Ken Greenwood: Pioneer Roots, Main Street & Lehi Legacy

Former Lehi Mayor Ken Greenwood shares pioneer family history, revitalizing Main Street, the pool hall era, civic leadership, and a mission to East Africa. Listen to Roots & Branches of Lehi.

Ken Greenwood: Pioneer Roots, Main Street & Lehi Legacy

Former Lehi Mayor Ken Greenwood shares pioneer family history, revitalizing Main Street, the pool hall era, civic leadership, and a mission to East Africa. Listen to Roots & Branches of Lehi.

Ken Greenwood on Pioneer Roots, Main Street Revival, and a Life of Service in Lehi, Utah

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Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

Pioneer Roots: "I'm Going to Starve to Death Here"

Betting on a Ghost Town: Revitalizing Main Street

The Pool Hall Bar and a Secret Sip of Beer

The Priesthood Blessing from a Pool Hall Regular

The Fire and the $10,000 Fundraiser

The Road to Mayor—and a Mission to Africa

The Legacy Center: A Bust, a Bond Rating, and 3/4 of an Inch

The Costco Handshake

Historical Insights About Lehi

Community and Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics

Photo Opportunities for Historical Archive

Full Transcript

Ken Greenwood Lehi Utah Interview - Roots & Branches of Lehi Podcast

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A descendant of one of Lehi's first five settler families reflects on pioneer hardship, revitalizing a dying Main Street, serving as mayor, and the generational legacy that shaped a modern city.

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In this episode of Roots & Branches of Lehi , host Ryan Harding sits down with Ken Greenwood , a man whose life story is woven deeply into the earliest roots of Lehi, Utah. As a descendant of one of the first five families to settle the area, Ken bridges pioneer hardship, small-town traditions, and the explosive growth that transformed Lehi from a quiet farming community into a modern city of nearly 100,000 people. His memories—of pool halls, sheep herds flattening muddy roads, small-town dances, early businesses, and the evolution of community attitudes—offer a vivid portrait of Lehi's past that few living residents can match.

Listeners will hear how Ken became a central figure in revitalizing Lehi's Main Street during a time when nearly every storefront sat vacant. Through grit, creativity, and a willingness to take risks, he and his brother breathed new life into downtown—opening businesses, restoring old buildings, and creating gathering spaces that brought people back to the heart of the city. His later service as mayor, combined with a life-changing mission to East Africa, adds depth to his reflections on leadership, faith, and the responsibility of giving back to the place that shaped his family for generations.

For anyone interested in Lehi, Utah history , pioneer settlement stories , Main Street business development , local entrepreneurship , or the cultural shifts that continue to shape Utah Valley communities, this interview is essential listening. Ken's story preserves a living history of civic service, family legacy, and the resilience that defines small-town America.

Prefer to listen? This episode is also available on <a href="https: <a href="https:

Ken Greenwood

Business owner, Main Street revitalizer, former Mayor of Lehi

1800s settlement era; 1940s–1960s childhood; 1960s–1980s business years; 1990s–2000s civic service; mission in early 2000s

Ryan Harding

Every homeowner starts somewhere. Whether you are just beginning to dream, getting financially ready, or already touring homes — this simple tool helps you understand your next best step.

Ken's great-great-grandfather William Karren was among the first five families to settle Lehi. After being repeatedly kicked out of locations due to water conflicts with American Fork residents, the family ended up on the shores of Utah Lake. When talk turned to moving yet again, William took off his coat, threw it on the ground, and declared, "I'm going to starve to death here." That act of defiance anchored the family to Lehi for generations to come.

In the 1960s, nearly every building on Lehi's Main Street had a "For Sale" sign. Ken and his brother bought them cheap—everyone wanted out. They moved their floor-covering business from American Fork and opened a furniture store alongside a wedding reception center, hoping that waiting wedding guests might browse the couches and lamps. One day Ken stood outside and realized he couldn't see a single car, parked or moving, as far as he could look. He thought, "What the hell have I done?" But the gamble paid off, and those buildings became the seeds of a revitalized downtown.

Ken's grandfather ran the pool hall inside the old Blue Rock limestone building on Main Street. As a boy, Ken would sit on the end stool closest to the door while his dad drank a beer. When nobody was looking, his grandpa would pour a little beer into a shot glass and slip it to Ken. "That's where I found out I like beer," Ken laughs. Today, the actual bar from that pool hall sits in his home, refurbished as a centerpiece for their party room.

