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South Valley Riverton Journal

Herriman Year in Review

Jan 04, 2016 11:55AM ● By Bryan Scott

By Hope Zitting

South Valley - The new year means new opportunities for both the community as a whole and for the residents therein. This year, many exciting new developments and growth potential are beginning and it pays to be informed with what the mayor, administration and city council has planned for the coming year. The South Valley Journal asked each individual to provide an update on the following issues: What were the most important highlights from 2015? What do you hope to accomplish in 2016? We received the following responses:


Mayor Carmen Freeman

Mayor Freeman was elected Herriman mayor in 2014.

“I think our highest priority is our city hall and city park. That won’t be completed next year, but we will certainly give emphasis to it as we begin construction in March of next year and there’ll be a lot of decisions and other input that will be required in the process of those unfolding. 

To me, right now, that’s going to be one of our highest priorities. I think, if I could just add to that, we’ll have two new council members and always there’s a work in progress in terms of becoming acquainted with them, seeing their strengths come to fruition and see where they’re going to best be an impact to the city and that takes a while. 

A highlight that we want to have is economic growth continued. That seems to have been a driving force in much of this year and I think will carry over into 2016, and we’ll continue on that front of encouraging more economic growth. That is a vital component to our city. Developing economically within the city is going to be one of our highest priorities,” he said.


City Manager Brett Wood

Brett has been the city manager for Herriman since 2010.

“We want to accomplish many things. I would think highway development and we also want to still continue to move forward on city hall and the plans for the park behind the city hall and the whole Towne Center area and get ready to make that happen and make sure that the finances are all secure because we’re paying for a good chunk of this in cash and wish a good statement to make to our residents and community that this project [costs] $25 million and we’re already bonding for $15 million.

That’s a big statement to make to the community that we are going to pay cash for the park and the amenities and everything through. We always want to be secure in our financial plan and updating that. We always have a year, a five year, and a 10-year plan.

Employee-based, we want to make sure we take care of the employees. First and foremost, our greatest asset is our employees and make sure we take care of them because they take care of our residents. There’s a lot, there’s a real lot when it comes to what are plans are for the administration next year. It’s off the chart. 

We kind of forget what we’ve done. We’re always looking at what we need to do,” he said.

District 1 Councilmember Jared Henderson

Jared Henderson is the new city council member for District 1.

Jared earned a degree in finance at the University of Utah and is also a certified financial planner. He actively promotes responsible growth, fiscal discipline and informing the public. 

He believes that residents of Herriman can accomplish many goals when they attain the information they may need and the ability to show their aspirations for the community around them. Jared’s goal is to protect the culture and feeling that living in the city of Herriman may bring.

Jared Henderson enjoys spending time with his wife, Mindy, and their three children; as well as his Alaskan Malamutes. 

“My biggest hope is to see growth. There’s so much growth going on. I love living here,” he said.


District 2 Councilmember Coralee Wessman-Moser

Coralee has been a member of the Herriman City Council since January 2012.

“One of the biggest things that we have coming up is that we need to work on our city hall and Towne Center development. We’ve accrued a general contractor and we had a ceremonial groundbreaking, but the real work begins in January.

We also will be working on plans for the Blackridge Reservoir area. We have some—it’s a great problem to have—we’ve got a lot of use of that facility; but the imposition that its creating on the neighbors of that facility is causing problems in the neighborhood with traffic and patron behavior. So we’re working on some solutions to help make sure we can keep that a very pleasant place for the neighborhood as well as insure that the patrons are accommodated as well.

One of the biggest things we do as the city council is we set the budget. So we’ll be beginning that process probably in February or March, going through all the department budgets and looking at what their previous use was of their budget and what their projected needs for this year and even into the future so we can do some strategic planning.

I think we’ve spent a lot of time and effort in making the decision to move forward with our city hall. That, I believe, is the biggest highlight. It is something we have anticipated since 2006 but needed to make sure that the time was right with the budget and where we were so that there would be no increase in taxes for our residents and to make sure and that these plans accommodated our growth into the future,” she said.


District 3 Councilmember Craig Tischner

Craig was re-elected to the Herriman City Council in 2014.

He graduated from Bingham High School and then went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in business administration from American Inter-Continental University. He is also employed by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Craig moved to Herriman in 2005 with his wife, Alicia, and currently has three young boys. He is very family-oriented and agrees that Herriman is the best place to raise a family.

“[For 2016] really getting the Herriman Towne Center underway and also the development that’s on Mountain View Corridor with our commercial development in that area.

In 2016, we’re building the new city hall. We’ve got two new council members.... As of right now, it’s really kind of just focusing on economic development and a sustainable city,” he said.


District 4 Councilmember Nicole Martin

Nicole is the new city council member from District 4.

“I’ve had several years’ city government experience, and so I wanted to be able to take what I know about city government and really put it to work for the residents of Herriman. That includes an in-depth knowledge of city government, local government, and of course a strong network outside of the city that will enable me to do some good things and really help with the growth here in Herriman.

I think my background is very helpful in both communications and economic development, and again local government. My hope, moving forward as an elected official, would be to make sure that we are very proactive with our economic development effort; that we really try and establish a niche for Herriman in terms of economic development. 

We need to have services that enable us to be sustainable as a city so we can keep taxes low and also just have the convenience of having those services in the city. That’s going to be one of my primary focuses is with economic development. 

Secondarily, my background in communications. I want to make sure that we as a city and of course me as a city council member are communicating effectively with our residents; that we’re helping them to understand where we need to go as a city as we grow and that we are listening to their feedback. And, also, that we’re involving them more in the growth of the city,” she said.