The Box Elder County Commission approved 7,680 in Tourism Tax Advisory Board grants on April 8, funding projects across the county aimed at attracting visitors. The grants are funded through a 4.25% tax on hotel stays and a 1% tax on restaurant sales, with a portion of that revenue set aside each year for tourism-related projects. Applications are reviewed annually by the advisory board, which evaluates proposals and recommends projects based on their potential to draw visitors. Commissioner Lee Perry said the board was selective in awarding funds and focused on projects with a clear tourism impact. “We didn’t grant...

Article Link

The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources currently has 15 desert tortoises available for adoption and is accepting applications. Mojave desert tortoises, native to areas north and west of the Colorado River in Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California, were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. As such, desert tortoises are protected under federal and state laws. In Utah, it is illegal to collect or remove desert tortoises from the wild. It is also illegal to release captive tortoises back into the wild or to transport them into Utah without the proper certifications. “Removing tortoises from the wild...

Article Link

The Box Elder High School girls lacrosse team dropped two games last week, falling 17-7 to Copper Hills in a non-region showdown last Thursday, and 13-10 against Bonneville at home on Friday. The Bees knew they’d have their hands full against the Grizzlies, the ninthranked team in the 6A classification with a 7-4 record. Copper Hills was also looking to get back on track after a devastating 17-2 loss at the hands of Mountain Ridge last Tuesday and wasted no time in asserting their dominance over the Bees. Senior attacker Julia Tipton proved to be a handful for the Bees’...

Article Link

The Box Elder High School boys lacrosse team picked up two more wins as they continued marching toward the postseason last week, knocking off Sky View 10-7 in a non-region tilt last Wednesday in Smithfield, before topping Bonneville 14-7 on the road Friday. Junior middie Josh Pugsley dominated the midfield as he scooped up eight groundballs in the game. He turned those possessions into nearly instant offense, racking up four goals and five assists. Senior attacker Isaac Funk was the main beneficiary of all these assists as he scored four times himself to lead the Bees to the win. The...

Article Link

While the tentative 2026-2027 Perry City budget of .9 million presented to the city’s council last week—a relatively modest 2.9% (5,6443) increase over the current year’s budget—does not include a tax increase, city staff are recommending the council consider one since revenues alone are not enough to cover significant increases in ongoing operational costs. Perry City Recorder and Director of Finance, Shanna Johnson gave the council an overview of the tentative budget, during which she told them the city would have to use a significant chunk of reserve funds to make the budget work. “A tax increase is recommended because...

Article Link

The Mantua Town Council approved early funding for a five-year strategic plan presented by Fire Chief Will Hodgins to build a full emergency medical services department by 2030-2031. The plan, presented by Hodgins, aims to transition the Mantua Fire Department into a fully staffed, transport capable EMS unit within Mantua to reduce the town’s dependence on outside aid. The plan is organized around four priorities: operational readiness and equipment modernization, staffing and training, EMS capability and financial stability, and technical rescue for the town’s unique environments including canyons, mountains, and ice. Broadly, these priorities translate into efforts to acquire and...

Article Link

The Brigham City Council approved last Thursday adjustments to the city’s new consolidated fee schedule that includes adjustments to the city’s power rates designed to maintain a consistent level of reserve funding in the face of increasing energy consumption throughout the Western United States and significant anticipated growth in Brigham City in the near term. Based on the new rate schedule, an average customer who uses 900 KwH in the summer months will see their bill increase to 3.10 in 2027, and to 0.50 by 2030. That same customer would be pay 7.62 under current rates. These charts show the...

Article Link

Since Brigham City voters overturned a more than million bond issue to build a recreation building for indoor sports programming, and a year later when—due to public outcry— the then-city council rejected a portion of a tax increase that would have funded a scaled back version of the city, mayors have directed city staff to find ways to save money or find options to eventually fund a building for more gym space for the city’s recreation programming. At city council meeting last Thursday, council members were presented with “a way forward” to bring what the city says is much-needed...

Article Link

During March, Utah’s snowpack deteriorated from borderline record poor conditions to completely unchartered territory by April 1. After some brief storm activity at the beginning of the month, warm and dry conditions prevailed, causing early ripening and rapid snowmelt. Statewide snow water equivalent (SWE) levels peaked on March 9 which was more than three weeks earlier than normal. Since 1980, only the years 2004, 2007, and 2015 had snowpack peaks as early as the first part of March, and for those years there was a fairly normal rate of SWE loss as snowmelt began. Instead, in 2026, the rate of...

Article Link

Bear River Mental Health Services received a clean audit opinion for the 2025 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, according to a report presented to the Box Elder County Commission on April 8. The organization reported total assets of .5 million and a net increase of .2 million for the year, with total revenues of .1 million and expenses of .38 million. The largest portion of revenue came from Medicaid reimbursements, which totaled about .3 million, along with .59 million in state support, roughly 9,000 in county contributions, 9,944 in federal support, 4,748 in...

Article Link