By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News

As the calendar turns to the new year, the Emery County Commissioners have set their sights on developing the county into the best it can be. To discuss some of these plans and goals for 2026, Commissioner Jordan Leonard joined the KOAL newsroom to shine the spotlight on what could be coming along the San Rafael Swell.

Opening our conversation, Leonard spoke about the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes the county received from the Division of Wildlife Resources. “They use some of our property in our counties for different things. I believe Desert Lake and some other recreation areas, and so we get some taxes from that. So they were delivering the check, but we just want to work closely with them because a lot of our residents like to fish and hunt, and we want to make it a good experience for them. It’s actually one of the reasons I live here. I love to hunt, fish, and do outdoor activities, and so it’s just a good thing to communicate with them and have them do an annual report on how things are going.”

Continuing the theme of land use, Leonard shared information about the county’s plan to donate land to Castle Dale City to assist with the construction of a new all-abilities park. “We’re working with Castle Dale City, and they’re going after grant funding and CIB funding, and there have been a lot of other donations given to them. We’re way excited about an all-abilities park, it gives our citizens another opportunity to get the kids out and enjoy the outdoors for those that may not be able to play at a park just down in the city.”

Switching subjects, Leonard zeroed in on updates the county hopes to make to its general plan,” For those of you that don’t know, we’re reviewing and updating our general plan for the county. Now the general plan is nice to refer back to if we’re applying for grants or different things that we want to do as a county.”

He continued,” It’s a living, breathing document, so we’ll continue to adapt and make sure that we’re up to date and up to speed with the world and the way it’s moving.”

The Emery County General plan can be viewed online here.

Our penultimate topic of conversation with Leonard was the commission’s approval to fund a feasibility study for the county jail to increase the number of state inmates it can hold. “Currently, we are housing some state inmates, I believe it’s around 15. The sheriff’s interested, and the commission’s interested in taking on a few more state inmates. So we’re looking at a feasibility study to determine the break-even points if it’s a benefit to the county … We want to make sure that we do our due diligence before we jump the gun and say, 

‘Hey, we’re gonna bring on extra inmates.'”

Closing our conversation, Leonard stated,” Hopefully, everybody made some good New Year’s resolutions. Please, if you have concerns or comments, you are more than welcome to come to our office and chat about those things that are good, bad, and ugly.”