State capital comes to Ashton

The City of Ashton played host today to Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter and several of his cabinet members. Their visit was part of the Governor’s 55th “Capital For A Day” event, where state office holders visit cities around the state to discuss issues of interest with local constituents.

“Bring them out of Boise, get them out of Boise and into places like Ashton and Fremont County, so that we can talk face to face about the issues,” said Otter.The City of Ashton, population barely 1,200 is a mirror opposite image of the state capitol of Boise.

“By the time the legislature comes back into session, we’ll probably have 25 or 30 ideas from all the different agencies that we got from ‘Capital For A Day,'” said Otter.

State leaders say the main issues they discuss with rural counties are fish and game, healthcare and parks and recreation related. Agriculture is also a topic of interest. Governor Otter said Fremont County agriculture is something he knows very well.

“When I was in my former life, my business life, I shipped a lot of potato seed out of Idaho and Fremont County to the rest of the world,” said Otter.

State Superintendent Tom Luna also discussed the state’s education reform being implemented into local schools. He said schools in Fremont County are on the cutting edge of this plan.

“85 percent of our schools said they wanted to be first,” said Luna. “So then it was a process of evaluating and selecting the first third and Fremont and Sugar-Salem School Districts are part of that first third.”

Otter and Luna were accompanied by 12 other state leaders. They’re all expected to return to Boise Thursday night.