Mere hours after Gov. Spencer Cox banned fireworks across the state until after the Fourth of July, one city in the Wasatch Back considered designating specific areas for the public to safely discharge fireworks, which would have been allowed under the emergency declaration.

The Heber City Council held an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the possibility of allowing the use of fireworks at six public parks from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on July 4.

Wasatch Fire District Chief Eric Hales said at the meeting he would have preferred three or four locations. That’s because Independence Day is typically busy for the Wasatch Fire District, which would not have the bandwidth to send firefighters to monitor the six parks for that entire 12-hour period. 

Instead, the Fire District would have provided 5-gallon water buckets at each park for residents to dispose of fireworks responsibly and put out any small fires if needed. 

Heber City resident Barb Clark supported a citywide fireworks ban.

“I live in the north end, and we have a lot of people that just love their aerials. Cops have been called several times over the years that I’ve lived there. My house gets bombarded with shrapnel the next day, and all this detritus all over the place,” she said. 

Clark said she appreciated the logic of giving people who might set off fireworks anyway a safe place to do so, but that she was skeptical that everyone would follow the rules or even be aware of them in the first place.

The final decision ultimately came down to Mayor Heidi Franco, per Cox’s executive order. 

Franco expressed concern that Heber City would see an influx of visitors wanting to set off fireworks if they were allowed in some locations because fireworks were banned everywhere else in the Wasatch Back. She announced a citywide ban the following morning.

“This beautiful valley and mountains protect us, and now we need to protect them. Plus, your safety is most important,” she said. 

She referred to the city’s encouragement of voluntary water conservation to combat the current drought, saying, “The recent rain is not enough. … Let’s not make our city’s situation worse.”

Despite the ban, several public officials, including city councilors, Hales and Heber City Police Chief Parker Sever predicted fireworks use would likely happen over the holiday anyway.

Sever hails from Hanford, California, where he said fireworks are never allowed. Despite that, he said it was “difficult to enforce” and would likely be even more difficult in Heber City, where public fireworks use is typically allowed over the holiday.

“People aren’t putting on a big show, so by the time we triangulate where these things are going on from the sky, usually, their show’s done. And then, neighbors don’t want to tell on their neighbors,” he said.

Cox’s ban lasts July 2-6. Discharging fireworks in Utah is already illegal all other times, except July 22-25 for Pioneer Day, on Dec. 31 and for Chinese New Year. Cox has not announced the state’s approach to Pioneer Day fireworks. 

Oakley Mayor Steve Wilmoth said Friday the city plans on keeping the fireworks display at the Oakley Rodeo. 

More than 75% of Utah’s wildfires have been human-caused since the beginning of the fire season, according to the governor. 

Wasatch Fire Marshal Clint Neerings said most fires started by fireworks come down to “negligence and/or ignorance,” including people who set them off near vegetation, dispose of them in dumpsters without soaking them in water or discharge an aerial firework that inadvertently launches horizontally instead of vertically.

State forester Jamie Barnes described the quick spread of wildfires due to dry vegetation and the current drought as “unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory.”

Hales agreed with that assessment.

“Coming out of the winter we came out of, and then the fire behavior and all the fires that we’re having in the state, it’s just getting drier and hotter,” he said. “We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve only had a handful of starts within Wasatch County, and they’ve been very small.”

He said wildfire risk is poised to get worse and worse going into July, and that what little moisture the county may receive is “not enough to make a difference.”

Violating Cox’s fireworks ban is punishable by an infraction and a fine of up to $1,000.

More severe punishments apply to areas under Stage 2 Fire Restrictions. Both Wasatch and Summit counties entered into Stage 2 Fire Restrictions on Friday. These restrictions apply to unincorporated state and private lands in both counties. Whether or not to implement Stage 2 Fire Restrictions in individual cities comes down to the decision of the local government. In 2025, Stage 2 Fire Restrictions weren’t implemented statewide until July 31.

