One of Utah’s coldest counties lacks indoor recreation space. These residents are trying to change that.

Cache Valley • Unless you’re a powderhound, winter recreation opportunities in Cache County are hard to come by.

But residents here want that to change.

Logan local Melissa Dahle, who has lived in Cache Valley for more than 20 years, has seen firsthand the valley’s lack of rec centers. Sure, there are basketball courts at schools, private gyms and a sports complex with an indoor soccer field, but there’s no large facility — like many communities have — serving this burgeoning area’s needs.

Perhaps most aggravating for Dahle, a mom of high school swimmers, is that there’s no indoor public pool in one of Utah’s coldest places.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” she said. “Why can’t we get something that schools could use for lap swim, but then also have something that has a huge indoor aquatic center that families and young kids could enjoy?”

The lack of year-round recreational opportunities in Cache Valley has sparked debate about how governments should spend public money and is an issue that has become more pressing as the area faces the loss of one of its most popular rec centers.

The 2023 announcement of the Logan Community Recreation Center’s planned closure to the general public later this year motivated Dahle and other advocates to push local leaders to prioritize creating a place that gives residents valleywide a chance to stay active.

Dahle is used to staying quiet, but in November of 2023, she and a few fellow members of the Logan City Parks and Recreation Advisory Board spoke up, sending an email to all the valley’s mayors and representatives to kick-start the conversation about expanding indoor recreation opportunities.

Representatives from every city gathered to discuss the issue and reached an agreement that Cache County should pursue a rec center that could serve everyone.

“If it was built correctly,” Dahle said, “everybody would use it.”

Study gets fractional funding

The Cache County Council, however, has been slow to embrace the proposal.

Last year, county leaders weighed tapping the Recreation, Arts, Parks and Zoos fund — a pot of money made up from a sliver of the county’s sales tax — to conduct a feasibility study for a countywide indoor recreation facility.

Initially, an advisory committee for the fund proposed allocating $200,000 for the study, but in May, the County Council approved $75,000. One council member, Nolan Gunnell, justified the reduced funding by saying he prefers committing county dollars to “shovel-ready” projects over studies.

After selecting an architecture firm to lead the study, Stephen Nelson, the county’s director of development services, returned to the council in October to request additional money. The study the firm wanted to pursue had been divided into two phases that couldn’t be fully covered by the $75,000 the council had approved.

The first phase would cost $58,000 and provide an overall analysis and gather initial data. The second would cost $87,000 to explore funding options and focus on how the facility would be run.

In a narrow 4-3 vote, the council approved funding only the first phase.

Council member Karl Ward was among those who supported paying for only the first leg of the study. “Let’s just first see if it’s something we really feasibly can do,” he said, “and it’s something we should do.”

But council members Sandi Goodlander and Kathryn Beus, however, argued the second phase would provide essential details.

“That’s really valid information,” Beus said, “and that is what I feel like is what we really need to know: the nitty-gritty.”

Nelson, the development services director leading the project, agreed with Goodlander and Beus, but said he understands concerns that have been raised about expanding government services.

Popular facility closing shop

The existing Logan Community Recreation Center — owned by the Logan City School District but operated by the city — is one of the few facilities accessible to most of the county. An agreement between the city and school district has kept the facility at 100 West and 195 South accessible to the general public for four decades.

Here, visitors can lift weights, play racquetball, shoot hoops, hit the batting cage, play tennis, and walk or run on an indoor track. Soon, Cache Valley residents will have to find somewhere else to go.

District Superintendent Frank Schofield said population growth and an increase in high school sports hosted at the facility have made it difficult to continue sharing the center. The space will remain publicly accessible until the end of June, but after that, residents will have limited access, leaving many with no indoor recreation options.

“We’ve just seen that the sharing of the facility in that particular building,” Schofield said, “just isn’t practical anymore.”

Rachel Behm, a Logan resident, Board of Education executive assistant, and Logan City Parks and Recreation Advisory Board member who is advocating for a new center, said more than half of the existing facility’s users come from outside Logan, making the need for a countywide center clear.

“I feared that if someone didn’t step up,” she said, “then public indoor recreation in Logan and Cache Valley would continue to deteriorate and maybe even cease to exist altogether.”

Advocates like Behm envision a facility with amenities like indoor pools, turf fields, pickleball courts, play areas for kids, basketball courts, weight rooms and a senior center.

North Logan Mayor Lyndsay Peterson said her city has become the valley’s main provider of recreation opportunities, with 60% of users at the Hansen Sports Complex coming from outside her community. Peterson said the growing demand for recreational spaces has been evident in recent years, and while North Logan could build its own facility, the mayor said she’d rather not.

“We can build a rec center to serve our citizens,” Peterson said, “but we know that the day those doors open, we would be serving valleywide.”

Peterson said she was frustrated with the county’s hesitation to fund the study to explore a new rec center, saying the portion of sales tax earmarked for recreation, arts, parks and zoos is perfectly suited for this purpose.

“It’s a no-brainer, honestly,” Peterson said. “But we’ve just encountered obstacle after obstacle with the County Council.”

Government’s role in recreation

Paul Borup, a Cache County resident and former County Council member, sides with those on the council who are reluctant to fund the recreation center study. He argues a county-run facility would expand government unnecessarily. In his view, the government is “always” the wrong tool for something the private sector could provide.

For him, the county’s current private gyms, indoor pools at local schools and vast outdoor recreation options are enough. He believes county funds should be directed toward more pressing needs within the valley, not opportunities for leisure.

“Is it really that big of a deal that we need yet another [amenity],” he said, “or is this a vanity project for a politician to say, ‘Hey, look what I did while spending your money.’”

Borup pointed to a recent study by the Utah Taxpayers Association that found several major Utah recreation centers –– funded by local districts and cities –– operate at a loss, relying heavily on taxpayer subsidies to stay open. While these centers charge admission fees, the study found that revenue rarely covers the full cost of operations.

The study, taxpayers association representative Malah Armstrong said, highlights places in the state — Provo, American Fork and Davis County, for example — where residents initially supported building recreation centers but later hesitated to continue funding them. Borup said he believes Cache County would follow the same pattern if a countywide center were built.

“If they’re not willing to double down,” Borup said, “why should we even get in the game?”

Roger Tew, a board member for the Utah League of Cities and Towns and a professor of state and local government at Utah State University, said government services aren’t supposed to make money.

“Your hospitals don’t make money either,” Tew said. “There’s a lot of things that are not in the business of making money. The question is, do the citizens want the service? They want the service. How are they willing to pay for it?”

A countywide recreation center could meet the area’s growing needs, Tew said, and such a facility could be overwhelming for a single city to take on alone.

Tew, who grew up in the valley, said Logan historically provided many services, including waste management and emergency responses, to county residents outside its boundaries. Smaller towns like North Logan have since experienced rapid population growth, he said, creating new demand for more robust services at the county level.

On the southern end of the valley, Nibley Mayor Larry Jacobsen is facing similar challenges to North Logan. Indoor recreation is one of the top issues his constituents bring up, and while Nibley initiated its own feasibility study for a rec center, Jacobsen believes a countywide solution is a better approach — and one the county has a responsibility to provide.

Jacobsen said he understands the debate over government involvement in recreational facilities but said providing opportunities to stay active, especially in a region with long winters, is essential.

“People, frankly, just want year-round recreation,” Jacobsen said, “for their families and for themselves.”

If fully funded, the Cache County-led feasibility study would take 28 weeks to complete. The first phase, which is underway, is expected to take 16 weeks to wrap up.