Outgoing Rexburg mayor reflects on time in office, the city and his future

REXBURG — Mayor Richard Woodland has served as the city’s leader for the past six years. The former city councilman, who was appointed mayor in late 2009, will leave office this week.

Woodland will swear in mayor-elect Jerry Merrill on Wednesday, Jan. 6. The outgoing mayor took a break from cleaning out his office to speak with EastIdahoNews.com reporter Nate Eaton.

NATE EATON, EASTIDAHONEWS.COM REPORTER: What are your thoughts on your last few days in office?

RICHARD WOODLAND, OUTGOING REXBURG MAYOR: It’s a sad thing in a certain sort of way. We truly have a great staff here. I’ve worked for places like General Electric and Utah International – corporate organizations – and for a college. I’ve never been in a place where people like each other like this. We’ve got none of the “snippy, snippy” stuff. It’s just a sweet place to work.

EATON: What is your proudest accomplishment during your term as mayor?

RICHARD WOODLAND, OUTGOING REXBURG MAYOR: Envision Madison. We got the whole community to come up with ideas and projections for the future. Also – I’m proud of the office of economic development. We didn’t have one of those and we have brought some jobs to Rexburg that we would not have. We are doing things now that I’d like to stay and finish – that’s the sad part of leaving – but we have a staff that can carry that through.

EATON: What are some challenges you had as mayor?

WOODLAND:Getting people to understand what’s truly going on in the community. And we face that nationally – we have an uninformed electorate and we have people here that aren’t well informed. Of course every year as winter rolls around we have about 17,000 students who think we should plow the roads different. We are the best plowed city in the state of Idaho. Every street, within nine hours, is plowed in the city of Rexburg – unless we get an amazing snowfall that continues and covers us up again.

EATON: Have there been some challenges working with the university and all the students that come in every few months?

WOODLAND:There are. One of them is pedestrian safety. We worry about that. As a matter of fact, we’re putting up a new crossing light and we were probably the first city in the nation to do an anti-texting law for pedestrians. We don’t want to send anybody home in a box. We want Rexburg and BYU-Idaho to be an enjoyable experience. Surprisingly enough the very best students we have are the jaywalkers because they look both ways for cars and then they run like heck. [laughing] We’re not encouraging that and we will cite jaywalkers.

EATON: For your first term – you didn’t run for mayor, right?

WOODLAND: I did not – I was appointed.

EATON: Did you ever have any ambition to be the mayor? Was that your goal?

WOODLAND: No. I never had any ambition to be a city councilman. I came home one day and after a couple of people asked me to do it, it finally got to me. I came home and told my wife I think I’m supposed to run for city council. She told me I must be crazy. I said I know, but I was retired at the time and I felt like giving back.

EATON: What’s your plan now?

WOODLAND: My wife and I leave for an LDS mission in two weeks. If I was to sit around town, I wouldn’t be able to keep myself out of other peoples affairs. [laughing] I’ve got to get out of town.

EATON: Where are you going?

WOODLAND: We’re going to the Morristown, New Jersey mission and it covers all of the state of New Jersey, Staten Island and a little portion of New York.

EATON: What would be your number one piece of advice for Mayor Merrill as he takes office?

WOODLAND: I would tell Mayor Merrill to follow the Envision Madison plan that the people voted for and what the people wanted.

Thank you for your service. Good luck on your mission.

WOODLAND: Thank you. It was nice to visit with you.