By Susan Palmer | [email protected]

At the South Jordan City Council meeting, a resolution was passed that would allow the mayor to enter into two Interlocal Cooperation Agreements with the Salt Lake County on behalf of its Parks and Recreation Division for the South Jordan Fitness and Aquatic Center.

South Jordan entered the agreement by providing the county property that will allow SoJo to enter into a joint venture for the Bingham Creek Regional Park (BING), located at 4800 West 10200 South. 

This will allow for a joint venture in development, operation and maintenance of BING that will be the largest park in Salt Lake County. The exchanged property will be the South Jordan Fitness and Aquatic Center at 10866 South Redwood Road, to now be under Salt Lake County management. All the employees of the fitness center will now be transferred to county employee status. 

SoJo will now be involved as a partner in BING. 

“If we are not part of the park authority, and we do not have 50% equal say and opportunity and ownership, a concern that I have is there is not anything that binds the future county council to continuing to see through all three phases of this county regional park,” said Mayor Dawn Ramsey. “I think with all the time we have served in this capacity and the surveys that we have sent out, the people that we hear from all the time want green space. They want open space, and they want it preserved. I do not want to see a 160-acre park not actually come all the way to fruition because we cannot bind a future county council. If the county owns that land outright and we have no say in it, the county can always sell that land and turn it into something different. If we create this park authority and join in this venture our residents will still have the recreation center. It’s the same recreation center we have now, and we will not be duplicating services, and we can guarantee that our park is going to be developed into a park.” 

The resolution was voted on and accepted.