By Julie Johansen
Emery County Commissioners are issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP) for new director for the 2018 County Fair. Last year’s director, Amanda Leonard, will not be fulfilling this responsibility next summer.
David Allred, Emery County Public Defender, is leaving to serve an LDS Mission on March 1. The commissioners opened two sealed bids for his replacement: Oliver and Sitterud, LLC and attorney Travis Blackburn. The bids were presented to County Attorney Mike Olsen for review and awarding the bid will be scheduled for next meeting on Feb. 6.
Easement No. 1303, amendment 2, on the Des-Bee Dove Trail with SITLA was approved and signed as the trail has been cleared and is ready for use.
Emery County Economic Director Jordan Leonard requested a tourism grant agreement with Huntington City. This would help to fund the vinyl lettering on the billboard north of Huntington City. The branding for the county will have to be displayed for at least two years on the sign and matching funds will be paid by county TRT funds. This partnership with Huntington City was passed unanimously.
Approval was granted for the archives department to apply for a grant to digitize approximately 20 years of the Emery County Progress. Approval was also given to sign the memorandum of understand with Active-Re-Entry for Perkie Travels, which assists residents with cancer that need to travel to the Provo area for treatment. This approval was given with a change of language regarding the maintenance of the vehicles. A business license requested from Ezra Williams for E and C Enterprise, which is a fabrication and repair business, was approved.
Partnership dues for Canyon Country, as well as renewal of membership fees to Southeastern Utah Energy Producers Association (SEUPA) in the amount of $500 also received approval. The 2018 CIB list was amended to include a carport on the Ferron Senior Center to cover the area where the Meals on Wheels vans load.
Some items tabled requiring more information or committee inspection were restoration of the Castle Dale Bridge, abandonment of a couple of county roads, a contract with the USU/Extension Office and a contract with the TV program “The County Seat.”
Randy Johnson reported to commissioners that the Emery County Public Lands bill is ready for presentation by congressional representatives sometime in February. He reported that all of the representatives are very helpful pushing this legislation through at this time. He said it seems to be better than in all his 24 years of working toward this goal. The values, integrity and language of the bill are being well represented, Johnson said.
Johnson also reported on HB 136, which he feels is not constitutional as it would prevent county officials from advocating or lobbying for any legislation on public lands.
At the close of the meeting, Commissioner Sitterud spoke about a recent trip the commissioners made to the Governors office to discuss the 25K Jobs Initiative. He thanked Brock Johansen from Emery Telcom and Loren Huntsman from Rocky Mountain Power for traveling with the commissioners to represent Emery County.
“The meeting turned out well and Emery County was well represented,” reported Sitterud.