Cheryl Bowers named to Blanding City Council

by Kara Laws
Cheryl Bowers was sworn in as councilwoman to the Blanding City Council on May 30. She will fill Trevor Olsen’s vacant seat after Olsen resigned in May. Bowers will fill his seat until January, 2018. Bowers stated in her application to the city council that she intends to run for a council seat in the November election.
Bowers was nominated to the seat by Councilman Joe B. Lyman. The nomination was seconded by Mayor Calvin Balch. Travis Whatcott was also nominated for the position but failed to receive a second nomination.
Councilwoman Cheryl Bowers was unanimously appointed by the Blanding City Council to fill the vacant seat and was sworn in immediately after by City Manager Jeremy Redd.
Bowers was among six applicants to apply for the seat vacancy. All applicants said they plan to run for city office this year. The other applicants are Logan Monson, Robert Turk, Trent Herring, Travis Whatcott and Cory Raisor.
Bowers said she has had the desire to run for city council for the last 20 years but has lacked the time due to the travel demands and time restraints of her career and family. Now that Bowers has retired as the Executive Vice President for Eagle Air Med, she said, “I can now meet the necessary commitments to fill this seat.”
Bowers said she loves Blanding and wants her children to have the option of living here in the future. She said, “To be able to meet the needs of our future, we have to support our local businesses. I love local business … In order to support our current and future economy, we need our local businesses to survive and thrive.”
Bowers also expressed the desire to increase tourism to help support those businesses.
Bowers sited her work with Eagle Air Med as an example of her experience in maintaining and growing a successful business and offered this experience and leadership to the residents of Blanding.
She feels the city needs to plan for the future, increase tourism, help local businesses succeed, and somehow “stay true to what our forefathers built”.
Bowers also listed seven objectives for her candidacy, including listening to Blanding City residents, adding jobs and creating a future for our children, allowing the sale of alcohol in city limits, capitalizing on the positives of the monument, providing stability and support for youth programs, finding businesses and capital expansions to expand or build in Blanding City, providing and/or supporting local annual events that can increase tourism, and maintaining a wonderful community.
All city council members agreed that the six candidates were great options, and choosing one to fill the seat was a hard and large responsibility.
Councilman Robert Ogle said the “quality in the room was outstanding” and expressed his excitement to see what will happen in the election this November.