By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

Opening July with their biweekly meeting, the Emery County Board of Commissioners convened in the Emery County Administration building on Tuesday, July 1. Facing the Commission were a series of discussions regarding conditional use permits throughout the county.

Opening the meeting, the Commissioners pulled a single item from the consent agenda, the approval of a letter of support to Sen. Mike Lee’s push to sell federal lands for housing. “There was a lot of misrepresentation, he wasn’t going to sell everything and it was supposed to be for housing,” said Commissioner Keven Jensen. “Even though they pulled that out of the bill, I just wanted to discuss that just to make clear it’s for housing and development and things like that.”

“I think if it eventually passes, it gives us a little leverage if we want to potentially build out near a city or annex in a potential housing development,” shared Commissioner Jordan Leonard. “So I’m in support of using some federal lands for housing.”

Following this, the Commission welcomed Megan Stilson, Lauren Mills, and Kylinn Kemple to the podium to provide an update on their trip to the American Legion’s Girls’ State. “I learned a lot about how to run meetings and how to pass bills,” expressed Stilson. “The experience of getting to learn everything about every factor and every type of government, things like the caucus system made me gain a deeper respect for our nation as a whole,” added Mills.

Kendall had the opportunity to present mock legislation and debate it in a floor setting. “I went through an interview process, and I wrote a bill that I loved so much. I learned about how the government works and how I can impact the government in my local city.”

Following this, participants from the recent Castle Country Classic Livestock Show took the time to report back to the Commission. Celebrating its 55th year, the show awarded a total of $ 3,880 in prize money and presented over 60 belt buckles to participants, which the presenters were happy to showcase.

Moving into the major business items of the meeting, the Commissioners first sought to approve the creation of a new advisory board for the Huntington Airport. “This would be strictly an Advisory board,” explained Commissioner Dennis Worwood. “They have no supervisory capacity. And I would be composed of up to five board members to conduct business, and they would probably meet quarterly.” 

The Commission would appoint these board members and would serve in a voluntary role with no financial compensation. When the motion to vote was made, the Commissioners approved the creation unanimously.

The next item saw Emery County Sheriff Tyson Huntington taking the podium, seeking approval for an agreement between the Sheriff’s Office and Lexipool. “Lexipool is a big old company that we used in the past for our policy. They create a policy manual for lack of a better term for us with electronics, and they send out daily training bulletins to every deputy to review.” 

Due to a state mandate, the Sheriff’s Office is required to implement an Early Intervention System. Law enforcement agencies are tasked not only with responding to incidents but also with anticipating challenges and preventing issues before they arise. Lexipool’s system helps supervisors track employee trends, identify training needs and provide early intervention to help identify personnel that may benefit from health and wellness resources.

With Sheriff Huntington’s recommendation to approve the agreement, the Commissioners did so in a 3-0 vote.

A series of conditional use permit actions rounded out the meeting, starting with a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning board regarding the permit for the Hunter Solar Battery Storage lot. “What’s a little frustrating for me is that the solar projects come in, and they get conditional use permits. And then they have to have certain wording after for financial reasons or because the owner sold the project,” said Jensen. “They have to have these changes done to these permits, and it’s kind of frustrating that it’s not sufficient with what we passed before.”

Commissioner Leonard echoed this sentiment,” My concern with them changing hands is some of these solar companies promise donations to the County Fair and Heritage Days and other city events. We’ve come up against promises that aren’t happening now as they transfer to the different companies. We lose some of those connections and promises that were given to us. And these solar projects were done before our time, but we try to still hold them accountable to supporting county projects and county events. Anyway, I’m a little frustrated.”

This item was tabled until further review by the county attorney.

The final two items were not action items; rather, they were discussions surrounding the issuance of a conditional use permit for The Swell Camp and the LaSal Stables.

For the Swell Camp, the main problem arises from the non-comforming nature of the lots the businesses rest on, as in the June 3 meeting of the body the decision was made to not issue conditional use permits for these lots while the Commission worked to develop new zoning laws for commercial businesses.

“I’m not opposed to business, but it’s just kind of hard to be consistent,” expressed Jensen. “When we pass something 3-0, that we’re just going to pretty much enforce the laws that we have on the books already, and then you give an opportunity for us to vote and change our mind. Then it just doesn’t look good.”

Rounding out the meeting, the Commission discussed the ongoing matter between the Ainsworths and LaSal Stables, which had been referred to Planning and Zoning for a recommendation on how to proceed. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that the county take no action, as it was a civil matter.

Following this, the meeting was adjourned.

The next meeting of the Emery County Commission will be held on Tuesday, July 15, starting at 3 p.m. in the Emery County Administrative Building.