It was time to sit down with Helper City Mayor Lenise Peterman to talk about the happenings taking place in Helper. She came in to discuss the Helper’s Arts Festival, river restoration and a business survey.

The city just wrapped up the 2022 Helper’s Arts, Music and Film Festival and despite the rain it went very well. “A lot of the vendors communicated that after the storm they actually had more patrons coming in and making purchases then they had previous to the storm. I think that is really kind of what we do in Helper, is when these events happen, we show up and support, and I think that was evident both from the vendor perspective and front what we’re seeing from the tentative financial numbers coming out of the festival. So that’s really reassuring and I love that our folks are resilient,” stated Mayor Peterman. Overall event organizers were pleased with the turnout and how well the 2022 festival went.

The river restoration project will begin to move forward now that the fall/winter months are approaching. “We’re looking at removal of an obsolete dam up by Gigliotti’s Pond, it traps fish, so this is about fish passage. So we will lower that dam, it’s a 12 foot concrete so we’ll take it down and replace some natural boulders and return it to a more natural state that the fish can traverse basically up and down the river,” explained Mayor Peterman. Right now, the city will be receiving bids on the project and hopefully be able to award it so that the project can get started in the next few months.

The city is working with Main Street American Board who in turn has been partnering with USU Eastern on a development of a business survey. “Those surveys will be out shortly and we’re looking for a due date of October 1. It’s really designed to work and partner with USU Eastern on what businesses owners need, do they need business plan help, do they need start up capital, how do they get connected to get that. So we’re just trying to identify those gaps, and then we’ll come back with some supplemental training, our direction to those people to help them build their business and to be successful,” stated Mayor Peterman.

To stay informed on the happenings in Helper visit the city’s Facebook page.