Gold, Jones, Rutter and Turner return to seats on South Salt Lake City Council

In January, four re-elected members of the South Salt Lake City Council began a new four-year term.

Councilmembers Mike Rutter, LeRoy Turner, Ryan Gold and Irvin Jones all ran for elected office to continue to represent the interests of South Salt Lake City residents in their local government.

Rutter was re-elected to a second term as the South Salt Lake City Council At-Large representative. He was appointed to the council almost six years ago to fill a mid-term vacancy and was later elected to the council to serve his first term.

Rutter said he ran for office to help continue the progress made in South Salt Lake over the last two years, when Mayor Cherie Wood began initiatives to bring more positive development and change to the city.

His goals for his upcoming term would be follow-through with major improvement projects begun in during his last term, he added.

Those projects include the redevelopment process in the Central Pointe area at the crossroads between the UTA TRAX station at 2100 South and the planned streetcar line along the northern border of the city; and the project to see the former Granite High School building and campus transformed into a city center for community use.

“I truly believe Granite High School is important to our city,” Rutter said.

Turner will also begin a second term on the council this year. He returns to represent the District 4 area, which lies between borders drawn near 3300 South on the north side, 700 East to the east, 3900 South at the south edge and State Street along the west.

Turner also cited the continuation of the ongoing Granite High School project and Central Pointe redevelopment as reasons to run for office. In addition, Turner counts the recent addition of the new China Town commercial development in his district as another example of progress made.

“There are a lot of good things happening [in South Salt Lake],” Turner said.

Jones served as city council member after he was appointed in Jan. 2010 to fill the vacancy after the previous member resigned. He returns to serve his first elected term representing District 5 in the southwest corner of the city.

Jones said he would like to encourage more residents to get involved with the public process and provide constructive feedback on city projects.

In addition, Jones said he would like to see more of the type of progress already being made in the city, such as the decrease in the crime rate and upcoming development projects.

With regard to the Granite High School project, Jones said he would like to see an educational program be included in the project.

“[The city] is not in the education business, but we need to facilitate that,” Jones said.

Gold was appointed to the city council in Oct. 2010 to fill a mid-term vacancy. He was re-elected in November to represent District 1, an area that covers the northeast corner of the city.

Gold was unavailable for comment at press time.