Carbon and Emery counties have once again joined together to bring more opportunities to the Castle Country area. This time, the two counties joined to hire Robbie Jensen as the director for not only the Emery County Senior Center, a role that Jensen was already conducting, but also direct the Carbon County Senior Center. The previous director for Carbon County, Debbie Kobe, has plans to retire.
The birth of this joint venture was created when Emery County saw the deep desire to keep Jensen in his role as the Emery County director. The county did not want a different opportunity to snatch Jensen away, prompting county officials to approach Carbon County and propose the conjoining.
Carbon County Commissioner Casey Hopes stated the update does not bring changes to the way that the Carbon County center is ran. However, the opportunity to join did present an opportunity for savings in the county. It was reported that this change will meet a slight an increase for Emery County but give the opportunity to maintain Jensen in his current role.
Jensen, who has a degree in gerontology, will be contracted through the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments (SEUALG).
Jensen recently took time out of his schedule to attend the final 2018 Carbon County Commission meeting. There, he spoke with the commissioners on a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Association of Local Governments (AOG) for the senior center.
According to Jensen, there is a total amount of $47,870 that includes the center director’s salary as well as fringe and indirect cost. He stated that they reworked to get the cost down to that number. Jensen then expressed his appreciation to the members of the AOG and Emery County.
Concluding, Jensen stated that he is excited for the opportunity and assistance on the budget the MOU will provide and hopes that it will be a positive for the county moving forward. The MOU with the AOG was approved by the commissioners.