By Mariden Williams | [email protected]

Following a city council meeting on Feb. 19, Riverton Mayor Trent Staggs delivered the annual State of the City address at the Old Dome Meeting Hall. Just like last year, he proclaimed Riverton to be “strong, prosperous and growing,” and presented a look forward at some of the city’s plans for 2019. After Staggs’ remarks, each member of the city council gave a more individualized report on their specific districts.

“2019 will bring a continued emphasis on standing up the Riverton Police Department, a commitment to the safety, security and mental health of our students, and a focus on emergency preparedness,” said Staggs. 

He also expressed confidence that 2019 would be a fantastic year for Riverton economically, since the 1.6 million-square-foot Mountain View Village shopping center will be breaking ground for its second phase of development. This phase will include a movie theater, a massive multimillion-dollar fountain and other entertainment options to complement the numerous restaurants and retail outlets that moved in last year. Together, all of this is expected to bring Riverton millions of dollars in sales tax revenue.

Thanks to this economic prosperity, a municipal fee reduction may in the cards for Riverton residents this year. Riverton’s annual general fund expenditures have fallen by almost $300,000 in the last three fiscal years, dropping from $8.9 million in fiscal year 2015–2016 to $8.6 million in the most recently closed out 2017–2018 fiscal year. Also, $714,000 has been added to the general fund’s fund balance, which ended June 30, 2018, at $2.8 million. 

“With this increased fund balance, and given the projections over the course of this fiscal year, I will be looking to reward our residents with a fee holiday or reduction in one or more of the enterprise fees,” Staggs said. “After all, these are your funds.”

This year should also see the expansion of Riverton’s community theater program, fund allocations for a recreation center, more programmable sports field space, renovations to City Hall and the completion of an expansion to the currently at-capacity Riverton cemetery, which will be expanded by almost 1000 burial plots by this Memorial Day. 

“This much-needed expansion will be on time and under budget,” Staggs said. “Once all burial plots are sold, there will be no cost to the city to have established this new section.” 

The State of the City address, with in-person attendance by invitation only, was meant to be broadcast live to the public, but due to some technological difficulties with the meeting hall’s microphones, the audio was unusable. This caused some frustration for hopeful viewers.

“I was at the council meeting, and when they broke to go to the other hall, I thought, I’ll just go home, and I’ll get my wife to bring it up,” said Riverton resident and regular council meeting attendee Mike Johnson. “Well, I go home, and I sit down in a nice comfortable chair, and the mayor comes on, and he’s speaking, and all of a sudden there’s no sound. So, I missed out on a very good speech that our mayor gave.”

If you, too, were hoping to watch the livestream of the State of the City address, all is not completely lost. You may not be able to hear the city council members’ individual district reports, but the full six-page text of Staggs’ address is available to read on the Riverton city website.