Month: May 2025

Earlier this year, wildfires raged across Southern California, spurred by winds and drought conditions. Dozens died and thousands lost their homes as the fires burned.

“We want to make sure that doesn’t happen here,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Tuesday, “but let me assure you that it could happen here if we aren’t careful.”

The governor, alongside other state and federal officials, on Tuesday asked Utahns to prepare for what is likely to be an active wildfire season throughout the state.

Southwestern Utah is mired in extreme drought, while most of the rest of the state is drier than usual for this time of year, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Cox in late April declared a state of emergency due to drought conditions in over half of Utah’s counties, the first such declaration in three years.

Utah, and much of the West, saw above-average snowpack and precipitation in recent years, which helped assuage severe wildfire concerns. But after a dry winter, the state’s leaders are preparing for the worst this summer.

“I worry we’ve gotten a little complacent, not in firefighting, but as the public, when it comes to fire danger,” Cox said.

“The piece of us getting lucky with Mother Nature isn’t going to continue,” he added, “and we need people to really be careful this year.”

Southern Utah is predicted to see above-average fire potential in early June, said Basil Newmerzhycky, a fire weather program manager for the BLM. In July, fire potential will increase for across central Utah, including parts of the Fish Lake, Dixie and Manti-La Sal national forests. He reported that August is likely to be “busy” for the northern half of the state.

While much of the state is predicted to experience “normal” fire potential this summer, Newmerzhycky said, “normal … is tens of thousands of acres burning.”

Over half of Utah’s wildfires are caused by humans, said Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands Director Jamie Barnes. Common causes include unattended campfires, dragging chains and target shooting.

Barnes reported that last year’s wildfire season was more active than 2023 and 2022, and that four out of the five largest wildfires in the state last year were “preventable.”

The Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and National Park Service will work with state and local entities to put out wildfires, said Chris Delaney, the state fire management officer for the BLM.

“We may wear different shirts, we may drive around in different trucks, but we represent this unified force that is committed to protecting lives and property and landscapes that bind us together,” he said Tuesday.

“The response isn’t about who wears the patch,” Delaney continued, “it’s about who’s the closest and who can get there the fastest.”

State and federal firefighters have worked together in the off-season to make Utah’s land less susceptible to wildfires through prescribed burns, thinning and other types of hazardous fuel treatment, Delaney said.

Cox said that though hiring at the federal level has been “bumpy,” “it looks like we’re going to be staffed up.”

Officials urged Utahns to check restrictions before starting campfires, secure chains on trailers and pick a safe backdrop without rocks or dry vegetation before target shooting. To report a wildfire, call 911.

Readers can learn more and sign up for fire alerts here.

It is perhaps the most pressing unanswered question from Los Angeles’ January firestorm: How did officials fail to issue timely evacuation alerts for residents in west Altadena, where all but one of 18 Eaton fire deaths occurred?

Nearly five months after the deadly fire decimated Altadena, two possible scenarios have emerged as to what went wrong that chaotic night. Either there was some human error along the chain of command issuing evacuations or there was some type of technical error in sending the alerts.

An independent investigation was launched after The Times revealed the lapse in mid-January. But it’s unclear what investigators have since discovered, and county officials have repeatedly declined to answer questions and have delayed responses to public records requests, often citing the ongoing inquiry.

But there is growing evidence that the critical shortfall — in which flames moved into west Altadena hours before residents received any evacuation alerts — stemmed from human error, likely during the decision-making process, inter-agency communications, or both.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) told The Times that human error appeared to be the cause of the delayed alerts in west Altadena. He spoke after releasing a report on evacuation alert issues during the firestorm, but noted his federal investigation did not look at the issues in Altadena. The probe initiated by L.A.’s congressional delegation focused primarily on a series of faulty evacuation alerts during the firestorm that erroneously urged millions of people across L.A. County — instead of a small group of residents near Calabasas — to prepare to evacuate.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Altadena and has strongly criticized the delays, told The Times that she still doesn’t know exactly went wrong that night, but said she believes there was likely a “breakdown in the communication” among county fire, sheriff and emergency management officials — the agencies that jointly issue evacuation alerts.

