Page has a new mayor. Steven Kidman is not only a familiar face to the regulars at RD’s Drive-In on Lake Powell Boulevard, he’s an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Kidman was 10 when his family moved to Page in 1978. His deep roots in the Page community helped him win the mayoral election, handily beating Councilor Brian Carey by 298 votes (781 to 483) in the Primary Election.

While Kidman has never worked in government, he said he’s learned much from his wife, Sandra Kidman. Mrs. Kidman served on the Page Unified School District (PUSD) Board as a member and as president for 16 years. Kidman, speaking of his brief experience as an appointed councilor, said, “In observing her, talking with her for all these years, nothing was a surprise. Once I got on the council, it all works the way that I expected, so nothing new there for me. They're governed by the same laws.”

The Chronicle asked if his perceptions of council members have changed since working with them. “Oh, they're all very nice,” said Kidman. “I sit in between two of them up there. The same two each meeting. No, it's all very cordial, very, very pleasant. They all have their desire to serve and so it's very nice.”

While Council functions were as anticipated, Kidman was surprised at the inner workings of City Hall. “I might want to point out I don't think people realize just how much work city staff does, and all it has on their table,” said Kidman. “They do a lot. They often have a lot more work in progress than the public realizes. And, you know, I just have had a chance to see more of that being on the Council, but that's probably the only thing that stands out to me.”

Mayors have different styles of running a meeting, staying focused on the agenda and keeping meetings on track. Some give the public additional background on an agenda item. Some have more or less patience with unruly audience members or council members breaking protocols. Mayor Tappan, for example, was a man of few words, and spoke in short, focused sentences. Mayor Diak usually had more to say, like a teacher explaining the works of city government to a class. As PUSD board president, Mrs. Kidman appeared quick to keep order and ran meetings by the book.

Kidman said he’d probably mirror a lot of his wife’s style in meetings. “Diak and Tappan -- I'll probably be a mixture of both of them. I mean, I want to make sure that the public is informed. I want to also have efficient meetings that don't go on longer than necessary. So that'll probably be a balance that I'll have to feel out as time goes on. But I do want to have efficient meetings and make sure that everything is in line. But I also don't want to feel like the people are lacking information about some of the things we do. I want to make sure that enough information is shared with the public so that they feel confident in any item.”

Page’s 2024 elections were shaped by communication gaps between city government and citizens. The gaps led to Page Action Committee (PAC) lawsuits, recalls and candidates running to replace council members. “I can tell you about the communication gaps, some of my opinions on that. You know, one of the things that I think will help, at least I hope will help, is to call a thing what it is so that it's clear what we're dealing with. If an issue is going to directly impact a certain part of our community, then go to them directly face to face. Don't just trust that your other digital types of communication are going to reach everybody, because there's a lot of us that aren't on social media or get incorrect information from the social media and then don't realize what truly is planned and what is involved and what's about to happen.

“I can use that most controversial one recently of being the streetscape. Not the other parts of Streetscape, but just the reduction of Lake Powell Boulevard. You know, as a business owner here in this location for many years, through the years, we've heard from multiple sources at the city that, you know, that will never happen, the reduction of the lanes because the city just simply doesn't have the money for it. Which made us kind of think, ‘Oh, OK, well, we don't need to worry about that.’ And we kind of [brushed] it back and didn't really stay super tight on being connected. And then all of a sudden, boom! There it was. We're going to do it. That really threw us for a loop.”

On Sept. 24, 2024, the City of Page received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) for Streetscape. The city had also saved funds to match the EDA grant. The grant agreement requires the City of Page to contribute $5.8 million toward the improvements. According to the EDA release, the grant is to “support redevelopment of the Downtown Business District, to increase its commercial viability and promote tourism.”  Page Planning Director Zach Montgomery told the Chronicle, “And because of city council's unanimous approval of that project, I was directed to write a grant to get money to help fund it.” The project the funds were originally intended for was titled “Streetscape” by J2 Engineering & Environmental Design.

“Regardless of where the money came from, all of a sudden, boom, there it was,” said Kidman. “And those of us along this corridor, business owners, were really caught off guard. And, you know, we're not really that hard to find at our businesses to make sure, face to face -- ‘You guys are going to be affected by this. This is what our plans are.’ What I want to try to do is to have some direct communication with the people that are going to be most affected by any item or any priority and make sure that there is no confusion on what the city can and cannot do as we had on the Lake Powell Boulevard.”

Regarding Page Forward, the group spearheaded by Eric Stanfield to help guide Page’s growth and development, Kidman said, “If it gets communication out and it hopefully keeps more people involved and there's just more awareness of what's going on and where a project stands and what it is, ‘How is it going to affect me? How it's going to affect my business?’ You know, that type of atmosphere throughout the city, I think that can only be positive to have a group trying to be that involved and have as many people connected to them as they can.”

Kidman and PAC chair Debra Roundtree were plaintiffs in the PAC lawsuit against the City of Page and were behind the attempted recalls of Councilors David Auge and Mike Farrow. Although PAC lost in both the Superior and the Appellate courts, the actions effectively influenced the 2024 election. Kidman, along with Roundtree, both won terms on Council. While the rest of the country is divided by allegiances to political parties, Page residents are angrily divided over the scope of a revitalization project. All one had to do was visit local Facebook groups to witness the unbridled lack of civility in Streetscape discussions. The Chronicle asked Kidman how he plans to help repair the damage as mayor.

“A large portion of us felt like we were out of the discussion,” said Kidman. “So, I know that having that discussion and keeping people in the loop is going to help a lot of that. As far as [the] incorrect information that's being spread around, especially as fast as it does on social media -- I'm not a part of social media, but I hear what's being spread from other people. And I don't know exactly how anybody combats that type of misinformation, except for just to share what is true. And I think a lot of people are angry when they don't need to be angry, because the information that they have about certain people in the city is not quite correct. And I hope that we can clear that up and smooth the water and work together to move forward.

“There were a lot of good things in the streetscape, a lot of things in that plan that I liked myself personally, and a couple of serious things that I did not like. I would like to call things what they are, not give a whole bunch of projects one cover name, which could be a firebrand name. At this point, I would like to stop using the word ‘Streetscape’ and call our improvements along Lake Powell Boulevard and on Block 17 and anything in this area, I would like to just call them what they are, whatever the project in the future is. And I think that could help.”