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SOUTH JORDAN — The rapidly growing south-valley city on Thursday celebrated its victories of the last year, including improvements to its infrastructure and the community's spirit of volunteerism. Leaders of South Jordan also unveiled a new initiative for the city's popular Daybreak neighborhood.
South Jordan Mayor Dawn R. Ramsey said she is committed to continue making strides in positioning the city as one of Utah's most attractive and tightly-knit communities.
Author "Peter Drucker said that the best way to predict the future is to create it," Ramsey said. "That is exactly what we are doing — the state of our city is excellent and the future is bright for South Jordan."
The city received an award Thursday for its commitment to promoting community service and volunteering among its citizens at the city's first state-of-the-city event, held at the South Jordan Community Center. The JustServe Global Cities Award was awarded by JustServe, a website connecting volunteers with opportunities to help in their community. The award is given to communities who use the platform to make a significant impact in their community.
It was the second consecutive year South Jordan has been given the award — signaling an expressed commitment by the city's administration to promoting volunteerism within its growing community.
"This award is for cities that proclaim that they care about and they love their volunteers," Heath Bradley, global manager at JustServe, said as he explained why South Jordan is special. He said the city recognizes and encourages volunteerism in its community. "We want our citizens to serve and serve each other."
In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, South Jordan and JustServe organized members of the community to clear out debris and leaves in storm drains, tidy up the Jordan River Trail and clean the dry bed of Bingham Creek. Despite the pouring rain that persisted throughout that day, the joint effort gathered nearly 1,000 volunteers.
On display at Thursday's event were the significant steps South Jordan took in the past year to further the city's economic development — the poster-boy of the city's efforts to stimulate its economic sector is the rapidly developing master-planned community, Daybreak — with big plans in store for the neighborhood's downtown district and creating a community where residents love to work and live.
An expanding urban entertainment district will include a new ballpark in South Jordan, which is set to become the new home of the Salt Lake Bees baseball team.
In partnership with the Larry H. Miller Company and America First Credit Union, South Jordan was able to break ground on its new ballpark in downtown Daybreak. Surrounding the ballpark will be a vibrant family entertainment center with options for shopping, a transit stop, restaurants, office space and a new Megaplex cinema entertainment center.
"This is a place that is in the path of progress and is at the intersection of a lot of big things happening in the future," said Steve Starks, CEO at the Larry H. Miller Company. "For us, it was an easy bet — you bet on growth, you bet on people, you bet on culture."
Among other things South Jordan's administration and residents were proud of achieving as a community in 2023 was the city's dedication to strengthening and polishing the city's infrastructure.
The city repaired 345 street signs in 2023, and filled a record 219 potholes (compared to the previous record of 159 repaired in 2020). Such extensive efforts to fill potholes within the city — often neglected by many jurisdictions elsewhere in the nation — is yet another example South Jordan leaders consider the people who live in its boundaries one of the most important parts of its identity.
"The people is why I've stayed in South Jordan all these years," said Mike Haynes, a South Jordan resident and executive director at the Jordan Education Foundation. "The community here is just so exciting and so dynamic."
