TREMONTON – In April, Box Elder County Commissioner Stan Summers withdrew his name from his reelection bid.
After 12 years of service as Box Elder County Commissioner, Summers decided to take a break as an elected official to concentrate on other things.
These past years he’s seen the population of the county explode, expansion at the fairgrounds, high speed internet access for a good portion of the county, completion of the state’s first inland port and other amazing things.
Part of his responsibilities was the Box Elder County Fair, and it has seen major strides since he was the county’s point man.
“We had a $750,000 purse for 4-H kids animal auction. Last year there was $2.3 million for the auction,” he said. “We just made a place where people felt they could come and help those kids.”
Box Elder County Fair is probably the only fair in the state that makes that kind of money for the kids.
“I helped get the two big buildings and the new bleachers for the rodeo grounds,” he said. “We put in new seating and added an extra day for the PRCA rodeo. We sold 6,000 tickets in less than 12 hours for the rodeo.”
He has been involved in a lot of progress over his time as a commissioner.
“We got the first inland port project built, a 1.3 million square foot facility in Tremonton,” Summers said. “We wooed them from Phoenix. At the time I was started as a commissioner we were at 14 percent unemployment and now we at somewhere around the 2 percent unemployment.”
The inland ports are a turning point for Box Elder County and the entire region. It focuses on light industrial, aerospace, composites, food manufacturing, steel-related industries and more.
“His involvement with inland ports in Tremonton, Garland, and other places in Box Elder County has been amazing,” Tremonton Mayor Lyle Holmgren said. “He got all this stuff done in just three terms.”
The inland ports are set to attract high-tech advanced manufacturing jobs and create a thriving economic focal point.
Early on as a commissioner, Summers took some gift baskets to the news stations in Salt Lake and gave them to weather anchors and mentioned to them Tremonton was never mentioned in their weather forecasts. Soon after that, Tremonton was put on their weather maps of all the Salt Lake television stations.
Grouse Creek got the first high-speed internet and now 80 percent of the county will have high speed internet. That internet goes from Brigham City to the Idaho border through Park Valley, Snowville, Thatcher, and Bear River City.
“We worked at promoting the Gold Spike Sesquicentennial and had 75,000 people attend the ceremony,” he said. “We had the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Governor Cox, two U. S. Senators, the head of the Bureau of Land Management and other officials in attendance.”
Due to pressures on the home front while serving as a commissioner, he had to make some changes and devote his life to caring for his and son who were battling illnesses.
“I sold all my businesses. I had a car wash, a windshield business, storage units and commercial properties and sold them all to stay at home with my and son,” Summers said. “My son will turn 34 in April, and he has been sick with cancer for 17 years. He’s been on hospice 10 times, and he is still here. I talk to him every day.”
In July of 2023 Summers lost his wife of 35 years after a five-year battle with cancer. He was her caregiver for all of those years.
“It was good to keep busy with my commissioner duties during all of this,” he said. “If I could change anything it would be that my would still be here, and my son would get well.”
When Summer’s wife died, Holmgren went over to his house the morning she passed.
“We were heartfelt for him and his son, Talon, who has also been sick for many years,” Holmgren said. “He’s had a rough time over the years. He has gone through a lot with his family and has been strong and positive. That goes a long way to show his character.”
Summers said he is planning on going to Trump’s inauguration in Washington, D.C. later this month.
“My son and I met with President Trump when we went back to talk about healthcare during his presidency,” Summers said. “We got a call from Air Force One when Trump was leaving the White House. He knows us and if it weren’t for my boy he would probably not know who we are.”
He also had a connection with an astronaut on a space station and Summers received a call from space. There aren’t many in Utah who have received calls both from space and Air Force One.
“In spite of all the trials we have been blessed. We’ve been tested but we’ve also been blessed,” he said. “I remarried and moved to Hooper with my new wife and that is the major reason I did not run for reelection.”
Holmgren has known Summers for a long time and said it’s obvious he loves Box Elder County.
“He has an uncanny ability to make connections with people,” the mayor said. “He’s been able to make connections with mayors, residents of the county, to governor and even the President of the United States. Those connections have benefited Tremonton and Box Elder County.”
When Holmgren was working as a county extension agent, he said Summers was very supportive of 4-H and the county fairgrounds.
“There are lot of things at the fairgrounds he expanded over the years that have benefited Tremonton,” he said. “The Box Elder County Fair is the single largest event the county experiences throughout the year with over 100,000 visitors.”
Summers was also involved in getting Proctor and Gamble to come to Tremonton, the mayor said.
“We have contracted Stan to be our economic development director for the city,” Holmgren said. “He made all these connections, and he will bring more businesses and larger tax bases to help our community.”
He said Summers is a good guy and because he is aggressive some people feel one way or the other about him, but if you look at what he accomplished it has been impressive.