ST. GEORGE — It had been two years and three days since the last State of the City address was given, St. George Mayor Michele Randall said Tuesday afternoon as she began the 2022 address at the Dixie Convention Center.

“A lot has changed since then,” Randall said. “Nobody could have ever predicted a global pandemic on the scale that we had. … And we also couldn’t predict that a pandemic would make everyone want to move to Utah, including our little piece of heaven.”

The growth and pandemic brought challenges to the city, but with those challenges came the opportunity to “come out stronger and better and with optimism to embrace all of these challenges,” the mayor said.

‘Start treating it like liquid gold’

The issue that took center stage at the start of the address was water and the need to conserve it.

Large blue barrels that represented nearly 1,000 gallons of water were stacked on either side of Randall on the stage. A large price tag showed the average cost to St. George water users for every 1,000 gallons they use in a month: $1.10.

“When you think about it, its really cheap,” Randall said, adding that heavy water uses who use over 45,000 gallons end up paying $3.65 per 1,000 gallons.

“That’s still really cheap, and we need to start treating it like liquid gold. If we don’t start getting smarter about conservation, then we’ll have to raise our rates, and we really don’t want to do that.”

The region is currently in a state of moderate drought. This is better than this time last year, Randall said, but conservation still needs to be observed. To help lead on this process, the city has done its own conservation work, she said.

Over the summer of 2021, the city was able to cut 8.2% of its water use despite adding 1,900 new connections, Randall said, attributing the water savings to residents.

“That is due to you,” she said. “So congratulations.”

Parks and golf course staff also managed to save over 150 million gallons of water last year, she said, adding that an estimated 10 acres of nonfunctional turf – that is, grass that seems to serve no other purpose than to be mowed – is also in the process of being removed from city property thus far.

‘Watch Your Six’

Randall said public safety has always been a priority for her, and in this realm, she said that over the last four years, the city has grown its firefighter and police force by 70% and 30%, respectively. A campaign is currently underway to recruit additional police officers as well, as continuing growth makes the additional officers necessary, Randall said.

In addition to the recruitment campaign, a safety campaign called “Watch Your Six” will also be pushed by the St. George Police Department soon, she said. The focus of the campaign will be on safe driving and ways to avoid getting in a wreck.

The mayor also announced the building or planning of new fire stations, including the following:

• A fire station being built on Commerce Drive in the Little Valley area is anticipated to be competed in May.
• Station 1, which presently sits on 1000 East northeast of Dixie State University, will be replaced with a new station to be built at the corner of 400 East and 100 South where a chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located. The church sold the building to the city. The old chapel, which has structural issues, will be demolished in the fall.
• Property has been bought in the Desert Canyons area for a future Station 10.

Growth, housing and transportation

The topics of growth, economy and housing were handed off to Shirlayne Quayle, the city’s economic vitality and housing director.

Quayle noted how St. George has grown by over 20,000 people between 2010 and 2020. The current population is estimated at around 95,000.

After commenting on the growth, Quayle shifted to the city’s ongoing need for attainable housing.

“Housing really is a challenge in our community,” she said.

A way the city is hoping to remedy the local housing crunch is through the Housing Action Coalition, Quayle said. It is a collaborative effort between the city, other municipalities, Washington County, home builders, developers, real estate agents and other stakeholders brought together for the purpose of creating more attainable housing for St. George and county residents.

Quayle also highlighted the communities of Divario, Desert Canyon and Desert Color as developments that were helping to bring much-needed inventory to the housing market. The Switchpoint Community Resource Center and Dove Center were also mentioned for their work on providing attainable housing for lower-income individuals and families.

Economy-wise, Quayle lauded the partnership between the city and Tech Ridge. Set on the southern half of the Black Hill where the original airport used to be, the 180-acre Tech Ridge development will be a mixed-use technology park designed to provide the city with high-paying tech jobs. The area is already home to the Dixie Technical College and tech-based businesses like Vasion and busybusy, with more slated to move into the development in the near future.

St. George’s economy is already diverse, but Tech Ridge will help round out the tech-development portion that has been missing, Quayle said.

Touching on transportation infrastructure, Cameron Cutler, the city’s public works director, went over the completion of work on River Road last year, as well as the ongoing work on the 3000 East Corridor, which is the city’s biggest road project for the year.

Cutler also said property has been bought on the western side of the 1450 East and River Road intersection. Getting the property is among the first steps in the eventual creation of a new roadway connecting River Road and Crosby Way near the Dixie Convention Center.

The St. George Regional Airport is also updating its master plan to keep up with the growth. This includes upgrades to the terminal in order to accommodate increased use, which saw a record high last year with 130,000 flights out of St. George.

Upcoming events

A number of upcoming events were highlighted by the mayor when she returned to the stage.

Set for Feb. 25, St. George, along with other cities, will take part in a clean-up effort along Interstate 15. The event is sponsored by the Love Where You Live nonprofit that promotes keeping Utah free of litter, Randall said. The city welcomes volunteers for the event.

The Gold Star Families Memorial, which has been in the works for over a year but was delayed due to the pandemic and supply chain issues, has finally made it to St. George and will be welcomed in the St. George Town Square on March 26 at 11 a.m.

The city will also be hosting a new round of neighborhood open houses in 2022, featuring the city’s elected officials and department heads taking questions or comments from the public.

“This is where we bring the city to your neighborhood,” Randall said.

The neighborhood open houses will be held at SunRiver St. George (March 31), the Thunder Junction All Abilities Park (April 28), the Desert Color Clubhouse (Sept. 8) and Vernon Worthen Park (Oct. 13).

St. George, and Washington County overall, will also be hosting the Ironman 70.3 World Championship and Ironman World Championship year this. Estimated to potentially generate up to $100 million overall, Randall said Ironman officials chose St. George over other locations because of the people here and the spirit of volunteerism.

Before wrapping up the address for the year, Randall commented on the city’s “The Brighter Side” tagline.

“I think we have a feeling in St. George that it’s a special place to live, and we want everyone to feel like they live on the brighter side of our community,” the mayor said and pointed to the audience. “We are the brighter side because of every one of you. We couldn’t do what we do without the great residents in our community.”

The 2022 State of the City address can be view in its entirely below.

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