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ASSOCIATIONS
• The Park City Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau has launched Best Place for Working Parents Salt Lake, Summit and Wasatch counties, in collaboration with the Salt Lake and Heber Valley chambers and the Park City Community Foundation. The program offers local businesses the opportunity to instantly determine whether their organization qualifies to earn a Best Place for Working Parents designation. Businesses will also be able to access industry benchmarks and additional resources on benefits to attract and sustain a workforce, understanding that many employees at some time or another will have a family or be caregivers in some way. The chambers partnered with the foundation’s Early Childhood Alliance to bring the national program to three counties in Utah. The free and confidential self-assessment allows companies of all sizes to take a three-minute self-assessment that gives immediate designations and shares innovative practices helpful to working parents. Businesses can take the assessment at https://bestplace4workingparents.com/salt-lake-summit-and-wasatch-counties/.
• The RAPS (Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society) Utah Chapter has announced changes and additions to its chapter advisory board. The 2025 leadership team includes Christopher Phillips, chair; Ryan Hogan, chair-elect; Darlene R. Hull, secretary; Connor Dahl, membership lead; Kristen Petersen, communication lead; and Derek Lewis, mentorship lead.
CONTESTS
• Silicon Slopes is accepting applications through July 15 for its annual Hall of Fame & Awards Gala, set for September in Salt Lake City. Individual awards will honor the top chief executive officer, chief marketing officer, chief product officer, chief technology officer, chief operating officer and chief people officer. Company award categories are marketing, health and wellness, software, services, community champion, aerospace and defense, company culture, and physical product. Details are at https://www.siliconslopes.com/hall-of-fame.
• The Women Tech Council is accepting nominations until May 31 for the annual Women Tech Awards, which recognize technology-focused women in the tech ecosystem who are driving innovation, creating new technologies, impacting companies and inspiring the tech community. The awards event takes place Oct. 3. Nominations can be submitted at https://womentechcouncil.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_egmxFKcPblu9vAa. Details are available by contacting kristin@womentechcouncil.com.
DIVIDEND
• The board of directors of Zions Bancorporation NA, based in Salt Lake City, has declared a regular quarterly dividend of 43 cents per common share. The dividend is payable May 22 to shareholders of record May 15. The board also declared the regular quarterly cash dividend on the company’s Series A perpetual preferred shares. The cash dividends on the preferred shares are payable June 16 to shareholders of record June 1. Zions has banking operations in 11 western states.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
• Utahns are among the least knowledgeable about tariffs, according to the results of a five-question nationwide quiz by financial media company MarketBeat. Utahns scored 72 percent, which is below the national average of 75 percent. The highest average was 90 percent in Iowa. The lowest is 42 percent in Louisiana. Nationally, 34 percent said they would be happy explaining tariffs in a social setting, while 41 percent would do their best to bluff through it, 19 percent said they’d try to steer the topic elsewhere, and 6 percent joked they’d just leave the party entirely. Among Utahns, 58 percent said traditional news outlets are their primary source on trade issues. Social media followed at 30 percent, while podcasts, YouTube and watercooler conversations accounted for a modest 6 percent each. Details are at https://www.marketbeat.com/originals/grocery-costs-and-tariffs-now-top-of-mind-in-everyday-conversations-new-survey-finds/.
• St. George offers the best “bang for your buck” in Utah, according to a survey of real estate professionals by Advance America. It studied the top 130 U.S. cities to determine which are offering the most value for the money. St. George is ranked No. 34. Tooele is No. 104. The top-ranked city overall is Ocala, Florida. Details are at https://www.advanceamerica.net/money-saving-tips/money-management/survey-reveals-us-cities-best-bang-for-your-buck.
• Salt Lake City, at No. 203, is the top-ranked Utah city on a list of “Best Cities for Robot Lawn Mower Ownership,” compiled by Lawn Love. It compared the 500 biggest U.S. cities based on four categories, considering average yard size, bans on gas-powered lawn mowers, and local incentives for purchasing electric lawn equipment. It also surveyed over 700 homeowners with a lawn to see what they think about adopting a robot mower. The lowest-ranked Utah city is No. 466 St. George. The top-ranked location overall is Lake Forest, California. The No. 500 city is Santa Fe, New Mexico. Details are at https://lawnlove.com/blog/best-cities-for-robot-lawn-mower/.