The following actions are banned, will be enforced by county law enforcement and are punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine up to $1,000:

• Building, maintaining, attending or using a campfire or stove fire.
• Smoking, except with an enclosed vehicle, trailer, building, developed recreation site or while stopped in an area that is paved or free from dry vegetation.
• Discharging or using any fireworks, tracer ammunition or other pyrotechnic devices, including exploding targets.
• Cutting, welding or grinding metal in areas of dry vegetation.
• Operating a motorcycle, chainsaw, ATV or other small internal combustion engine without an approved and working spark arrestor.

The post Wasatch Back responds to Gov. Cox’s fireworks ban appeared first on Park Record.

When Gov. Spencer Cox signed Senate Bill 127 into law in 2022, Utah set a goal: to have 70% of third graders statewide reach proficiency on the state-administered Acadience reading assessment by July 1, 2027.

Sixteen months before the deadline, a study by the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute showed the Park City School District was the only school district in the state to meet the goal in 2025, with 70.1% of students proficient. Meanwhile, the Wasatch County School District ranked 30 out of 41 public school districts, with less than 50% of third graders proficient. 

But those statistics are no longer accurate because a new law changes how the state defines reading proficiency. 

When the institute performed the study, the state defined reading on grade level as scoring above the benchmark on the Acadience reading assessment. Therefore, the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s data only included “blue” Acadience scores. 

“The way Acadience works is you get a certain score, and then you’re either a blue, which means you’re above grade level; you’re a green, which is on grade level; you’re a yellow, just below grade level; (or) a red, which are the kids we’re really concerned about,” explained Superintendent Garrick Peterson. 

Sixty-nine percent of Wasatch County School District third graders received a blue or green score on the Acadience assessment in 2025, according to Stacey Moore, the district’s chief of staff.

The state’s definition of reading proficiency changed to include both blue and green scores, those above and at grade level, after Cox signed S.B. 241 into law last week.

The law also supplants the old third-grade literacy goal for Utah: instead of 70% of third graders reading on grade level by July 1, 2027, the law shifts the goal to 80% by July 1, 2030. 

Republican Sen. Ann Millner, who represents Davis, Morgan and Weber counties, introduced the bill during the legislative session. 

The third grade is the only grade in which students take two reading assessments: the Acadience reading test, which is administered in kindergarten through grade three, then optionally grades four to six, and the RISE assessment, which stands for Readiness Improvement Success Empowerment, the state-administered test that students take grades three through eight each year.

Acadience focuses on fluency and accuracy, the speed at which students read the text and whether they make mistakes in reading it, while RISE focuses on comprehension, students’ understanding of the text. 

“That RISE test is supposed to mirror what a kid should be able to do if they were college-ready for their grade level,” Peterson explained. 

He said RISE is more rigorous than Acadience, so the district focuses on RISE scores when measuring reading proficiency.

“In our district, we choose, especially after first grade, to really focus on comprehension, … because that’s the end game with reading. Can I read the comprehended text and make sense of it, use it for different purposes?” he added.

The reason for the state’s change in definition for reading proficiency is that S.B. 241 creates a requirement to hold back third graders not reading on grade level, “except in cases of certain good cause exemptions.” In lower grades, retention must be considered but is not required.

Peterson provided examples of good-cause exemptions, including students with learning disabilities, English language learners and students who are making “great growth toward being on grade level.” 

“(The bill) is asking us to really take into account each kid and what’s best for them, and to consider that retention piece as a tool that can be used,” he said.

Peterson said holding a student back can be detrimental socially, but that reading proficiency is an equally important component of a child’s development. 

He added that the decision to hold back a student comes down to both the school and the students’ parents or guardians.

During a school board study session on Feb. 24, before S.B. 241 had passed, board member Brad Ehlert expressed reservations about retention.

“My son was held back in first grade. It was the worst decision we made as parents, and it affected him. He was not an IEP kid, and he became one because of that. That’s a problem,” he said. “The idea that we’re moving the majority of the group forward at the expense of some does not seem to be appropriate. If the goal is to collectively move as many people forward as we can, having a threat over somebody’s head is not how you do that.”

School Board President Kim Dickerson agreed. 

Peterson’s view is that retention will not occur as long as the school district can meet the challenges set by S.B. 241.

