*This article and its headline was edited since publication to correct the spelling of Mayor Olson’s name from Olsen.
Mayor Olson took time in the City Council Meeting to present a vision of a Santaquin with miles of mountain biking trails up the Santaquin Canyon that connect to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.
He revealed that 43% of questioned Santaquin residence reported that they wanted more walking and biking trails in our city. He went on to describe a plan to give them just that.
The City owns two plots of land up in Santaquin Canyon, one 80 acre plot and a 40 acre plot. Pipeline service trails could possibly provide an additional 1.7 miles of trail.
The Mayor floated this idea, appealing to the bank accounts of the residents. He claims that the entire project would cost very little, insisting that someone has already donated a bulldozer. The Mayor insisted that he would personally operate the dozer to clear an area for a parking lot to keep costs low.
The City reportedly owns gravel pits, so the gravel for the parking lot would be extremely cheap as well.
The only real expense of this project, the Mayor said, would be the bathroom that could be installed near the parking lot, and the time for the city engineers to analyze the trail paths for erosion issues.
Another perk of the paths, the Mayor claimed, is that they will provide a firebreak when another fire breaks out in the canyon.
The Mayor said, “If [we] build it, [the mountain biking community] will come…” bringing with them money to spend at our businesses.
The Mayor pointed out that Santaquin is a historic city and there are grants available through the state to pay for parks and sites that are historic in nature.
The Mayor called on Cam Mortensen, a mountain biker, to give his opinion. Cam said that the biking community is hungry for new vistas. He said that bikers would advertise the location via headcams and YouTube, as well.