By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
As Emery County continues to advance into a new era in both tourism and energy production, the county commissioners find themselves trying to steer the area toward embracing tradition while moving into the future.
To discuss this balance, Commissioner Jordan Leonard joined the KOAL newsroom to share his perspective on what’s happening in the county.
Opening our conversation, Leonard recapped the arrival of Valar Atomics’ Ward250 reactor to the county,” It flew in from California on those military planes that landed at Hill Air Force Base. It was a big meeting up there, and then it drove down to Emery County. People were able to see it in our community.”
He continued,” Watching research and development happen in our county is a good thing. We just want to make sure that we’re careful with nuclear and what it presents. But we’re excited about that development and things like that, and safety is always our highest priority. But we’re really excited about that development.”
Leonard also discussed Valar’s efforts to inform the public about the technology they are bringing to the area. “We’ve had two public hearings where we’ve allowed the public to come out and visit … They’ve been transparent about their plans, and we welcome them. We definitely have coal as our first priority, but if we can develop other energy sources, like nuclear, in our community, it can just be a supplement to what we’re currently doing. It’d be great to be the energy county of the state.”
Switching gears, Leonard spoke on a $3,500 donation to help rebuild the veterans’ memorial outside of the John Wesley Powell River Museum. “We definitely want to make sure that our veterans are highlighted and have memorials like that. And so we wanted to contribute to that to make sure that it’s rebuilt properly.”
Leonard added,” I know there were other entities that may have been some insurance and different things that have helped cover some of those costs, but we want to make sure that we can rebuild that properly.”
Moving to a community spotlight, Leonard discussed the work of the OneDirection Prevention Coalition,” The goal is to make sure that our youth have all the resources that they can with the world that we live in – drugs, alcohol, tobacco, as well as bullying and different social things that happen. And so OneDirection is a great resource. They’re getting more and more involved in the community. If you look up at the swimming pool, you’ll see the sign there. They do a lot of different events with Halloween, so it’s good to know that our youth have a resource to go to.”
In an effort to further advance the county’s interests and needs, the commissioners began the search for an Economic Development Director. Leonard spoke to the rationale behind this decision: “We do what we can as commissioners, and we try to be at meetings, and we try to be. It’s hard for us to be everywhere and we want to make sure that we have someone at the table if a commissioner can’t be there.”
The commissioner continued,” It’s growing smartly that keeps our culture and can bring our youth back to live here who want to live here and can have good-paying jobs. And I think this is a good step forward to help us do that.”
Closing our conversation, Leonard stated,” We’re gonna get some weather next week, and we’re way excited about the snow and the moisture that we can get in the mountain. Just travel safely if you plan on traveling.”