HEALTH CARE
• Three Commonspirit hospitals in Utah have earned an “A” hospital safety grade from the Leapfrog Group, an independent national nonprofit watchdog focused on patient safety. Leapfrog assigns a letter grade to general hospitals across the country based on over 30 measures of errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as the systems that hospitals have in place to prevent them. Those receiving the “A” grade are Holy Cross hospitals in West Jordan, Lehi and West Valley City. The Leapfrog program is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public. Grades are updated twice annually, in the fall and spring.
• Intermountain Health American Fork Hospital has received verification as a Level III trauma center by the Utah Department of Public Safety’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, recognizing the hospital’s dedication to providing quality trauma and emergency care for injured patients. Certified trauma centers undergo reviews and meet the essential criteria to ensure trauma care capability, as outlined by the American College of Surgeons’ Committee on Trauma. The Level III verification means that Intermountain Health American Fork Hospital provides prompt assessment, resuscitation, surgery, intensive care, and stabilization of injured patients and emergency operations, including 24-hour immediate coverage by emergency medicine physicians, and rapid support by general surgeons and anesthesiologists. With the certification, American Fork Hospital is now fully certified and designated as a Level III trauma center for the next three years. The hospital previously was designated a Level IV trauma center.
NONPROFITS
• The Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation recently released its third annual Impact Report, highlighting nearly $40 million in giving in 2024 to nonprofit partners. The report highlights efforts across the foundation’s focus areas, including health and medicine, shelter and food security, education and skill development, jobs and economic self-reliance, and cultural and spiritual enrichment. It features stories from the nonprofit partners. The report is available at https://joom.ag/rUjd.
PHILANTHROPY
• In celebration of Mother’s Day, Walmart stores throughout Utah teamed up to support moms with the greatest needs. Donations benefited The Road Home newly opened Family Interim Non-Congregate Housing Facility and , dedicated to ending domestic violence and empowering survivors to heal and thrive by providing safe housing, support services and prevention education. Dozens of Walmart stores donated mother and children move-in bags to support 85 families being housed at FINCH. Every store donated essential household items for the families. The Park City Walmart store presented Peace House Executive Director Kendra Wyckoff with a $2,000 grant. The funds will support Peace House’s prevention and education programming, which provides child abuse prevention and bystander intervention curriculum to people in the community, including children in schools.
REAL ESTATE
• Gantry, an independent U.S. commercial mortgage banking firm, has secured a $13.5 million permanent loan for the acquisition of a modern, Class A warehouse building at 485 N. Jimmy Doolittle Road, Salt Lake City. The 148,263-square-foot, institutional-quality facility sits on a 9.42-acre site. It is 100 percent leased to two tenants. Gantry’s Mike Wood, principal; Ben Johnson, director; and Tim Brown, senior associate, with the firm’s Seattle production office, represented the borrower, a private real estate investor. The six-year, fixed-rate loan was provided by one of Gantry’s top insurance company correspondent lenders.
RECOGNITIONS
• RTX, a Raytheon business based in New York, has recognized Spartronics Plaistow Inc. of North Logan with a Premier Award for performance in 2024 and an Excellence in Collaboration and Customer Service honor. The Premier Award is an annual recognition platform to recognize suppliers with superior performance and that have provided exceptional value to RTX in one of the five categories. Spartronics Plaistow has worked with RTX since 2009. Spartronics is a contract manufacturer that provides engineering, manufacturing and aftermarket services for highly complex electronics. Industries it serves include medical devices, life sciences, commercial aerospace, and aerospace and defense.
RETAIL
• Farmstead, a European-style bakery in St. George, has rebranded to Bonrue Bakery. Founded by Li Hsun Sun, Chris Herrin and Chris Connors in 2021, the company has three locations across Washington County (downtown St. George, Hurricane and Springdale). The name change came about due to trademark complications. Bonrue is inspired by the French words for good (“bon”) and the streets where gathering takes place (“rue”).
