By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Emery County Commissioner Jordan Leonard joined the KOAL Newsroom to provide his biweekly update on the county’s happenings. In this conversation, the Commissioner spotlighted the county’s library system and junior entrepreneurship program and explained what’s going on with the Green River Gravel Pit.
Opening our discussion, Leonard provided his usual departmental shoutout, this time focusing on the Emery County library system,” a lot going on with the libraries. Our libraries are run efficiently. They look for grant opportunities and state funding. It is so exciting how progressive they’re being with Wi-Fi connectivity, serving the community and doing different events for the youth and adults. They also partner with our events, county fairs, they run different carnivals and are really proactive in the community. So, yeah, they’ve been fantastic.”
The Commissioner switched focus to the Junior Entrepreneurship Program, which has recently started its 2025 rendition. “A couple of weeks ago, we had our first training and partnered through the business chamber. The university is a part of it, and the tourism office is a part of it. So it’s a great combination of training and information for the kids.” He continued,” There were 30 young kids, I believe the ages were from seven to 12, and then 12 and above, there were eight. So it was a really good turnout. They’ll have an opportunity to show their goods at the county fair and different county events as we go throughout the spring and the summer.”
Commissioner Leonard then spoke on the Green River gravel pit, which caused controversy at a recent County Commission meeting. “We’ve been working on a gravel pit that we had believed to be ours on the record. And it was the early 1900s when there was a tax issue. It looked like it was deeded over to the county, but we’ve had a tough time finding all the paperwork. So we’re in talks with the BLM to see how we can keep that gravel pit … We voted to pursue that gravel pit to make sure that we have that gravel for the future because in Green River, we use it for BLM roads. We use it for other emergencies and for things in the county. So we would love to keep that gravel pit inside the county.”
Leonard explained the challenge this project presents: ” I think the challenge we’re running into is communication. Not with the BLM, but we just need to make sure we’ve passed things in commission that we need to follow through with and make sure that we’re on the same page with each Commissioner and make sure that we’re following through with what we voted on in our Commission meeting.”
Moving onto upcoming events, Leonard discussed the ‘Millsite Off Ice’ fishing tournament on Mar. 28 and 29. “If you’re interested, there are over 160 tagged fish in the reservoir for that tournament. And so please sign up. You can get a hoodie and it is a lot of fun. It is going to be motorless. You can use electric motors, just no gas-powered motors. But yeah, float tubes, canoes off the shore, different things like that. We’re excited, too. I’m already signed up, so it’ll be fun.”
Commissioner Leonard also praised the Emery High School basketball teams, which are preparing to play in the state quarterfinals on Monday, Feb. 24. “They were really exciting games last week. We’re looking forward to their next games and just want to wish them luck from the county. Hopefully, they can make it in the hoop and play good defense. We’re excited for them and wish them a lot of luck.”
In closing, the Commissioner shared,” looking forward to the good weather and getting out of the house. I know it’s kind of been cold and warm, but I’m looking forward to seeing everybody out this spring and summer to different events and getting out of the house and building the community camaraderie as we get warmer weather.”