The Utah Rural Energy Diversification and Innovation (U-REDI) is gathering public comments about projects in the Carbon and Emery Counties for the Build Back Better Award. Carbon County Commissioner Casey Hopes stopped by Castle Country Radio to talk about the upcoming Open Houses to gather public comments.

“U-REDI like you explained is part of the Build Back Better. Carbon and Emery Counties got together and put together an application to the Build Back Better and we were awarded Phase 1. So this comes in two phases. Phase 1 we were awarded and so we get some engineering money and some planning money, and then we get to apply for Phase 2. Phase 2 we get upwards of $25 million or more for our application,” stated Commissioner Hopes. U-REDI was one of just 60 projects selected nationally to compete for the federal government’s Build Back Better Challenge.

There are five projects that are listed including the San Rafael Energy Research Center in Emery County and Aviation Technician Campus in Carbon. “The build out of the Aviation Program, we already have flight school there and we have some classrooms at the airport. But this would give us another large hanger that USU could bring in their mechanics program and be able to do the Power Plant and the other side of the mechanic’s program and that would kick it off. That is all we’ve been waiting for is to get enough space for them to bring it here. They want to bring it here, they’re working on their license with the FAA and this will be a huge deal for our community,” said Commissioner Hopes. The proposed Aviation Technician Campus will house an extension of Utah State University’s Aircraft Maintenance Technician Program through USU Eastern.

There will be two Open Houses held for the public to submit comments on the proposed projects.  “January 13 at 6:00 pm, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm there’s going to be an open house with some refreshments and some food, so we’re trying to entice you with food and get your comments. We’re going to have sticky notes, so people can go walk around to the five or six different projects that we have going on, and review them, ask questions, and then put your sticky note on I like this project or I don’t like this project, and here are the reasons why. We’re trying to take all of our community input and build out the best program we can to win the money,” explained Commissioner Hopes. The Carbon Open House will be held at the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments Building on 375 South Carbon Avenue on Thursday, January 13 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm. The Emery Open House will be held on Friday, January 14 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at 75 East Main Street in Castle Dale.

To learn more about the Utah Rural Energy Diversification and Innovation (U-REDI) on Facebook.