Mayoral Message

MAYORAL MESSAGE MAYORAL MESSAGE

I recently had the opportunity to deliver my sixth annual State of the City address during a St. George Area Chamber of Commerce luncheon. It was great to communicate to a large audience about our City’s accomplishments and what we have planned. I think you’ll agree it is a great time to live in St. George. Our optimism is overflowing.

Those unable to attend can watch the State of the City in its entirety at www. sgcity.org. For those who don’t have an hour to spare, I’d like to offer a condensed version. It is broken into two sections: City Accomplishments and More Happening Ahead.

What is resilience? Dr. Ernestine Briggs-King of the Duke University School of Medicine and the National Child City Accomplishments

Traumatic Stress Network defines it as “the ability to recover or adapt following a traumatic event.” She further explains that resilience includes “handling or coping with adversity in a way that fosters growth and strength.” • IRONMAN 70.3 announced its world championship race will come to St. George in September 2021. This will bring an influx of athletes and their supporters to our city. Recent hosts of the world championship include Nice, France, and Taupo, New Zealand. This is a big-time event. • What factors lead to resilience? Dr. Briggs-King points to connections to other people as being key. She’s not alone. The St. George Regional Airport runway project was completed on time and within the budget. The day it reopened,

Most researchers agree, and really, it doesn’t take a lot of research to know that hard things are easier to bear when we have someone we can lean on. If you’ve seen billboards along I-15 the past few months, you know that suicide prevention looks a lot like spending time connecting with another person. American Eagle via SkyWest added a new flight to and from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Remember, the more people fly out of St. George, the more flights come to St. George. • As our City has grown, so has our need for more firefighters. In 2019, we hired nine new full-time firefighters thanks to the SAFER grant, which helps pay their salaries for several years. • The people who settled much of the West, including our corner of Utah, understood this. Here in Washington We have implemented significant water-saving measures at each of our four city-owned golf courses, which are already

County, they were a diverse group—musicians and blacksmiths, farmers and craftsmen. They came from all over irrigated with reuse water. the world and spoke several different languages. They understood that their survival required working together and • Attainable housing is a significant challenge, and we are meeting it head on. We formed the Housing Action Coalition embracing their diversity.to collaborate on ideas and educate the public. • We hosted four Neighborhood Open Houses in different areas of town.

Connections with people may be a bit more difficult right now, but we are creative, caring people and fully capable of finding ways to see the people behind the literal and metaphorical masks we wear. Over the coming months, let’s make it More Happening Ahead • Our City campus is undergoing extensive renovation. City Hall and the police station will be updated and enlarged, and our individual missions to find safe and kind ways to connect with others. a parking structure will give us an increase of more than seventy parking spaces. • This brings us to another piece of research. Dr. Sherry Hamby, PhD, published an article in Psychology Today entitled While we will be hosting two separate IRONMAN 70.3 events in 2021, we will bring back the full-distance IRONMAN

“Sense of Purpose—The Most Important Strength?” (January 31, 2020). In the article, she details a research project in 2020. This 140.6-mile endurance test was here from 2010 to 2012. aimed at finding the top nine or ten strengths that lead to resilience. The results were surprisingly consistent: “A sense of • Fire Station Six is being remodeled and will become a full-time station this spring. purpose appears to contribute to well-being more than other strengths,” she concluded. I see that exhibited throughout our community. • Desert Color and Desert Canyons master-planned developments are vertical in southern St. George. Desert Color was honored recently for its water-conservation measures. • Sand Hollow Aquatic Center is getting a new roof, Snake Hollow Bike Park will see improvements, and the Missing

The holidays often lead us to think beyond ourselves. These past couple of months, we have seen so many examples Link Trail—part of the Virgin River North Trail system—is under construction. of this, from basket brigades and other meals provided to those in need on Thanksgiving to Toys For Tots and Coins for • We have four Neighborhood Open Houses scheduled in 2020: Feb. 27 at SunRiver Community Center; April 9 at Vernon

Kids at Christmastime. Virtual fund raisers have been the norm since COVID-19 hit, and our residents have opened their Worthen Park; Sept. 10 at South Mountain Community Church; Oct. 22 at 2450 East Park. hearts and their wallets to help non-profit groups (ie: other people!) even in the middle of difficult times for themselves. This article is just a taste of the eighty-five slides in my State of the City presentation. There is so much going on in St. George! As we move ahead with plans to make this City the best place in the world to work and play, my colleagues and I feel We all do better when we are needed—when we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We have friends and honored to serve the citizens of this great community. neighbors who need us. Let’s continue to look for opportunities to help others in this new year, whenever and however we are able. Jon Pike

Here’s to a safe, kind, healthy, and resilient 2021!

Mayor, City of St. George

Jon Pike

Mayor, City of St. George