Further pointing to a likely human failure, the chief executive of Genasys, the company that provides emergency alert software to the L.A. County’s Office of Emergency Management, told stockholders in March that the delayed alerts in west Altadena were not the result of a technological error.

County officials have not commented on that assertion — or others — citing the ongoing investigation being conducted by the McChrystal Group, an independent contractor that specializes in disaster management.

But as the probe has continued, there has been some quiet finger-pointing about what agency or issue may have been responsible for the delayed alerts.

An electronic evacuation order was not issued for west Altadena until around 3:30 a.m. Jan. 8, nearly nine hours after the fire broke out and several hours after smoke and flames threatened the area. Some neighborhoods in southwest Altadena weren’t ordered to evacuate until almost 6 a.m. Neighbors east of North Lake Avenue, located closer to the fire’s origin, received their first evacuation alert around 6:40 p.m. Jan. 7, according to a review by The Times.

Initially, officials mostly avoided speaking directly about what might have gone wrong with west Altadena. Instead, they described the night as pure chaos, struggling to keep ahead of a fire that quickly turned into a major urban conflagration, driven by erratic, hurricane-force winds that grounded aircraft early in the firefight. In the first few hours, the fire departments from Pasadena, L.A. County and the Angeles National Forest responded together to the brush fire that broke out in Eaton Canyon, not far from homes.

Within a few hours, officials entered into a larger unified command structure operating from the Rose Bowl as federal and state teams joined the response, as well as other local fire departments, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department and the county Office of Emergency Management. Officials described a joint process among county fire, sheriff and OEM officials to determine necessary evacuations and ensure they were implemented, through both wireless alerts that ping cellphones within a certain geographic area and on-the-ground patrols.

But from about midnight to 3 a.m. — as the Eaton fire starting making a frightening run west — no electronic evacuation alerts went out.

No one has yet to explain what went wrong.

While Sheriff Robert Luna called the evacuation process a collaborative effort, in February he downplayed his agency’s role in the decision-making part, explaining that firefighters typically take the lead because they are closely tracking fire behavior, the blaze’s movement and associated weather.

“We are included in the decision-making, but they’re the lead,” Luna said in a prior interview. “Even though it’s unified command, I depend on the experts.”

But there’s also some concern about a gap between the efforts of some deputies on the group and central commanders. Several west Altadena residents told The Times that there were some deputies in their neighborhoods assisting with evacuations amid fiery conditions around 2 a.m., before the 3:30 a.m. alert went out. It not clear if those deputies failed to relay their surrounding conditions and the need for increased evacuations, or if that update was ignored.

Later, reporting from The Times revealed that the county’s Office of Emergency Management had only recently started using the Genasys system to issue wireless emergency alerts, going through less training and testing than other counties that implemented the system. Public records also showed that during the night of Jan. 7, there was only one person sending out alerts for the three fires that raged across the county: Eaton, Palisades and Hurst.

However, anonymous sources within county government told The Times that the west Altadena error wasn’t the fault of OEM officials. The sources said the OEM team sent out the evacuation order to west Altadena soon after it was ordered to do so — a revelation that appears to rest the blame on county fire or sheriff officials.

Luna declined to comment further on the situation, citing the ongoing probe.

County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone confirmed this week that he has been interviewed by the McChrystal Group, as have many of his command staff. But he said he hasn’t yet been told what went wrong.

“I’m waiting to see what they find,” Marrone said. “This is such a complex issue that I think, collectively, we all have to do better.”

In a recent interview, Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin echoed what other command center officials have told The Times: that he didn’t remember a moment or point in the night when they realized they had made a mistake or messed up evacuation alerts for west Altadena.

