Myton Dedicates New City Building
Uinta Basin Standard 6/30/09
The annual Myton Daze celebration held over the weekend featured a special event this year: the dedication of the municipality's new city hall. “Our new city hall for me is just a wonderful addition to our town and the progress that our town is making,” said Mayor Kathleen Cooper. Cooper’s roots run deep in the city – her great grandfather Calvert was the first president of the town and her mother served as mayor for 17 years. So Cooper made sure to incorporate some of the town’s history into the structure of the new building. Over 100 years ago the town’s original name was The Bridge, after a bridge the U.S Cavalry built across the Duchesne River. When there were too many bridges in Utah to distinguish the town it was renamed Myton after postmaster H.P. Myton. “This is a representation of the old first bridge,” Cooper said, pointing out the wooden trellis that spans the front of the city building. “The architecture was made to look like an old river bottom and how it would flow through the rocks.” Cooper worked closely with Salt Lake architect Vern Lloyd and Epic Engineering in Vernal to ensure a depiction of the old bridge was incorporated into the structure. “I can’t believe that Myton could have such a great building,” said Cooper's father, Bud Cooper, who is also curator of the Myton Memories Museum. “That was the only bridge across the Duchesne River so that had to be built into the new building to mark the history of the bridge and Myton,” he added. “It’s a credit to our community.” Mayor Cooper also included two bricks in the city hall sign made in the Myton brick foundries back in 1915. “Myton has such a great history and this is really just a continuation of the involvement that they’ve had in the Basin,” said Rep. Kraig Powell, R-Heber City. “I think this will actually be a type of revitalization for Myton to be able to continue to be the participants that they’ve been all throughout Basin life.” The ribbon-cutting for the building included opening remarks by Cooper – the incumbent mayor for almost eight years – and a dedicatory prayer by LDS Bishop DeNile McKenna. Larry Cesspooch, a member of the Ute Indian Tribe and a spiritual leader, performed a blessing of the building earlier in the day. “Our community is very diverse,” Cooper said. “We have a population of Native American people and it's very important in their lives that buildings get blessed. A Mormon bishop blessed the building as well. I just wanted to make sure all cultures were covered as far as our building being blessed and received as part of our community.” People outside Myton are taking notice of the tiny town as well. “It’s very exciting to see Myton get something new,” said Roosevelt resident Anna Beath. “I think Myton is making great strides. They have done so many new things here lately to bring Myton into the new century. It’s just amazing.” The new city building was made possible, in part, by the state Permanent Community Impact Board through a 50/50 grant-loan package. Cooper said Myton will repay half of the $900,000 it received from the CIB for the project. “So we got this building that we only have to pay $450,000 for,” she said. “We also have a renter here with the housing authority that will be paying a little rent so that will help us some on our payments.” The new building is Energy Star compliant and many of the materials used were recycled or natural products like the bamboo dance floor in the spacious great room. Rental of the space – which is available to the general public for meetings, weddings, banquets, and other activities – will also help cover the cost of the monthly payment. The facility also consists of office space for Cooper and her staff, a storage area, a kitchen, handicap accessible restrooms, a city council room, a shared office for sheriff's deputies and victim advocates, the housing authority office, and a library which has a nine-station computer center. “My dream is that we’ll have sort of a regional history center here like they do over in Vernal,” Cooper said. “I don’t really foresee that Duchesne County will have enough money to fund us as a library, but we’ll put our books in here, do more grant writing, get newspapers digitized, and get some oral history grants and have people do oral histories. “Our community is small,” Cooper added. “Now our citizens will have something beautiful to look at, right next to the beautiful church. We've got new roads and a new fire station. I know our people will be proud to be from Myton.”
From Reed
