SWEETWATER COUNTY – The Sweetwater County commissioners will consider an application for a gravel pit south of Granger during the group’s meeting Tuesday.
Searle Brothers Construction requests a conditional use permit to operate a 39.9-acre gravel quarry on state land south of Granger. The gravel pit will generate sand and gravel for construction projects throughout southwest Wyoming. The proposed permit duration will be one decade and expire in 2034, though the lease agreement for the land is only two years. According to meeting documents, the county’s land use staff recommends approval of the permit and the county’s planning and zoning board voted 4-0 to recommend its approval.
Another request the commissioners will consider Tuesday comes from the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office. Undersheriff Joe Tomich seeks to use industrial siting funds from the TransWest Express Transmission Project to purchase portable radios for the Sweetwater County Detention Center. In an email to the commissioners, Tomich said the radios in use are between 17 and 25 years old and are operating beyond their initial lifespan. Tomich said the sheriff’s office was granted $345,038 in industrial siting funds to provide for overtime patrols of the TransWest project work area, but the office only started using the funds in September, with roughly 75% of the project complete. He believes the funds originally earmarked for overtime usage can be transferred to purchase the radios.
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“It is unreasonable to believe that we will be able to expend the majority of these funds in the next 12 to 24 months with our current staffing, as well as our directed enforcement efforts on Highway 372 due to the Exxon Mobile project, which is having a significant impact on public safety due to dangerous traffic conditions that we are attempting to mitigate, and other obligations of the agency,” he wrote to the commissioners.
Tomich wants to use $80,715.17 to replace 30 portable radios at the detention center, refreshing the entire set of radios in use.
The Sweetwater County Board of County Commissioners meets Tuesday at the Sweetwater County Courthouse in Green River at 9 a.m. The commissioners’ meetings are open to the public and streamed on the county’s YouTube channel. A full meeting agenda and packet can be found here.
