a youth, I didn’t have any significant opportunities here, so I went elsewhere.”
Many people from rural counties who attended a town hall meeting in Fillmore expressed similar concerns, saying their biggest issue was that they were exporting their children out of the county because there was lack of opportunity.
People in Emery, Carbon, Uintah and San Juan counties expressed concerns over public lands and federal regulations that hinder their ability for mineral extraction and oil drilling, like the recently created Bears Ears National Monument in San Juan County. Leaders in these areas are looking to diversify their economies with manufacturing or tourism so they are not so dependant on the booms and busts of the energy industry.
In Box Elder County, community leaders are facing a shortage for the police force in Brigham City. The police department currently has 26 officers — a full staff. But in the past couple of years, the department has been short as many as five officers at one time — 20 percent of its needed staff.
"It’s a very scary thing," Tyler Vincent, the city’s mayor, said. "We rely on those folks to keep us safe and provide safe communities. They put their lives on the line. … It’s sad, and as we work with law enforcement, I don’t think there’s anybody who hasn’t had an issue with law enforcement, but I will tell you, for the most part, our law enforcement officers are very honest and are concerned about the citizens."
People in Cache County are dealing with millions of dollars in damage to roads after flooding as well as a shortage of tech employees.
“Getting people trained up, reintegrated and/or integrated into those roles is a challenge,” said Sandy Emile, Cache County Chamber of Commerce president and CEO. “All of our technology businesses are growing. You can’t grow without people to help you grow.”
Poverty and education are the biggest concerns for those on the west side of Salt Lake City. Lifelong Rose Park resident Kerri Bayley worked with the local PTA for six years and said it was difficult to get parents involved because many of them were busy working multiple jobs. She tutored and mentored students and said some of them were not where they needed to be academically.
But even facing several concerns, local leaders across the state are optimistic about the future and are making plans to solve their issues.
“This concept of listening to understand, it’s something we don’t do enough of,” Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox said. “‘Road to Understanding' means I’m listening to learn. Not just what you’re saying but how you feel and why you feel this way and when we do that, something magical happens. Generally, we find out we’re not as far apart as we thought we were.”
KSL is planning to continue the conversation that was started on the Road to Understanding, with upcoming visits to Garfield and Millard counties in the near future.
