Riverton has welcomed a new city manager. Kevin Hicks, who has served in the city for six years as Administrative Services Director, began his new post in April. A native of West Jordan, he worked for that city as well as Salt Lake County before coming to Riverton in 2008.

“My parents moved there in ‘74 back when West Jordan was a tiny little town, and I was born a few years after they moved there and lived there for my entire life, lived in the same house until I graduated from high school,” he said. “My parents then moved to a different house, also in West Jordan, and then I went on an LDS church mission to Costa Rica, and then when I got home from a mission, I kind of fit right in the direction of my career choices.”

His first job after his mission was working at Shopko, but decided “I do not want to work retail for my life. And my mom actually said, ‘Hey, why don’t you go work for a bank? They can help pay for your school, and they have really good hours.’”

So he went into an old First Security Bank and got a job there. While working at the bank he got to know the city treasurer of West Jordan who pointed him toward city government. 

“I’d always kind of thought about city government, and that it would be fun to learn about what city government does,” he said. “So they had an opening at West Jordan City back in 2001 just as a cashier. My friend told me, ‘Hey, if you’re interested, come on over and apply.’” He did and got the job.

 Hicks worked for West Jordan for about seven years doing cashiering, and then moved to utility billing and then out to public works over the fleet. He then left West Jordan to work for Salt Lake County and the treasurer’s office for a year and a half. 

“It was a long year and a half,” he recalled. “That’s where it gave me the knowledge that I prefer local, city government and not county government, like the big bureaucracy of county government. And then I actually came here to Riverton. So I’ve been at Riverton just shy of 16 years.”

He loves working for Riverton.

“I mean, I plan on making this my career. I will be here till I retire. I’ve made that commitment to the council, and they are committed to help me see that through.” 

He particularly loves how city officials formulate plans for the community.

“The city puts out a survey every couple of years. The residents submit them and then we take the vision of what the residents say and we turn it into our strategic plan,” he said. 

“And that vision is what the council, with the help of the residents, put on and then as staff, we make sure we carry that out and see that vision into the future. And that’s something I’ve always been impressed about Riverton City–their focus for the future, whether it be the elected officials or staff, or there’s a lot of people that truly do care about Riverton and want to make Riverton the crown jewel of the valley.”

The Riverton Town Days celebration, held around the Fourth of July and including a popular rodeo, attracts tens of thousands of attendees.

“So by the time you add the rodeo, it’s that amazing sense of community. I feel my job is to just help continue that momentum going forward.”

He says that for him, the community faces one important challenge.

“I believe we have so many great long-time employees, but as we start seeing some of them retire, we’ve got to make sure we do a good job of carrying that institutional knowledge from them to the newer employees as they come in, so that we don’t lose that and that history. Because I think the history of Riverton has that historical sense of community, and a lot of it is thanks to the employees. And we’ve got to make sure that we do a good job of carrying that forward to the next generation of employees.”

He and his wife of 23 years have three children–a 17-year-old son and 15-year-old twin sons. They live in Eagle Mountain with their horses and a small farm with chickens, turkeys, dogs and cats. And they love to travel. His goal is to have visited all 50 states before the “kids are out of the house. We’re close.” λ