The Utah Education Association held a brief groundbreaking ceremony September 9, 2022, to celebrate the start of construction on a new headquarters building. The groundbreaking was the most recent step in a process started more than five years prior.
Former UEA President Heidi Matthews, who led UEA during the work leading to this point, called the event an opportunity to release the past, stand firmly in the present and step confidently into the future. “Today we release the past like the buckets in the hallway filled with rainwater from the (current UEA headquarters building’s) leaky roofs. We stand firmly in the present knowing what our members need for a home, what our staff needs to be at their very best, and having made decisions with the greatest care and our fiduciary responsibilities…Today symbolizes our first physical action as we step confidently into the future. We’ve prepared for this, done our due diligence and have never deviated from keeping our mission at the heart of all our decisions regarding our UEA home.”
The UEA is constructing a new headquarters building on the site of its existing building at 875 East Pontiac Drive in Murray. The current UEA building was completed in 1966.
“It takes a team to do a project like this,” added UEA Executive Director Jennifer Boehme. “I want to thank Brittany Black our real estate attorney, Corey at Think Architecture for working on this for over three years, and the fantastic team at Forge contractors with our project manager Scott Rowley to make this vision come to pass. I thank former UEA President Heidi Matthews for believing in me to do this job, and to the UEA Board for giving me the authority to move the building project forward.”
UEA Finance Director Brenda Pett shared some historical perspective, detailing the challenges of working through health and safety concerns of the existing building, considering alternatives and arranging financing. “We are so excited to get started,” Pett said at the ceremony. “It has been a long five years but it has been worth every minute because I can say that we have thoroughly thought through every step with a constant reminder that we are spending our member’s dues dollars. We want this (new building) to be their home and we want them to be proud of what we built.”
