Economic development

BRIGHAM CITY — Willard resident Mitch Zundel has been named Box Elder County’s economic development director.

The former Brigham City real estate agent has an undergraduate degree from Utah State University in business information systems and a master of business administration. He is a member of the Willard City Council.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Governor's Office of Economic Development and Family Dollar Stores, Inc. have announced that the company will locate a new distribution facility in Washington County.

MORGAN — All three candidates for the Morgan County Council will be unopposed, and none of the incumbents is running for his or her current seat.

But one face won’t be new. Robert Kilmer, who has filled an at-large council seat since 2011, filed for the four-year District 3 seat. He will be replacing Howard Hansen, who has served on the board for four years.

LAYTON — Big Lots will soon fill the vacancy left when the Reams grocery store closed in August.

Big Lots, currently near the Layton Hills Mall at 495 W. 1425 North, will move into a 47,000-square-foot building at 1040 N. Main St., next to the Reams Western Wear store.

“Being in this business for as long as I’ve been in it, it’s sort of like living in a town or a city before the war and then after the war and then during the reconstruction and then during the time that it sprawls out to the malls.”

— CARLY SIMON

Over the past 20 years, there has been a dynamic shift in the look and feel of the regional shopping center. This truth is emphasized with the completion of the “open-air” City Creek Center in Salt Lake City.

(LAYTON -- A planned 140-acre development is causing some concerns among its soon-to-be neighbors.

"We who live in free market societies believe that growth, prosperity and, ultimately, human fulfillment are created from the bottom up, not the government down. Only when the human spirit is allowed to invent and create, only when individuals are given a personal stake in deciding economic policies and benefiting from their success -- only then can societies remain economically alive, dynamic, progressive and free. Trust the people. This is the one irrefutable lesson of the entire postwar period contradicting the notion that rigid government controls are essential to economic development."

-- RONALD REAGAN

As mayor of a city, I often find myself in random conversations with those I serve as an elected official.