Kay Kimball, of the Kimball and Roberts Accounting firm, reported to the Emery County Commissioners about the 2007 financial audit. Kimball stated he has met with the commissioners and all those involved with the audit and discussed in depth the findings of the auditors.
“We found the audit to be a fair representation of Emery County’s financial standing. We also found Emery County to be in compliance with all the laws and policies of the county. This is how it will be reported to the state and federal agencies to which we are responsible. You have good people doing a great job” said Kimball.
Kimball noted that with the present economy and prices going up so drastically, departments cannot accomplish as much as they used to with the same amount of funding. “With the challenges facing counties, we feel Emery County is doing really well. Everything we needed was supplied to us,” Kimball concluded.
Mike McCandless, Emery County’s economic director, said he has been working for the past couple of years for the development of an industrial park near Green River. He presented the current draft of a contract with the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration for the lease of property for the industrial park.
In this draft contract, McCandless explained his reservations with several parts of the wording and the timetables. “I still have some questions and there are issues that remain to be worked through with SITLA,” said McCandless.
County Attorney Dave Blackwell also said he has several issues with insurance and timetables in this lease contract. The commissioners instructed Blackwell and McCandless to continue negotiations with SITLA and bring back a final lease contract that will protect the best interests of Emery County.
After a discussion of the retirement of Green River’s justice court judge, the commissioners decided to instruct Justice Court Judge Steven Stream to take over the responsibilities of that position. Judge Stream will travel to Green River as needed and do much of the work there by video feed.
The Emery County commissioners approved to enter into two new contracts with other entities. The first was an interlocal cooperation and contract agreement with the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments, Area Agency on Aging for Emery County. This is the standard agreement the county has signed for the past several years with the agency.
The other agreement was the renewal of the contract with adult probation and parole. In some explanation, Cheryl Searle explained the contract is exactly the same as previous years. Also in the contract is a clause which says Emery County can open the contract to cover the increase costs of utilities. This contract will run to 2013.
Commissioner Gary Kofford explained an amendment to the contract with UtahAmerican Energy Inc. for the road to Lila Canyon. While construction of the road has not yet begun, the UAEI needs to transport equipment into the site of the mine. This amendment will allow them to construct a temporary road for that purpose. When the new road into Lila Canyon is completed, this temporary road will be reclaimed according to the agreement with the Bureau of Land Management.
The Emery County Commission meets on the first and third Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. in the county building.
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