Brice Wallace
A Beaver County commissioner believes having an inland port project area there can “import our kids back.”
At a recent Utah Inland Port Authority board meeting in Milford in which the board approved the Mineral Mountains project area, Tammy Pearson and others spoke about the opportunities that development in that region could bring.
“Our roots run deep, and we are determined to raise our families here. … Our most precious resources are kids, and we’re usually exporting them,” Pearson told the board. “The opportunity to participate with the Inland Port Authority is an opportunity to import our kids back and bring our families back.”
Mineral Mountains became the state’s sixth inland port and could someday be a location for companies in agriculture, agriculture technology, mining, advanced manufacturing, aerospace technology and renewable energy.
The project area has about 19,820 acres in parts of Beaver City, Beaver County and Milford City. The four Mineral Mountains zones are the Milford Flats Zone of roughly 17,115 acres north of Milford City; the Beaver City zone encompassing approximately 2,070 acres; the Milford Depot Zone of about 445 acres; and the Minersville City Zone of 190 acres.
“These zones possess a unique blend of historical expertise and natural resources that position Beaver County for success in emerging and diverse industries,” Wade Hollingshead, chairman of Beaver Board of County Commissioners, said in a news release. “The collaboration between Beaver County and the Utah Inland Port Authority is a powerful partnership that will fuel generational economic growth through targeted investments and logistics development.”
Pearson said at the board meeting that she learned while growing up and living in Beaver County that “if you’re not growing, you’re done.”
Beaver County has chosen to be very proactive in inviting industry into the county and “we have to be careful who we invite,” she said, noting that the county does not have a lot of water, certain resources or housing.
“So the opportunity to work with the Inland Port,” she said, “has been a really exciting object for us to work towards, an end goal for us to work towards. … The infrastructure is here, the need is here, the support is here. People are excited about this, so we welcome you here.”
Milford Mayor Nolan Davis said that “for some reason, we’ve always been forgotten down in rural Utah,” but the inland port potential is probably the greatest opportunity he has seen more than three decades in politics.
“And I think the collaboration between the city, the county and the state and you as the inland port, I think we can make things happen here in Beaver County.”
Abby Osborne, a UIPA board member, said the board does indeed recognize Southern Utah “and it is our plan and our goal to make sure that we have these inland ports across the state, but primarily in rural Utah, because it is so essential to the economics. … So I’m really excited about this project and the benefit that it’ll bring to this community.”
“We do recognize the need in rural Utah,” added Mike Schultz, a board member and member of the Utah House of Representatives, “and really appreciate the opportunity to work together to find something that makes it better for the state as a whole.”
Victoria Petro, a non-voting UIPA board member and a Salt Lake City council member, said she learned a lot about Beaver County at last year’s One Utah Rural Summit. “And I remember at that time going, ‘Wow, if there was a circumstance for which this port project was well-suited, it is Beaver County and what they’re experiencing down there,’” she said.
Although she could not vote on the Mineral Mountains project area, “I’m just gonna cheer instead,” she said. “But I’m really excited that there’ll be an element of self-determination for those people who work so hard for the constituents in Beaver County to use this powerfully to create the sort of sustainable lifestyle and quality of life for that area. I’m just excited to see this come to fruition.”
Utah’s other inland port areas are the initial one in Salt Lake County; the 899-acre Iron Springs Inland Port near Cedar City that is being developed, owned and operated by BZI Steel; the 2,200-acre Verk Industrial Park project area in Spanish Fork; the Golden Spike project area totaling 1,500 acres in Garland, Tremonton, Brigham City and other parts of Box Elder County; and the Central Utah Agri-Park of roughly 35,000 acres in three parts of Juab County.
Next up for consideration by the board are project areas in the Tooele Valley and Grantsville City on Nov. 6 at a location to be determined. After that will be a proposed project area in west Weber County.