Steven Boyack on Lehi Link, Civic Tech & Building Community in a Digital Age

Steven Boyack on Lehi Link, Civic Tech & Community | Roots & Branches

Steven Boyack, founder of Lehi Link, shares how a California transplant turned a frustration with banner ads into a 19,000-member digital town square for Lehi, Utah.

Steven Boyack on Lehi Link, Civic Tech & Building Community in a Digital Age

A Digital Town Square for a Growing City

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Episode Overview

Guest

Role in Lehi

Time Periods Discussed

Primary Topics

Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

There's Got to Be a Better Way Than Banners on Fences

The Traverse Mountain Wildfire

The 9:00 p.m. Search Party

Unmoderated Groups Tend to Be Dumpster Fires

From California Wildfire to Utah Earthquake Prep

The Tunnels Under Main Street

What This Interview Teaches Us About Lehi

The Death and Rebirth of Local News

Digital Platforms as Modern Town Squares

Growth Demands New Communication Infrastructure

Municipal Utilities as a Draw

Rodeo Culture Survives Digitally

Earthquake Risk on the Wasatch Front

Tech Transplants Shape Community

Moderation Is Labor

Community & Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics & Episodes

Growth of Lehi in the Digital Age

Social Media & Small Communities

Emergency Preparedness & CERT

Local Government & Civic Engagement

Supporting Local Businesses in Lehi

Building Community as a Transplant

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The founder of Lehi Link shares how a California transplant turned a frustration with banner ads into a 19,000-member digital town square — and why civil discourse still matters in a growing city.

In this episode of Roots & Branches of Lehi , Ryan Harding sits down with Steven Mack Boyack , the founder of Lehi Link — a Facebook community group that has become one of the most influential digital platforms in Lehi, Utah. What started as a simple solution to a common frustration (finding out what was happening in town) has grown into a 19,000-member community hub that functions as a modern-day bulletin board, emergency alert system, civic forum, and neighborhood marketplace all in one.

Steven is not a politician, a journalist, or a professional community organizer. He is a retired tech executive — his company, Workfront, was acquired by Adobe — who simply saw a need and built the infrastructure to meet it. Alongside his wife, who helped seed the group with leaders from the city council, PTA, and sports organizations, Steven created a space where Lehi residents can ask for plumber recommendations, trade rodeo tickets, debate school district bonds, and coordinate emergency evacuations during wildfires. The group is fiercely moderated, intentionally local, and grounded in a philosophy that Steven puts simply: "As long as it's civil discourse, it's a good thing."

This interview explores how technology can strengthen small-town connection rather than erode it, how a transplant resident can become a central node of community information, and why preparation — for earthquakes, for growth, for disagreement — is the work that keeps a city like Lehi resilient. Whether you are a daily Lehi Link lurker, a skeptical observer of online community groups, or someone who believes that civic life still matters, Steven's story offers a compelling look at what grassroots digital leadership looks like in a booming Utah city.

Join Ryan Harding and Steven Boyack for a conversation about building Lehi Link from scratch, moderating politics with fairness, preparing for earthquakes, and why a walkable downtown with tunnels underneath might just be Lehi's future.

Steven Mack Boyack

Founder & Moderator of Lehi Link; Community Organizer; CERT Assistant Director

2000s–Present (focus on Lehi's digital transformation and growth)

Lehi Link creation & growth, community moderation, civic engagement, emergency preparedness, downtown development, tech & community

How Steven and his wife founded Lehi Link after moving from California and struggling to find local information.

The original goal of 500 members — and the reality of approaching 19,000 today.

Real-time emergency coordination during the Traverse Mountain wildfire, including evacuation updates.

Mobilizing hundreds of volunteers at 9:00 p.m. to search for a missing child in west Lehi.

Navigating political moderation: allowing opposing viewpoints while preventing "dumpster fires."

Why post approval, profile vetting, and "search before you post" rules keep the group functional.

Steven's vision for a walkable downtown Lehi with traffic tunnels underneath Main Street.

Lessons from California wildfires applied to Utah earthquake preparedness through Lehi CERT.

When Steven and his wife moved to Lehi from California, they found themselves frustrated by the lack of centralized community information. The local paper had gone out of business, and the primary method of discovering events was driving past banners on fences. Steven, a casual Facebook user, discovered the platform's new Groups feature and realized no one had created a community group for Lehi. His wife, a natural community organizer, suggested they seed it with leaders from the city council, PTA, and sports organizations. Their stretch goal was 500 members. Today, Lehi Link has nearly 19,000 — making it one of the most successful local digital communities in Utah County.

During a wildfire on Traverse Mountain, Lehi Link became a critical real-time information channel. While official city channels operated on business hours, Steven and the group provided up-to-the-minute updates on evacuations, safe routes, and affected areas. "People were just asking, what do we do, where do we go, who evacuates — and we had a way to provide that information," Steven recalls. The episode demonstrated how a crowdsourced community platform can fill gaps when traditional emergency communication channels are overwhelmed or too slow for rapidly evolving situations.

