KAYSVILLE—Code Blue has been in place since October and the effort to find a location for the warming center has been a challenge for the county. The legislature passed a bill in 2023 requiring counties the size of Davis County to provide shelter beds for Code Blue and Winter Response on extremely cold days from Oct. 15-April 30. 

Although in the beginning there was push back from some residents in neighborhoods where potential locations were being considered, the warming centers have been working as planned according to the county. Recently, the county’s warming center had to move from a building Davis Behavioral Health owned to the Emissions Center in Kaysville. 

“We knew that eventually it was going to be demolished,” said Ryan Steinbeigle, Grant Administrator for Davis County. “We thought it wasn’t going to be until March but the contractor’s schedule moved up. We got a call on Jan. 31 telling us we needed to be out by Monday (Feb. 3). We got facilities and packed up and moved to the I/M building and got everything set up and we were operating the next day. It was a very quick transition.”

The first Code Blue at that facility was Feb. 10, he said. “The last one was Friday (Feb. 28). We only had three prior to that. We opened four or five times and had an average of about 10-15 people come in.”

The operation at the I/M building is similar to the DBH building, said Steinbeigle. “There are men on one side and women on the other with a privacy curtain down the middle. Clients can check in at 7:45 p.m. and do intake, there are forms for them to fill out. Then it’s a matter of getting them situated and we start waking them up at 7 a.m. and they’re out by 7:30 a.m.”

There are two volunteers for each shift, he said. “Shifts are  7:30-11:30 p.m., 11:30 p.m.-3:30 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.-7:30 a.m. We’ve never had an issue filling a shift. Plus someone from the Sheriff’s Office is always there.”

Volunteers come from all over the county, Steinbeigle said. “We have a handful from other communities. Our volunteer list has 260 people signed up. We send a GroupMe message to let them know we’re in Code Blue.”

Kaysville resident Kristy Ostermiller has been a volunteer from the beginning. “My husband and I live close by the I/M center. We saw on the news the controversy and how upset people were and it was unsettling to us. We wanted to change the dialog and see if we could help by getting to know the people.”

Ostermiller said she contacted the commissioners and asked if they could help. “We had the idea of serving breakfast in the morning. A lot of people wanted to donate supplies and food. I started coordinating all of that based on the request from the people coming in. We started bringing in warm breakfast burritos from Maverik because we couldn’t prepare food there and you could freeze them for a few days.”

In addition to that, the Ostermillers volunteered one or two shifts a week based on the need. “We usually took shift three so we could help with breakfast and getting people out.”

The center started out with two or three people coming in, she said. “Temperatures dropped for 30 days straight in January so we had 13-18 clients constantly and a core group of people would come.”

At the beginning they kept to themselves and they were reluctant, said Ostermiller. “After a week or two they got a sense of community and they were excited to see others and talk to the volunteers. You could tell when they had a warm place to sleep, etc. they had a sense of hope that they could keep going on.”

Ostermiller said she was impressed with Kaysville Mayor (Tamera) Tran and Layton Mayor Joy Petro. “Mayor Tran had to deal with trying to take care of the people of Kaysville but she volunteered many, many times and got to know the people and their situations.”

Ostermiller said she would do it again. “I’m really grateful to get involved. It opened my eyes to the situation to get to know people as individuals and hear their stories. It’s different from just stats. It was positive for me.”

“We haven’t had any issues,” said Steinbeigle. “Most are just grateful to have a place to stay and talk to the volunteers, get some rest and leave. It’s all been great.”