File photo-Logan Canyon

LOGAN — On the monthly KVNU For the People – County Hour on Wednesday, Cache County Executive David Zook indicated he would be eagerly watching how things develop with this year’s Utah Legislature, which just barely got underway.

“Somebody asked me a couple days ago, they said ‘are you going to go down there to the legislative session and work on some bills or getting some things for the county?’ And I said absolutely, but I felt like I needed to clarify with that person, that’s not when the work happens. It’s been happening for the past year, we’ve been laying the ground work for so many things over the past year,” he explained.

Zook said he’s really excited for this year’s session because he feels northern Utah has a dream team of legislators.

He said, because of that, Cache County is probably in a better position than ever before.  He had high praise for new senator, Chris Wilson, who is the chair of committees that oversee U-DOT and road funding, and was recently given oversight over broadband.

“That is awesome because one of the things that I’ve been pushing for over the last year, is to get cell towers in Logan Canyon. And we can’t do that until we first get a fiber line through there, and we can’t get a fiber line through there until we first find $20,000,000 to install it.  It’s expensive to put fiber lines in, it’s especially expensive on a two-lane windy mountain road with the (Logan)river on one side and the mountains on the other, it’s very expensive to do that.”

Zook has said that it is a necessary public safety issue.

“When we do that, when we get that fiber line in there, we’ll be able to have cameras and…the changeable message signs that they can put up and give you warning about an accident ahead, or it’s icy ahead. So we’ll be able to get those too, so not just cell towers but traffic cameras and signage through the changeable message signs. That’s really good for us, that’s something that I’m hoping to get out of this legislative session, is funding to start that.”

He said Wilson has been side-by-side with him advocating on behalf of Cache County and has really hit the ground running.

 

 



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