WOODS CROSS—When Mayor Rick Earnshaw leaves office in January, it will be a bittersweet moment. He’s lived in the city since he was 3 years old and with the exception of a two-year mission to Tokyo and two years in Bountiful as a newlywed, Earnshaw has spent the bulk of his life in Woods Cross.

“I call Woods Cross home,” said Earnshaw. “This is where my roots are. I chose to raise my family here. Serving has been rewarding because I love the people here. They helped me raise my family.”

Earnshaw has served as mayor for eight years and did not seek reelection. “Before that I served four terms on the city council and two years on the planning commission – 26 years total.”

He got his first taste of solving problems for the city when someone threatened a lawsuit over a Nativity that was put on the grounds of City Hall. “About 27 years ago the city purchased a Nativity,” said Earnshaw. “It was a nice one and they put it out in front of City Hall. It was there for several years. Then they were threatened to be sued so there was a group that came together and said ‘let’s fight this.’”

It didn’t look hopeful and the mayor at the time didn’t want to be in the press, he said. “We worked out a deal to lease the Nativity from the city for $1 a year for 99 years. We figured either the Nativity will be gone by then or we’d be gone. Every year since then my family has put that up the day after Thanksgiving on the grass strip by the Apple. It’s been a tradition for years.”

Probably the thing Earnshaw is most proud of is the city’s Memorial Day celebration. “We looked at Bountiful and their Handcart Days and Centerville had a celebration but Woods Cross didn’t have anything,” he said. “We put that together and served our first chuckwagon breakfast 26 years ago. We haven’t been able to have it the last two years because of COVID. That was hard because we’d had it for 24 years straight.”

Earnshaw has faced other issues such as a refinery explosion, subsidence in a Woods Cross subdivision and a water main break that backed up sewer into 28 homes. “We called in a restoration company to handle it,” he said. “The city’s trust said it would be covered but then came back and said the city was not at fault so they weren’t going to cover it. We met as a council and voted to make the trust the bad guys and pay the homeowners $5,000 from the no fault clause.”

Some people lost up to $30,000 or more, said Earnshaw. “We thought that was not right even though it wasn’t the city’s fault we needed to take care of the citizens. We had money in the water budget for water meters so we decided to use that to fix people’s homes.”

Earnshaw said one of the biggest challenges has been managing growth. “We want to respect property owners’ rights while allowing the city to develop and grow. We want to be unified as one great community where we can support each other.”

That’s been the goal the whole time, he said. “Even with the growth we’re still a close knit community. It’s easy to serve when you love the community and the people.”