It’s time to sit down with Emery County Commissioner Jordan Leonard to find out what is taking place in Emery County. Castle Country Radio will now have an opportunity to speak with the commissioner to keep citizens informed on the latest news and events.

There is a huge event called the Bonnie & Clyde Coyote Contest taking place in March in Castle Dale. “It’s the Bonnie & Clyde Coyote Hunt, it’s a male and female partner, that’s why it is called the Bonnie & Clyde. You can sign up on https://www.eventbrite.com/ and also reach out to Facebook, you’ll be able to find Bonnie & Clyde on Facebook as well. So if you’re interested you can reach out to our Events Office,” explained Commissioner Leonard. This event will be held on Saturday, Mar. 11 at 5:00 pm. There will be raffle and door prizes given to participants. For more information and details you can call the Event Organizer at (435) 820-2124.

Each interview with Commissioner Leonard always leads to recognition of a county department that stands out for their hard work. This time the focus is on several departments within the county that work closely together. “We really like to give a shout out to our departments that go above and beyond. I think the shout out that we want to give out to this week is the Auditor’s Office, the Treasurer’s Office and the Assessor’s Office and I’ll tell you why. They’re helping us with our accounting for our CRAs, and what that means is Community Reinvestments Agency or Community Reinvestment Area. So these project areas help stimulate redevelopment for infrastructure, affordable housing, and other development projects,” stated Commissioner Leonard. These offices have been of great support in helping with the accounting of the CRAs. If you happen to stop by the county offices make sure you thank them for a job well done.

At the last Emery County Commissioner Meeting there was a discussion on TRT Funds or Transient Room Tax. “These taxes come from residents that stay in our communities, in our hotels, our Airbnb’s, short-term rentals. So we visited in Commissioner Meeting, and the Tourism Office is a huge proponent of, obviously, grabbing those taxes, making sure that we are taxing properly, and getting all the taxes that we can from those facilities,” explained Commissioner Leonard. There was a lengthy discussion that was made and the Commission approved contracting with a company to help audit those short-term rentals to get those TRT dollars.

The Emery County Commissioners meet twice a month at 3:00 pm at the Emery County Courthouse at 75 East Main Street in Castle Dale. A schedule of meetings is listed on the Emery County website at http://www.emerycounty.com/