By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Following the June 3 meeting of the Emery County Commissioners, Commissioner Jordan Leonard met with the KOAL newsroom for an in-depth discussion on several issues facing the county.
These topics included a donation to the Emery High Student Council, the planning and zoning commission’s work, and the recent announcement of an advanced nuclear test reactor coming to the county.
Opening our conversation, Leonard explained the rationale behind the $1000 donation the commission made to the EHS student council to attend the Trailblazer Leadership Conference in St. George. “We really support our youth in leadership activities. We know that with this training, they can bring back their knowledge and benefit the community in many different ways. So I’m excited to be able to support them in their training.
He continued,” Some other cool things that they did is they brought some activities back to the high school that they learned. I think they did some fun graduation stuff and some different leadership activities. What they learned rubs off on our community and felt like that was a good thing to support.”
A major focus of the commissioners in their recent meeting was planning and zoning, as well as the disputes that can come because of it. Leonard opened the door as to how the commission approaches these issues: “We appreciate it when people come to us and express concern. So we’ve got a few things that we’re dealing with, and I don’t want to ramble on, but you know, housing is always a concern, and so, you know, getting people in homes. We don’t have a lot of homes for sale here in Emery County and people want to live here. So, they’re doing different creative things to try to live here, whether trailers or things. So, working with Planning and Zoning to answer what is permissible for housing concerns? We also have other ideas of where to put potential commercial businesses or small businesses that are looking to grow. And so we have a lot of discussions that we need to have with our Planning and Zoning Commission and the commissioners to say, ‘Hey, this is our plan moving forward.’
He continued,” We do want slow growth for the community. If we’re not slowly growing, we’re moving backward. So we want slow sustainable growth, and we need our ordinances to surround that, and things change.”
Leonard kept the focus on the Planning and Zoning Commission for his biweekly department spotlight,” So we review conditional use permits and the board reviews concerns that are happening. We’re going through our general plan and adapting to different state statutes and codes that we have to put into our general plan. We’re also looking at revamping some ordinances to make sure that we’re in line with today’s growth and today’s world.” The Commissioner added,” There are some concerns with the citizens that we deal with, but there’s also some pretty cool things that we deal with. Things like businesses with permitting. There are also some subdivisions and different things that are happening.”
One term thrown around consistently when discussing planning and zoning is the need for a conditional use permit. Leonard explained what this document entails: ” If you want to do something on your property, we just want to make sure that what you’re doing is permissible and allowable. If you’re storing things like tires or oil, we want to ensure that it doesn’t become a junkyard or hazard to the community. So we try to put conditional uses on there to make sure that it’s not only good for visual aspects but keeping the community healthy.”
Rounding out our topics of conversation, Leonard promoted the public hearing being hosted by the county to hear public input on the future of the nuclear industry in Emery. “Through the President of the United States, there was an executive order to do more research into nuclear power. And our facility in Emery County was chosen as one of those facilities to dig deeper into nuclear power, mainly the potential manufacturing of many nuclear units. So, as that information came down the pipe, we wanted to know what the community felt about it. If they’re OK with nuclear industries, then as a Commission, we need to pursue it and be aggressive in creating jobs and industry in that sector for the community.”
The public hearing regarding the future of the nuclear industry in Emery County will be held on Tuesday, June 17, at 5 p.m. For those unable to attend in person, a livestream of the hearing will be available on YouTube at KOAL–Castle Country Focus.
In closing, Leonard stated,” There’s been some comments about the school district and the county. We are two separate entities. We support each other. We’re both elected, but the county functions on its own budget and its own bylaws and rules, as well as the school district. And I know a lot of people try to tie us into being the same entity, but we respect them. They respect us. We try to work together on projects. But we just don’t want to have friction there. I know there are a few people in the community that are trying to separate us, but we’re partners. We support each other and want to do the best for our community and youth.”