Ken shares a Lehi folk tale about a runaway wagon team that struck a child on Main Street. The mother ran into the pool hall looking for a specific man, a "Jack Mormon" who was known to play pool and drink beer. When he protested that he wasn't worthy to give a blessing, she grabbed him and said, "I don't need you—I need your priesthood." The story captures the complexity of faith, community, and human need in a small town where everyone knew everyone.

After a suspected arson fire gutted Ken's furniture store and reception center, the town rallied. They held banquets and fundraisers that raised $10,000—a substantial sum in the 1960s. The community support left a lasting impression on Ken and reinforced his belief that Lehi looked after its own. The experience also nudged him toward public service, helping him realize how much a community can accomplish when it pulls together.

Ken never planned to run for mayor. But a friend named Ken Shepard asked him one night in the grocery store, "Why don't you run for mayor?" He served two terms, improved the city's power system from near-insolvency to a $6 million surplus, and then was released by voters—something he now considers a blessing. Losing the election freed him to serve an LDS mission with his wife in Kenya and East Africa, an experience he describes as life-changing and one he still reflects on nearly 20 years later.

Ken tells how the Legacy Center came to be through a design-build partnership and creative financing. In a critical New York City meeting to secure a favorable bond rating, he pulled out the funeral program of Mike Hansen—a man who had devoted his life to Lehi youth—and slid it across the table to the bond raters. The emotional pitch worked, saving the city millions in interest. Later, when a portable stage needed to fit inside the gymnasium, Ken measured it himself and found it would clear the door by exactly 3/4 of an inch—if they let some air out of the tires.

Bringing Costco and Lowe's to Lehi required resolving a decades-old boundary-line dispute with American Fork that had stalled every previous attempt. Ken called Mayor Ted Barrett, said "Can't we get this thing straightened out?" and within 15 minutes they had squared it away with a handshake. When a railroad official later tried to deny a prior agreement in front of the Costco regional director, Ken's honest persistence prevailed. The Costco representative bowed down in the hallway and joked, "You must be God." Ken's reply: "It wasn't God. It was just having people who were being honest."

This interview offers a rare firsthand window into Lehi's evolution from frontier settlement to modern suburb. Here are key historical insights from Ken Greenwood's lived experience:

Throughout the interview, several broader themes emerge that reflect the values and challenges facing Lehi as it grows while trying to maintain its character:

This episode connects to the broader Roots & Branches of Lehi archive. Explore these related topics to deepen your understanding of Lehi's history and community:

To enhance this community profile, consider adding these visual elements to the historical record:

Ryan Harding: Welcome to Roots and Branches of Lehi, the podcast where we get to know the faces, stories, and lives that make up our community. I'm Ryan Harding, and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live alongside. Growing up in a small town, I learned that connections go beyond blood. They're built through shared experiences, friendships, and the moments we celebrate together. Each week, we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their unique story, their passions, and what they love most about living here. So whether you've been here for years or just arrived, join us as we deepen our roots and reach out to our branches one story at a time.

Ryan Harding: Welcome Ken Greenwood to Roots and Branches of Lehi. We're excited to have you on the podcast today and get to know you a little bit better. So give me a little background about yourself. Are you always from Lehi, or give me how long have you been here for?

Ken Greenwood: My great-great-grandfather, William Karren. He was one of the first five families to settle here. And they came here and they had a hard time finding a place to settle. Because American Fork people had camped along the creeks and one thing another with the water. They kept getting kicked out of here and kicked out of there. They ended up down on the shore of Utah Lake. Just north of Utah Lake. And they're talking about moving again. And according to one of the books, my grandfather took off his coat and throwed it on the ground and says, "I'm going to starve to death. I moved to starve to death here." And so they must have been a little bit persuaded because that's where they stayed for the winter. They tore the wagons apart and tried to make some shelters, one thing another. So that's how my maternal side of the family got here.