Augustin said he did remember a major shift in winds that required the fire commanders to adjust as quickly as possible. He estimated that around 2 or 3 a.m. command staff at the Rose Bowl started receiving “good intel” from teams on the ground that the winds were shifting and pushing the fire west, requiring more evacuations, but he didn’t recall exact timing.

“You’re trying to do your best with taking in the fire, the direction of travel, the wind conditions,” Augustin said, noting that the winds remained extremely erratic the first 24 hours of the fire. “You had a bunch of leadership who are trying to make real-time decisions based on the intel that they’re receiving.”

Augustin said he expects the after-action report will find that any shortcoming from that night were from a combination of the fire shifting so rapidly and some delay in how the evacuation alert went out on the county’s electronic alert system.

“In a large-scale disaster like that, when you have a wind shift, you’re receiving the information and trying your best to make the best decisions possible,” Augustin said. You’re “making as many notifications based on the resources you have.”

Whatever new information comes out of the investigation, some residents say it won’t make a difference: No matter the probe’s outcome, they say, the damage has already been done.

“I don’t trust that anything really will come from it,” said Marisol Espino, a lifelong west Altadena resident who lost her family’s home in the January firestorm.

Some experts worry that public officials risk alienating more residents across Altadena by not providing answers. They worry that could jeopardize future evacuation efforts.

“If we’re now four months out and we don’t know what the heck went on in Altadena, then that is a significant problem,” said June Isaacson Kailes, a disability policy consultant familiar with Los Angeles emergency planning. “It significantly degrades trust … and people will also be hurt because they won’t trust the messaging.”

Barger, the L.A. County supervisor who represents Altadena, said she understands there’s frustration over the lack of answers, but said it’s critical that investigators are thorough.

“While I wanted this to be real quick, it’s not as simple as that,” Barger said. “In order for us to get this right, I want to make sure that we leave no stone unturned…. I’m going to give them grace until I get the report.”

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors initiated the independent investigation in early February, and called for the report to be made public within 90 days. At the end of April, the McChrystal Group presented an update on its investigation, detailing completed community listening sessions and a count of 33 interviews done and 18 to go. It provided no substantive information on what happened that night.

“I think the fact it’s been four months and they haven’t just come out and said it means there’s something behind the surface — sensitive information associated with liability,” said Thomas Cova, a professor of geography at the University of Utah who specializes in emergency alerts during wildfires. “It’s strange, I guess, that it’s taking this long. … But it’s probably a report that needs to be reviewed by everybody. And it is California — a pretty litigious culture.”

The night of the fire, Espino’s multi-generational family ended up evacuating around 9 p.m. — well before any official evacuation order — which at the time she attributed to being overly cautious.

Now, she’s thankful they got out when they did. It’s since been devastating to learn about neighbors who waited for an order to leave, she said, and barely got out — or didn’t.

“There was nothing telling us that we were in danger,“ said Espino.

But she said it also came as no surprise that the evacuation failure affected this section of Altadena, where a higher concentration of Black and brown families live, compared to the eastside. West Altadena had become an enclave for Black homeownership, partially an outcome of redlining and discrimination in surrounding areas, including eastern Altadena. It had also became home to a growing share of Latinos, like Espino and her family.

A resident of a senior center is evacuated as the Eaton fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 in Altadena.

(Ethan Swope / Associated Press)

She said she grew up feeling like west Altadena and its residents were often overlooked or forgotten; this failure to issue timely evacuation alerts has only intensified that mistrust. Espino is now working with her displaced neighbors to recover, rebuild and prepare for future emergencies.

“I learned that we need to take care of our elder population — the community,” said Espino, now a neighborhood captain for the grassroots organization Altagether. “We’re going to put into place safety measures for ourselves.”

But for those who are seeking official answers, the next update on the investigation from the McChrystal Group isn’t due until late July. It’s not clear if the full after-action report will be complete then.

