By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Emery County Commissioner joined the KOAL newsroom to discuss what’s happening along the San Rafael Swell.
Leonard took the time to discuss the county’s ongoing decisions surrounding conditional use permits, visits from the Castle Country Classic Junior Livestock show and Girl’s State participants, as well as giving a brief preview of the upcoming Emery County Fair.
Opening our discussion, Leonard spoke about the two guest presentations that were made at the recent Emery County Commission meeting. “We were able to donate to these different causes and trainings for our youth, and it’s nice to have them come back to report, let us know what they learned and what they did so that they feel some accountability with our donation to return and report. And it was great. The Castle Country Classic Livestock Show had a good group of youth, and they all had belt buckles and were showing them off, which was pretty awesome.”
He continued, speaking about the participants in the American Legion Girls State program. “They talked about what they learned, how to run a public meeting, agendas and they were even able to push some mock legislation and go through the process of government. And I think it opened their eyes to how the government is run and how our country is run. It was good to hear from the future leaders of Emery County among the Girls State participants. Hopefully they run for city council, mayors and Commission in the future.”
Switching gears, Leonard discussed the Commission’s stance on conditional use permits for nonconforming lots – a topic which has dominated the board’s agenda as of late. “These conditional use permits or land use issues are tough. We want to support businesses. We want businesses to succeed. The challenge we face is that we have ordinances to follow. So it puts us in a tough spot. Some of them are tough, because we have businesses near residential areas, and there’s a lot of noise. And so working through the challenges of land use is always tough, but we try to do our best to mitigate those issues.”
One point of contention was regarding solar fields and how these permits are handled,” A lot of these decisions were made before our time. The new Commission has to follow up and follow through with these past decisions. We want to be an energy-producing county. And so we do have projects in our county that create energy, solar is one of them.” He continued,” With the impact on our community, we asked them to donate to local causes, and donate to the county fair and different city celebrations. And we’ve had a challenge lately as these locations change hands to get some of those donations. So, it’s been frustrating because, at the front end, it’s a handshake agreement to ask for donations and be part of the community. And then, when it falls off and changes hands, it puts us in a spot where promises were made but not fulfilled. So we’re working through that. And hopefully, as things change hands and ownership, we can build relationships with new owners.”
Rounding out our conversation, Leonard previewed the Emery County Fair, which begins on Wednesday, July 30. “We have a great fair committee. I wish I could name them all by name, but they’re fantastic. We also have volunteers, whom we call helpers, who assist with the county fair. But it’s yeah, we’re excited about the county fair at the end of the month. We have a lot of fun activities.” Leonard added,” We do have carnival rides and different things that are coming. So please come out and support, but we did want to highlight our fair committee and helpers that help with the county fair, you know, as it gets closer and closer to the Emery County Fair.”
“I know it’s fire season. So be careful, we don’t want to have any fires in the community,” said Leonard, closing our discussion. “But we also want everybody to have a lot of fun. But please be safe out there.”