Rexburg mayor seeks response from community

People who live in Rexburg are being called to action by recently elected Mayor Jerry Merrill. He’s put out a survey asking for input of what people want to see happening in Rexburg over his time as mayor.

The mayor said his main goal is: “Through small and simple things, let’s make Rexburg great.” He wants to make sure that both short-term and long-term changes that Rexburg will face are in line with the community’s priorities.

He’s separating issues into quick wins, medium goals and long-term goals. Merrill wants simple easy things such as making Rexburg the friendliest town in the world. A long-range goal is moving the airport farther out of town and big enough to host business class jets. He said he hopes to protect the business backbone already present in Rexburg while bringing in more business to grow the economy.

“Most of our growth has been due to the growth of the university,” Merrill said. “So it’s created a little bit of an unbalance with a lot of people here that need jobs and not a lot of really good jobs available for them. That’s kind of our economic development thrust, really, is to focus on trying to recruit some businesses that would like to take advantage of this highly educated work force that we have.”

The mayor says another goal is to develop a recreation center. He hopes to maintain Rexburg’s slogan of “America’s Family Community.”

Merrill takes office Jan. 6. On that date, he will meet with City Council and they will review the results of his survey.