Daines and Jones advance in Logan municipal primary

FILE PHOTO: Election mail envelopes. Photo by Tiffany Tertipes

LOGAN – As expected, Logan’s voters selected incumbent Mayor Holly H. Daines and challenger businessman Dee Jones as their candidates in municipal primary balloting on Tuesday.

The ballot count in the lopsided voting totaled 3,163 for Daines (65% of votes cast) and 1,531 for Jones (31% of votes cast).

The second challenger for the post of mayor, R. Lowell Huber, garnered only 184 votes (4% of votes cast).

Daines is a Cache Valley native and a graduate of both Utah State University and the University of Utah. Her previous political experience includes eight years as a member of the Logan City Council.

She was elected mayor in 2017 and can claim credit for numerous accomplishments during her first term of office, including a face-lift for Center Street and the implementation of several long-term projects to revitalize the downtown area.

In the next four years, Daines says that she hopes to focus her efforts on completion of the Center Block plaza, construction of a new library, improvement of transportation networks and the expansion of trails and parks.

Jones is a political newcomer who considers himself “a blue-collar person … with deep respect and admiration for our valley and the people that live here.”

If elected, Jones said that one of his priorities will be to give Logan residents a greater voice in their government by creating a six-member city council made up of representatives from each of Logan’s neighborhoods. Those are the Adams, Bridger, Ellis, Hillcrest, Wilson and Woodruff neighborhoods.

He is also concerned about the high cost of utilities for city residents and differs with city officials about their current plans for the revitalization of the downtown area.

Finally, the fledgling candidate promises to have fresh ideas about local issues including the relocation of Fire Station 70, strategies to attract clean industries that provide higher paying jobs and ideas to boost the local tourism industry.

After several disputes with city officials, Huber’s unsuccessful candidacy for mayor of Logan was widely seen as a form of protest.

The most recent of those quarrels involved unpaid fines for Huber’s allegedly neglected property on 1000 North near Logan Middle School

With Huber’s departure from the mayoral contest, Daines and Jones will now face off in the municipal general election on Nov. 2.

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3 Comments

  • Robert Paulson August 11, 2021 at 10:09 am Reply

    Holly Daines is so power hungry she called the CEO of my company to try to get me into trouble so I would stop criticizing her. She doesn’t enjoy criticism of her bad policies. Vote for Dee Jones

  • Struggling Mom August 11, 2021 at 3:25 pm Reply

    Dee Jones wants to represent us all! Rich, middle class, and poor. My family struggles to make ends meet, his push to lower electric bills and help all residents is great. I haven’t seen Daines do anything but talk about spending more money to help causes no one cares about while families struggle to feed their families or pay for water, gas, electric, and rent. Why don’t we fix the old library, why pay even more for a new one? I voted for Jones in the primary and he has my vote in Nov!

    • TM August 16, 2021 at 9:24 pm Reply

      All city utility rates are calculated by a process overseen by the state. There is no magic button to lower costs. There are no secret funds or conspiracies.
      1. Electric rates haven’t increased in the last four years (they actually went down).
      2. Garbage rates have increased because of the new landfill, which was needed. Perhaps if we recycled and composted more over the last 50 years we could have used the old one longer.
      3. Sewer rates have increased because of the new sewage treatment plant required by the federal and state government.
      4. The city doesn’t have anything to do with gasoline or natural gas.
      5. Transfers from utilities to the general city fund are done annually to keep property taxes lower because non-profits, churches, schools and universities don’t pay property taxes but they do pay utilities. If you stop doing the transfer, property taxes would increase.
      6. Property taxes haven’t increased in the last four years.
      7. The city has no control over public school taxes.
      8. The city has no control over sales taxes.
      9. Renovating the library costs more than replacing it over the long term.
      10. Rents have increased. That’s capitalism. Cities have little overall influence on the housing market prices.
      11. The money to pay for capital improvements like Center Street or the Plaza come from special funding sources that only people or business pay for in a certain area AND only on the increment of the increased value of the property over time. If you live outside of these areas you’ve paid nothing.
      https://www.loganutah.org/government/mayor_s_office/economic_development/rda/rda_overview/index.php

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