LOGAN – Logan City Council member and mayoral candidate Mark Anderson says the future of the city depends on deeper collaboration across Cache Valley and a renewed sense of community ownership.
Anderson appeared on a recent segment of KVNU’s For The People and spoke with host Jason Williams to discuss his campaign and his vision for public service ahead of the municipal elections on Nov. 4.
When asked about Logan’s evolving relationship with Cache Valley, Anderson described it as symbiotic. “Logan operates in Cache County and Cache County operates around Logan,” he said. “We need to build better on that [relationship] because we really depend on each other.”
He cited the Logan Recreation Center, a facility widely used by Cache County residents but was restricted in July for primary use by Logan School District, as a recent example and described his work on the steering committee tasked with researching the center’s utility and use.
“As we’re finding in this study,” Anderson said, “people want something very different than what it [the center] provides at this point. The number one, two, and three things that they’re looking for are not provided by the Logan Recreation Center, and so it’s time to shift gears, redesign and reimagine something different because peoples’ needs and peoples’ wants for indoor recreation have changed drastically in the last 50 years.”
In an “Ask Me Anything” discussion on Reddit, the councilman criticized the handling of the recreation center issue and said that he hopes to work with the county council to find a solution for Logan and its neighbors, and to “build something exceptional.”
The mayoral candidate also spoke about his experience as a business owner on Center Street and the inclusion of local business in the revitalization effort. “It’s great because now we all have ownership of it,” he said. “We feel like it’s our street.” He described the community pride that has permeated the storefronts on the block and the business owners, independent of the city, have formed an organization to care for the street, saying, “It’s turned out to be sensational.” Anderson discussed organizing a similar revitalization on the east side of the city on Church Street and Federal Avenue, but says it will require buy-in and ownership from the business owners there.
Anderson describes most of his campaign pillars as “service-oriented” and hopes to restore principles of service to public office. “We’ve lost our sense of pride in our community a little bit,” the candidate said. “Maybe the mayor and a couple members of the executive committee and some employees show up at Mrs. Johnson’s house. She needed some help, and we just heard about it. How cool would that be?”
More information about Anderson’s campaign can be found at www.makeyourmarkformayor.com/.