The Carbon County Commission has restructured the county’s Economic Development and Tourism departments, hiring specialists internally to work with committees and outside groups to spur growth in those areas respectively.
Rita Vigor, formerly the commission’s secretary, was approved as the new Economic Development specialist. Tina Henrie, formerly the county’s Office of Tourism marketing manager, is the new Tourism Specialist.
Economic Development and Tourism will continue to function separately despite commissioners’ earlier efforts to combine the offices under one director.
A search for someone to lead a combined tourism and economic development office did not succeed in identifying qualified candidates.
Commissioners have moved forward with the new structure as part of recommendations from a Strategic Plan conducted by an outside consulting company.
The plan was released to the public several weeks ago.
Both Vigor and Henrie will report directly to commissioners, “and will also work closely with local government and industry committees,” according to a press statement on the matter released last week.
According to the press release, “Both Vigor and Henrie have years of experience in their respective fields, are well known by the community and have been assisting in these departments over the past several months.”
Along with the new personnel changes, the commission formed an Economic Development Council (EDC) and five committees with a specific areas of focus and separate committee chairs.
The five Committees are; the City & County Committee, Employment Recruitment & Development, New Business Development, Community Stability & Attitude, and Local Business Expansion.
A Chair has been appointed to each committee and anyone interested in serving as a committee member should email Vigor at rita.vigor@carbon.utah.gov.
Vigor and Henrie will also work closely with the EDC and the committees directly related to their departments to provide assistance and resources available to their offices.
Commissioner Jae Potter said the new direction was a welcome change.
“We can no longer approach economic development and tourism as we have in the past.” he said, “We need the involvement of the business community and we need to develop our relationships with the state offices of Economic Development, Energy Development and Tourism.”
Commission Chair Casey Hopes said feedback from local community stakeholders, other government officials and business owners made him more confident moving forward.
“I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish together,” he said.
Commissioner Jake Mellor reiterated those sentiments.
“If we want different results, we have to start looking at doing things a bit differently,” he said. “I look forward to what these changes will bring.”
Vigor and Henrie both declined to comment when interviews were sought last week when the Sun Advocate learned of their new positions.
Multiple private efforts to grow tourism locally have spawned from perceptions county leaders were not paying attention to growing that sector of the economy. In fact, tourism wasn’t even mentioned in the economic development plan released earlier this year.
With Vigor and Henrie’s new positions, those private efforts may get a boost from local government support.
Economic development, tourism specialists named
Rita Vigor and Tina Henrie