Kamas Mayor Lew Marchant announced Thursday that he will campaign for a third term because continuity in leadership is needed as growing pains squeeze the small town east of Park City.

Elected officials in Kamas have no term limits.

“I feel I have at least another term,” said Marchant, 64, who recently underwent major surgery.

He had considered not running because of health issues. The Republican has been mayor of Kamas since 2002 and is near the end of his second term. He was a Kamas planning commissioner and served two years on the City Council before being elected mayor.

Nobody else has indicated they will campaign for the nonpartisan post.

“For at least a year I have thought about the election coming up and what my plans would be,” Marchant said in an interview at his office at City Hall. “I knew that depended on the outcome of the surgery.”

Meanwhile, Kamas City Council seats belonging to Rod Smith and Diane Atkinson are also on the ballot in November, he said.

“I think we have an extremely close-knit council,” Marchant said. “We do have times when we disagree. Sometimes differences of opinion and maybe even disagreements make for better decisions.”

Marchant also noted that morale among the city’s eight employees is high.

“We have developed great teamwork in our city,” he said. “Regardless of what happens with the upcoming election, I feel great about the things we have accomplished in the two terms I have had.”

There has been a commercial boom in Kamas on Marchant’s watch.

“Kamas has been the hub of this valley for as long as I have known,” said Marchant, who was born in South Summit. “We have felt that we wanted to encourage that same process, remain the commercial hub of the valley.”

Marchant said he looks forward to seeing through commercial projects along State Road 248 in the entryway corridor. He boasted about architecture on the new Kamas Health Center at 151 W. 200 South.

“We have a vision of extending that look Wanting to be involved, particularly in some of the projects that are already started, is a reason that I want to run,” Marchant said. “We’ll have a beautiful entryway coming into our city.”

If re-elected, Marchant said he would push the council to limit residential growth in Kamas.

“We’re not really encouraging a lot of residential growth within our city limits,” he said, adding that Kamas businesses will be supported by customers in neighboring Oakley and Francis.

Growth will impact most decisions any person elected in Kamas makes in the next four years, Marchant said.

“That has always been my greatest concern and I think it will continue to be the greatest concern for Kamas City and Kamas Valley as a whole,” he said. “We’ve probably had more growth during the past seven years than any other time in the history of Kamas.”

With a population estimated at nearly 1,500, Kamas is the second largest city in Summit County.

“Everything that you’re going to consider in the next four years will be growth related, whether it’s additional police officers, additional office staff or additional public works personnel,” he said. “Growth is going to affect every decision that you make.”

Marchant, who is married, has two children who he adopted. He has six grandchildren. Marchant owns a flower shop in Kamas with his wife and drives a bus in the South Summit School District.

Coalville Mayor Duane Schmidt has also said he will seek another term in November. Francis Mayor John Bergen said recently that he will not campaign this year. Mayors in Oakley and Henefer haven’t said whether they will campaign again.

The filing window during which candidate papers must be submitted opens July 1. Council seats and the mayor posts will be on the ballots in five East Side cities and town.