Ken Greenwood: And if you fast forward, my brother and I, we were in business in American Fork primarily doing floor coverings and that type of stuff. And just about every building on Main Street Lehi had a 4x8 piece of plywood painted white with "for sale" on it. And I drive them down. I thought, well, maybe I ought to buy them. So I bought them all. They were cheap. Everybody was trying wanted to get rid of them. And we put businesses in each one of them. We moved our business from American Fork over to here. And I stand outside one day and looking up and down Main Street. There was not one car coming or going or parked. Not one. Not one car the whole far as I could see west I could see. Not one car. I thought what the hell have I done? And anyway, I thought what could we do to maybe help stimulate customers? This type of thing.

Ken Greenwood: Where the Parker Brown building was. That was a vacant grocery store and had been vacant for several years. And we took both sides of that building. We put that mansard roof that's on the front of it now to hook the two buildings together so they look like one. And we put a kind of a wedding reception center type thing, smaller thing in the small side. And then we had we went in the furniture business and had all our furniture displayed in the larger side. We thought, well, if people come to weddings, let them stand outside while they're waiting to get in, they could stand inside. And I like that couch or I like this chair. Maybe I like that lamp. And actually worked. People would go in and we had it decorated quite nice with chandeliers and hanging glass ceiling and all that kind of stuff. And it worked out.

Ken Greenwood: And where the old blue rock limestone building is. That was my grandfather when I was growing up, he ran the pool hall there. In fact, I have that bar that was inside that pool hall in my home right now. Hauled it out and took it up home and kind of refurbished it and made kind of a bar for our kind of a party room type thing. In fact, I remember going in there as a kid with my dad. He'd go to have a beer. And I sit on the end stool closest to the door. And grandpa would set a little shot glass on the bar and import beer for a squirt. Then when nobody was looking, he give me a little drink of beer. So that's where I found out I like beer.

Ken Greenwood: And a story that I assume is true. One of the main streets out here that was a thoroughfare for traffic going east and west just like it is now. Only then it was mud in the winter and hard dry dirt in the summer. In fact, they used to run the sheep herds as they would run them through town, especially in the spring. They'd be bringing them from their winter pastures out west and bring them through town and take them up on the mountains up to the east. And they do them just on Main Street. Well, they ran them through Main Street because the feet of the sheep would flatten out the ruts that was in the street from the winter. In fact, there's a tamper they use in road construction. I call it the sheep's foot tamper. Because all those hundreds of thousands of sheep walking would just kind of level the ruts out. So it was actually helpful for the roads. They done it on purpose.

Ken Greenwood: And there was a story that goes that there was a guy that used to always be in the pool hall. And there was a runaway with the team in a wagon. And a lady was crossing the street with one of her children. I don't know, boy or girl, and the little kid got hit with the wagon on this runaway team, and she went running in the pool hall and wanted to know where so-and-so was. He was what we call a Jack Mormon. He was a Mormon, Latter-day Saint guy. But he liked to go play pool and drink a beer. And so she went running in and she grabbed him and he says, "I need you to come out and give my boy a blessing." So it must have been a boy. And he says, "I can't do that. I'm not worthy." And she says, "I don't need you. I need your priesthood." And so she hauled him out and made him go give her kid a blessing. I assume the kid lived because I didn't hear otherwise. That's kind of a folk tale thing that come out of the old days.

Ken Greenwood: But anyway, we put a gift shop in that building. The next building down was the old Larson Market. I think that started out as a saloon. I think they called it the Log Cabin Saloon or something. But we remodeled that into a hair salon business. And then in the kind of little lean-to thing on the side where they kept their compressors and that for what used to be a market. We cleaned all that out and we put a milk depot in there. And there was a dairy down in Delta that was marketing milk and then put it in plastic bags and you seal it. Saved all of the bottling and expenses of bottles and caps and all that kind of stuff. So we started marketing that milk through there because we could sell it cheaper. And we kind of marketed it as a new bag in town and sure enough it kind of worked.

Ken Greenwood: And if you go on Second West the building across, I think there's Alton's carpet is in there. We bought that building and used that more or less as a warehouse for carpet pad and that kind of stuff. And then we had a fire that pretty well gutted the furniture store and the reception center and all that kind of stuff. It was we think it was arson by kids. One of my wife's relatives, she taught school up at Lehi Elementary and one of the little kids, I think she taught first grade. A little kid kept telling her my brother set fire to that store. And the family moved out of town, so we assumed that that's what happened. And the town really rallied around us. They had some banquets and fundraisers and this type of stuff to help us get back on our feet. I think the banquet they had raised $10,000. That was a lot of money back in the 60s. It was a lot more money then. Turkey and gravy and that to show up, many people.