“We need to accept responsibility to get that individual reading plan in place and show progress, period. That’s on us. And so, if we do that, then no one should be held back,” he said. “Our principals know where this is. They know the challenges ahead. It is a hefty one. We’d always talk when we do work around this, that we’re messing with kids’ lives. If we can get them on grade level, then all the options of life are opened up to them. We build their confidence.” 

There’s now a flip side to that, Peterson said. 

“If you can’t do that, you could destroy that kid’s life forever.”

S.B. 241 takes effect July 1. Andrea Brandley, senior education analyst with the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, noted that the institute will likely release a follow-up publication in the next few months to incorporate the state’s new definition of reading proficiency.

The post Wasatch County School District hopes to prevent retention in wake of new legislative requirement appeared first on Park Record.

Today she’s Utah’s first lady, but she grew up poor on a family ranch in Mount Pleasant, one of 10 children, Abby Cox told an audience of Wasatch County students and residents at the annual Issues Conference this week. 

It wasn’t until she was volunteering at a homeless shelter as an adult that her upbringing was recontextualized.

“Sometimes, we’re like … ‘That would never happen to me,’” she said. “My dad lost his job when I was 10 years old. … That could have been me in that homeless shelter.”

Promoting empathy for others’ situations was a key message of the Issues Conference, which featured speakers Cox and Roosevelt rodeo athlete Braxten Nielsen, who shared his story of learning to walk again after an injury left him paraplegic. 

The Issues Conference has been held annually for 37 years and is a collaborative effort of Wasatch County Parks & Recreation, the Wasatch County Health Department, Wasatch Behavioral Health and the Wasatch County School District. The conference aims to address community issues and build resilience in Wasatch County’s youth. 

Wasatch County Recreation Center Director Amaria Scovil said engendering more understanding for differences in opinion was the goal of this year’s conference.

That’s the same mission as Gov. Spencer Cox’s “Disagree Better” initiative, which promotes civil debate across the political aisle.

In her speech, Abby Cox targeted social media and news outlets as contributors to youth mental health issues and the polarization of U.S. politics.

She said she had been talking to a middle and high school teacher the day prior who shared that their students were struggling because things were “really heavy for them right now.”

“I thought I had a lot of stress as a kid working on the farm,” she said. “But what occurs to me is that what you’re facing is these moments that as humans we were never meant to face. We were never meant to carry around these heavy things, social media and the politics that you’re seeing every day, the world events that you’re seeing every day.”

She showed a clip from an interview with Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation,” the New York Times best-seller about the impact of phones on youth.

“How about, all of a sudden, we give everybody a video arcade in their pocket, a porn theater in their pocket, a gambling casino in their pocket, every television station in their pocket? Oh, and they can bring it to school. How about that?” Haidt said. “That’s what changed. The loss of what we recognize as childhood … and the replacement by basically just different apps, all day long.”

Though Haidt is a proponent for banning student cell phone use in schools, Abby Cox did not mention Senate Bill 96, the bill that would restrict student smart device use for the entire school day that passed in the Utah State House of Representatives Feb. 26. As of Friday morning, the bill still needed to be signed into law by her husband, the governor. If signed, the bill would take effect July 1. 

However, she did refer to Utah’s four lawsuits against social media companies filed since 2023. The lawsuits are a collaboration between the Utah Office of the Attorney General and the Utah Department of Commerce’s Division of Consumer Protection. Two of the lawsuits are against TikTok, while one is against Meta, and one is against Snap Inc. 

The four lawsuits focus on “alleged unconscionable design features and business practices that may encourage prolonged and compulsive use by minors, misrepresent the level of safety provided to parents or young users or fail to adequately protect children from harm” and aim to “place reasonable restrictions that ensure minors are not harmed by these companies that have prioritized profits over their health and wellbeing,” according to the Office of the Attorney General. 

“Social media companies know exactly what they’re doing to you, and they don’t care,” Cox said. “They know that they are hurting you. That’s the point because every click, every video, every time you’re sitting there scrolling, you are giving them your money. So they are getting rich off your anxiety, depression and self-harm.”

She added that social media, news outlets and politicians feed on anger and political polarization. 

When consuming news, it is important to be aware of bias and to know that “on either side, somebody is trying to get you outraged,” she argued, adding that outrage and hopelessness feed a cycle of continued social media use.

