The Carbon County Commission will soon see two new elected officials serving local residents as Larry Jensen and Tony Martines recently won their respective races. Jensen will fill a commission seat while Martines will take the commissioner/surveyor role.
Jensen, who grew up in the area, has raised nine children with his wife and the duo now boast 28 grandchildren.
Politically, Jensen served on the Price River Water Improvement District (PRWID) board for 11 years in the ‘80s as well as the Transportation and Recreation Special Service District in 2016. Otherwise, Jensen states that his career kept him quite busy, including 38 years at Nelco Contractors under his belt, 20 of which were spent as part owner.
Jensen has since sold his interest and retired four years ago, meaning that his role as commissioner will be his main focus. First up as commissioner, Jensen said he wishes to get to know the employees and staff as well as meet with all of the city officials and begin building relationships.
After that, Jensen believes that the large focus should be pivoted toward the operations of the county and where money is being spent to ensure that everything is justifiable and minimize the shortfall, financially, that the county is in.
To Jensen, his experience in business is something he is bringing in that will be new and different for his role. Business made him look very closely at anything money is used on, he explained. Jensen wishes for the community to know that he is available and transparent; he wants input from the locals.
Elected as the Carbon County Commissioner/Surveyor was Tony Martines. Martines was born and raised in Carbon County as well and has political blood as his father previously served as the Price City Mayor. Martines’ mother was a schoolteacher and his wife, Heather, currently works as the administrative assistant for the Carbon School District Superintendent. Together, Martines and his wife have one son that is a senior at Carbon High School.
Locally, Martines has served on other committees and boards, such as holding the title of the vice president of the United Way of Eastern Utah and the Southeastern Utah Energy Producers Association. As it is a large concern for many, the budget will be the top focus for Martines, beginning with reviewing the recently released 2019 tentative budget.
Secondly, Martines will turn his focus to economic development and all things that it entails, largely highlighting moving businesses into the area and showing that Carbon County is capable of business expansion. Martines would like to express his gratitude to the community for such a substantial midterm election voting number.
“I’m very humbled and blessed that that many people would consider me as their next commissioner,” Martines concluded.
This article is part of a series that will be published by ETV News introducing Carbon and Emery counties to their newly elected officials.