10 years of change: Looking back at the top stories of the decade in Utah County – Daily Herald

The 2010s have now come to a close and we are welcoming the 20s.

Utah County has seen significant change over the past decade, including population growth and the changing landscape of the county, but has also seen some elements that seem to stay the same, like the seemingly never-ending construction on I-15.

Here are 15 stories that marked the decade in Utah County:

Finished and under construction apartments are pictured near North Mill Road on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018, in Vineyard.

Over the past decade, Utah County has seen a boom in population. The county started the decade with 516,639 residents, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. The most recent population estimates from July 1, 2018 show the county saw a 20.4% increase to 622,213 residents.

Vineyard saw tremendous growth, and was named the fastest-growing city in the U.S. in 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The city saw 62.79% growth between 2017 and 2018, placing the city atop the list of fastest-growing cities with populations over 1,000. The city grew from 139 residents in the 2010 Census to approximately 10,052 by July 1, 2018.

The Cedar Valley area also saw high levels of growth. Saratoga Springs saw a 76.2% population increase from 2010 to 2018 and Eagle Mountain saw 62.4% growth. Lehi recorded a 38.2% growth in population.

In southern Utah County, Santaquin saw 34.1% growth, Salem had 31.8% and Mapleton saw a 26.6% increase in population.

These population increases are also leading to housing concerns, with cities across the valley looking for answers to help increase availability of affordable housing and possibilities of additional high-density developments, which will likely be a big issue as we move into the 20s.

The new office building at University Place in Orem on Thursday, May 5, 2016. SPENSER HEAPS, Daily Herald

Along with the increases in population, Utah County saw an increase in development.

One of the largest commercial developments was announced in late 2013, which would transform University Mall in Orem to University Place. The project aimed to add 400,000 square feet of new retail space, 700,000 square feet of new office space, 1.25 million square feet of new multi-family residential space and 70,000 square feet of new hotel space to area around the mall. The project, which was anticipated to take eight to 10 years, is still underway, but is ahead of schedule.

The development in Utah County even reached the Provo Airport, which began accepting commercial flights in 2011 with Frontier Airlines. Frontier ended flights to and from Provo in early 2012, but one month later, Allegiant Air announced that it would begin commercial flights in and out of Provo. Just this year, an airport terminal expansion was announced, which will bring up to 10 new gates and more than 22 flights a day to and from Provo. Initially there will be four new gates. Completion should be by the end of 2020.

The county also welcomed large companies to the area this decade, including Adobe who announced an expansion into Lehi in 2010. Tyson Foods is also building a plant and Facebook is building a data center in Eagle Mountain.

An aerial view of Interstate 15 passing through Lehi Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2010.

If youve driven on I-15 anytime in the past decade, its likely youve driven through road construction.

In 2009, the Utah Legislature approved funding for the I-15 Core project a 24-mile construction project that stretched from Spanish Fork to Lehi. The project started in 2010 and included the reconstruction and reconfiguration of 10 interchanges and 63 aging bridges.

In 2013, leftover bond money from the I-15 Core project was also used to add lanes to I-15 between Spanish Fork and Payson.

The I-15 Core project was completed at the end of 2012, but the construction on I-15 didnt halt for long. The I-15 Point Project started in 2014. The project lasted two years, and widened I-15 to six lanes in each direction between S.R. 92 in Lehi to 12300 South in Draper. It was completed in October 2016.

The I-15 Technology Corridor project started construction on January 2018. The project is widening and making improvements to I-15 from Lehi Main Street to State Route 92 in Lehi. The project is anticipated to be completed in October 2020.

Other big road projects this decade included construction on Pioneer Crossing, Timpanogos Highway, Redwood Road, North County Boulevard and State Street.

Students exit a Utah Valley Express bus at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2018, in Orem.

Utah County took steps toward improving options for public transportation this decade.

For the first time, FrontRunner train service opened for passenger service in Utah County in December 2012, bringing the first high-speed public transportation option to the county. The rail opened after four years of construction, which brought the southern leg of the commuter rail service down to Provo.

