By Cassandra Goff | [email protected] 

Cottonwood Heights

Cottonwood Heights announced plans to build its own city hall in February 2014. Two years and seven months later, on Oct. 29, the ribbon cutting for the new Cottonwood Heights City Hall was held at 2277 East Bengal Blvd. 

Residents were invited to tour the building during an open house from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tours were guided by Cottonwood Heights Youth City Council members and city staff members.

At 4 p.m., current residents, former residents, former staff members and additional attendees sat in the new courtyard of city hall to witness the ribbon cutting. The program began with the Brighton High School Madrigals singing “America the Beautiful.” Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore approached the podium as the applause dwindled to welcome everyone to this special event. He introduced the members of the flag ceremony, who were the Cottonwood Heights Police and Unified Fire Authority. Once again, the Brighton High School Madrigals began to sing. As the audience rose for the flag ceremony, they sang the national anthem as the flag ceremony commenced. Before the audience could regain their seats, Fr. Anthony Savas Pastor asked everyone to remain standing so he could deliver a prayer.

Cullimore introduced the city council, members of the city staff, as well as former staff members and his fellow speakers. He introduced Senator Brian Shiozawa before returning to his seat.

“It has been an honor to work with our wonderful mayor here, Mayor Cullimore,” Shiozawa said. “I can tell you that this is a great, well-managed, wonderful city and a lot of this is due to your city council, city leaders and of course our good mayor, and I’m proud to be here.” 

Shiozawa discussed how Cottonwood Heights is an efficient city when it comes to taxes and accomplishing goals with minimal costs. The city has had sustainable accomplishments.  

“Thank you so much for the opportunity to represent you,” Shiozawa addressed the audience. “I deem it an honor and I look forward to serving again for another four years.” As Shiozawa returned to his seat, the Madrigals performed their last number, “An American Folk Trilogy.”

Gov. Gary R. Herbert approached the podium. “I’ll try and be brief,” he said before he spoke about how Utah has become a successful state. He constantly has people outside of our borders ask how it’s done. 

“One of the secrets to Utah’s success is that we’ve found a sea of collaboration and cooperation,” Herbert said. “You’ve all heard the phrase, it takes a village. Well, you were the villagers coming together here, 11 years ago, to be incorporated into this new city with the hope and desire to become successful.”

Herbert mentioned how he talked to the GSBS Architects briefly and they told him how the concept for the building really was to create a place that helped to establish an identity for Cottonwood Heights.

“This really is a great place to live,” Herbert concluded. 

Cullimore presented a Brighton High School baseball to Herbert as a memento for this occasion. He thanked all the people involved with the creation of city hall, from the property owners who sold to create a space for the city hall to the architects and construction workers, and the residents. He continued to discuss the history of Butlerville, Cottonwood Heights and the city hall building. 

Fellow city leaders joined Cullimore to cut the big blue ribbon with gigantic scissors, which officially announced the opening of the new city hall. The council signaled to members toward the back of the courtyard and they released blue and white balloons in celebration. 

All the attendees were invited inside to tour the new building as well as to listen to local musicians in the multipurpose room.

The total building cost of the new building was $16.5 million. It was constructed on 4.77 acres of land with the internal structure reaching over 34,000 square feet. 

The Cottonwood Heights City Hall is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The Community Room, Council Chambers and additional rooms are available for rental use.

A time-lapse of construction can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp7WMqKRWNQ&feature=youtu.be.

The Cottonwood Heights city website is http://cottonwoodheights.utah.gov/.