Colville honored with Get Healthy Utah designation; county health staff credited for support

Tabitha Edson, a Summit County Health Department health educator who serves as liaison to North Summit and Colville, presented a brief overview of Colville City’s recent Get Healthy Utah Healthy Community Award and shared photos from the award luncheon. "This award is a designation that just promotes Colville as a city that's already doing a lot to promote the health of their residents," Tabitha said, describing the recognition as both a celebration of existing work and a platform for future funding opportunities.

Nut graf: The designation makes Colville eligible for certain funding opportunities and gives the city a formal recognition that staff hope will support programs focused on mental health, active transportation, healthy food access and other community priorities through the 2023–2026 designation window.

A letter from Mayor Marsh was read to the board praising Tabitha’s role and the city–county partnership: "It is with great pride that the city of Colville celebrates our recent recognition as a Get Healthy Utah city," the letter said, and it thanked the Summit County Health Department for its collaboration. Tabitha said she helped Colville apply, formed a quarterly coalition of local businesses, elected officials and health partners to guide future programming, and is pursuing similar recognition for South Summit (Camas area).

Board members applauded the staff work and encouraged staff to connect with Park City and other designated communities to exchange best practices. The department noted that designation enables cities to apply for funding through Get Healthy Utah and partner organizations; Tabitha also described prior application attempts that failed without the formal designation. The board offered thanks and asked staff to continue supporting similar applications countywide.

The department said it will continue local coalition meetings and look for opportunities to support other towns seeking designation.