There is plenty going on in Helper and Mayor Lenise Peterman is explaining her unique involvement with next month’s Helper’s First Friday Event, plus sharing the news of more grants received for the Helper River Project and briefly speaks on the Dark Skies Project.
On June 7 Helper will host their monthly Helper First Friday event entitled First Friday Dragabilly which features events surrounding the history of Helper. “You know I’m going to be arrested by our wonderful Police Chief Anderson. I’ll do a “perp” walk, they will throw me into jail and this will be a fundraiser to get me out or keep me in – whichever way you feel. But it is a fundraiser for First Friday so that they can raise funds, they would like to have a special event and have a beer garden so that is what they are trying to do with this event,” explained Mayor Peterman. The fun doesn’t stop with Mayor Peterman in jail folks can nominate an individual on that day to join her for $10.00 and then those individuals will need to raise their bail in order to get out of jail. The purpose for the activity is to earn enough money for a beer garden for Helper’s October First Friday event.
The city recently received some more funding to go towards the ongoing River Restoration Project. “The river project is a six-phase project and we recently just completed phase 4 and about a year ahead we’re looking to fund the following phase so the monies we have been awarded so far this year really are for phase five which will begin work in 2020,” said Mayor Peterman. The monies thus far have been from repeat donors such as Water Shed Restoration Initiative, Office of Outdoor Recreation and the Division of Water Quality.
“Phase Six will actually be the largest project of the phases. So you know we’re already thinking ahead of how to fund that. But that will be the start of the river recreational piece so we really want to blow that one out and do it well,” said Mayor Peterman. Once the project is finished it will allow folks the opportunity to travel along the river for about four miles through Helper while enjoying various recreational activities such as swimming, kayaking, hiking etc.
Another project that is underway is the Dark Skies Project which is an initiative to preserve and protect the nighttime environment in order to preserve the heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting. “So, we have done a great deal of learning about lighting, we’ve had a lighting inventory performed, we’ve had a sky lighting quality measurement performed in and around Helper. So, we are super excited to submit our application to be certified as a Dark Sky Community and even more excited is the partnership with the University of Utah,” stated Peterman. The University of Utah was recently awarded a grant to establish a Dark Skies Scholar Program which means that Helper will be their student field laboratory so they may study the skies in and around the area. This is not the only higher education opportunity that Helper is assisting with they will also be working with Utah State University Logan’s architecture department in the Fall of 2019. They will work on creating a cohesive looking design while developing a master plan for the entire city.