Carbon County Commissioner Casey Hopes stopped by Castle Country Radio to discuss a grant that was received to help bring in an Airplane Mechanic Program (AMP) through USU Eastern up to the local airport.
“For a couple of years now we’ve been working on trying to figure out a way to build a facility that could house the AMP or the Airplane Mechanics Course. We’ve worked on several different grants, well this time we were able to work with the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments. We applied for an EDA Grant and this time we were successful,” said Commissioner Hopes. Officials are still working the kinks out of some items to make the Airplane Mechanics Course a reality, but being awarded the grant is a step in the right direction.
The building would be developed up at the local airport. “It will be a building that the students will come in and they will learn everything from the engine to the air frame of the plane. They’ll be able to take a plane apart complete and put it all back together and learn all of that. The interesting thing is that the mechanics side of this because the way some of the jet engines work, it’s the same thing as our power plants. So some of these AMP mechanics will be able to, again, transfer into other jobs in our local community like the power plants,” said Commissioner Hopes. County Officials are looking forward to working with USU Eastern to bring this program to the local area.
To have this sort of facility will put Carbon County on the map because right now there are no local AMP mechanics. The closest place you can take a plane for maintenance work is Vernal, Utah or Grand Junction, Colorado. “The other exciting thing about this is it grows the potential of growing other businesses out at the airport. The main reason why we are doing this is not just to help USU, we want to help USU because they are a great partner, but those mechanics, those pilots, those people that are being trained there, there’s going to be some of them that fall in love with our community or are from here and learn some skills. They will open up a business that repairs maybe props or certain parts of the engine or airframes, and is creates business opportunities for our area,” said Commissioner Hopes. This AMP course is in its early stages but coming together as the county, USU Eastern and the FAA will begin meeting with one another to discuss developing a facility to house the new program.
The commissioners want community members to know that they have an open-door policy and if you have concerns or questions to please stop by their office at 751 East 100 North or call them at (435) 636-3200.