In a statement this week, the county’s Coordinated Joint Information Center, set up to respond to the fires, said that it has “answered numerous questions regarding our collective response” to the fires, but that it won’t speculate on the cause of the evacuation delays with incomplete information.

“McChrystal Group’s process is not only reviewing relevant information from first responders and emergency management professionals, but from members of the public who experienced the fires and the response first-hand,” the statement said.

Staff writers Terry Castleman and Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.

The NBA announced the 2025 All-Rookie teams on Tuesday and though two Utah Jazz rookies received votes, they didn’t make the cut for first or second team.

San Antonio Spurs guard Stephen Castle, the 2025 Rookie of the Year, led the way in voting, with a unanimous 100 first-team votes. Joining castle on the All-Rookie first team was Zaccharie Risacher (Atlanta Hawks), Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies), Zach Edey (Memphis) and Alex Sarr (Washington Wizards).

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Making the All-Rookie second team was Kel’el Ware (Miami Heat), Matas Buzelis (Chicago Bulls), Yves Missi (New Orleans Pelicans), Donovan Klingan (Portland Trail Blazers) and Bub Carrington (Washington).

The voting panel of 100 media members select five first-team players and five second-team players. For first-team votes, players get two points and players get one point for a second-team vote.

Jazz rookie Isaiah Collier just barely missed out on a second team bid. The Wizards’ Carrington had a total of 53 points (three first-team votes and 47 second-team votes). Collier had a total of 52 points (one first-team vote and 50 second-team votes).

The Jazz’s Kyle Filipowski was the second-highest vote getter that did not make an All-Rookie team with 19 total points from 19 second-team votes.

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Collier averaged 8.7 points, 6.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 71 games (46 starts) for the Jazz through the 2024-25 season, shooting 42.2% overall and 24.9% from 3-point range.

Filipowski averaged 9.6 points and 3.1 rebounds in 72 games (27 starts) while shooting 50.2% overall and 35% from long range.

The Utah state school board is failing to adequately oversee school construction in the state, allowing Utah school districts to bypass building code and inspection requirements on new projects, state auditors found.

The poor oversight stems, in part, from the Utah State Board of Education’s lack of resources, staff and adequate document management systems, according to a new report from the Legislative Auditor General.

“While [schools] are responsible for their own compliance, USBE has not fulfilled its oversight responsibilities nor enforced compliance according to its authority,” the report states.

The report, presented Tuesday to the Legislative Audit Subcommittee, followed up on an internal audit of school construction in November 2022, which identified several similar issues, according to the report.

“This is very problematic, because we spend a lot of hours here in the Legislature talking about building code requirements,” Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said Tuesday as the findings were shared.

As part of the audit, the Legislative Auditor General hired the company Building Code Solutions to independently review five Utah school building projects completed over the past few years to analyze how well districts complied with building codes and legal processes.

Compliance was inconsistent, according to the report, and inspectors identified multiple safety issues and building code violations.

USBE is not enforcing its own procedures

The report called USBE’s current oversight a “rubber stamp,” meaning school construction projects are being approved without adequate verification.

For instance, before any construction can begin, schools are required to submit a preconstruction checklist that USBE is meant to review. Once that is complete, USBE issues a construction permit.

However, the audit found that among 30 construction projects from 2017 to 2024, 87% began work before a permit was issued. Some never received one.

Schools told auditors that USBE hasn’t processed the preconstruction checklists its received in a timely manner and hasn’t generally enforced compliance with the form.

USBE is also responsible for verifying that school building inspections occur, but the state school board currently has “no way to verify that inspections are occurring, outside of trusting a building official’s attestation,” auditors found.

The board employs one school construction specialist, charged with overseeing all projects across the state. That person told auditors they did not “have the tools to adequately enforce compliance.”

“One position is reportedly insufficient to fulfill state requirements,” the report stated.

