New executive takes helm of Utah County courts

PROVO -- Shane Bahr was working in an Idaho drug court in 2007 when he suddenly had a chance to move to Colorado.

"A lot of the courts that I worked in had anywhere from 10 to 40 participants," Bahr recalled last week. "Then we moved to Denver and there were 2,000."

The dramatic change posed new challenges for Bahr, but he stuck with the job for five years until another one opened up, this time in Provo.

In June, Bahr was selected to replace Paul Vance as the trial court executive of Utah's Fourth District Court. According to court spokeswoman Nancy Volmer, the position requires providing support to 13 judges, managing a staff of 90 people and overseeing court facilities. Bahr also will manage court security and budgets, Volmer added in an email.

Utah's Fourth District covers Utah County, as well as courts in Juab, Wasatch and Millard counties.

To meet those challenges that come with Bahr's new array of duties, he'll have to draw on his previous experience in Idaho and Colorado. Bahr said his career in criminal justice began 15 years ago in Rexburg, where he worked as a probation officer. That position eventually led to a new job in Idaho's Seventh Judicial District drug court, where Bahr worked with people struggling with drug dependency and criminal behavior.

"That position morphed into creating a multi-county adult probation department," Bahr added, "and I managed that for probably around 10 years."

Bahr was still commuting into Pocatello every day when the job opened in Colorado in 2007. After he accepted the position, Bahr found he had entered an entirely new league.

"They had four judges who basically did drug court every day of the week," Bahr said, explaining that by contrast drug court in Provo only happens a few hours a week.

While in Colorado, Bahr ultimately worked with a total of 70 "problem solving courts" -- which he said included drug courts and mental health courts -- all while completing a dual master's degree in social work and legal administration from the University of Denver.

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New executive takes helm of Utah County courts