Excitement was in the air as the Emery County Commissioners met for their regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, July 16. Commissioners Keven Jensen and Lynn Sitterud were present in person with Commissioner Jordan Leonard joining via Zoom. Covered in this meeting was the introduction of the 2025 Miss Emery County royalty and services for the libraries of the county.

Starting things off was a safety minute presentation from Maegen Crosland, a records specialist for the county. Crossland spoke on water intake, sharing that the average water intake for a healthy male should be 3.7 liters a day, and for a healthy female it should be 2.7 liters a day. Crossland also advised you not to wait until you are thirsty to drink water, because at that point you are experiencing early signs of dehydration.

Next, it was time for the Miss Emery Royalty to step into the spotlight, introducing themselves to the commissioners and talking about the excitement they are feeling about the upcoming year in their position. Junior Miss Makenzi Cheshire, Little Miss Saylor Huntington, Mini Miss Tatynn Cosby and Teen Miss Ryleigh Whimpy all were present. Miss Emery Haivyn Pitchforth had previous engagements so she was unable to attend, but did have her “sash sisters” deliver a message in her stead.

Following this was a public hearing regarding a conditional use permit for Hunter Utah Storage Acquisitions. No public comment was made, moving it to a vote from the Commission. Commissioner Jensen stated that he thinks the County should try to receive full taxes from this storage. The Commission moved to vote and the permit was granted unanimously.

After this item, the Commissioners discussed the ratification of several grants, including the Aging Masterfully Contract, the Let’s Keep the Party Going: Expanding Emery County Libraries’ Library of Things Contract and the FY25 LSTA Borrower Support Grant. All of these grants would go to benefit the library system within Emery County. 

Also during this time was a request to renew the library system’s ongoing agreement with the Utah State Library system for the Overdrive system, which provides citizens with access to an online library allowing for people to access books that their local library might not have a copy of.

Following very minimal discussion, the commissioners approved all of these items unposed, allowing easy library access within the county to grow.

Next was a presentation from the Emery County Chapter of A Bolder Way Forward, an organization whose goal is to help empower the women of Emery County through a wheel and spoke model that tackles areas including sexism, male allyship, culture and identity.

Patsy Stoddard, a co-chair for the Emery County branch of the organization, shared that the purpose of the organization is to help spread awareness of the plight of women and girls across the state.

Emery County Sheriff Tyson Huntington spoke in support of the group and also shared that they were working to potentially offer a self-defense class for girls in the county. “I feel like we raise our kids to be respectful and nice and kind and respectable and be the best they can be. But when they leave the nest and go to school, we want them to turn into Navy SEALs so nobody’s going to hurt them. We need to find that balance and I feel like if we’re able to teach our girls that balance, they’ll be better prepared when they leave home and when they’re in unfamiliar places.”

The Commissioners asked what the monetary donation from the commission would be used for, with Stoddard replying that it would be used for signage to more fully promote the group.

After hearing this, the Commissioners moved to approve a donation to A Bolder Way Forward for $250.

Rounding out the meeting was the potential approval of HVAC upgrade work to be done in the county administration building. It was explained to the commissioners that due to the size of the undertaking, this project would cost a little above $200,000. It was also explained that within the building, there were a few points where the boiling line was completely plugged up, so the company would be going through to renovate and unplug these lines while also putting in a new control system for the chillers and boilers of the building. The Commission agreed that this was needed and approved the HVAC work.

The Emery County Commission meets biweekly, with their next meeting being scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 3 p.m. in the Emery County Administration building.