Food Bank bids awarded

By PHIL FAUVER Guest Writer

The Emery County Board of commissioners met Aug. 10 in a regular commission meeting. Under the consent agenda, approval was given to hire Molly Barnes as a full-time dispatcher with benefits and to promote Keaton Cowley and Brandon Timothy to correction officer one after successful completion of POST.
Sealed bids for the Emery County Food Bank were not opened. Because the architect sent out an addendum to the bid concerning parking lot dirt removal under the existing asphalt. Three bidders have asked for more time to study the cost of removing this dirt. The bids, with the addendum, were sent to prospective bidders and contractors. The bids were opened in a special commission meeting on Aug. 16 where the bid for the food bank building was awarded to Broderick and Henderson Construction LLC. They are the same contractors working on the church on Main Street in Castle Dale.
Approval is given for the general service contract between Rocky Mountain Power and Emery County, for electrical service at the food bank. The contract will be for $3,336. The power line is just for that building. Approval was given PacifiCorp for a right-of-way easement to provide power service to the new food bank. There is an overhead power line that goes across property that Emery County owns. With the new food bank building being moved farther back on the lot, the line will have to be relocated by PacifiCorp.
Emery County advertised in the paper they had surplus property for sale. This consists of a 1997 champion double wide mobile home at the Emery County Airport in Huntington. The minimum bid is to be $5,000. Successful bidders will be notified Aug. 11. Full payment will be due Emery County within 48 hours of notification. The house will have to be removed no later than 30 days after notification or the property reverts back to Emery County and the bidder forfeits any monies.
Five bids were received for the mobile home. George A. Nelson, of Sandy was the successful bidder at $10,500.
Next bids were opened for an aqua size instructor at the Emery County Aquatic Center. The low bid was awarded to Luann Koch, 895 Castle Avenue, Castle Dale, Utah at $175 per month.
The approval was given to enter into an inter-local agreement between Emery County, Carbon County and the Utah Department of Transportation for the Horse Canyon rest area. This is a 50 year agreement for the view area kiosk and the interpretive panels. The travel council will contribute $3,000 a year toward the operation and maintenance. It is estimated that it would cost $13,000 a year for operation and maintenance. Emery County will pay $3,000 a year. Carbon County will pay $3,000 a year. The Utah Department of Transportation will pay the remaining portion of the $13,000.
Commissioner Pitchforth reported, the last two weeks have been really busy with the rodeo and the Emery County fair. “I believe it was a great success for Emery County. We had a huge turnout for the fair and the rodeo. I would like to especially thank Gaylee Jeffs, Cindy Draper, Michelle Scoville, Shannon Hyatt, Tab Weihing, our Sheriff’s Office, and our emergency services personnel. Also Julie Jones for the great job she did with the lamb fry. No other names will be mentioned to avoid missing someone. I wish to thank anyone that had anything to do with the success of the fair. Thanks to all of the committees, all of the volunteers, and especially to all of our sponsors. We couldn’t have done it without our sponsors. The recreation board really stepped up this year. Each of them had assignments at different areas in the fair and they all did a great job with their assignments. It takes a lot of people planning and working together at events like this. There were a few little bumps in the road. I apologize to anyone who was late to the ping-pong ball drop. During the week we had a few weather issues. All in all, I feel the fair and the rodeo were a great success. Thanks to all who helped.
“A brief update on the care center, we did a walk-through yesterday, and the landscaping is progressing nicely. We hope by the end of two more weeks we will be able to call it a completed project. The board of directors of the care center are planning an open house during the Peach Days Celebration. We invite everyone to come and tour the facility during Peach Days,” said Commissioner Pitchforth.
