Castle Country eagerly welcomed state officials as well as business owners to the area for the 25K Jobs Launch Tour on Wednesday. This event began in Emery County with a press conference.
Governor Gary Herbert announced a campaign goal of 25,000 new jobs for 25 rural counties at the start of this year. Lieutenant Governor Spencer J. Cox was happy to accept the responsibility of meeting this goal. Alongside World Trade Center Utah President Derek Miller, they began the work to make this happen right away.
In Castle Country, two conferences took place, beginning with the first in Emery County and again in the commission chambers in Carbon County the same afternoon. Both Lt. Governor Cox and Miller were in attendance. The duo spoke about the importance of job growth in rural communities.
A group of nearly 20 service providers accompanied the Lt. Governor and Miller. These service providers were there to connect with and support the network to help create more jobs. Governor Herbert has been quoted saying that, “Utah won’t be healthy economically until all counties in Utah are economically healthy.” Two percent of job growth comes from corporation recruitment, but 98% comes from local, organic job growth. The main purpose of this tour is to support local entrepreneurs.
Upcoming businesses in the area such as Drabs 2 Fabs spoke during the press conference. Along with Drabs 2 Fabs, a solar farm, tech company, marketing company and more will soon be establishing business in the area and will be looking for local residents to hire.
Carbon County Economic Development Director Tami Ursenbach, who has taken a large part in bringing these opportunities to Castle Country, spoke about the businesses. She stated that each business has a lot to offer, but because of time constraints, was unable to fully describe each business in detail. She thanked the Lt. Governor, Miller, the commissioners and media for being in attendance. Ursenbach also spoke to the listening and viewing crowd about the community.
“Carbon County is a wonderful place to live and to work,” she stated.
The press conference was drawn to a close by Ursenbach and Carbon County Commissioner Jake Mellor. This press conference was followed by a job fair and discussion presented by commissioner Casey Hopes, the Lt. Governor and Miller at the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center at USU Eastern.
