Coalville Mayor Duane Schmidt says he will campaign again for the North Summit city’s highest office.
Schmidt was a relative newcomer when he barnstormed into office in 2005 after living in Coalville for only two years. He defeated longtime North Summit resident Rex Smith after former Mayor Howard Madsen chose not to seek another term in office.
Schmidt is the first person in eastern Summit County to declare himself a candidate for the November election. If re-elected to a second term, the mayor said he will continue aggressively lobbying Summit County officials to provide Coalville more support.
“I’m quick to point out the inequities within the county, and if the County Council takes offense to it, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to sit back and be apathetic about what has taken place,” Schmidt said. “It is the county seat and if you talk to a lot of people in Coalville, their feeling is, systematically, piece by piece, the county seat is being dismantled.”
He criticized the former Summit County Commission for agreeing to spend several million dollars for a new health building at Quinn’s Junction as an outdated hospital the county owns in Coalville sits in disarray.
“The county cannot find any money to rehab that hospital. The health department administration is housed in a doublewide trailer in Coalville, yet there was never a problem finding $6 million to build a satellite branch office for the health department (at Quinn’s Junction,)” Schmidt said in an interview Monday. “I’d like to see that $6 million spent over here. The county should have an obligation to invest in their own buildings, and invest in what they have in Coalville.”
Schmidt has championed a roughly $3 million project that could beautify a segment of Main Street by making the business corridor more pedestrian friendly.
The construction could begin in June, Schmidt explained, adding that crews could complete the work within three months.
“I think we’re just starting to see some of the improvements of the hard work that we’ve done over the last three years,” Schmidt said. “I’ve been spending the majority of my time getting this Main Street project going and I feel like I have not completed the job that I started.”
His announcement that he will seek a second term comes months before anybody can formalize their candidacy in July.
Before he was elected mayor, Schmidt, who operates Humpty Dumpsters, a construction-debris removal business, served briefly on the Coalville City Council.
The city could grow without threatening Coalville’s natural beauty or small-town feel, Schmidt said.
While more houses are needed to expand the population, a recent proposal from a developer to construct more than 400 new homes would have practically doubled the size of the town, he said.
“It never came to a point where any sort of approvals came to fruition,” Schmidt said about the proposal. “To cram 450 homes into a small area is not necessarily what I’m after.”
But construction could begin this spring at a new 100-home subdivision in Coalville, he said.
Francis mayor says he won’t run again
Francis Mayor John Bergen said he will not campaign for another term this year.
“I’ve accomplished kind of what I wanted to do as mayor so it’s time for me to go and smell the roses,” Bergen said in a telephone interview.
The 76-year-old served his first stint as Francis mayor in the late 1980s. Bergen was again elected to the post almost four years ago.
“I suspect there will be several (candidates) who file this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, mayors in other eastern Summit County towns say they haven’t decided whether to run for re-election.
Kamas Mayor Lew Marchant said he doesn’t expect to decide until summer.
Oakley Mayor Blake Frazier said he may not seek another term this year.
But Henefer Mayor Randy Ovard, who recently sold a grocery store he owned in Henefer, said he is considering campaigning again.
“Right now, I would have time to do a better job than I have done in the past, and I would consider it very strongly,” Ovard said in a telephone interview. “I would have time to do the job and give it a full-time program.”