In many cases, the audit found, monthly building inspection reports were often incomplete and not consistently submitted to USBE.

“These occurrences should trigger enforcement actions,” the report said. ”However, as with the preconstruction process, the state board has never enforced these penalties to encourage compliance.”

Providing an annual training for Utah school building officials is another requirement USBE is failing to meet, according to the report.

“USBE has outsourced this responsibility to the Utah Facilities Operation and Maintenance Association (UFOMA),” auditors wrote. “This association is governed primarily by school district facilities officials and funded primarily by private vendors, which hosts semi-annual conferences.”

According to the report, USBE did not know how many of its officials, if any, have attended the conferences or how often.

Spotty finances

USBE also has inconsistent financial reporting practices when it comes to school construction, auditors found, meaning the actual cost of school construction in the state can’t be accurately determined.

“Because USBE does not require standardization of reported project cost data, state and local policymakers cannot make informed decisions about construction costs in the state,” the report stated.

USBE reports annually on the cost of all construction projects reported to the board, but auditors found those reported costs were based on preconstruction estimates, not actual construction costs “and cannot be relied upon for accurate comparison,” the audit states.

Auditors collected pay applications from each of the state’s 41 school districts for new builds since 2019 to identify a combined reported value of roughly $2.1 billion across 54 construction projects.

“However, due to differences in how [schools] classify construction costs, we were unable to generate useful cost reporting metrics, such as cost per square foot, with any accuracy,” the audit stated.

Auditors emphasized the need for a standardized cost reporting system.

Code violations in new builds

Independent inspectors discovered several code violations in new school buildings, the audit showed.

The findings included missing firewalls; mechanical, plumbing and electrical hazards; and incomplete plan reviews.

The audit noted these, in several instances, presented safety concerns for staff and students.

“Building codes are the minimum requirements to reasonably protect against risks to property, life, and safety,” the report stated. “ When construction projects don’t comply with adopted building codes, these risks increase.”

Auditors also found that many school building officials were either unqualified or inexperienced, with some waiving building code requirements without the qualifications to do so.

Just five of the state’s 41 school district building officials held any sort of building code certification, the report stated.

‘Concerning’ bid process

One school district, which the report did not identify, practiced what auditors described as “questionable” procurement processes that exhibited the “appearance of impropriety.”

Utah code requires districts to bid out all construction projects that exceed $80,000 and award work to the lowest “satisfactory” bidder.

However, this unnamed district worked exclusively with the same contractor on 18 school construction projects since 2014, the report stated. Across those 18 projects, only two bid solicitations were issued.

The district had bundled several millions worth of construction projects together, which is an uncommon practice for large projects, the report stated.

Based on what documentation was available from the district, auditors determined that the contractor seemed to offer services for a much lower price than other bidders, but auditors noted they couldn’t validate that, citing incomplete documentation.

In one instance, auditors found the project’s final cost was much higher than what was bid.

“Other factors such as inflation can understandably increase construction costs,” the report stated. ”Nevertheless, when project costs exceed bid amounts and budgets, the appearance of the district’s almost exclusive use of a single general contractor is concerning.”

The report noted that while auditors “did not establish undue bias nor illegal procurement methods,” the district did violate state document retention policies on some of the projects. District officials told auditors this was due to an “administrative error,” according to the report.

Recommendations and remediation

Auditors made several recommendations to rectify USBE’s lack of oversight, including a suggestion that lawmakers assign regulatory responsibility to a different state agency.

Other recommendations, should USBE keep its oversight role, included enforcing state statute concerning building codes and school construction processes, and outlining clearer expectations for schools to follow.

In a May 9 letter to Auditor General Kade Minchey, State Superintendent Sydnee Dickson wrote that USBE was aware that school construction was “an area of risk within the public education system” based on the 2022 internal audit.

Dickson said the board had been anticipating the new report and collectively responded to its recommendations by proposing an “alternative action” — taking auditors’ findings to board leadership for a discussion, which the board said would happen no later than Aug. 31.

