GUNNISON—The former city manager for a city of 7,500 in Maine and more recently the operations manager for Santaquin City has been hired as the Gunnison City manager.
The Gunnison mayor and city council welcomed Dennis Marker with a luncheon last week at city hall.
“I know growth is coming to Gunnison Valley because of the desirability of the region, and I hope to work with elected officials at all levels, citizens and business owners, to prepare Gunnison for the challenges and opportunities ahead,” Marker said.
Marker is married to AnaLee Sorensen, who grew up in Fayette and graduated from Gunnison Valley High School. They have five children, two boys and three girls.
The family has been living in Fayette for the past year, while Marker has commuted to Santaquin.
Marker received a bachelor’s degree in geography with an urban planning emphasis from Weber State University and a master’s in public administration from BYU.
He worked for the U.S. Forest Service in its regional land and real estate division offices in Ogden and McCall, Idaho, and for Sandy City as a planner and computer mapping specialist.
From there, the Marker family moved to Utah County, where Marker served as the city planner, economic development director and assistant city manager in Santaquin.
While working for Santaquin City, Marker was involved in creating new zoning laws and expedited development review procedures. He worked with developers to bring more than 3,600 new homes to the community, revamp the sewer system, and design and build new parks and trails.
In 2017, the Markers moved to the northwestern most city in the United States, Caribou, Maine, population 7,500, where Marker became the city manager. In that job, he dealt with a declining population, blighted neighborhoods, high poverty, polarized politics and limited budgets.
Despite the difficulties of the job, the family enjoyed living near a vast forest, which meant they had moose in their neighborhood. They were close to lakes, wide rivers, French Canada, and broccoli farms.
They experienced very long winters filled with the hum of snow sleds running over hundreds of miles of trails.
After four years in Maine, they settled in Fayette, and Marker went back to Santaquin City as operations manager dealing with human resources, legal issues, risk management and public safety.
Besides five children, the family has a dog, cat and parakeet, and recently acquired eight chickens. They enjoy spending time outdoors in the Twelve-Mile Canyon area, sports, music and Disney Plus.
