Box Elder County Commission honors roads department for wildfire firebreak work

The Box Elder County Commission named the county roads department its employee of the month on Oct. 21 for using dozers and graders to cut firebreaks that helped hold this year's wildfires to small acreages, according to the meeting video and the OpenUtah record. Commissioner Lee Perry read a nomination from the county fire marshal's office. ^[1][2][3]

The nomination said the roads department's willingness to work with Utah's Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands and the fire marshal made the largest dent in fighting fires this year. For the Johnson Fire, the biggest in the county, in the north end near the Plymouth and Portage area, the department sent two dozers, two graders, four operators and four chase trucks. Eight employees worked through the night to push firebreaks so crews could backburn. The fire was held in under 24 hours at 6,800 acres. It also helped set firebreaks on the Little Mountain Fire, which kept it from reaching the county landfill and held it to 500 acres. It did the same on a fire near Tremonton that forced evacuations and closed traffic on I-15, which was held to just over 500 acres with no homes lost. ^[3]

Perry said commissioners from other counties have asked how Box Elder keeps its burned acreage so low, and that the answer is the roads department. He said crew members must be red card certified through training to work fires and that many employees volunteered for it. A road department representative accepted a certificate for the whole department, and the landfill's help was also noted. ^[3]

In the community development items, Scott Lyons told the commission that Mantua applied in August for construction funding for 100 South, the main road into the south end of town. The application scored 27 against a 15-point minimum for the Local Transportation Corridor Preservation Fund and was approved unanimously by the Council of Governments on Oct. 5. The project is estimated at about $300,000, and Mantua requested $50,000 from the fund and will cover the remaining $250,000 itself. The commission approved the request, CPF 26-03. ^[1][3]

The commission also approved an $88,775 reimbursement, CPF 25-01, for Honeyville's frontage road widening. Lyons said the commission and the Council of Governments approved the funding in April 2025, the project is complete and staff reviewed the paid invoices. ^[1][3]

Other votes included appointing Commissioner Perry and the county risk manager to the Utah Counties Indemnity Pool annual meeting, a $1,200 indigent burial assistance amount, and an employment agreement for a new county landfill director, number 26-58. The OpenUtah record shows each item passing 2-0. During public comment, a resident urged the commission to reject county-wide zoning, and the Planning Commission was scheduled to meet Oct. 29 on county zoning. ^[1][3]