NIBLEY – A listener emailed in last week saying that she lives in Nibley and loves many things about the family fitness event that the city does, the many parties and festivals in the park, and she said it’s just a very friendly and inviting place to live.
But she said as she drives to and from work every day she notes all of the apartments, town homes and single-family homes where open space and pastures used to be.
On KVNU’s For the People program last week, Nibley Mayor Larry Jacobsen said growth is not easy to deal with and Nibley, of course, is not the only place that’s dealing with this.
“Utah is the Beehive State, we’re industrious, we create jobs, we have a big focus on economic development. Certainly, Cache Valley has lots of great things to offer to people, and that makes it difficult for us to keep up with the people that want to live here,” Jacobsen explained.
To help handle growth, infrastructure and road improvements are necessary. Jacobsen cited the traffic light now operating at 3200 South where it sweeps to the north and lines up with U.S. Hwy 89-91. He said that was a great collaborative effort between Nibley, UDOT, Logan City and the county Council of Governments.
And there are other projects ongoing.
“The Cache Metropolitan Planning Organization has had 1200 West on its plan for more than 25 years,” he added. “And that’s been on the Nibley City road plan too, and we’ve had a lot of help from the Council of Governments, this sales tax to complete a road that will go from Hyrum City, connect onto 10th West in Logan, and then obviously go all the way to the Cache-Logan airport.”
He was asked if it was in his power to make any project the next on the list for his city, what would it be?
“I’ve actually been educated by the residents of Nibley city. And I didn’t come to this conclusion on my own but in talking to people over and over and over we hear an outcry for recreation space, especially indoor recreation space.”
Jacobsen said Nibley residents are very recreation-involved as they are a young community with a lot of kids doing both competitive and recreational sports, and it’s a long winter.
So, he said, they are going to spend about $140,000 of general fund money to do a feasibility study to understand that demand and how they would satisfy that demand.