Ken Greenwood: But anyway, we felt kind of like a— we actually turned the whole place into a reception center without the furniture and that. We concentrated primarily on floor coverings and wall coverings and that type of stuff. And it was based on that experience with one of our— Ken Shepard was in the market one night. Why don't you run for mayor? And the more I thought about that, maybe I can help give back to the community by serving the community. And that's why I kind of got in the mayor business. I've often said there's one prerequisite to being mayor. You have to have a low IQ. You can't be very smart. And I thought, well, I qualify for that. So I thought, well, if I got low enough IQ, maybe I can run it. So anyway, I ran for two terms. I served two terms and got kicked out. I'm actually really glad they did.

Ken Greenwood: Because we ended up being called on a mission to Kenya and I will be a mission in East Africa. My wife and I and those experiences we had there and the people that we're still engaged with even today, almost 20 years later. It was a life-changing event going there and I felt good about being mayor. We done some good things, made some mistakes. But just looking at your list there about things to do, I think we really dropped the ball as a town. We went from somewhere around 15, 16,000 people when I went in as mayor. Eight years later, I think there was close to 40,000 people. And today I think there's close around 100,000 people. We basically have the same transportation system now as we did. It's the same pioneer transportation system. All they've done is put hard top over the ruts so we don't run the sheep through town to level it out anymore. But they're basically the same roads when there was 3 to 5,000 people when I grew up in town.

Ken Greenwood: And I think as an elected official we rebuilt 12 East to have some type of artery to get people off the bench. And now what used to be just a almost a country road has stop lights on it. It's incredible the amount of traffic's coming down that. And now we put all these people here without a really good transportation system put together. I dropped the ball. And everybody since me has dropped the ball by not addressing that problem by getting those things fixed. Well, it should have been a priority and it was just, we'll build houses, it'll take care of itself. It doesn't. You needed prior planning. So I'm not throwing rocks at anybody without throwing myself first. So as far as what I see politically, I think that's one place where I think I should have done a better job is with the roads and the infrastructure.

Ryan Harding: What was it like to grow up in a place that was very small, very farming community kind of thing?

Ken Greenwood: I'll talk about from my side of the family. Like I mentioned, my grandfather ran the pool hall. And then my mom and dad they ran a beer joint in American Fork called the Curve Inn. It was right in West American Fork as you come around on Highway 89. You come down, you meet right in there. And this building, this beer joint was right on the left hand side. And there was an open air dance hall right by the beer joint. Good place to have a dance hall and a beer joint. Dancing and partying go together. When I grew up, the word of wisdom was really a strong part of the church here in town. And looking back on it, coming from a family that smoked cigarettes and drank beer, this type of thing was looked down on to a certain extent. And I'm glad to see that change.

Ken Greenwood: I married a girl who was very active in the church. She asked me on a date. She shouldn't have been asking me on a date. She jumped the fence. She shouldn't have done that. She's been paying the price now for almost 60 years. But we've had a good marriage and we've been active in the church. We do have a tendency sometimes to judge people by where they are instead of who they are. And that's been a good lesson for me to learn. I'm not throwing rocks at anybody, but you ask me the question, what's changed? That's the change I've seen happen. We're more accepting of people who are not necessarily colored with the same pencil. Or believe exactly the same as we do. So that's one of the things that I see that's affected me and that I've been a part of and I've lived it.

Ryan Harding: She must have had a good influence. Maybe she got you to jump the fence back?

Ken Greenwood: Well, we're quite honorable. It was the first girl's choice dance in forever. And so when the phone rang I said hello and said this is Rita Wing and I just called if you'd like to go to the Torp Twirl dance with me. And I thought gee, I didn't know there was a Torp Twirl dance. I have no idea. And I said yeah I'll go. And so we went and had a good time. And then I played football in high school and we had just played Pleasant Grove and they beat us 7 to 6. They went on and took state that year. And we thought we should have beat them. We was on the one foot line and we couldn't get it across before time went out. And she came out on the field and oh nice job like that. So we'd been married for a couple of years and I sat in on the chair and looked on a bookshelf and pulled out a yearbook. It was her yearbook the year that we got together and I'm looking through this yearbook. I see these boys with little checks by their names. And there's a check by my name. And I thought and about that time she came walking through the door and I says, "You little— I wasn't the first one you asked to go to the dance, was I?" And the look on her face. I said, "That's okay. At least I was the last." So she waited too long to ask somebody to the dance. All the good ones was taken. So she ended up with me. So it worked out really good. We got three boys and a girl and they're all upstanding great kids. Contributors wherever they're at. It's one of the better things happened to me in my life.

