The man never stops moving. He drives his own car, with his own supply of weedkiller, all over the city looking for places that need to be cleaned up. He scurries to local schools to speak to students about the importance of local government and he is a passionate backer of the anti-drug DARE program.

In fact, Snarr believably describes himself as passionate about a lot of things, particularly his city and its future. He'll even sing the city song if, in a weak moment, you give him half a chance.

Challenger Dave Wilde, a member of the Salt Lake County Council, seems unlikely to break into song. He does have a litany of complaints about the current administration, mostly that it hasn't planned sufficiently to keep up with the city's growth and redevelopment and that residential neighborhoods have been neglected as the mayor concentrates on luring new business.

Doubtless there have been things fall through the cracks. And Snarr, like other mayors in the Salt Lake Valley, can sound less like a chief executive than a chamber of commerce booster, devoted above all else to attracting new business.

But, given the way Utah's goofy tax laws are structured, any mayor hereabouts is likely to be fixated on the kind of economic development that fills local sales-tax coffers. Otherwise, there won't be any of the police, fire and street services that people expect and deserve.

And Snarr takes offense at the idea that the city is behind the curve on planning. In fact his mantra, a cleaned-up version of a military saying, is "Prior planning prevents pathetically poor performance."

The mayor proudly points to plans - traffic plans, water system upgrades ("You won't see a school burn down in our city"), a municipal power system that's about as environmentally friendly as such things can get, and a well-regarded parks system that boasts its own tree expert.

Snarr is also a big booster of transit-oriented development and other sprawl-fighting approaches, such as a priority on redeveloping old parts of the city for new uses.

Wilde, a lifelong Murray resident, is right to hold the incumbent's feet to the fire over matters of keeping up with growth.

In the end, though, we see no cause for voters to oust an experienced mayor who brings as much energy to the job as Singin' Dan Snarr.