Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper talks about reelection campaign

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Incumbent Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper is running for reelection.

"I look back to why I ran in the first place," Casper said. "I am a parent and I'm also a former Girl Scout, and you know, one of the scout rules is that you leave someplace better than you found it. And certainly, as a parent, I want to leave the place that I live and place that I love better than I found it."

Casper says a focus of hers since her first term has been economic development.

"Part of that is aimed at growing your tax base and that lowers everybody's individual tax burden," Casper said. "But it also creates an environment where you have more jobs, where you have hopefully better jobs and you have more services and opportunities and things like that."

Like her challenger Ashley Romero, she's also focusing on housing.

"I will continue to place emphasis on making sure that we grow not just at the fringes where we get new housing developments or we get new miles and miles of housing," Casper said. "But we want to grow intelligently so that we can have that live, work, play kind of feeling throughout the city and not just have one kind of growth in one area."

Casper also said they want to do something called infill development.

"Take all those vacant spots that are in the middle of the city or those old buildings that aren't being used to make sure that they get that, land and real estate gets repurposed," Casper explained. "And so we're finding out that we can place more and more emphasis on that because the council is more and more convinced that that is a smart way for us to grow." 

Casper also said they want to be careful with how they grow the transportation network.

"We want some public transit, but we also want our cars and vehicles and bike riders to have excellent roads," Casper said. "This coming summer there's a plan to redo the intersection at 17th and Woodruff, and that'll when it's done, be able to handle more vehicles and speed things up. If you've ever been in a two-light process there, it'll be a welcome change. So we want to be able to shape growth in ways that make sense, and that is smart and we are working toward that."

Casper also says the city is working together with the Department of Transportation and the Federal Transit Agency, getting a grant for a two-year pilot project for micro-transit. The Greater Idaho Falls Transit Board will keep an eye on the project and see how they can extend it beyond the two years.

"That helps a segment of the population that doesn't drive or that can't drive, and that's important," Casper said. "But all those who do drive, we've got to find ways to manage not only the volume of traffic that we have, but we also want to maybe find ways to be smart about reducing how often we have to get in our cars."

Casper also says the growth the city has been experiencing isn't a bad thing. Saying that fares have gone down 30% to 40% and the multiple new routes they've announced and launched will continue to be a benefit.

"And this is before a lot of members of our business community have returned to full force traveling. So our airport is just going to continue to provide us with better service and better connectivity to where we want to go."

Casper also says Idaho Falls Fiber is helping with connectivity.

"We're closing in on about 2600 customers right now. Demand for that service is steady, and that's great, too, because, with fiber, you can be connected to the world, right? And that's important," Casper said.

Casper also said she has some things she wants to see during her last term if reelected. Saying she's looking forward to some new developments with Idaho Falls Power and Energy.

"One of the things that's most wonderful about living in Idaho Falls is that our power rates are terrific," Casper said. "We have work to do on making sure that our water supply is adequate for the future and so that those conversations are ongoing and they have been for a decade and they will be for a while longer."

Casper also said she's excited about Imagine IF, the comprehensive planning process the state requires they do from time to time.

"Our comprehensive plan this time did a better job than ever of involving more and more citizens and neighborhoods in the dialogue," Casper said. "And that will be coming out hopefully before the end of the year before we hit the holiday season. So there are some good planning efforts underway and some good goals that we have, and I want to be here to help you achieve just a few more of those."