Ryan Harding: What made you go into floor coverings and doing that kind of stuff?

Ken Greenwood: I was living in Lehi and driving to Salt Lake for work. I was working for a kind of a dead-end job, a little manufacturing company called Vacuent Manufacturing. And my job was to take when you go to the dentist, they would suck all the stuff out of your mouth. Those machines, I was putting new motors in. They'd get all plugged up and burn the motor out. And I really didn't like it. And here again, Ken Shepard, he was I bought a 1956 hardtop Mercury convertible. And I thought, well, I'll give people rides to Salt Lake and they can pay me to go to Salt Lake and I'll pay for my car. And so it worked out. And he was working at the time for a floor covering distributor, Vulker Company in Salt Lake. And he said, "Well, why don't you go see these people and tell them I sent you and maybe they'll give you a job." So I did and I started working there and they basically taught me the trade.

Ken Greenwood: And I started doing a few little jobs down here in Lehi and their stores in Salt Lake. I was buying the material off from them and just coming down and doing the labor on weekends and stuff like that. And one night the guy told me, why don't you— we can't have you do that anymore. I said, "What do you mean you can't?" He said, "Well, we can't allow that." I said, "Well, I'm buying all the material off you." He said, "Well, you can't do that." And I told him, "Why don't you just take this job and shove it where the daylight doesn't shine?" He said, "What did you say to me?" I said, "You heard me." And so that's basically I quit.

Ken Greenwood: And I kind of had in the back of my mind to go back to school. And so we took off and went to Logan looking for a job. My dad's cousin was head of the math department there at Utah State University. And went and talked to him and he says, "Yeah, I can help you whenever we know him." And so I'm looking for a job and they were putting the gas lines in there in Logan and I had on my best clothes and there was about that much mud water in the bottom of the trench. And the guy looked up at me. He says, "When can you start?" I said, "We need somebody right now." And I said, "Where's your shovel?" And so he threw me a shovel and I jumped down and started working. Well, I worked there during the summer and I was going to school. Then I started working for some of the furniture stores there in Logan doing part time doing floor coverings.

Ken Greenwood: And I was doing a job one night in a new house on the way out of Sardine Canyon and I worked there on it. I picked up my stuff in the afternoon. I worked that afternoon all night all day the next night. All day the next day. And anyway, I got through and took him back in and the guy says, "What do you mean you're through?" He says, "Doctors don't make that much money." And I said, "Well, right through." And he said, "That's just not right. You're not worth that." Okay, I'll show you. So I kept it in my mind and my brother came out of the home on the surface and he was looking for something to do and it was coming summertime. I thought maybe we ought to give it a shot. And so we decided we'll come down and we kind of on a wing and a prayer and we went into business started doing basically labor on floor coverings and one thing led to another and entrepreneur this and entrepreneur that until pretty soon we got more than we can do and here we are an old man later answering questions from you.

Ken Greenwood: My mom says, "I'll help you. I'll work with you. I'll take care of the inside of the store for one year. And I'm going to quit." Now, 16 years later, she was still taking care of the inside. We worked the crap out of her. It was really a family business. My dad was working down in Geneva and then he retired and he would show up and try to be a gopher, go get stuff for us. It was a good thing. Lehi was a hard place to be in business. It wasn't like it is now. In fact they probably do as much business now construction-wise in a week than we used to do in 10 years. It's just unreal. And did any of your sons want to go into that business? I guess they all did. They've all college graduates. They worked on the side while going to school. One boy, he just retired as he was in administration at his school in the district here. But for many years while he was a classroom teacher, he was doing floor coverings for the district. He had a contract with them for several years. He would work nights after school during the summers. And then the other boys, they've augmented their income by doing floors. Ceramic tile, floor tile, carpeting. There's been a lot of people actually we've trained over the years who went ahead and went on to do their own business in the same thing. It was a good trade to learn. It's a good trade. We branched out into other things. There's really no old floor mechanics. Their knees wear out, their hips go out. I thought maybe I better start doing something different. So we started messing around with buying a few rentals and that so that eventually we ended up selling all of our Main Street properties and then put it into residential rentals. And even they're getting old now just like the rest of us. But it was a good transition. We knew how to take care of basically the inside of the house pretty well and we do our own repairs and our own floors.