Commissioner Jeff Horrocks reported that he attended the big game Regional Advisory Council Board meeting in Green River at the John Wesley Powell Museum. There were seven, action items on the agenda. The main item was the permitting of cougar hunts and the number of permits going out. A major concern was the large fawn kill by predators and the lack of deer in certain areas. The RAC board did approve the big game board’s request for the permits. However they did ask them to go back and look at the numbers of bear kills, coyote kills and cougar kills, so they can get a better understanding of what is going on in the area. The Fish and Game is going to set up checkpoints throughout this month, and throughout the remainder of the year during big game hunts, chukker hunts and pheasant hunts. These checkpoints will be located all over the state. So expect to be stopped and checked by our local wildlife resources people.
The Emery County trails committee is working on the non-motorized trails map and is progressing quite well. They look forward to completing this project and have that map published.
At the Public lands meeting there was a discussion with an environmental group, in particular SUWA and why they had pulled away from our discussions, and the process. The board did decide to go ahead with the Public Lands bill preparation. That bill will be completed and presented to the commission in the near future.
The regional council for the Department of Workforce Services met and discussed the needs of people in Emery County. Such as the losses of jobs, the loss of residents and an upcoming possible job assistance program that will be made available to the people that need it.
The historical committee met and discussed an interpretive sign for the Temple Mountain area. The interpretive sign is being put together and will be presented when it’s finished.
A folk art festival was held at the San Rafael Museum during the fair. They had several displays and artists that were selling their wares, and had a good turnout by the people of Emery County.
A group called “Take Back Utah” is having a rally in Salt Lake City and will meet at Liberty Park on Aug. 28. Anyone or group that is interested in keeping public lands as multiple use lands should participate. They will start gathering at 6 a.m. at Liberty Park and at 10 a.m. they will go to the state capital, and have a rally. They have several good speakers for this event.
Commissioner Gary Kofford reported the Public Lands Council under the water users section was successful in getting a $200,000 grant from NRCS for a study of water. It was determined the water conservancy district would be the one to handle that grant as well as the study on behalf of the lands council.
The Department of Water Resources staff will do a portion of the study. The other portion will go to USU. The one study is looking at water storage and possible reservoirs that could be built. One of the questions is, will there be additional water for use in the county, when the new sprinkler systems are completed. Also will there be adequate water for the habitat of sensitive species flowing in the streams? They will do a river modeling on the four river systems being studied that drain into the San Rafael, they are Huntington, Cottonwood, Ferron and the Muddy. This study was short some money so a request was put into the CIB for a grant of $250,000. The CIB board met Thursday and they approved a grant of $150,000. It is apparent that they will be short $100,000. Some money is coming from industry. This is something that is quite important to the citizens of Emery County as well as the users. If there is additional water it could possibly be used for industry. Emery County may have to help with this financing.
The Moore Road Phase 8 chip sealing of 20 miles has been postponed briefly due to weather. Staker Company out of Salt Lake is running late, so it will start next Monday. Nielson’s Construction is coming along quite well on the Lila Canyon Road is about 40 percent complete. They plan to move on to Highway 6 and do the asphalt on the Lila Canyon takeoff. There’s approximately 4.5 miles of roadway that is ready for asphalt. They will be putting asphalt on that section within the next couple weeks. They are continuing to place road base all the way up to the mine. That project is scheduled to be completed by Dec. 1. Lila Canyon is getting quite a pile of coal, and they’re getting anxious to start trucking out of there.
“I would like to thank everyone that participated in the fair. Those that attended and those that worked the fair. That takes an awful lot of work by a great number of people. I thank Commissioner Pitchforth, Gaylee Jeffs, and Shannon Hiatt. All three had a great part in making this happen, and are well appreciated by the people of Emery County, as well as the state of Utah,” said Commissioner Horrocks.
“The pageant was a great success this year. I was there, several nights and Tuesday night. When we had a church leader here, we had people hanging off of the fences. It was probably a record night for attendance,” Horrocks added.
The next commission meeting will be Sept. 24 in Green River starting at 9 a.m. followed by a Board of Equalization for the Green River people.
Sept. 25 a Board of Equalization will be held in Castle Dale from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. If anyone has problems with their tax notice this is the time for them to appear before the County Commission Board of Equalization.