November 2021 | Vol. 8 Iss. 11
FREE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS, CURRENT AND PAST, UNVEIL CENTENNIAL PLAZA OUTSIDE CITY HALL By Carl Fauver | c.fauver@mycityjournals.com
Y
ou know the evening is going to be unusual when you hear a “classical” version of the Guns N’ Roses signature rock song “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” More unusual: the group performing it is called the “Vitamin String Quartet.” And odder still, the “DJ” cranking the hits—on Oct. 15, outside Taylorsville City Hall—is City Attorney (and part-time rocker in his own right) Tracy Cowdell. But somehow it all seemed appropriate because the most unusual thing of the entire evening—after a near-20-year wait—was witnessing Taylorsville City campus visitors finally seeing something other than barren, raw, isanything-ever-going-in-there dirt, south of city hall. At a cost of “a little more than $3 million dollars,” the acreage is now officially home to Centennial Plaza. “Our Centennial Plaza is everything we thought it would be and something Taylorsville residents will be able to visit and enjoy for years to come,” Mayor Kristie Overson told a crowd of about 50 onlookers, just before the early evening ribbon cutting. “This will be a wonderful place for movies in the park, a farmers market, outdoor arts performances and many other activities. We are overjoyed with how it turned out.”
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Following Overson’s brief comments, a somewhat chilled crowd walked out to the new city campus waterwall/gateway signs, near 5400 South, to witness the ribbon cutting. There the mayor was joined by current city council members Anna Barbieri, Ernest Burgess, Curt Cochran and Meredith Harker, along with former councilwoman (2010–2017) Dama Barbour. Barbour was on the city council at a time when Taylorsville was receiving many offers to purchase portions of the open space that now house the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center and Centennial Plaza. Her eyes misted, as she recalled the tenacity the council showed in not selling out. “The minute the city bought this land (20plus years ago) I had a concept of what it could be: a community gathering place,” Barbour said. “I wanted people to enjoy coming here because the site was more than just the police department and municipal court. Sure, those are important. But they don’t often make people smile. This will make people smile.” Barbour said the closest they ever came to selling part of the acreage while she was on the city council was about 10 years ago, when a private company wanted a portion of it to construct
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Elected officials current and past cut the grand opening ribbon on the new $3-million Centennial Plaza, in front of Taylorsville City Hall, on October 15. (Carl Fauver/City Journals)
a senior care center. “They wanted the southeast corner of the (19.6-acre) property, right where the performing arts center is now,” she said. “I lobbied hard against that. It was a real debate, because the city could have used the money then (just after the 2007–2009 Great Recession). Thankfully
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we held out, and you can see what’s there now.” As Barbour said that, she gestured to the $40 million MVPAC, which opened last summer. Salt Lake County funded the art center construction and operates the facility now on acreage leased from Taylorsville City. Continued page 4
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