From there, the board will establish a timeline and subsequent steps.

“The alternative action does not represent an objection to the recommendations directed to USBE,” the board’s response read. “The alternative action reflects inclusion of the Utah State Board of Education governing body in policy- and decision-making in collaboration with the Legislature.”

A federal agency is suing the owner of more than 20 Utah Subway franchises, saying the company failed to prevent a male manager of several of its sandwich shops from sexually harassing and assaulting a 16-year-old male employee.

The U.S. Equal Employement Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court for Utah against Franchise Management LLC, according to an agency news release Tuesday.

According to the release, the manager — who oversaw several of the company’s Subway locations — made sexual comments to the teen at a Provo Subway shop for months. The manager is alleged to have asked the teen for pictures in his underwear, sending the teen pictures of himself in underwear, and trying to discuss sexual preferences, sexual experiences and pornography.

In September 2020, the manager sexually assaulted the teen twice during a shift, the agency said. According to the lawsuit, the manager later pleaded guilty to a count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

According to the lawsuit, the teen was scared that if he reported the sexual assault, he could face retribution or lose his job.

The lawsuit accuses Franchise Management of not giving employees clear information on how to report instances of sexual assault at work. And though the company fired the manager, it never investigated whether sexual harassment was happening at its other restaurant locations, the lawsuit said.

The manager’s harassment and assault violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the agency said.

“Sexual assault at work is unacceptable and always violates Title VII, regardless of whether the harasser or victim is male or female,” Andrea Lucas, the acting chair of the commission, said in the news release.

Melinda Caraballo, the commission’s Phoenix district director, said in the release that fast-food businesses need to have systems in place to ensure teens aren’t sexually harassed by their older managers, especially given how often those businesses employ young people.

People concerned about harassment at work can find more information on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s website, at eeoc.gov/youth/harassment.

This is a developing story.

Post Malone is opposing an attempt by his ex to move their nearly three-year-old daughter permanently to California, saying in a new court filing that the child has lived in Utah most of her life and should remain a resident there.

The star (Austin Richard Post) filed a motion Monday (May 19) to dismiss the custody petition brought in Los Angeles court last month by his ex, Hee Sung “Jamie” Park. Post and Park share a child, referred to anonymously in court filings as “DDP,” who was born in May 2022.

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According to the motion, the family lived together in Utah until Post and Park ended their relationship this past November. Park then decided to relocate to Los Angeles, and Post says he agreed to share custody and move the child between California and Utah every two weeks.

In April, however, Post says he learned that Park was planning to file for primary physical custody and change their daughter’s residence to California. Park “rushed to enroll DDP in every type of activity she can” in Los Angeles to demonstrate the child’s residence there, Post claims, even though he says DDP’s nanny and doctor are in Utah and she has long attended daycare, music classes and swimming lessons there.

Post filed a paternity action in Utah on April 14 after learning of Park’s plans, he says. Park then brought her California petition for primary custody two days later, and the singer alleges Park’s petition “intentionally misleads” the Los Angeles judge by failing to mention that the child has lived in Utah nearly her whole life.

“I do intend to work cooperatively with Jamie to ensure that DDP has frequent and equal custodial time with her mother,” wrote Post in his declaration. “I do not consent to Jamie’s back door attempt to change DDP’s residence from Utah to California. I request that the California court admonish Jamie for her lack of candor, gamesmanship in attempting to forum shop, and her intentional action to try to mislead the court about DDP’s home.”

Post wants the California custody petition dismissed. He says the former couple’s dispute should be resolved in Utah, where he was the first to bring a custody action and where their daughter has spent nearly three years.

“Jamie’s conduct of attempting to forum shop to change DDP’s home state without Post’s consent or a Utah court order should not be condoned by the California court,” wrote Post’s attorney, Laura Wasser. “California law provides that, under the facts of this case, DDP’s home state is Utah, and subject matter jurisdiction over her custody remains with the Utah court.”

