Midvale City 2021
Mayor and City Council Elections

We wanted the people in Midvale City to get to know Dustin Gettel better and so we asked him some questions. Below are the questions and his responses.

Councilman Gettel,

As the elections get closer, we know it’s hard to reach out to everyone in Midvale and to discuss everything that’s on their minds. To help the residents of Midvale get to know you better we would like to ask you some questions about things that have been on the residents minds and we’ll be posting the answers on several Facebook pages that the residents use and on the LivingInMidvale.com website. Many candidates like to give the “canned” responses with quick and general answers, but we would like to hear how you really feel about the issues and how you plan to approach them.

Over the years there have been a lot of high-density housing built. What is your feeling about this construction?
Midvale is a 6-square mile city that is more densely populated than any other city in Salt Lake County. We are often told that the population is going to continue to increase across the state and that we need to be prepared by increasing our number of housing units. That’s great advice for cities like Draper, Sandy, and Riverton that have vast expanses of land on which higher density housing communities can more easily be developed. Everyone deserves to have a place to live, and we need to welcome everyone who lives here or wants to live here, but we also have to realize that open space for additional high-density development in Midvale City is extremely limited.

What plans do you have to help create green spaces in Midvale to offset all the high-density housing and large business buildings that are currently being built?
I will continue to support green space requirements for all new commercial and residential developments in Midvale. We need to make sure that green space is not only required but the type of green space that we allow through our city code is usable green space for the entire community and not just a select few.

With all the development in Midvale, a lot of the buildings and places in the city that reminded us of our history have started to disappear.  What can be done to help preserve the rich history of Midvale?
I am absolutely committed to maintaining the history and integrity of our city’s most historic buildings, parks, and other landmarks. Main Street, which is located in the heart of my council district, is a great example of a redevelopment area that will protect our city’s rich history by utilizing as many of the existing buildings as possible while ensuring that any new construction has matching or complimentary design elements.

The Midvale Museum has a new home, what are your plans to help promote the museum and give it the funding it needs to be a place where people can go to learn about our heritage and take pride in our city.
The Midvale Museum is one of the most hidden gems in our city. In its new location at the City Park, there will be more eyes and foot traffic by the museum than ever before. We need to do a better job as a city of promoting the museum through targeted social media posts and by assisting the museum itself in having a more prominent social media presence.

How have you already been involved in serving Midvale and its residents, if so, what have you done?
I currently serve as the city councilmember for District 5 having won the seat in 2017. I have served on the Midvale Community Council, the Harvest Days Committee, and the Cinco de Mayo Committee. I am currently the city liaison to the Boys & Girls Club, the city liaison to the Midvale Museum, and I represent Midvale’s interests on a few state and local committees such as the Jordan River Commission, the Association of Municipal Councils, and the Salt Lake County Clean Air Committee. I have also been active in bringing a “Healthy Midvale” committee to the city, a citizen-led redistricting committee, reforming the Beautification Committee, and I referee high school and junior high boys’ and girls’ basketball.

What do you have planned to help give Midvale a better image?
I have long advocated a strong social media presence for the city and its elected officials so that we can highlight the good that happens here rather than focus on negative news headlines. Revitalizing Main Street will go a long way to show our neighboring cities that Midvale is back and isn’t just a place to drive through to the freeway.

Many people in Midvale would like to see events come back to the city like blocking off Main Street for activities like festivals, dances, social events, etc.  What ideas do you have that can help bring back the old “small town” feel that Midvale once had?
I want to restart our city’s tradition of having a tree-lighting ceremony, a Christmas Market, carolers, and Santa this holiday season. Events like these give our residents something to do close to home instead of driving everywhere else in Salt Lake County to experience holiday celebrations, car shows, sporting events, arts festivals etc.

What can we do to make Midvale more of a destination location?
Very simply, we need to bring more events to Main Street, State Street, Ft. Union, and Bingham Junction. We have a few excellent restaurants in Midvale, but we need to give people something to do in Midvale before and after they’ve eaten. “Let’s have dinner at ____ and then go check out the ____” is the conversation we want more people to have when they think about Midvale.

If you had a friend or relative visiting, what would be your favorite place to take them to in Midvale and why?
First, I take them to Chabaar Thai on State Street because their food is delicious. I normally take them to Main Street to show them some of the history over there, but another hidden gem is the historic Drown Log Cabin located at Founder’s Point off Holden and Center Streets.