“They want you to look inside and say, ‘I lose hope because I can’t do anything about this. I can’t do anything about the conflict in Iran. I can’t do anything about the conflict in other places. I can’t do anything about the people that are getting hurt that I see every day,’” she said.

Cox argued the solution was found in community service.

“You’re not going to go out and change whatever’s happening in all those crazy places that you’re reading about every day,” she said. “Each one of us has the opportunity to make a change that actually, eventually does change the world because it changes our neighborhoods, our classrooms, our schools.”

She said that could be done in a number of ways, whether it’s finding someone who’s sitting alone and striking up a conversation with them or choosing to meet a difference of opinion with curiosity instead of anger. 

“Unity isn’t believing the same thing, it’s acting together. … When we look at each other and continue to see the humanity in someone else, despite our differences, that’s when we can come together,” she said. “Look for ways to serve and connect with your fellow humans, and see each other, always, as human.”

The post Utah’s first lady joins annual Issues Conference appeared first on Park Record.

A Park City councilor seeking reelection received a contribution from an organization linked to Gov. Spencer Cox, a rare appearance of a chief executive of the state on a financial report of a candidate seeking a post at the Marsac Building.

The contribution to incumbent City Councilor Tana Toly was one of the highlights of the final campaign finance filings by the three City Council candidates prior to Election Day on Tuesday. An organization called Friends of Governor Spencer Cox made the $500 contribution on Oct. 22. It is the final entry on Toly’s filing.

Cox is a Republican. Park City elections are nonpartisan, but the community has long been considered one of the state’s most reliably Democratic places. Toly is registered to vote as unaffiliated. She said issues before the City Council normally are nonpartisan in nature.

Toly said she received the check from the organization in the mail and did not solicit the contribution. She said she has met the governor on multiple occasions, but is not in contact with him or his office on a regular basis.

Toly is a member of the board of directors of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, an organization that promotes issues important to local governments and is regularly involved in Statehouse matters.

“It’s about the person, not the party,” Toly said, describing that the governor wants to “elevate Utah together.”

She said the contribution from the organization did not arrive with an explanation. Toly afterward contacted the organization to express her gratitude and learn more about the decision to contribute to the campaign.

Toly in a prepared statement said she is “grateful to have received a campaign contribution from Governor Cox’s campaign, Friends of Governor Cox.”

“This support reflects the relationships I’ve built at the state level and the work I’ve done to ensure Park City continues to have a strong voice in state conversations,” she said.

Toly’s financial report otherwise showed she raised nearly $11,400 and had a balance of a little more than $255 on Tuesday. The city councilor throughout the campaign has garnered financial support from the establishment of Park City.

Toly received a recent contribution of $500 from Equality Utah.

Toly is seeking a second term on the City Council.

The other two candidates are incumbent City Councilor Jeremy Rubell, who is also seeking a second term, and nonprofit executive Diego Zegarra. There are only three candidates on the City Council ballot instead of the customary four after businessman John Kenworthy ended his campaign in September amid concerns about the tenor of the contest. Two City Council seats are on the ballot on Tuesday as well as the mayor’s office. The winners will be sworn into office in early January for four-year terms.

The fundraising by Zegarra topped the field by a wide margin. He brought in more campaign monies than the other two candidates combined. He also led during an earlier reporting period. Zegarra’s fundraising total was nearly $41,300. He had a balance of a little more than $6,400 at the time of the report in late October. Much of the fundraising was accomplished during the earlier reporting period.

Zegarra listed a $500 contribution from Equality Utah, a prominent civil rights organization in the state that works on issues important to the LGBTQ+ community. Zegarra also listed a $100 contribution from longtime ski-industry executive Mike Goar, COO of Park City Mountain from 2019 to 2022, received in August. Goar was a member of the board of directors of the Park City Community Foundation, where Zegarra works.

Rubell reported nearly $19,900 in contributions and almost that total in expenses, leaving the campaign with a little more than $490 at the time of the report. He received an October contribution of $3,000 from Trevor Mathers, listed with an address in New York City. Rubell said he is unsure whether Mathers attended a campaign event and said the contribution was made through the campaign website.

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