LOGAN CITY — It’s not hard to see why people want to live in Cache County — the view of the valley is breathtaking.

The area is surrounded by towering mountains, which are currently snowcapped and look majestic, and as you drive into the valley, sprawling fields surround U.S. 89-91 in every direction. You feel a sense of community just looking at the small mom-and-pop shops along the Main streets in Wellsville and Logan. And the small-town charm and pride in the agriculture is reflected in the colorful bull statues that line the street as you drive into Logan.

As Logan Mayor Craig Petersen says “It’s clean, green and pristine.”

The roughly 51,000-population county seat was settled by LDS pioneers in 1866 and celebrated its sesquicentennial in 2016. Logan and Cache County have both continued to grow in population during the past three years, as evidenced by two new high schools opening within a two-year period. However, the growth is happening at a “moderate rate,” which has been helpful for the communities to keep up with the needed infrastructure and demand, according to Cache County Council Chairman Greg Merrill.

But despite the growth, the expanding tech industry in the area is struggling to fill jobs, said Sandy Emile Cache County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO.

Shortage of workers qualified for available jobs

Emile has been the Chamber of Commerce president since 2006 and has served with the chamber since 2000. She said she utilizes methods to support new businesses and help grow existing businesses in the area. The unemployment rate in the county was at 2.8 percent in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and there are plenty of jobs available.

“We have almost everybody and their grandmother working right now,” she said.

However, Emile said, the expanding local tech companies are having a hard time finding people qualified with the skills needed to fill their open positions. She said that after the 2008 recession, many companies had to streamline and the positions now require a new set of skills, resulting in many local companies having difficulty finding the right people for those jobs.

“Getting people trained up, reintegrated and/or integrated into those roles is a challenge,” she said. “All of our technology businesses are growing. You can’t grow without people to help you grow.”

Emile said that Cache Valley has a great family environment, culture and quality of life, and that businesses need to use those incentives to attract people with the right skill sets to the area — despite the lower wages.

“We need people. We are a great place for people to come and we need to tell other areas of our state where there may be a surplus of people that don’t have jobs, that they should think about staying in our state — our wonderful, beautiful Utah that we all love to be in— and come help Cache County grow," she said. "And then we need to tell the story to people outside of our state that, ‘You might look at relocating here. You might find some great business opportunities.’ ”

Autonomous Solutions Inc., a company that specializes in creating autonomous vehicles, mainly for farming and mining, is one of the tech businesses currently affected by a shortage of qualified employees. CEO and founder Mel Torrie said the robotics industry is “taking off” and that competitors are paying very large incentives to recruit people.

“There’s definitely a shortage out there of good people, and we struggle to keep people in certain categories,” he said. “We have brought in some international people. The moment we get them an H1-B visa, they leave to California where there are more international people and warmer weather.”

Torrie said the company has about a 4 percent retention rate with international employees, around a 20 percent retention rate with out-of-state employees and a 95 percent retention with native Utahns. As a result, he said the company is trying to train locals, who will likely stay in the area, so they are qualified for the positions.

He said Autonomous Solutions is working with Utah State University, the largest employer in Logan, to implement more programs that would better train students with the necessary skills so the company can focus on recruiting from the local college rather than a bigger name school like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He hopes the local university recruits will also be more likely to stay in the area.

Road repair after flood damage

Another issue Cache Valley residents face comes from high water levels and recent flooding. About eight roads were severely damaged in the flooding and are now undrivable, according to Merrill. Many of these damaged county roads are the fastest route for residents to get to Logan, including Mendon Road, which is completely closed. Residents have to detour to U.S. 30.

“We looked at repairing those immediately, but then we realized that there was such still a snowpack in the mountains that there’s probably a good probability that it’s going to flood again,” Merrill said. “So some of those roads remain closed and will probably do so until after the spring run-off.”

The county roads will need to be fixed, and the cost to repair all the damage is estimated at more than $3 million. Because the county budget for the entire year is around $25 million, county officials will likely have to apply for federal and state funding to help pay for the road maintenance, Merrill said.

In the meantime, damaged roads will remain closed until around the end of May or the first of June when the spring runoff ends and decreases the chance of more flooding.

Air quality

While the mountains help add to the beauty of the valley, they also trap in the smog and pollution during periods of inversion in the winter. Merrill said that while local leaders have implemented some ordinances to help decrease the amount of pollution, air quality is still really poor at times during the cold, winter months.

“We have mountains surrounding us almost 360 degrees and even a smaller valley than the Salt Lake Valley. As a result, we are as bad if not worse on certain days,” he said.

Petersen said an emissions inspection program was approved in 2013 and the city passed an anti-idling ordinance in 2016 as ways to combat the poor air quality. However, he said, the issue should be put into perspective because it only occurs on a handful of days during the entire year.

“For between 350 and 360 days of the year, Cache Valley does not have an air quality problem,” he said. “It’s a serious problem for a short period of time.”

Despite some of the issues, Cache County has a hominess and community feel with its many cultural and art attractions including the Utah Festival Opera and the American Festival Chorus and Orchestra. The area has also made a name for itself internationally with its home-grown agricultural goods including Cache Valley Cheese,Cox’s Honey and Gossner UHT Milk (which has a shelf life of several months.)

“We have great outdoor activities, we have great people,” Petersen said. “One of the things I think you’ll see as you’ll talk to people in Cache Valley and Logan is there really is a sense of identity. They view this as being a special place.”

Contributing: Marc Giauque and Alex Cabrero

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