The biggest challenge facing the Utah County Commission is maintaining proper and orderly growth.
Speaking at the Provo/Orem Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Forum, Commissioners Gary Herbert, Jerry Grover and David Gardner said they must continue to steer residential growth into the county's incorporated communities and continue to provide the basic services that make Utah County "a great place to live.""We don't want to become another State Street between the Point of the Mountain and Nephi," Gardner said during the State of the County forum, which was held at the Provo Park Hotel.
In addition, the commissioners say they're doing all they can to ensure that there are high-quality and high-paying jobs to support the county's growing populace.
The county's industrial base would improve greatly should the Boise-based Micron Semiconductor Inc. decide to build its $1.3 billion manufacturing expansion in the county and if other businesses opt to locate there as well, Herbert said.
"All this bodes well for the future," Herbert said.
Already, 261 high-tech businesses call Utah County their home. Those businesses employ more than 12,000 and provide more than $3 billion in sales, Herbert said.
"We have the second-highest volume of software sales in the country," Herbert said.
Other challenges facing the commission, which features two first-time county leaders in Gardner and Grover, include improving the county's air quality and keeping property taxes low.
The commissioners said Utah County is the lowest cost government, per capita, in Utah and the county ranks in the top 15 of governmental entities in the United States as far as its fiscal responsibility is concerned.
"We have absolutely no desire to raise taxes," Gardner said. "We have to be absolutely accountable to the taxpayers in our county. That is our stewardship."
Grover, who worked with the Legislature before it adjourned for the year last Wednesday, told those attending that county leaders are starting to get support for their alternative air-quality plan, which would use remote-sensing devices rather than an enhanced emissions and inspections program.
According to Grover, the county may receive funding from the Legislature and could put its program in place this year.
Also, the three commissioners said they have been working well together during their first two months.
"I believe our county is in excellent shape," Herbert said. "My fellow commissioners have some very useful and significant experience that I think the county will find very valuable over the next four years."