Bonneville County mayors talk collaboration for growth
Three Bonneville County mayors spoke to the Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce Tuesday.Iona Mayor Brad Anderson and Ammon Mayor Dana Kirkham gave State of the City addresses during a luncheon with local businessmen and women.Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper was attending a meeting in Boise. She pre-recorded her speech.
The overall tone was that with the new leadership in the cities, this a time to grow and collaborate on new business.
“It’s a nice little community and we are looking forward to more businesses coming out there. It would be nice to have a couple restaurants, maybe a hardware store, those kinds of things,” said Anderson.
“There is a marked change in the conversation today than it was eight years ago and that is really the spirit of cooperation. Really, everyone recognizes the benefit of working together instead of being protective of our own entity, saying OK, collectively from Pocatello to Rexburg, we benefit from working together and bringing new business to this area. Because whoever gets the business, in the spirit of competition, benefits all of us,” said Kirkham.
“We have to look at what is available to you to create growth and economic development. If there is tax incentives in that for businesses to relocate, I know that the contrary and the flipside is people have played by some rules and they are paying full boat, but it’s a new era and we have to look at how we are going to grow things,” said Mike Lehto, Idaho Falls City Council president.
The mayors will be together again this Friday. City leadership from Pocatello to Driggs will be discussing economic development, fiber optics, water rights and the 2104 legislative agenda.
