CASTLE DALE, Utah- The Emery County Commissioners held their biweekly meeting on Tuesday, June 4, in the Emery County Administration Building in Castle Dale, Utah. The meat of this meeting came in the final agenda item, which was inviting the municipalities of Emery County to be annexed into the San Rafael Special Service District service area and participate on the SRSSD Board. The purpose of this is to establish a special service area in which green energy solutions could be pursued, such as a nuclear power plant in Green River, Utah.

Before the major items, first, the commission discussed the county’s medical, dental, vision, life and AD & D insurance renewal, with Jeff Kelsey, the President of Intermountain Insurance Services presenting to the commission about the rates for the county. Kelsey stated that the insurance rates for the county had not gone up. The commission moved to vote and approved the renewal unanimously.

The next item up for discussion was a lease renewal for Verizon Wireless at the Horn Mountain cell tower site. The lease renewal ran in the amount of three additional terms of up to five years each. Following a brief discussion the Commission approved the renewal.

After this, it was a discussion and possible approval of the county’s state retirement contribution for the 2024 fiscal year. It was explained to the Commissioners that the rates had already been set by the state and that it simply required a motion and approval by the Commissioners.

The next agenda item was the possible approval to apply for the $3200 HEMP grant from the Utah State Fire Marshal Hazmat Section, the Emery County Sheriff’s Office (ECSO) explained to the Commissioners that this would not only help the Sheriff’s Office, but also aid the power plants when dealing with hazardous materials. Commissioner Jordan Leonard asked for clarification on safety plans if there ever were an emergency at the power plant, with ECSO explaining that they did have one in place, but with turnover at the power plants, it would allow them to train the new employees. After hearing this the commission approved the application.

After this on the agenda was a discussion for the establishment of an interlocal agreement between the towns of Emery County and the Emery County Road Department. Commissioner Kevin Jensen explained that the purpose of this agreement would be to take some of the responsibility off the Road Department to lighten their load during this busy time of year. This motion came after the Road Department realized that this agreement had been spoken and maintained, there was nothing in writing. So the purpose of this item was to have the agreement written and signed by the county. This motion passed unopposed.

The meat of the meeting came in the final two items on the agenda. Those being the possibility of sending a letter of request to the Southeastern Regional Development Agency (SERDA) regarding proposed projects for Energywerx; as well as the invitation of the municipalities of Emery County to be annexed into the San Rafael Special Service District.

Commissioner Lynn Sitterud expressed his concern regarding the idea of sending a letter of request, stating,” Two of us already sit on the board at SERDA, so I don’t see why we should try to alter the course of what they’ve already got headed down the tracks.”

Commissioner Jensen responded, saying,” One thing to clarify with Energywerx is I thought it should have come through the county. And we should have looked at Energywerx when we were sending support letter. When you look at wanting to go green, clean, new energy, no one knew it was going to be hooked to billions of dollars.”

“It’s already going down the tracks to help Emery County. Emery is a part of that application to Energywerx through SERDA.” Commissioner Sitterud explained,” I just don’t think that since we were nonsupportive at the start we should change our tune now that we realize that there are some dollars there that we could’ve grabbed. We should still be able to get some dollars through our existing application with SERDA.”

The motion was made to deny this item by Commissioner Sitterud. Commissioner Jensen made another plea to the other commissioners,” I don’t see how this could hurt by sending a letter asking them to study this. If that burns our bridge with them then our relationship wasn’t that good to begin with. One other thing is that a letter from the commissioners would show unity in the county to the mayors.”

Commissioner Leonard became the decider of the fate of this item, explaining that he was not against it, but would first want to see the verbiage used within this letter; and in doing so made a motion to table the item. Commissioner Sitterud stated the motion to deny died without a second and supported the motion to table. When put to a vote Commissioners Leonard and Sitterud voted in favor of the motion with Commissioner Jensen voting against.

The item to invite the towns of emery into a special service district met a similar fate, with Commissioner Sitterud making a motion to deny citing that for 18 months the county had been told that the district is illegal, and when the research center was handed off to a different entity the district should have been dissolved. Commissioner Sitterud did state however that he would be willing to discuss this with the mayors of the county in a special meeting.

Commissioner Jensen provided his rebuttal, stating,” The special service district is only illegal because it’s not fulfilling the purpose of what it was created for. For 18 months I’ve said that. A nuclear power plant would be fulfilling that purpose of renewable energy systems.”

Commissioner Leonard wanted more time to meet with the mayors personally to gain input on the idea and made the motion to table the item until the next commission meeting. The commission voted identically on this issue, with Commissioner Jensen being the lone dissenter.

Commissioner Jensen ended the meeting by saying,” It’s a really, really sad day that we can’t go forward with what potentially could be really good for the county.”

The Emery County Commission meets biweekly, with their next meeting being scheduled for Tuesday, June 18, at 3 p.m. in the Emery County Administration building.