Logan City Council candidates speak to USU students at town hall

On Oct. 30, six candidates for Logan City Council perched on stools that lined the TSC Hub stage. The event, hosted by The Utah Statesman, was structured as a town hall. Three moderators asked the candidates about their policy ideas, student involvement in politics and why students should care about who serves on the council.

Mike Johnson, a 13-year resident of Logan and a Utah State University alumni, spoke about his ideas to involve students in local government through increased social media presence. Johnson emphasized meeting people where they are, either on social media or in their email inboxes, to better educate and communicate with residents.

“The city needs a better comprehensive digital communication plan. For decades in America, we relied on video and newspapers to get our news out.” Johnson said. “With the advent of the internet and social media, we haven’t figured out how to fill that gap quite yet.”

Katie Lee-Koven, another candidate and the chief curator at the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, had ideas to bring on student interns in addition to tapping into social media potential.

“One of my interests is in improving communication across the board,” Lee-Koven said. “Doing the marketing and promotion on campus is something that will help us better get out the word on things that are important to students.”

Candidate Erin Bennett, a longtime Logan resident and mother, said the younger generation got her involved in government.

“I came in, I got interested in local politics because of my children — because of you guys,” Bennett said.

In addition to proposed solutions to communication gaps between city government and students, candidates also addressed concerns about growth in Logan.

Candidate Joe Needham, a designer and goldsmith at Silk & Co., stated one of his main goals was addressing the housing issue through strategic zoning.

“We have not been keeping up the pace with the amount of apartments that are needed for student housing or residential housing and have not kept up with the pace of residential growth,” Needham said.

Ronan Spencer (left), Caitlyn Keith (middle) and Leah Call (right) ask the Logan city council members questions during Elections Town Hall on Oct. 30.

Fellow candidate Jeannie Simmonds shared these concerns. Simmonds, a 45-year resident of Cache Valley and member of the current council, wants to give residents an opportunity to invest in Logan through property while maintaining natural resources.

“I believe that we need to create opportunities for people to invest in Logan,” Simmonds said. “In addition to that, I think we need to be very careful with our resources — our water resources, our electrical resources. We need to preserve our rivers; we need to preserve our wetlands so that they are there to sustain this value in the future.”

Candidate Mark Anderson, who has sat on the council for the last four years and serves on the Forest Advisory Board, is also prioritizing sustainability-oriented solutions.

“Sustainability is so critical for Logan,” Anderson said. “We’ve done a lot for Logan City to create a clean water environment. We have a state-of-the-art water treatment facility that’s turning out the cleanest water we could… then we’re taking the biosolids out and composting it and making that available for our citizens. We need to focus on better ways to create cleaner energy so that all our citizens can utilize it.”

All candidates agreed that they hope to make Logan City a better place for current and future residents.

Election Day is Nov. 21, and a voting center will be open on that day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Cache County Event Center, located at 490 S. 500 W., in rooms 2 and 3. Mail-in ballots were sent out to registered voters beginning Oct. 31. These ballots can be returned by mail or in person at the Cache County Clerk’s Office.