By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News
Following a busy week for the Emery County Commission, Commissioner Jordan Leonard joined the KOAL newsroom to give his biweekly update on what’s happening along the San Rafael Swell.
Leonard gave several shout-outs to local athletes and first responders and examined the potential future of the nuclear industry within the county.
Opening our discussion, Leonard shared his appreciation for the Huntington Elementary Archery Team, who recently returned from competing in the NASP World Archery Championships. “It was great to have the kids come back and tell us how they did and that they were grateful for the donation,” said Leonard. “It was fun to visit with the kids, and they’re talented. That’s a tough sport to master, and they did pretty well considering that they were facing competition from around the nation.”
Another spotlight from Leonard was directed toward Wyatt Fox, who earned a state championship in rifle shooting. “He gave us some cool details on what he does. So he shoots a 22 rifle, and they’re allowed to have scopes, but at 50 yards, they have tiny targets that they have to hit. We talked about him shooting in the wind and how he has to gauge that and it’s amazing that we have these talented youth in our community.”
Rounding out the recognition, Commissioner Leonard gave his usual departmental shout-out to Emery County’s first responders. “We had a house fire in Emery County over the last weekend, Father’s Day, and it was in the afternoon. A lot of our first responders came out and were present. They were trying to save the home, and it was during Father’s Day.”
He continued,” They just decided, ‘Hey, other people’s lives are more important than ours at this time, and we’re gonna go try to help them.’ So we just wanted to give them a shout-out, leaving their families to respond to those on Father’s Day, holidays or anytime.”
Moving to commission business, Leonard first discussed the approval of the 2025 tax rate for the county: “There was a lot of conversation around it. Obviously, our biggest concern is that property taxes for our citizens are tough, so we’re trying to find ways to lower that. We have different industries coming in, but our challenge is that our tax rate has been pretty flat for the last quite a few years. To keep up with inflation and everything, we haven’t raised our tax rate in quite a few years.”
The Commissioner further elaborated,” The reason that our taxes are a little higher is that with our assessed taxes, different businesses are taxed differently depending on depreciation and things like that. So we as citizens have to cover those costs, but we’ll have more discussion. If people are interested in the budget for this next year, you’re more than welcome to come to our meetings as we deal with the budget this fall.”
Our penultimate with Commissioner Leonard was regarding the public hearing held on the future of the nuclear industry within Emery County. “They’re looking at doing some nuclear development here in Emery County. So we wanted to have a public hearing and get people’s thoughts on nuclear and everything surrounding it.” Leonard continued,” People had different thoughts and comments, but it was very civil. Everybody got their point across and was respectful in the meeting. I like it when people can share their true feelings without getting offended. We were able to talk through things, so it was a really good public hearing.”
A full stream of the public hearing is available on YouTube at KOAL-Castle Country Focus.
In closing, Leonard shared,” I think that the key in those meetings was the public input. It’s key for us as commissioners. I think that communication is key as we move forward, no matter what. So just letting everybody know that you’re more than welcome to reach out through email or phone or come by and visit if you have some ideas, thoughts or concerns.”