Nick López decided to run for Wasatch County Council for the same reasons he ran an ultimately unsuccessful race for Heber City Council last year. After living “a lifetime of service,” he wants to continue working for others.

As a retired sergeant major in the Marines, and someone with three decades of firefighting experience in Salt lake, López is now seeking to be elected to represent Wasatch County constituents on Seat B of the County Council, an at-large position currently held by Steve Ferrill, who did not file to try for another term. López is among four other candidates who filed for the position before the Jan. 8 deadline. 

López moved to Heber City about 10 years ago. He said the municipality reminded him of Sandy in 1969, when there was still open space and distance between towns.

---

---

“The county is growing and one of the things that really needs some focus on — and they have recently been trying to focus and do some catch up — but I think it needs to be continued,” López said, talking about the fire department.

The fire department could benefit from a supporter on the council that will ensure it receives needed funding for the growth it will need to undergo to keep up with the county, he said.

---

---

As Wasatch Fire District Chief Eric Hales has said, López believes the new station to be manned at all times in Heber City will be the first of many needed facilities of its kind.

“We need more,” he said. “They need other stations built throughout the county that will be able to house firefighters, and we need the equipment and the manpower to do it.”

While this will take funding, López believes the needed money exists in Wasatch County’s budget and only needs to be reallocated.

“We just need to have the other departments within the county realize that, ‘Hey, we need to do  little catchup here and I think we can make this happen,'” he said. 

He added that as a councilor, he would also want to make sure sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and members of dispatch are paid enough to retain them.

“I don’t want to lose any of the talent that we have here and the dedication we have here to other departments because we’re not paying them a comparable salary,” he said. 

As lots of other police, sheriff’s and fire departments are dangling bigger carrots in front of prospective recruits, López wants to make sure Wasatch County’s responders have reason enough to stay in their positions.

Another issue López hopes to be able to influence is the growing traffic issues on the county’s roads, which the Utah Department of Transportation has began to address with the Heber Valley Corridor project, a road that would run to the west of Heber City to ease some of the traffic on Main Street, which currently includes not only consistent commuters but also semi trucks traveling on U.S. Highway 40.

Currently, UDOT is working to complete a draft environmental impact statement in which it will consider five possible alternatives for the route. Three of the possible projects would provide frontage roads next to Highway 40 North of Heber City before providing a diverting road that would bypass the city’s center.

The other two would divert much further north of Heber City, running through the north fields.

Many — including López — are worried what this would do to the currently preserved and undeveloped area.

“I think that would disrupt the entire valley as we all know it,” he said. “I think that’s very important that someone works closely with UDOT and the other cities that are throughout the valley to make sure that we’ve got the right bypass project if it actually is approved. … We can’t continue to let UDOT take their time in putting these safety measures in these freeways in place.”

López also talked about his desire to make sure properties are being accurately assessed, developers bear the cost burden of infrastructure needed for their projects, and zoning laws are followed.

“I don’t like to see four-story buildings going next to a single family residence neighborhood,” he said. “That’s just not conducive of what we want out of here.”

For more affordable housing, he suggested accessory dwelling units like mother-in-law apartments and similar structures. He believes the small-town atmosphere of Heber City is what makes it a desireable place for its residents, and he wants to preserve that.