Mayor Lyle Holmgren – Mayors Message April 2024

In a recent survey, we asked several questions about our town. What folks liked. What they didn’t like as much, and what we need to do to make our community better.

One question was asked, “What do you like best about our city?” There were many responses to that question. But I found myself pondering one resident’s answer over and over. In my mind at least, their answer was the essence of community.

The parent answered, “Tremonton has been my home for over 7 years now! What I like most about my town, is the small-town hospitality. People are willing to help you out when needed, we know our neighbors. Kids can ride around town on their bikes and stay out until the street lights come on and you don’t have to worry so much about the dangers of letting your kids be kids!”

There is another story that rings home to me. The story is told by Jane Jacobs, an urban planner and community activist, from New York City. Jacobs describes a time when she was living in the West Side of New York in an apartment. She was upstairs overlooking the street when she noticed a guy angrily pulling at a young girl. She started heading down the stairs to see what was going on. When she noticed a butcher coming out of his butcher shop. A lady at the fruit stand came out into the street. The locksmith also came into the street. And she writes, “That guy didn’t realize it but he was surrounded.” There were people there ready to act if he did anything wrong.

The author, David Brooks writes, “Isn’t that what community is? People looking out for each other. People seeing each other. People caring deeply for each other. People willing to enter into a relationship with each other, to depend on each other. People willing to act.”

I spent my adult career as an Extension Agent in Box Elder County. My main assignment was working with 4-H youth and parents. One of my favorite times of the year was the county fair’s junior livestock show and sale. 4-H and FFA youth from all over the county participated in this event. They proudly demonstrated how well they cared for their animals and skillfully exhibited and sold their animals in front of thousands of spectators and supporters.

Over the years, and time and time again, I was overwhelmed when a family experienced a tragedy such as the untimely death of a young 4-H’er or the terminal sickness of an FFA member. This community of 4-H and FFA parents, businesses and followers would rally together. The heartbroken brother or sister would bravely walk the project steer, or lamb, or hog into the sale ring, “to finish my brother’s project, they would say.” The auctioneer would start the bidding, “I bid $5,000, another would say “$8,000”, then “10,000” and on it would go. Those who couldn’t bid that much contributed what they could afford for the family. Scores of them. The tight-knit community demonstrated their support for this family at their most tender and vulnerable time.

Two years ago, a young girl who had earlier lost her mother and grandfather, sold her steer at the county fair and then set out to give back half of the proceeds from the sale of that steer to our very own community in hopes to help other individuals and families battling with mental health.

In these examples, people were seeing each other, caring deeply for each other and depending on each other. They were willing to act.

These examples, and there are many more, are what a community is about. A place where people genuinely care about their neighbor. A place where we watch out for each other. Where people know each other, and where we can count on one another.

I like to think that a community is all this, and more. But especially, it is a place where parents don’t need to worry about the dangers of letting their kids be kids