And after years of planning and development (and backlash from some), the Utah Valley Express bus route otherwise known as UVX, Bus Rapid Transit or BRT began service in August 2018. Center pick-up and drop-off stations opened in December of that year, completing the two years of construction on University Parkway and University Avenue. The route provides buses every 6-7 minutes during peak times.

Sgt. Cory Wride's widow Nannette Wride follows his casket with her children and other family and friends after a funeral service was held at the UCCU Center in Orem Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014. Wride was shot and killed in the line of duty on Jan. 30. MARK JOHNSTON/Daily Herald

Utah County mourned the loss of two police officers killed in the line of duty this decade.

On Jan. 30, 2014, Sgt. Cory Wride of the Utah County Sheriffs Office was shot and killed after he stopped to assist a motorist alongside a Utah County highway.

Wride stopped a vehicle on State Route 73 in Eagle Mountain and was shot while in his patrol car behind the vehicle. The shooter and driver of the vehicle then led police on a high-speed chase through Utah County, where Deputy Greg Sherwood pursued them. During the pursuit, Sherwood was shot in the head. Sherwood later made a full recovery.

Then, 29-year-old Master Officer Joseph Shinners was shot and killed in Orem in January 2019 while trying to apprehend a wanted fugitive near a shopping center.

Shinners was a three-year veteran on the force and left behind a wife and a 1-year-old son.

The deaths were the first officer deaths in Utah County since 2001.

An inspection crew makes their way around the Provo Tabernacle on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010 to assess damage done by a fire that destroyed the building.

Early in the decade, Utah County residents experienced a tragic loss.

At 2:43 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2010, the historic Provo Tabernacle was engulfed in an overnight blaze. When crews arrived on scene, black smoke billowed from a hole in the roof, and orange flames lapped against the outer walls of the centuries-old treasured icon of Provo.

That day, the building that once stood at the center of the city was left in ruins.

For months, crews worked to clean up the scene and many local residents wondered what the future of the historic building would be. In October 2011, however, those questions were answered as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that the remaining structure would be built into a temple.

The groundbreaking for the temple was held on May 12, 2012, and after extensive construction, an open house was held in early 2016.

The sun sets on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Payson Temple on Thursday, March 19, 2015. SAMMY JO HESTER, Daily Herald

The Provo City Center Temple was not the only temple constructed in Utah County this decade. In 2010, the county was home to just two Latter-day Saint temples the Provo Temple and the Mount Timpanogos Temple.

The Payson Utah Temple was dedicated on June 7, 2015. The Provo City Center Temple then became the fourth temple in the county when it was dedicated on March 20, 2016.

Two additional temples were also announced for Utah County this decade. One in Saratoga Springs was announced on April 2, 2017, and one in Orem was announced on Oct. 5, 2019. The Saratoga Springs temple is currently under construction and the Orem temples location has been announced.

Brandon Morgan, center, 17, loads items into a truck as his friend, Carter Wilkey, 16, of Payson, helps Morgan evacuate from his Elk Ridge home during a mandatory evacuation as the Pole Creek and Bald Mountain Fires move toward homes Thursday, Sept. 13, 2018.Residents from rural homes and the neighboring city of Woodland Hills were also mandated to evacuate, causing roughly 5,305 people to be displaced from their homes. Nine days after residents of Elk Ridge and Woodland Hills were mandated to evacuate their homes, the mandatory evacuation order was lifted and people began to return to their homes. However, both cities were still on pre-evacuation status as hot spots were put out. No homes were reported as destroyed.Isaac Hale, Daily Herald

There were several devastating wildfires throughout the past 10 years, but two summers saw wildfires that damaged significant portions of Utah County.

In 2012, the county saw several large fires that burned close to 15,000 acres, including the Dump, Wiley, Pinyon, Quail, West Lake and Tank fires. The Wood Hollow Fire also burned close to 47,000 acres, mostly in Sanpete County, but its smoke covered the south end of the valley.

In 2018, the combined Bald Mountain and Pole Creek fires threatened thousands of homes in southern Utah County when they began rapidly spreading in mid-September, eventually growing to more than 100,000 acres. Mandatory evacuations were issued for Woodland Hills and Elk Ridge, and residents were kept out of their homes for a total of nine days.

BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall, left, watches a play during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Utah, Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011, at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah. Utah defeated BYU 54-10. (AP Photo/Colin E Braley)

After more than a decade in the Mountain West Conference, Brigham Young University athletics officials announced football independence in August 2010.

After speculation that the Cougars would join a new conference, they instead took the route of independence in football and joined the West Coast Conference for other sports. The change also came with a new ESPN TV contract, which made viewing games more accessible than in the Mountain West Conference.

The change in conference was not the only change BYU football saw this decade, though. In 2015, head coach Bronco Mendenhall announced he was leaving the university after 10 seasons with the Cougars. Mendenhall, who left for a head coaching position at Virginia, was replaced for the 2016 season by former Cougar football player Kalani Sitake.

BYU football also lost legendary coach LaVell Edwards at the end of 2016. Edwards, who coached the Cougars for 29 seasons, died at the age of 86 on Dec. 29, 2016.

Megan Huntsman arrives in court Monday, April 20, 2015, in Provo, Utah. Huntsman who pleaded guilty to killing six of her newborn babies and hiding their bodies in her garage was sentenced to up to life in prison Monday in a case that drew national attention and sent shockwaves through her quiet community. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)

Utah County saw several high-profile crimes and trials in the past decade, including several murder cases that garnered national attention.

In 2013, former Utah County doctor Martin MacNeill was convicted for drugging his wife, Michele, and leaving her to drown in a bathtub on April 11, 2007. MacNeill was found unresponsive by a corrections officer in April 2017 at the Utah State Prison complex in Draper. Officials confirmed his death was a suicide.

A gruesome local crime story came to its conclusion in April 2015 when Megan Huntsman, of Pleasant Grove, was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for killing six of her newborn babies. One year earlier, in April 2014, police found six infant bodies in shoe boxes in Huntsmans garage. Police found the bodies wrapped in cloth, put in plastic bags and packed into boxes, left behind after Huntsman moved out.

Elizabeth Elena Laguna-Salgado, 26, vanished from downtown Provo on April 16, 2015, never to be seen again. After being missing for more than three years, police confirmed the Provo students remains were located in Hobble Creek Canyon on May 18, 2018. Officials are considering the case a homicide, and to this point, no suspects have been arrested.

In December 2017, Riley Powell and Brelynne Breezy Otteson disappeared. The bodies of the two teenagers were found three months later in an abandoned mine near Eureka. Autopsy reports showed the teenagers had been stabbed and died by homicide. Jerrod Baum, 42, is facing two counts of aggravated murder in the teens deaths. He reportedly killed the teenagers out of jealousy that his ex-girlfriend, Morgan Henderson, had a male visitor in their house. She testified against him and shared many details about the deaths during a preliminary hearing in March.

In 2012, Heidy Truman died of a gunshot wound at her Orem home. Her husband Conrad Truman was arrested and originally convicted of her death in late 2014, but was awarded a new trial in August 2016. In February 2017, Conrad Truman, previously convicted of murder in the death of his wife, was found not guilty after a second jury trial.

BYU students chant during a protest asking for changes in the universitys honor code at Brigham Young University on Friday, April 12, 2019, in Provo.

Over the past several years, BYU received national attention after students began protesting elements of the schools honor code, particularly how the code related to victims of sexual assault.

In 2016, sexual assault survivors came forward to say they had been investigated by the schools Honor Code Office for possible violations surrounding their sexual assaults.

That same year, the university announced changes to how it handles how sexual assaults are reported and planned to accept recommendations given by the internal Advisory Council on Campus Response to Sexual Assault. One of those announcements was that BYU would adopt an honor code amnesty clause for students when they report their assaults and said the Title IX and Honor Code offices would not share information with each other.

The protests by students didnt end with the changes adopted by the university, though, and in 2019, students began protesting the way the honor code is enforced after an Instagram account began publishing anonymous accounts of students interactions with the Honor Code Office. The protests spurred changes to the Honor Code Office itself and the way that students are informed of accusations against them.

The investigations also put BYU Police under scrutiny for their interactions with the Honor Code and Title IX offices. Officials at the Utah Department of Public Safety decided to revoke the certification after the university department reportedly failed to conduct an internal investigation into alleged misconduct of one of their officers.