Ryan Harding: So then the transition obviously as a business owner entrepreneurial guy you went into politics then.

Ken Greenwood: Well, as far as politics I don't know. I'm kind of afraid of the word politician because it's got a bad name. And we've given it a bad name by putting up with bad behavior. I'm talking primarily national behavior. Locally I'm not throwing any rocks. I think there's been some serious errors made. The great and spacious building was one of them. I think that was a total miss, ill-timed. It should have been put in transportation system, not an office building. They tore down a perfectly good building because it was there when it was engineered and put together. That building was a strong building. They shouldn't totally tear it down to build a new one in its place. It was awful. But they used that money to try to help the transportation system, they'd have done something. So I think they were wrong. But they call me wrong. That's the way it goes. That is politics, right? You always have competing views and that's good.

Ken Greenwood: Political-wise, friends come and go. You get elected and you got all this swarm of people that come. But make an enemy politically, you never lose them. And remember that into the eons of time, they'll never forget a political wrong if it affected them. They just can't get it out of their head. It's hard to forgive on those things. And I'm the same way. I won't ever forgive them about putting all the money in this great and spacious building. It could have been better spent. And right behind my house there's a $19 million family park. It's just like, are you kidding me? Little kids don't need a $19 million playground. When I was a kid, shooting marbles and skipping rope and swinging on swings. Very basic stuff. I think kids could benefit from rather than have ready-made whiz-bang stuff. But that's opinions.

Ryan Harding: What are some of the things you're most proud of?

Ken Greenwood: What was the turning point for me was that we had during the winter time quite an active youth basketball league. It was we were using the armory to play in the high school gym, every gym we could appropriate for little leagues basketball winter sports. The high school team made it into the tournament every one of those years and all of a sudden all those gymnasiums were shut off. They needed to practice and all that kind of stuff. And the phone started ringing off the wall. I mean it's all my fault. And like, hey, just a minute. Something that really does need to be changed here. There was a guy named Mike Hansen who worked his tail off for years and years and years serving the young people in town with their sporting programs. On a shoestring. And his real wish and desire was to have some type of a central place that he could work out of and have a sporting program for kids to do something. And I was walking out of the north end of the office building at the time and thought, you know, something has to be done. It's got to be done now. And I started talking to different contractors I knew about maybe stand-up walls and all this kind of stuff. And there was an architect in town. Ed Collins came in and said, "How serious are you about a place for your sporting program?" I said, "I'm totally serious." He says, "You want to look at something that—" I can't think of his name, the architect. And so we set up a meeting and he rolled out the plans. It's basically the Legacy Center. And we were like, wow, this might be something. And one thing led to another. We weren't really sure about how things would work out. So we done what we call a design-build concept. We met every Monday morning. I went over what from the basic plan, what can we do instead of putting out change orders. That's expensive when contractors put together a bid and a plan they hate to change because that screws up other things they've got planned. And Richard Ellsworth basically says I'll do it as cheap as I can for you and we'll work it down that way. So we did that and that's how the Legacy Center came to be born.

Ryan Harding: So you played a role in that and having that come to be.

