Sometimes plans change which apparently was the case for a Uintah County open house that was announced during the August 26th Commission Work Session meeting and was anticipated to take place last night at the Western Park. The purpose of the open house had been stated to gather public input as the County considered potential economic development uses for their holding of 119 acre-feet of water from Red Fleet Reservoir. On the anticipated day of the meeting, a Memo signed by the Uintah County Commissioners was distributed stating that the intention of the 2014 purchase of the 119 acre-feet of water “was to use the water for current and future county purposes and services to residents of Uintah County.” The Memo claimed that while a public open house to hear from Uintah County residents had been discussed during the August 26th Commission work session, the County did not formally schedule an open house. This claim left plenty of people confused as the plan for the meeting had been confirmed as recently as the day before. The final paragraph of yesterday’s announcement from the Uintah County Commission states, “Uintah County will not pursue the recommendations to allocate water for economic development purposes. Subsequently, Uintah County will not be hosting an open house on the matter. Upon further discussion and studying the current and future demands for the water use, the County Commission determined the water has already been appropriated for county purposes and services to the community.”
