By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
If the proposed annexation of property east of the
freeway in Mona is approved, will Barnes Bullets be forced
to move their proposed plant to another location?
The question was asked but Clark Bronson, CFO for
Barnes Bullets, said he hoped it did not come to that.
"I hope we do not have to find out that it is an
ultimate question," he said.
However, the financial help the military has promised
for construction of the facility will likely be withdrawn as
will the potentially large military contracts of the
future.
Bronson met with county commissioners to request that
they protest the inclusion of the Barnes Bullets plant in
the annexation being proposed by Patrick Painter, a Mona
resident and a member of the Utah Legislature.
"We are on the far east of the annexation," said
Bronson. "Our property was included against our wishes."
The proposed annexation will include 657.19 acres of
land to the south of Mona and will include property on both
sides of the freeway.
Out of the 686 property owners, 481 were requesting
annexation.
Painter said that 51 percent of the landowners within
the petition area approved the annexation and the state
required only 33 percent approval of assessed property
valuation.
State law indicates that annexation applications must
include a petition with the signatures of the owners of a
majority of the property included in the annexation (the
owner of real property must be the record title owner
according to the records of the county recorder on the date
of the filling of the petition), representing at least
one-third of the assessed property valuation according to
the last county assessment rolls.
"We request that the annexation be stopped or that our
tract of land be removed from the proposal," said
Bronson.
"We want to stay in the county and plan to expand
further," he said. "We want to have a buffer."
The military did not want to invest in the development
of Barnes Bullets in Juab County if the potential was for
growth around the plant. They needed to have test ranges of
several lengths which will be built underground.
The military did not want to invest in the property
unless the facility could be planned for long-term, say 20
or more years.
The casing needed by the military would pay
approximately $1.20 for each casing. They would only be used
by special forces and would assured that there would be even
more good paying jobs open to residents of Juab County.
A further feather in the Barnes Bullet's cap would be
that the boxes would be stamped with the manufacturer. That
is something that does not happen in the military.
"The military wants to invest in those who can meet a
certain criteria," said Bronson.
Bronson said the company was asked to sign the
petition of property owners approving the annexation but had
refused because there is too much at stake for them, at this
time, to be annexed into the community.
"We were given an ultimatum, sign it or we will do it
anyway," said Bronson. "They came, we said, 'No, it is not
the right time.'"
He said, when Barnes Bullets first determined they
would like to come to Juab County and the Mona area, in
particular, they wanted to be good neighbors and wanted to
be up-front with the community.
Therefore, they met with the council in a public
meeting to explain what they hoped to do. That proved not to
be wise because the property price escalated and the
property they had been looking at increased by several
thousand dollars.
"We look at the annexation as a threat to our
business," said Bronson.
The military want the company to do the new plant
right and do not want to invest in a company that will be
forced to move once again in just a few years. That money
would then be lost.
If it is just sales tax that is making it so that Mona
and Painter are forcing the company to annex, then there is
an easy remedy for that, said Bronson.
"Leave us our and we will write an annual check for
$1,000 which is what the sales tax would be," he said.
Juab County has a great work base and would hire from
that workbase. In fact, he said, the company is advertising
in the local newspaper for two machinists who will be hired
and trained in Utah County but will have jobs at the new
facility near Mona.
There will be 40 to 50 new jobs, he said.
"Our jobs are above median pay and take six months to
train for," he said.
Val Jones, commission chairman, said the commission
did want to support Barnes Bullets and make certain the
company did relocate in Juab County.
"We want to support you," he said.
Jared Eldridge, county attorney, said that according
to state statue for counties of Juab County's size, only the
county could object to the annexation.
"The only appeal those objecting to the annexation
have is to come to the county commission and try to persuade
you to object," he said.
Eldridge said that Perry Davis, a deputy county
attorney, was looking into the legal rights of the county to
protest the annexation.
The county does have a right to refuse approval if it
is thought that the new area is too large or, for some
reason, is of a nature that they city cannot properly
provide adequate services to the newly annexed area.
"We already own the property on both sides at Willow
Creek," said Bronson.
Commissioners determined to take the matter under
advisement and find out what can be done, legally, to have
Barnes Bullets excluded from the proposed annexation.
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