The department is still currently appealing the decision and functioning at normal capacity through the appeals process.

Mountain View students are seen going home after school Nov. 16, 2016, at Mountain View High School in Orem.

School safety was a big issue this decade not only in Utah County, but nationwide as school shootings were seen across the country.

In November 2016, Utah County families saw a tragic day when a student stabbed five random classmates in the locker room at Mountain View High School in Orem. After his arrest, the 16-year-old told investigators he didnt target any particular students but simply wanted to experience what it felt like to kill as many people as possible before he died.

There were several bomb threats at schools throughout the valley, including one in 2016 when a man was arrested after driving up to Eagle Valley Elementary School in Eagle Mountain and claimed he had a vehicle full of bombs outside. After a few hours, the man was arrested, nearby roads were reopened and no explosives were found in the car.

A float for Mormons Building Bridges, an organization that supports the LGBTQ community, is seen in the July 4th Grand Parade in Provo on Thursday, July 4, 2019. The float featured photos of LGBTQ veterans.

Utah County dealt with a slew of issues relating to LGBTQ rights this decade, starting in June 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage to be legal in all 50 states.

The local LGBT community ended up in the spotlight in 2017 when the Freedom Festival in Provo denied LGBTQ groups from the parade, while allowing other non-patriotic entities to participate. In 2018, the Freedom Festival came to an agreement with the city on a non-discrimination clause in order to continue a partnership, however, they again rejected LGBTQ applicants. Eventually, the Freedom Festival agreed to allow several LGBTQ organizations to march in the grand parade after county commissioner Nathan Ivie threatened to withdraw county funds from the festival.

In 2017, Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds created the LOVELOUD festival, which was meant to help ignite the relevant and vital conversation of what it means to unconditionally love, understand, accept and support LGBTQ+ youth in an effort to keep families together. The festival was held Aug. 26, 2017, at Utah Valley University to a near-capacity crowd. In 2018, the festival moved to Salt Lake City.

The county also saw its first Pride Festival in Provo in 2013.

FILE PHOTO -- A warning sign for harmful algae is pictured near the Swede Sportsman Access on Provo Bay on Tuesday, June 12, 2018. The warning signs were hung yesterday.

Each year, the news of algal blooms on Utah Lake have become more and more commonplace, but the first warnings of the toxic green algae came in 2014 after a dog died from exposure in the lake.

The algal bloom in 2016 grew to larger levels than seen before and in 2017, it appeared even earlier than previous years and lasted longer into the fall.

In 2018, the Utah County Health Department installed permanent signage along the lake detailing what to look for in danger, showing that the algal bloom is almost becoming commonplace.

However, research is ongoing looking for ways to improve the quality of the lake. Its likely that research into the quality of the lake will continue into the next decade.

Also worth mentioning:

What would a decade in review be without mentioning Jimmer-mania? One of BYUs favorite now-former basketball players lit up the court in 2011, gaining national attention and even sparking viral social media memes. (How could you forget the classic Teach Me How to Jimmer?)

The Church of Jesus Christ saw significant changes over the course of the past 10 years. From the death of president Thomas S. Monson to the rapid pace of change under President Russell M. Nelson, the changes impacted many Utah County residents. Some of the most impactful changes included: the change to two-hour church, the withdrawal from the Boy Scouts program and start of Children and Youth programs, the end of home and visiting teaching and missionary age changes.

Utah County also saw changes to national leadership over the past decade. After 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Bob Bennett was replaced by Sen. Mike Lee in 2011 after failing to make the primary election ballot in 2010. Iconic Senator Orrin Hatch was also left office this decade after serving in the senate fo 42 years. He was replaced by Sen. Mitt Romney.

Utah County saw new representation in the U.S. House of Representatives with the creation of the Fourth Congressional District in 2013. Democrat Jim Matheson held the seat for two years, followed by Republican Mia Love who held the seat for four years. The seat is currently held by Ben McAdams. The Third Congressional District seat, which was held since 2009 by Republican Jason Chaffetz was taken by former Provo Mayor John Curtis in 2017 when Chaffetz suddenly resigned after re-election.

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10 years of change: Looking back at the top stories of the decade in Utah County - Daily Herald