First ever State of the Cities and County Breakfast

Madison County and cities within the county want to work closer with each other. Today, the first ever “State of the Cities and County Breakfast” was held. Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce put on the event to help bring the benefits of cooperation between the cities, county and business community.

“Stronger Together,” that was the theme for this year’s Rexburg State of the Cities and County Breakfast. Their goal? To bring city, county and businesses under the same roof.

“I think this was just a good way to unite everybody, there’s business owners and community officials, county officials, city officials,” Alison Banta, 2018 Chairman of the Board – Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce, said. “This was just a good way to unite all of those together and just bring some unity to start the new year off.”

Mayor’s of Rexburg and Sugar City, and the Commissioner of Madison County were asked to speak about about the previous year’s accomplishments.

Like the number of out of town guest’s the cities and county saw because of the eclipse and Rexburg’s remodel of center street.

“We made that a lot more attractive of a place to be we did a big remodel of our wastewater treatment plant,” Mayor Jerry Merrill, City of Rexburg, said. “And we’re talking millions of dollars whenever we talk wastewater treatment plant’s.”

What they are looking forward to in 2018.

“Our future is very bright,” Merrill said. “We’ve got a lot of good, great things to look forward to in this year and the years to come.”

Some of those plans include new upgrades of development’s to bring in more housing, new restaurants, and office spaces in the downtown Rexburg area.

Some restaurants that will be coming to Rexburg are Five Guys Burgers, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, and Righteous Slice.

As well, Navex Global and Idaho Central Credit Union will be expanding into new areas.

Merrill says these new businesses, and restaurants will open up more jobs for the community.

Sugar City Mayor, David Ogden, is hoping to finish their $3.7 million water and drilling project.

And Madison County Commissioner, Jon Weber, is going to start upgrades to the court house and hopes to get rid of county waste in a greener and safer way. As well, he hopes to work on transportation planning and moving more vehicles efficiently.

Together the two cities and county hope to use each other to accomplish each task.

“We have a great relationship,” Merrill said. “And plan to help each other on projects as much as we can.”

And that way they can become “Stronger Together.”

Construction in Rexburg has picked up in the past few years because of the new buildings, and community developments. Another factor, is more and more people are selling lands and homes to make room for the developments. City of Rexburg sees 2018 to be just as steady.