At the Price River Water Improvement District office, Jeff Richens educated me on why the PRWID special district was created and what came before it, how our municipal water and sewer systems work, and why the recent tax increase came about.

Amanda McIntosh is the President of HOPE Squad of Carbon, Emery and Grand Counties - a non-profit dedicated to suicide prevention. Amanda and I discussed how rural southeast Utah is uniquely affected by depression and suicide and what initiatives the HOPE Squad has undertaken to offer love and support to members of our community who may be at risk.

I went to Larry's office at the Carbon County Administration Building to learn about the problems he's working to solve, the inherent challenges that come with being an elected official, and to better understand the complexity of our county's budgets and taxes.

Jade Powell is the Deputy Director and Tamara Dockstader the Community Development Program Manager at the newly-rebranded Southeastern Regional Development Agency (SERDA), formerly known as SEUALG (our Association of Local Governments). They gave me an overview of the wide range of programs and services offered by the agency and their work doing economic and community development throughout southeast Utah.

My friend and neighbor Chris Haycock came up to the Store to tell me all about his 15 years of work with the community-based Active Re-Entry program, which assists individuals with disabilities throughout southeast Utah to live independently within their own communities. We also talk about our mutual efforts to help revitalize and envision a future for our small town.

Lenise is the current Mayor of Helper City and is also on the ballot for a Carbon County Commissioner seat this year (we recorded this epsiode before she had decided to run). We met at City Hall on Main Street to reflect on her time in office and talk about what's ahead for Helper.

I got on a call with Joshua Nielsen to learn about his work at the Utah State Tax Commission and their recent involvement with Carbon County's property tax assessment issues.

Gillan Bishop has been in office for three years as the Carbon County Assessor and has lately been mired in controversy over his handling of the county's property tax assessments. Many individuals and groups have expressed disapproval of Bishop's job performance, some even calling for his resignation. In this episode I get to know Gillan personally, learn about his work and try to see these recent problems from his perspective.