Dear Editor,
My name is Bill Krompel and I served as a Carbon County Commissioner for 20+ years from years 1987 to 2010. I have been a lifelong Democrat, but sometimes you have to put your party affiliations aside and choose the best candidate. I have been most impressed by the incumbent Commissioner Jake Mellor who has done some truly amazing things without due recognition. I am personally proud of him making such strides with events at the Fairgrounds since he was given that assignment this past February.
Perhaps you are unaware of some of Jake’s achievements for Coal Country. Most recently he was individually responsible for ensuring that Ridge Road became an Opportunity Zone. According to US Senator Tim Scott, “Opportunity zones would allow us to target funding to those areas that need it most,” and now Carbon County has an opportunity zone it can use to attract outside investors because of it’s significant Federal tax incentives.
Jake Mellor has personally been involved in helping local businesses get critical grants so as to expand their businesses and increase our local labor force. Jake has also been instrumental from the very beginning in
helping Accelerant Business Solutions bring over 120 new fully benefited Health Equity jobs to our community. They are now revitalizing Main Street with their repairs and remodel of the old JC Penny Building. Many local people do not realize how many local jobs go unfilled or how many local businesses must do business elsewhere because we do not have a specialized training or educational process to properly transition our children into our local workforce.
Jake Mellor has been working with Intermountain Electronics, Secondary Education, and USU Eastern for the past 2 years to to help encourage Intermountain Electronics to grow their workforce here locally rather than predominately in the other states they operate in. IE may hire upwards of 1,000 new employees over the next decade, but under prior circumstances they may only have considered 10% of those new hires for Carbon County. Jake Mellor is doing everything he can to help IE increase that percentage to 60%. There are many other local employers who go months and years trying to hire a workforce with the talent and skill necessary for their operations. Many of these businesses are considering leaving our area, which would have a detrimental affect on our community.
My wife and I are both retired school teachers, and I am very impressed with Jake Mellor’s ability to speak up for Education and make our Carbon County Voice be heard at the State of Utah and national levels. We have several new local internships and apprenticeships beginning this year thanks to Jake Mellor’s involvement with Public Education and Career Pathways. Finding ways to fill the education/training workforce gaps so that we can stop exporting so many of our children and so that more of our children can find job placement locally is one of Jake Mellor’s priorities as a Commissioner, and he is making great strides.
Jake Mellor’s advice on Career Pathways has become so sought after that he has been selected from out of all of the Western United States to moderate a panel discussion on each states’ “Best Practices” with various leaders who have been influential in their individual state’s advances in Career and Technical Pathways. I cannot fathom any of the other political candidates having this reach or making this type of difference in such a short period of time for Carbon County and I would urge each of you, no matter your political affiliations, to consider the same
Sincerely,
Bill Krompel
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