Utah Senate President Stuart Adams took a tour with Summit and Wasatch County officials Tuesday. The senator got a look at High Valley Transit facilities and the MIDA Mayflower project.
Adams was joined by Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, Sen. Ron Winterton, and Sen. Jerry Stevenson. They joined the Summit County Council, Interim Summit County Manager Janna Young, and High Valley Transit Executive Director Caroline Rodriquez on a bus to check out the state of public transportation in the Wasatch Back.
They started at the Ecker Hill Park and Ride, where High Valley’s temporary headquarters is located. Adams said he was a fan of the micro transit service.
“Very very impressed with the interaction between with the micro transit, and getting people that last portion of that trip to deliver people," Adams said.
"I was wondering why that hasn’t been done before, and we’ve got Uber, all kinds of other technology that people are using to be able to get around. To have a transit company take advantage of that - it’s about time.”
The group stopped by the site where High Valley’s permanent home will be built near US-40 in Silver Summit. Rodriquez said High Valley will move to a nearby spot in November while the building is being constructed, meaning the white tent at Ecker Hill will disappear this fall.
After the High Valley tour, the group headed to Wasatch County to view progress on the Mayflower resort. Adams is also the board chair of the military authority overseeing development of the Mayflower ski resort called MIDA.
MIDA’s board of directors has approved up to $260 million in bonds which will be paid back over 30 years through a tax increment program developed with Wasatch County. Some of the funds will be used for infrastructure and hotels.
When complete, some rooms in one of the new hotels will be reserved exclusively for active and retired members of the military, with tiered pricing accessible to all levels of personnel.
Kurt Krieg is executive vice president of Extell, which is developing the Mayflower. Krieg said Tuesday the resort is still in talks with Deer Valley about a partnership to connect the two resorts. He said that if the two resorts connect terrain, snowboarding would likely not be allowed at Mayflower in the near future.
The senate president praised the progress made on the new resort.
“Every time I go up I’m so impressed and stunned," Adams said.
"It will be one of the great facilities for not only the state, but for, I think, one of the greats in the world. And to be able to have that facility available for people that live here, for kids, grandkids or others, and to be able to have that type of recreation ability.
"We know the ski lifts are always getting more crowded, we know that we have more demand for that type of an experience. We haven’t had a ski resort developed for a long time so I think it’s really exciting.”
Mayflower is expected to open for the 24-25 winter season.