Colin Erickson is running for reelection on the Rexburg City Council. In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, he explained why he is running again, what he has brought to the position, what issues he would focus on and more if he is reelected. Election Day is Nov. 4. Below is a transcript of the interview. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
Hannah: Colin, can you give me a little bit about your background and what led you to run for reelection for City Council?
Colin Erickson: First of all, I just want to thank you for letting me come on and be here and be able to talk to people out there that are listening. The reason why I wanted to run is I worked for the Rexburg Police Department for around 30 years and then I was getting ready to retire, and I've been so involved with the community over all those years being over the community policing and as a lieutenant. When I retired, I said, “What can I do to continue to serve and be part of the community?” I wanted to be out there and still be a part of it. I didn't want to just go off and do nothing, so I decided to run for City Council and made that election and been there for four years and I've enjoyed being a part of it, being able to serve, being able listen to citizens and to try to do better, make good solid decisions that would help, but also look at what we could do to plan for the future and not just keep just doing the day to day or the year to year, but where are we at on infrastructure and other things and I feel like we were behind on quite a bit of that. So. kind of push that through and get that going and see if we can speed it up. I feel like we're behind on some of it.
Hannah: What would you say you have that other candidates don't?
Colin Erickson: Well, one, I have 30 years experience of being with the Rexburg Police Department, but also with the community and here. I've been in Rexburg for over 35 years. And I think I have inside knowledge of being in the community and the budgets. In running, I ran several budgets while I was a lieutenant with the police department. I know how that works and how I feel of trying to run that and coordinate that with and save money for the citizens. But I just have a connection there. And then I also know quite a few people throughout the state with being a lieutenant and the connections through that to be able to talk to legislatures and other things.
Hannah: What would you say is Rexburg's biggest issue currently?
Colin Erickson: Well, growth is a big one and that's all over Idaho, but we're just one of the communities growing. I mean, we have two temples here. We're going to continue to grow. There's not going to be any slowdown. You don't get two temples in a city without growth happening. So, growth is continuing to grow. It’s to be a key issue to look at. Our infrastructure has to keep up to that. So, you got water, sewer, and streets that have to be looked at very closely. I feel like we're behind right now with some of that with one bridge across (U.S. Highway) 20. One bridge across Teton River and only two crossings across 20. It makes us a divided city, and I have been pushing that since I got on. In the four years I've talked to the State Highway Department, I've talked to legislators, I've talked to even up to [Congressman] (Mike) Simpson and said, the community's divided. We need to get more connection there. I'm really trying to push that and get the forefront because I found out it's not something that happens overnight. It takes anywhere from 10 to 20 years. Once you get that thing rolling, you maybe can move it up a little bit, but not much more than that. So, we need to push that very rapidly and get that up and going because we've got to get more across the river and more across 20.
Hannah: How has the council so far addressed the housing crisis here in Rexburg?
Collin Erickson: Housing crisis, we've looked at planning/zoning. We've addressed that. looked at our whole comprehensive plan in the past and redone that whole thing. And that was a big mountain. Alan Parkinson took that on. We really addressed our comprehensive plan throughout the whole city to look at the future and also tried to address some of the planning/zoning to be able to do more multi-level housing and infrastructure to be able to handle that. But that's a hard thing because if you were at the forum the other night, I did address a little bit that I think some of the cause of the crisis is the Airbnbs and flipping homes that's been throughout, bigger money comes in, buys them. When you have families that just want to get into the home and to remodel or fix it up where they could do it, those homes are bought up really fast and fixed up and flipped. And then it's out of the price range or it's bought and fixed up and Airbnbs out, which is out of the price range. So, that's something that's gooing to need to be kind of addressed through the legislature, but we have looked at several things and that's hard thing to step in and try to be a government running all that. It's just got to be, look at planning the zoning the best we can there.
Hannah: You mentioned some bridges. What are your thoughts on extending 5th West?
Colin Erickson: That's been one of my pushes clear back four years ago. Being a police officer and being on these streets for years and years and years, I've seen the changes. And anybody can drive up 2nd East right now and towards Walmart and know we have a problem by having one bridge. That's the only way to get across there. So, we need to get 5th West. We've addressed that. That probably should even be earlier than the one to the east of there. But they were ahead of that before I even got on the council of working and going with one that's going to be the east but hopefully we can get both of them across that would be the key factor then we'd have three and it definitely move that area from north and south a lot better we have a lot of building going on north up there towards temple. But we have a lot going up the west so I'm for that that’s what we're working on to get the 5th West across there sooner than later.
Hannah: What message do you have for voters as we approach election day?
Colin Erickson: Big thing is get out and vote. You know, we always have just a little turnout voting in November in between the big ones with the national voting with the president and so forth, but people have a voice, and they need to get out and vote. We need to have them look at the issues and the people that's on there and get out and vote would be a thing
Hannah: Where can people find out more about you and your campaign?
Colin Erickson: I've answered a lot of questions from the East Idaho News. We did the forum. Answered questions from the Scroll. They can reach out and talk to me. I've been to doors and I've been knocking on doors and answering questions and passing out flyers. I say a lot of people here know who I am, but we have a lot of move-ins that probably don't know who I am. It would be good to have them call me, talk to me. I'd be glad to talk to them and tell them what I am. They can reach me on my email would be the probably the best way colin.erickson@rexburg.org would probably the best way to get a hold of me and if they want me calling back and calling back from that or answer questions on email, perfect.
I'd like to throw in one more thing for the listeners out there. There’s a Rexburg Police Department and a lot of people know we're going for a bond for that. As being an officer for 30 years here, right close to 30 years, I've seen that. And I don't know if people realize how much the officers have done over time of trying to make that building work, of building up walls for themselves, building up walls, putting up new offices there, trying to make ends meet. And it's been years since we tried to do that. We're to a point that we really need for the officer safety and the community is to build a new police department. We need to build it from ground up so they have all the safety features, the national standards that they need to function in the job properly. And that's in order to keep our community safe. And that's a key factor in mind. I'm one that always been looking at the community and the safety of our community and the youth of our community. And we need to provide that for a police department. So, get on and vote!