Tooele County Commissioners spent the last week of February with the largest landowner in the county.
All three commissioners participated in the National Association of Counties’ Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 19-25.
At over 3.6 million acres the federal government owns 82 percent of the county, making involvement in NACo important, according to Wade Bitner, Tooele County Commission chairman.
The county spent $8,000 to send the commissioners, who attended the conference without spouses or other county officials, to the six-day national conference.
The money was well spent, according to Bitner.
“The conference sessions helped us learn about key issues that affect our county, as well as the opportunity to meet with congressional leaders and discuss important topics to the county,” Bitner said.
The county commissioners met with Sen. Orrin Hatch and second district Congressman Chris Stewart to discuss the Utah Test and Training Range expansion.
The commissioners gained a commitment from Hatch and Stewart to include answers to Tooele County’s concerns about public access to UTTR expansion land included in the final draft of federal legislation authorizing the expansion, Bitner said.
The commissioners were also allowed to recommend parcels of federal lands that will be swapped for state lands as part of the UTTR expansion.
“We identified land that would have good potential for economic development or land that we wanted to preserve,” said Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne.
Bitner said he also had a conversation with Department of Transportation officials that lead to securing funding to continue the rebuild of the Mormon Trail Road.
While in Washington, D.C., the commissioners also had a positive dialogue with Department of Defense officials and members of the Utah congressional delegation about preserving and growing federal employment in the county, according to Bitner.
During the conference the commissioners were seated on NACo committees in areas that will benefit the county, he added.
Bitner is on the agriculture committee, Commissioner Myron Bateman is on the health and human services committee, and Commissioner Shawn Milne is on the economic development committee.
Bateman said he learned about several grants and other funding sources for health and human services that he will pursue on behalf of the county.
The opportunity to attend the conference sessions and network with experienced county officials was helpful, according to Bitner, who is serving his first term as county commissioner.
“There were people there who have served as a county official for as long as 16 years,” he said. “Many of them have experienced the same problems and issues as we have experienced.”
Milne, who is starting his third year as a commissioner, said this is the first time since he has been a commissioner that the commission has attended the national conference.
“It was good that Commissioners Jerry Hurst and Bruce Clegg were able to agree to have the county pay back the funds borrowed by Deseret Peak that made it possible for us to financially consider going to the conference this year,” he said. “The conference was the equivalent of professional development for county commissioners.”