A judge in Los Angeles County Superior Court is scheduled to consider Post’s dismissal motion in late July. Park’s attorney did not immediately return a request for comment Monday.

Post is currently headlining his Big Ass Stadium Tour and is next scheduled to play U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Tuesday (May 20).

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Kaden Carpenter crouched at home plate and peered out at the snow-covered peaks of the Wasatch Front and the gray rain clouds hovering overhead. Then the junior Ute outfielder moved his eyes from the sky to the dirt, where baseball legends like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron trekked on this corner of Salt Lake City decades ago.

Smith’s Ballpark was empty, outside of a few stadium workers cleaning up the stale popcorn and trash left behind by Utah’s fans.

There will be no more strike calls. There will be no more moonshot homers cascading into the berm. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” will no longer play on the stadium’s speakers during seventh-inning stretches.

On Saturday, Carpenter and the Utes closed the final chapter of baseball at the beloved Salt Lake ballpark.

“It‘s brought a lot of joy to a lot of families and people’s lives, including mine,” Carpenter said following Utah’s season-ending loss to TCU on Saturday.

“I think it means a lot to the city, and I really hope they do something productive with this area and this space.”

Previously the home of the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, Smith’s Ballpark has served as the city’s baseball tabernacle since 1994. But baseball, in one form or another, had been played on the corner of West Temple and 1300 South since the 1920s.

Not anymore.

The Bees now reside in The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan. The University of Utah’s baseball team, which has called the stadium home since 1996, will move into a new on-campus venue, Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark, in 2026.

Saying goodbye to the ballpark that has been the heart, soul and home for Ute baseball for three decades was bittersweet.

“I thought it was a pretty special time because, I mean, as a little kid, you dream of playing in a park like that,” said former Utah pitcher Shawn Andreasen, who played in Utah’s first contest at Smith’s Ballpark.

‘So many memories’

Perched in the stands, several rows behind third base, Chad Mortenson wore a gray Bees’ hoodie and a vintage Oakland A’s baseball cap on his head, while waiting for Saturday’s first pitch.

The Salt Lake native considers himself a “sentimental” baseball fan. He attended the minor league team’s final contest at Smith’s Ballpark in 2024. He was also in attendance for the opening Bees’ contest at the stadium in 1994.

On Saturday, he rummaged through his closet and old cardboard boxes in search of a T-shirt he bought 30 years prior. Sadly, he couldn’t find it, but nothing was going to stop him from missing the last game in the old Salt Lake ballpark.

“If I had to estimate, I’ve been to a game at least every season since it started,” Mortenson said.

When Smith’s was first being built, Mortenson was taking driver’s ed classes. During test runs with an instructor, he’d purposely drive on 1300 South and West Temple to see how construction was coming along.

“There was lot of hype when it first opened,” Mortenson said. “I was really excited about it.”

Once it was finished, Mortenson regularly attended games with his family, friends and — admittedly — had several awkward dates.

“There was one date I had where we didn’t talk at all the whole time,” he said, laughing. ”I was way too shy back then. We sat in the upper deck and said two words to each other.”

Bridger Nesbit has been attending games for three years at Smith’s Ballpark. He sat alone in the right outfield on Saturday, cheering on several of his roommates, who are on the U.’s baseball team.

He’ll often switch seats between innings to take in different sight lines and sounds during matchups. The view of Mount Olympus is what he’ll miss most about the stadium.

“I’m probably more sad than anything,” Nesbit said. “The natural beauty, I think, is the big draw. The backdrop of the mountains, you can’t beat it. Plus, you’re only minutes away from downtown, which kind of makes it pretty special.”

Mortenson concurs.

In fact, he’d put the view up against any Major League Baseball park in the country.