When a child went missing in the west part of Lehi, Lehi Link mobilized a search effort that brought out hundreds of residents at 9:00 p.m. on a weeknight. "Most people want to help — they just need the information," Steven says. The story underscores a recurring theme of the interview: technology does not replace community spirit; it simply lowers the friction required to act on it. In an era when people often complain about online isolation, Steven's group proves that digital tools can rapidly translate concern into boots-on-the-ground action.

Steven is unapologetic about the moderation required to keep Lehi Link functional. He and his team vet every new member's profile to verify a Lehi connection, review posts for relevance, and enforce a "make your point, but don't keep harping on it" rule for political discussions. When the school district split debate raged, the group created a dedicated "chat" thread to contain the conversation rather than letting it flood everyone's feed. "We like a newspaper," he explains. "They curate what letters to the editor they'll print. In like manner, we have to do some due diligence." The result is a rare online space where civil disagreement is possible — even on charged topics — because boundaries are clear and consistently enforced.

Steven's commitment to emergency preparedness was forged in California, where his community lost over 1,100 homes to wildfires. After moving to Lehi, he identified earthquakes — not wildfires — as the most underprepared-for risk. He joined Lehi's CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and now serves as assistant director, teaching residents how to be self-sufficient for 72 hours, what to pack for evacuation, and how to help neighbors when first responders are overwhelmed. He built the website lehicert.org and leads training courses twice a year. His message: "One of my good friends — police said you have 30 minutes to evacuate, and your brain goes to mush. He grabbed his barbecue and television. He forgot his mementos, photos, documents. Those all burned to the ground."

Steven's most ambitious vision for Lehi is a fully walkable downtown. He proposed to Mayor Mark Johnson the idea of converting eight to ten blocks of Main Street into a pedestrian-only corridor, with vehicle traffic routed through tunnels underneath. "Where may I put the traffic?" the mayor asked. "Put it right underneath," Steven replied. He points to towns like Burnal, Idaho, where compact, walkable downtowns create genuine community destinations. While the proposal may sound fanciful, Steven's tech background — and his observation that "they build tunnels under oceans now" — suggests he views civic challenges as engineering problems rather than political impossibilities.

Lehi's local newspaper experienced a period of closure, creating an information vacuum that grassroots digital platforms like Lehi Link filled. This mirrors a national trend but has unique local consequences for a rapidly growing city.

Lehi Link functions as the digital equivalent of the grocery-store cork board — a place for business cards, event announcements, lost pets, and political debate. Its success shows how online spaces can replicate pre-digital community functions.

As Lehi expanded from a small town to a booming suburb, traditional word-of-mouth and physical signage became inadequate. Lehi Link's growth from 500 to 19,000 members directly parallels the city's population explosion.

Steven cites Lehi's independent electric infrastructure as one of the "unique things" that attracted him to the city. This reflects how Lehi's long-standing municipal autonomy continues to differentiate it from neighboring communities.

The Lehi Roundup Rodeo remains a central cultural institution, and Lehi Link has become the primary marketplace for ticket exchanges — proving that old traditions find new channels in the digital age.

Experts warn that the region is overdue for a 7.0+ earthquake. Steven's CERT involvement highlights a growing awareness among residents that Lehi's infrastructure and individual preparedness may not be sufficient for a major seismic event.

Steven's background at Workfront (acquired by Adobe) and his early-adopter tech instincts shaped how he built Lehi Link. His story illustrates how Utah's tech industry is not just changing the economy but rewiring how communities communicate.

Steven's description of checking the group "20 times a day" and vetting hundreds of monthly requests reveals that successful online communities require significant invisible labor — a reality often overlooked in discussions about digital civic life.

There's got to be a better way than banners on fences.

We hoped for 500 people... now we're approaching 19,000.

Unmoderated groups tend to just be dumpster fires.

Make your point — but don't keep harping on it.

We're kind of the modern version of the bulletin board at the grocery store.

As long as it's civil discourse, it's a good thing.

Most people want to help — they just need the information.

Make Lehi a better place to live, work, and play.

How population explosion and technology have reshaped communication in a once-small town.

The promise and peril of Facebook groups as modern town squares.

Earthquake risk, wildfire lessons, and why neighbors are the real first responders.

How residents influence city decisions through dialogue, volunteering, and digital advocacy.

Why "who do you recommend?" threads are the lifeblood of Lehi's service economy.

Stories of residents who moved to Lehi and became pillars of local connection.

Complete archival transcript of the interview, organized by chapter for readability. This record preserves the oral history of Steven Boyack for future researchers, students, and residents interested in Lehi's digital community evolution.

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This oral history interview is part of the Roots & Branches of Lehi community archive.

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