By Sara Price
Huntington City Residents will be able to access the Huntington State Park through a new trail in the near future. The Emery County Commission gave approval to begin work on the Huntington State Park trail system on Tuesday. This would create a trail from the north side of Huntington Reservoir to Huntington City and would improve accessibility while creating another recreation possibility. The budget is already in place for this trail process with $100,000 in grant money and remaining funds from the Transient Room Tax fund.
State prisons are past capacity throughout Utah. As a result, state prisoners have been sent to county facilities for holding and commissioners are currently negotiating with the state about housing the prisoners. Alternate options include building a new prison, which will cost the state billions, or paying counties for the housing of state prisoners.
Val Anderson, who works at the landfill, was awarded Emery County Employee of the Month. Praise was given to Anderson his ever cheerful attitude and continuous hard work.
Jeff Guymon addressed his concern about the Cleveland Library, claiming that the slope coming out of the building is too steep and there is no guard rail for safety. He stated that handicap parking at the library is inadequate and improvements need to be made to bring the building into compliance. Commissioners voted to approve advertisement for a Cleveland Library improvement project for bidding.
Commissioners transferred one county-owned Cottonwood Creek water share to Castle Dale in exchange for a water connection at Mick Roger’s personal property. This deal involves right-of-way and land permissions for the Weed and Mosquito building, which is still under construction. Mick Rogers will trade one half acre of land to the county in exchange for a water hookup at his property.
Final ratification of the contract between Pacificorp and Emery County will give permission to move Huntington debris basin materials from the basin to Pacificorp land. This allows the county to clear debris that was washed in by recent flooding and reduces the possibility of future damage.
Older Americans Act programs were in danger earlier this year due to extensive budget cuts both on a federal and state level. Commissioners agreed to approve coordination between Southeastern Utah Association of Governments and Emery County to aid in the continuance of programs such as Meals on Wheels and HEAT. The contract signing will take place at the next commission meeting.
In other business, approval for new landscaping at the old courthouse in Emery County will include approximately 620 square feet of landscaping paved over with cement. This will connect the front to the side door of the building. A bid was approved for Lane Larsen, for $582.
Bids were also opened for the purchase of scrap metal at the Emery County landfill. Western Metals Recycling LLC, based in Provo, bid $161.50 per net ton of scrap metal. Sim’s Metal Management, based in Salt Lake City, bid $157.00. Metro Group Inc. Recycling Group, also based in Salt Lake City, bid $131.51. Commissioners awarded the bid to Western Metals Recycling LLC. The commissioners stated that this award will bring revenue to Emery County while reducing the amount of garbage stored in the landfill.