Who better to preserve the heritage of Centerville City than a fifth-generation resident? That’s what Robyn Thompson Mecham is and what the locals got nearly seven years ago in 2016 when they elected Mecham to the city council. Mecham is now three-quarters of the way through a second term and if she has anything to say about it, is on her way to a successful third term. It’s not that she wants to be in charge or that she covets the small stipend council members receive, she said. Mecham just wants to make sure that everything that makes Centerville great stays a part of the town.

“I actually feel like I would be better this time because it takes you two to three years to actually figure out what you really can and can’t do and learn a lot of things you need to know in order to really be effective,” she said.

Mecham’s ancestor William Reid Smith was one of the original settlers of the community. Like many Utah men of his day, Smith was a polygamist and Mecham traces her line through his first wife, Emiline. Mecham herself grew up surrounded by family. “I was very blessed,” she said. “My great-aunt Noami Sessions was on one side, my grandma, Laura Stoker Smith, lived on the other side of us, my aunt Emiline Hanson lived below and cousins to the side.”

“I’ve always loved Centerville,” she said. “When my husband [Ken Mecham] asked me to marry him  – He was from the big city; he was from Salt Lake – I told him I was glad to marry him, but I was going to live my whole life in Centerville and if that was a problem I wouldn’t marry him.”

Ken Mecham readily agreed, and the couple has built a life together in Centerville. They are the parents of four children and grandparents to 12, most of whom also live in Centerville. Daughter Michelle Kessler is the only odd one out – she lives in Santaquin.

What Robyn Mecham loves most about Centerville is the people, “the safe feeling that I always had, that I always felt welcome and safe here,” she said. It’s a feeling she wants her children to share. But Mecham is not content to have warm fuzzy feelings about the city and its past – she’s dedicated to making sure that what made Centerville great while she was growing up continues long into the 21st century. To ensure that happens, she has been actively involved in city business most of her adult life.  

In the early years of raising her family she worked part time for the Farmington post office but still managed to find time to attend most city council meetings. Those many years in the audience have given her a unique perspective that she is not afraid to share with her colleagues on the city council.

“I like information, and I like everyone to have all of the information,” she said. “Lots of times if there was an issue I would gather all of the information and sometimes even give it to the council members. I just did it for so long.” 

It was this involvement that led to her two stints on the city council. One day while talking with the city planner she expressed her frustration with the direction the council was taking on a particular issue. The planner had an unexpected solution.

“He said, ‘Look if you want to change things, why don’t you just run for city council?’” Mecham recalled. “I thought, ‘Well, I will then.’” And she did.

Although Mecham had a lot of encouragement from other people she said she was shocked when she was voted onto the city council and even more so when she found out she had garnered the most votes. It’s a position she has loved over the last seven years and it’s where she wants to stay – even for another term if the voters of Centerville will have her. 

Mecham is a council member known for doing her homework on the issues and even to take it on for other busy council members.

“I think it’s very, very important,” she said. “I’m OK with how anyone votes as long as I think they have all the information. For me it’s very important that I have all my ducks in a row. If I’m going to vote on something I know all about it: I’ve driven by it, I’ve walked the property, I’ve talked to the planner.” 

And indeed, in many ways, Mecham seems to be a purveyor of Centerville’s institutional memory. It’s one of the reasons she wants to run for city council again. 

“With a lot of new employees and people who aren’t from Centerville, probably some new department heads in the next couple of years, I want to be able to tell them why things were done the way that they were, so we don’t repeat mistakes that were made,” she said.

One of the things Mecham is most proud of as a council member is helping Police Chief Paul Child find funding for a program where Centerville officers can work overtime shifts at night patrolling the city. 

“We were getting so many calls in the mornings on burglaries at night and I kept coming up with ideas,” she said. Finally, one of Mecham’s ideas – an extra police department shift – resonated with Child and in 2021 the two made it happen.

“Our crime rate dropped significantly when they implemented that,” she said.” Our officers love it; they say it’s actual police work. They’re actually out keeping us safe while we’re asleep. There has been some major crime stopped because of it.”

And while life has changed since Mecham grew up in Centerville, she is determined to pass the spirit of volunteerism taught to her by her parents along to the next generation. That’s probably why when Mayor Clark Wilkinson couldn’t find anyone to head up this year’s Fourth of July parade that he approached Mecham. And of course, he had come to the right place. Before long Mecham had talked her daughter Lisa Malmstrom and her friend Breann into taking over the task – and thanks to the two of them this year’s parade, like so many before, went off without a hitch. It’s just another way Mecham and her family ensure Centerville stays great.

“We’re leaving a community for the next generation and if we don’t create those things now we’re not going to have them left for the next generation,” she said.