ALTA — After 34 years as mayor of Alta, 88-year-old Bill Levitt has decided to take up a new hobby: golf.

Levitt, who splits his time between the ski town and Moab, said he always planned on golfing when he got older, until a blunt acquaintance stared at him and said, "You are older."

Levitt is stepping down in January from his third decade of public service to take more time for his great-granddaughter, skiing, golf and other hobbies. Although he said that he won't disappear from local politics, he will be taking a large step toward off-stage.

He has long been an active member of intergovernmental associations in Utah, acting as a mouthpiece for his 397-resident town and a bank of institutional knowledge about state politics that dates back to when Jake Garn was mayor of Salt Lake City.

Mayors from other cities who have worked with him over the years in the Council of Governments have said that Levitt has the perspective from decades of work that newer public officials often lack.

"He can bring things into perspective — this is not the first time we've talked about this, and this is what we did then," said JoAnn Seghini, Midvale mayor. "He's such a quiet, laconic soul, but when he speaks up, what he has to say has a great deal of truth."

Not everyone is a Levitt fan, however.

At least two landowners in Albion Basin have sued the town to build sewer and water pipelines from existing lines to dry lots in the basin. The town has fought to keep development off the lots there, but landowners want the added value of being plugged into the sewer and culinary water lines. Alta purchases its water rights from Salt Lake City, and thus far courts have sided with the municipalities in not sending water to the lots in the basin.

Mark Haik and Kevin Tolton, who own lots in the basin and have sued the town, refused to comment for this article.

The town also has battled various claims that some voters and elected officials at Alta do not have primary residences in the town and instead live in lodge rooms with houses somewhere in the Salt Lake valley. Thom Roberts, an assistant attorney general who works on elections with the lieutenant governor's office, said that Utah law allows a person to self-select their home voting precinct if they have more than one house — that is usually the first step in determining where a person's primary residence is. Roberts has heard complaints about Alta's elected officials — although he would not say who specifically complained — but "I haven't made any findings with regard to Alta in particular," he said.