Ken Greenwood: Well, my name hangs on the wall in there and we put a bust of Mike Hansen. They keep moving it around. Sometimes they put it in the corner, sometimes they put it in the closet. Sometimes they put it out front. We try to honor him because his wife, they just put him on this whole Walk of Fame thing they have. And she called and asked me about this story about Mike. We were back in New York City trying to get the funding for the Legacy Center. And I kept telling the guys I was with, I don't know why I'm here. I don't know anything what I'm doing. They said, "Well, you're just here to try to tell them why we need this place or just trying to make him feel good about it." Because basically it was to what rating we would get on the bonds. Junk bond or good bond affects the interest rate. This affects the end cost of the building. And we were riding up the elevator at a very tall building. And I reached in my suit coat pocket and I pulled out and I had Mike's funeral program in my pocket. I know what to say. And we got in and there's this big oval table, all these suits sitting around it and they expect me to say something bright and intelligent and I just took that out and I just slid it out on the table and I says, "Here's a man who devoted his life to the youth of Lehi City. We want to make this dream come true by providing a central point of interest and opportunity for the youth of our city. We've gone through public hearings. We haven't had one, not one dissenting vote from either the elected officials or from the townspeople. Everybody thought it was a good idea." And when we got through walking down and going out, a guy named John, as we was walking out of the elevator, he said, "Well, Greenwood says you just saved your city a lot of money today and we got a very favorable rating on our bonds." And so it saved the citizens, I think, a lot of money. I'm happy for that. I'm happy for the kids because it's such a multi-use building. They can be doing gymnastics, basketball, running around the track upstairs. We had a portable stage, kind of a big house trailer you could open up and make a stage on it. And I wish we'd have made that so we could back that stage into one of those gymnasiums in the Legacy Center and have a portable stage for music and that type of stuff if they want to have a band. And so we talked to the architect and he said, "I think we can do it. I don't know about the height. We're really really close." And I said, "If we're really close, we'll take the damn air out of the tire. We'll get it down." And so I went and measured it and I knew it had fit by 3/4 of an inch. So barely. It doesn't matter. If it's 3/4 of an inch or an inch or a foot and a half, whatever it is, as long as it goes through. The thing I didn't pay attention to, could you back it in and open up in the right side? Pure luck. Back it in. Opened up. And there's the gymnasium right there. So that's sometimes better be lucky than good.

Ryan Harding: So Legacy Center. Well, thank you for the Legacy Center.

Ken Greenwood: Lehi, I do take credit for kind of hey, something's got to be done here. And was it hard to get passed? No. Actually, the citizens had turned down a general obligation bond for basically a performing arts center. And the citizens have turned it down. And we thought, well, just a minute, maybe we'll put in a— we'll vote in with the council a revenue bond. And so that's why you have a lunch counter in there. That's why when I go walking around there, if I don't buy a pass, for the citizens, seniors that I'm part of now, we can go from— we thought, well, if we're going to have a senior citizen component be there, why don't we let the senior citizens come in from 9:00 in the morning till 2 o'clock in the afternoon and walk for free? And we put exercise stuff in some corners so they wouldn't have to pay. They could do it for free if they want to come during those times when the place wasn't busy. And so that's why those are in the corners. I've always wondered that. They're there because basically from 9 until 2 the seniors could go exercise for free. Some of them were fixed on fixed incomes. And they all got dinged for to pay for it if they own property in town. They paid for it too. And it was like— but so I thought, well, maybe there ought to be a perk for last long enough and that we'll make it so they can come. But the biggest thing was if they come early to walk, maybe they'll stay for dinner. Or if they come to dinner, maybe they'll stay and exercise after dinner. That was the thought process that went into that.

Ken Greenwood: I came home from my wife and I went on a mission to East Africa. We got back and the time was actually 10 to 2. And my boy owned the assisted living center right across the street north of it. And we got back and I was helping him with maintenance on his place and I thought, man, I need to go down at 9:00. Maybe I'll just start going over and walk at 9 instead of waiting till 10:00. And so I asked Dan Harrison, would it be possible I just come and walk at 9:00 instead of 10? Well, no. He says, "We can't do that. These things are put together for a reason. We have to stay with that." I thought, "Dan, I hired you, you dumbass. I hired you." But so I didn't fight with him. Never mind. Sure, I'll come. But the reason we had to go at 9:00— Paul and Doris Peterson, they was like, "Why can't we come at 9:00 instead of having to wait until 10?" And then that's what I got. I'm getting mixed up here a little bit. And so I said, "Well, I don't care. Come at 9:00. It makes no difference." And so when I asked Dan if we could come at 8 instead of 9, he was like, "No, we got reasons." We got reasons. There was no reason. We just— that was a random number. That's what happens. That's one of my pet peeves about people and rules. Rules become more important than the reason why they have the rule. And a lot of times the people that did those first rules, it was just a random number. It wasn't a lot of thought put into it. It was just let's do this. Well, exactly. It seemed like a good idea. There wasn't any complicated math. It was just kind of a common sense thing.

Ryan Harding: Anything else from your time as being mayor? Things that you learned about the inner workings of how cities work and stuff like that?

Ken Greenwood: Pioneer Roots, Main Street & Lehi Legacy