City Council elections results in Wasatch County means new faces on Heber and Midway City Council. Of the six seats available on Heber and Midway City Councils only one was retained by an incumbent.
Preliminary election results were posted Tuesday evening by the Wasatch County Clerks office. In Heber City the top vote earner for council was Rachel Kahler with 2,125 votes. Kahler believes citizens of Heber City elected her in part because they want more communication.
“They want to better understand the issues and be involved in the process,” Kahler said. “That's been my experience with the annexation steering committee and working with the community to provide open houses. That they can come in and discuss the plans that the city is putting forth and really be involved. I would love to see more involvement from the community, one of those ways to do that is digital communication. I think we need to be more active on social media by providing information ahead of time. I think we need to do a better job of summarizing the council meetings into information that is easy to understand, that gives action items so that the public can see where the council is headed next. So, I really feel like the public was saying that with their vote. We want to see more involvement with the community as we move forward.”
Mike Johnston and Ryan Stack each earned around 1,700 votes to also be elected to the council. Johnston says the update to the cities general plan is the challenge he’s most excited to tackle.
“Guiding where Heber's headed in the next 30 years,” Johnston explained. “I think it was a pretty good referendum on citizens here want some changes. They want to address growth. I don't think they're against growth and against the city growing; I think they just want it done right and I think we have a chance to do that. I think we're going to have a council that's going to work together really well.”
Stack also emphasized the communities desire to address growth and some of the challenges and opportunities that come with that.
“I think a lot of it is wanting to make sure that we're protecting what we have,” Stack continued. “In the form of open spaces and trying to get developments clustered to preserve as much open space as possible. Focus on a master transportation plans so that way traffic moves smoothly through the city. Making sure that we can revitalize our Main Street make it a vibrant downtown area and continue to work with UDOT on the bypass as well.”
In Midway Steve Dougherty and Kevin Payne were also newly elected to the city council while Lisa Kohler Orme retained her seat on the council. Turnout was high in Wasatch County with 53% of registered voters participating in the municipal election year. 4,600 votes were cast in the Midway City Council election while 8,800 were cast in the Heber City Council election.