“You can’t beat this view,” Mortenson said. “I’ve been to the new ballpark. The mountains are about three times as far away as the new one.”

Salt Lake City leaders hope to turn the old stadium into a mixed-use development in the future with housing, entertainment, parks and other amenities. The current plan involves preserving a portion of the old stadium.

But to some fans, like Mortenson and Nesbit, nothing will ever beat a baseball game in Smith’s Ballpark.

“This ballpark, in particular, just has so many memories,” Mortenson said. “It‘s a shame to see it go.”

‘It was a special time’

The Utes played their first contest at the ballpark in 1994 in an extra-innings win over BYU. They played their in-state rival at Smith’s again in 1995 before moving into the stadium full-time a season later.

Before the 1996 season, the program had to spend its time at Ute Field, a baseball park located between the U.’s medical center and Fort Douglas.

Dan Poulton, a former Ute pitcher who played with the program during the ′90s, can remember how nice it was to play at Smith’s against BYU in 1994 and 1995. He also remembers some of the struggles the baseball team had in its previous home.

“It wasn’t great,” Poulton said. “I came from a college in southern Idaho, and their baseball field was immaculate. It was a nice location to play. How it was taken care of rivaled a lot of the big league parks and some of the Division I parks. Ours was a little bit of an afterthought.”

Beyond center field, Poulton recounts, there was a dump where the university would unload all of its grass clippings from days and weeks of mowing around the campus.

“It was a big pile of grass pile in the back, out past center field,“ Poulton said. ”It would pile up after time. It was interesting.”

The field’s conditions weren’t the greatest, either. Andreasen can remember being jealous of other programs’ neatly manicured fields in comparison to Utah’s home field that reminded him of unruly “cow pastures.”

“You go to Arizona State, you play on those fields, and then you have ours. It‘s like, it‘s like, ‘wow, we’re like the dumping grounds of everything,’” Poulton said.

“It was kind of embarrassing, in a way, but it was still our home field.”

Their experiences at Ute Field made playing at Smith’s Ballpark that much more special.

“It was surreal for me,” Andreasen said. “I always dreamed of doing as a little kid. To be playing in a big ballpark with a bunch of fans watching with the big scoreboard, it was a special time.”

It continued for nearly 30 years until last Saturday. Now, with the final game played in the historic stadium, Utah will soon begin its new journey at Charlie Monfort Field at American First Ballpark.

Fans, students and alumni will no longer have to travel off campus to catch a game. The field will be artificial turf, meaning the winter upkeep needed at Smith’s will be eliminated.

In the past, the baseball program would drive four hours to St. George for several days of the week to practice in warmer conditions while Salt Lake City was blanketed in snow.

“Having everything in one place changes your daily routine,” Utah head coach Gary Henderson said. “It‘s been great to be a part of Smith’s over the last three decades. But this is a game changer. This will help in preparation and help in recruiting.”

Last Friday, the baseball program hosted the topping out ceremony, a celebration of the final steel beam being placed for its new, 1,200-seat stadium.

Players, coaches, and members of Utah’s athletic administration were all able to sign the steel beam with red markers.

It was a reminder of what is to come, but also what the Utes are leaving behind.

“I know a lot of people will miss it,” Poulton said of Smith’s Ballpark. “I think it‘s great they’re expanding into their own stadium. But, it‘s also sad that they’re moving away.”

On Saturday, Carpenter continued to sit alone on the field of Smith’s Ballpark after the team’s final game. Rain drizzled on his grass-stained uniform, while he took in the view from home plate.

This was a second home for him, where he’s spent grueling hours swinging his bat and diving for fly balls in the outfield.

Carpenter ultimately decided it was time to head inside as the rain picked up. He took a few more moments to say his final goodbye to Smith’s Ballpark before heading into the clubhouse.

Behind him, he left behind decades of baseball memories, an empty grass field, green stands that once hosted thousands of fans and — most of all — the home of baseball in Salt Lake City.