Sugar City’s 21-year-old councilman helps light up the Christmas season
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SUGAR CITY – In the quiet town of Sugar City, 21-year-old City Councilman Carter Stanford is bringing a fresh spark to the Christmas season. This year, as one of the youngest elected officials in the town’s history, Stanford spearheaded an initiative to update and revitalize Sugar City’s Christmas lights and organize a festive tree lighting celebration. The December 2 event held at Heritage Park included the unveiling of the updated LED decorations and a community-centered event complete with cookies, hot cocoa and a visit from Santa Claus.
Stanford began his two-year City Council term in January of this year. He says he was drawn to helping with the Christmas celebration because, as a born-and-raised Sugar City resident, he wanted to preserve a cherished tradition and make it even better.
“I remember, as a kid growing up, going to this tree lighting, and every year we’d have the elementary school kids come and sing a couple songs, and Santa would drive by on a firetruck,” he says. “Down at City Hall, they’d set up a bunch of Christmas decorations. There would be cookies and hot chocolate, and the kids would get to meet with Santa, which was always kind of fun.”
Stanford says it was important to him to keep the celebration going, and to brighten it up a bit with new lights that should last the city a long time. He says he put in a lot of research to find the best bang for the city’s buck. Ultimately, the city bought 15,000 feet of new commercial LED lights.
“It’s almost 10 times the amount of lights we put up usually,” he says. He says the lights should last 15 to 20 years and save the city money in the long run.
Stanford says the 2024 tree-lighting celebration drew a couple hundred people, which was about what was expected.
“It was a really fun night,” he says.
In addition to the strings of lights adorning Heritage Park, the city also installed permanent holiday lighting at City Hall so it can light up downtown for special occasions throughout the year.
Stanford says community events are important to him as a lifelong resident of Sugar City, and that he promised in his campaign to help make community events worth attending. It was important enough to him that he spent weeks installing lights alongside the city’s paid crew. They also installed patriotic lights across the street at Veteran’s Park.
“We did the whole Veteran’s Park in red, white, and blue lights, just kind of to show the veterans our support,” Stanford says.
As a marketing major at Brigham Young University-Idaho, creating and promoting events for the whole community to enjoy is right up Stanford’s alley. He says his youth is a benefit in the position, as he came to the council with a lot of new ideas.
“I got involved just to help the community give the younger voters more of a voice,” Stanford says. He says being on the council has been a rewarding responsibility, and he is often asked if he and his wife will make Sugar City their long-term home.
“It depends on where life takes me and my family,” he says. “But we would love to stick around here.”