What ideas do you have to help bring art to Midvale’s Main Street and surrounding areas?
Again, our Main Street at Ft. Union areas are prime locations to have a dedicated arts district, galleries, and art-themed events. We have plans to bring an amateur art gallery to Main Street in the old Midvale Museum building that would bring local artists together in a unique space to showcase their talents. I am also a huge proponent of our city’s mural program, and a few of these murals will be finished this year.

What “out of the box” ideas do you have for Midvale that can help make it a unique place for people to come and help boost our economy and not just be another city in Utah?
Midvale is an entirely unique city within Salt Lake County. We need to do more to celebrate this history and pay homage to our long-time residents and those who lived here before us. I would like to see less geographical divisions in the city (no more east vs. west mentality) and truly open the city to all residents. A united city is the best way to attract businesses and people to frequent those business once they come here. One way to reestablish this sense of camaraderie is to have more community events across the city such as the Christmas Market and tree-lighting ceremony on Main Street that I am working to make a reality.

Describe, with specific examples, how you would expand and diversify Midvale’s economy.
Interestingly, Midvale has an extremely diverse economy already, and that’s why the economic perils that other cities experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic weren’t as intense here. The pandemic also taught us that they way we conduct business in Midvale and across the state can be very different, more employee friendly, and not result in massive loss of profits. We need to first have the infrastructure (water, sewer, roads, UTOPIA) in place if we’re to continue attracting the modern manufacturing, tech, and service industry jobs of the 21st century.

How important are parks and trails to the city of Midvale?
Extremely important. As our city representative on the Jordan River Commission, I often talk about the absolute treasure of a trail system that we have here in Midvale that connects Bountiful to Saratoga Springs and every imaginable place in between. There’s been a noticeable increase in pedestrian and bicycle traffic on the JRT in the four years that I’ve been in office, and I want to make sure we keep the trail as open and as accessible as possible.
Our park system is equally as important. We’ve added additional amenities to our City Park in recent years including a new community center, a new gazebo gathering area, a splash pad, and a very popular frisbee golf course. We added public art to the Bingham Junction Park, and the very early plans are to have some sort of a community garden (hopefully) at Union Park on 7th East.

What can we do to improve the city’s environment and parks?
Environmentally, the best way to leave a smaller footprint for those who will come after us is to drive less, carpool as much as possible on bad air days, take fewer trips when you can, and be good stewards of the environment by cutting down on water usage and non-recyclable product consumption.
Improving the city’s parks requires the attention and cooperation of everyone. Take pride in your city by picking up your trash before you leave the park, report any vandalism or graffiti that you see (and preferably stop doing both), and pick up after your dogs when they inevitably do what all dogs do at the park.

Is the city too involved in what people can do with their homes/property?  Why or why not?
In some ways, yes, and in some ways no. Part of the human experience is not wanting other people to come onto our property and tell us what we can and can’t do. Sometimes it’s for the better such as the exotic animal warehouse that had venomous snakes, alligators, lizards, and spiders near a residential neighborhood. That’s probably a good example of the city getting involved in order to prevent a bigger problem down the road. On the other hand, the previous city council banned a resident from having a Halloween fun house, which I think was a huge governmental overreach. I always try to take a balanced approach to these concerns, listen to residents when they have concerns, and help facilitate a positive outcome for both sides.

Recently Midvale’s code enforcement has been a hot topic because they won’t respond to the residents emails and calls and when they do, the residents are treated rudely and many of the residents have been issued violations for items that aren’t violations or that code enforcement won’t help them understand what the actual violation is.  What do you have planned to help the residents in Midvale feel like they are listened to and not being attacked by code enforcement.
As a current city councilmember actively dealing with and discussing some of these issues and ways to improve our code enforcement process, I must speak in general terms since it’s an issue that might very well come before the council. Yes, I think we have issues that need to be addressed immediately, and yes, we can do a better job explaining the violations and remedies to our residents in a way that doesn’t sound like we’re going to start putting people in jail. Code enforcement isn’t always the nicest or most pleasant job in the world, but if we show more mutual respect and understanding to each other, I think we’d see far less complaints throughout the city.

