By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Gathering on Tuesday, Oct. 7, the Emery County board of Commissioners convened to tackle a wide range of items.
Opening the agenda for the commissioners was the opening of bids for a county-owned parcel of land in Green River. With only two bids entered for the property, the commission accepted the highest bid, which G. Todd Mars placed for $1,250.
Next up was the ratification of the 2026 Children and Teen Enhancement Mini Grant. The grant, totaling $14,500, was distributed among the Emery County Library System. Castle Dale received $2,000, Cleveland claimed $2,500, Elmo took $3,000, Emery town got $2,000, Ferron walked away with $2,000 and Orangeville was awarded $3,000.
After this, the commission approved an annual agreement for the rental of a wheeler backhoe loader. The rental runs the county $8,400 and can be used for up to 300 hours.
Another agreement followed, with the next being the yearly agreement between the county and the Bureau of Land Management for law enforcement services on BLM land. “The BLM contracts are a little bit different this year. They’ve actually made it easier for us and more lucrative. So instead of sending them reports and billing them per hour, they guarantee us a certain amount per, I think it’s month or per pay period. And it ends up being more per year,” explained Emery County Sheriff Tyson Huntington.
He added, “They’re just requiring a certain number of hours that we patrol out there, which is a little bit less than what we have been. So the reporting is easier. They’re going to pay us a little bit more. And our commitment will stay the same or even be a little bit less.”
Hearing this, the contract was approved unanimously.
A special item took center stage following this, with the commission announcing that instead of the typical county administration building meeting for the commission meeting, the body would travel to Green River and hold its biweekly meeting there, alongside a town-hall meeting on Oct. 21.
“I think it’s a good idea to get down there and visit with the Green River folks in town hall, but also it’s nice to have a meeting down there a year just to support them,” spoke commissioner Jordan Leonard.
For those unable to attend in Green River, a Zoom call will be set up in the County Administration Building in Castle Dale.
Next, the commissioners adjusted several tax rates on parcels throughout the county. “This one would be when there’s wrong information on a parcel number, we can do these adjustments,” said Commissioner Keven Jensen. “Our programs aren’t perfect. So this will be a reminder to the public, please look at your tax notes to see if something looks fishy and to bring it to the county’s attention.”
Following this, the Commissioner approved an agreement with Axon Enterprise Inc. to provide the Emery County Attorney’s office with free access to police bodycam footage.
Another grant opportunity was discussed for the county, with approval of a contract with the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity for the fiscal year 2026 Rural County Grant – a grant that brings $200,000 to the county to aid in economic development.
“We have some pretty cool projects. We’ve talked about them in commission meetings before. Junior Entrepreneurs, the Business Improvement Grant and other projects that we see fit to support,” said Leonard before motioning to approve the contract. The other commissioners followed suit, approving the contract 3-0.
Next up for the body was the adoption of a service animal policy. This move, Commissioner Dennis Worwood said, would ‘bring the county into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.’
The penultimate item of the meeting was a discussion on term limits for local elected officials, spearheaded by Jensen. “Just a little bit about term limits. My perspective on that is just a check and balance on government. I believe checks and balances on elected officials are appropriate. Some thoughts on term limits would be maybe three terms, or potentially, as in Roosevelt, they have term limits of where you can be an elected official for eight years in a 16-year period. So there are multiple ways to do something like this.”
Commissioner Worwood chimed in,” I haven’t had anybody approach me supporting current limits. And my concern is whether we would get enough qualified people to do it in a small county like ours. So, I’ll give an example right now: we have two CPAs handling our finances downstairs. And I’m not sure where you find people with that kind and qualification on a rotational basis through the years.”
Worwood added,” I can support current limits for policymakers, not necessarily in a county like ours for offices where they’re basically carrying out policy and providing public service.”
Commissioner Leonard also spoke on the matter,” My feelings are very similar. I don’t have any concerns with our current election process. I feel like potentially commissioners could have a term limit. But the other elected officials have to be certified and do their job that way.”
Being a discussion item, no further action was taken.
During elected official reports, Sheriff Huntington shared the busy week the office has had,” We had a nice weekend down in Green River on I-70. Seized 40 pounds of methamphetamine on a traffic stop and made one arrest. And then this morning we served a search warrant in Castle Dale and made another arrest that cleared up at least five, but possibly up to 10 theft cases that we’ve had happen over the summer.”
Following these reports, the meeting was adjourned.