Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
TOOELE — About 30 miles straight west of Salt Lake City sits a county that's bursting at the seams – Tooele County. With growing popularity and population come blessings and challenges.
"I love talking about Tooele County," said Jared Hamner, executive director of the Tooele County Chamber of Commerce and the chairman of the county council. "It's been wonderful, absolutely wonderful for our family (to live here)."
But with so much growth comes challenges.
"How do people feel? Congested," Hamner said as he pointed to the traffic behind him on Main Street in Tooele. "A big problem (are) these trucks. No taxes for these trucks, because their main offices are outside of Tooele County. The only thing we get is their traffic and the wear and tear on the roads."
The other thing that concerns Hamner is housing.
"Housing is out of control. The average home that's sold within Tooele County is over $400,000, well over $400,000," Hamner said.
Another big concern — Purple Mattress, a major employer in Tooele County, is moving locations. Hamner said over 200 people will lose their jobs.
"That's gonna hurt," he said. "For those families, that's going to be catastrophic for them, and so we're doing everything that we can to post jobs that are opening, employers that are still looking for employees."
It also hurts that about 75% of the workforce leaves Tooele County to go to work. That's tough for local business owners like John and Tracey Gossett who own Fallen Sky Stone, a Western clothing and jewelry store on Main Street in Tooele.
"That's one thing I'd like to see is people start supporting their local businesses, not just mine, but supporting local businesses so that we can have more opportunity right here at home," John Gossett said. But he said they love the area and really enjoy the people they meet and work with.
"(I) just fell in love with the community, and I wouldn't live anywhere else," he said. "It's great to live in a community where you know people everywhere you go."
That's what 16-year-olds Ella Briggs and Sadie Johnson love about living in Tooele County. Both are juniors at Tooele High School and are in Future Farmers of America, where they are growing hundreds of poinsettias donated by local construction company Broken Arrow to give to the elderly in December.
"It's tough (as a student). There is a lot going on. We get overwhelmed with school a lot and so when we get opportunities like this it gives us a breath, and we get to walk away and do this, kind of reenergizes you and recharges you and gives you a break," Briggs said.
"The little things you can do to help people and make their day (make all the difference)," Johnson said.