How can the city help strengthen neighborhoods and build the community?
Simply stated, we need to provide more opportunities for neighborhoods and communities to get outside and spend time together. We’ve started to sponsor events like the Main Street Car Show, the upcoming Halloween festival, the Christmas Market and tree-lighting ceremony in December, and of course the weeklong Harvest Days festival in August. I would like to see more of these events, the return of Cinco de Mayo, dedicated food truck locations across the city, and yes, a community swimming pool!

What can be done to create more opportunities for our youth to serve in Midvale?
Our kids need more to do. We have programs in Midvale, but they’re not always advertised effectively. We have a youth ambassador program in Midvale City that should be creating our next generation of civic leaders. We have youth sports that are well attended, and the Tyler Library is often running programs and events that could accommodate even more kids. Our Boys & Girls Clubs also operates at or over capacity and does a great job of reaching out to kids who literally have no other place to go after school and give them a place to socialize and participate in events with their peers. We need to find additional ways to reach out to our Spanish-speaking neighbors and communities of color to be more inclusive with our youth events and opportunities.

How do you plan to get better feedback from the residents in Midvale City?
I am as open and as accessible to the residents in my district as any other member of council, and I take a lot of pride in that fact. I will continue to listen to your feedback online, by phone, by text, or by carrier pigeon if you want. I also want to utilize technology that has existed for several years now to send out regular surveys and requests for feedback to our residents via text and email.

Do you feel that community gardens are good for Midvale?  Explain why we should or shouldn’t have them.
For so many reasons, community gardens are a good idea. I’ve advocated for them since I was elected, and I’m so thrilled that we’re finally moving on this idea now. Gardening is fun, therapeutic, and it provides yet another opportunity to get outside and meet your neighbors. This is a credit to everyone in the community who organized and told us, your elected officials, that you want to see community gardens across the city and are willing to put in the work to make them a success.

If you don’t win the election, what do you plan on doing to help improve Midvale?
My focus will be on the revitalization of Main Street. We are closer now to seeing actual change on Main Street than we’ve been in the past 20 years, and I want to be involved in that process whether it’s as a 2nd term councilmember or as a private citizen.

What would you do to make Midvale a safer place to live?
I could write a thousand words answering this question, but I’ll focus on three things. Most of the crime we see in Midvale by volume are (mostly) non-violent property crimes like car break-ins, theft from yards and garages, and burglary. As someone whose had his car and garage broken into, these crimes may appear harmless on paper, but they make a person feel extremely vulnerable and violated. Combating these non-violent crimes takes effort from community members, the Unified Police, and from victims themselves. If you see something suspicious or are the victim of a crime, report it. If it’s reported, the police need to respond quickly and effectively investigate it. In my opinion, because these crimes are typically underreported, our police lack the data to know where to best focus their efforts.
Two, the violent crime heat map in Midvale City is entirely concentrated in two major areas, our State Street corridor and our 7800 South corridor. It is my opinion that our problem businesses specifically like Motel 6 and La Quinta Inn need to be closed by the city, and I have advocated for this for nearly 4 years. When we have one or two businesses accounting for most of the murders, stabbings, shootings, methamphetamine contaminations, and deceased children, we simply cannot allow that kind of public health and public safety concern to continue operating. With our skyrocketing UPD budgets year-after-year, we also can’t afford it.
Three, we need to provide our kids and young adults with more productive and civic-minded things to do in Midvale so that they avoid the temptation of gangs and gang violence. We need to focus on mental health and substance abuse treatment for our chronically unsheltered populations so they get the help they need, and we need to create a better culture of respect, understanding, and cooperation between our residents and our Unified Police officers.

What are some of the issues in your district and what do you have planned to help resolve them?
Some of the biggest issues in my district have been with pedestrian safety, speeding through neighborhoods, code enforcement, and parking. I’m happy to say that we’ve significantly addressed pedestrian safety by putting in several new crosswalks on Center Street, Main Street, and Bingham Junction Boulevard. I will continue to monitor additional needs as our city inevitable grows and we place further emphasis on walkability. Similarly, we were able to provide funding for traffic calming devices in our biggest problem areas of the city, and the data gained from these devices has indicated that speeding is down overall (though there certainly are still speeders on the road and always will be). Code enforcement will be an ongoing issue, but again, I think we need to find additional opportunities for mutually beneficial outcomes where they exist. Parking requirements are a very real issue with the apartment, townhome, and condo communities that are being developed across the city. I will continue to advocate for parking requirements that actually provide for adequate resident parking.