Utah State Parks to complete main dome at East Canyon State Park

Morgan County no longer needs to pay to have the main dome in the Dome Event Center and Village Project at East Canyon State Park. Given what the county has invested so far and unexpected costs associated with it Utah State Parks officials have committed to fund and complete the project, County Commissioner Blaine Fackrell reported to his fellow commissioners in September.

In 2021 Morgan County received a $100, 000 state rural opportunity grant to help fund the project. In early 2023 the county purchased a 60-foot dome which was intended to cover a proposed event center that would be the anchor for a future “village” of smaller domed buildings where tourists can stay to take advantage of the park’s Dark Sky designation. That “village” would hopefully be mostly funded by future grants.

The county spent $84,000 on the dome and $30,000 on an engineering study but bids to install the dome and complete the event center came in much higher than anticipated at around $350,000. Past estimates suggested the dome would cost about $160,000 installed, but since county officials received bids in excess of $350,000 earlier this year to complete the dome they have been working to come up with the additional funds.

Further complicating the issue has been a $100,000 state rural opportunity grant Morgan County received toward the project. The county has already expended about $75,000 of those funds but the grant had a Sept. 30 expiration date. That meant the project was expected to be complete and reported on to the state by that date – something that didn’t happen. In early August Morgan County received a bid on the project of $264,548.75 from low bidder Calvin L. Wadsworth Construction but the contractor indicated it could not complete the project until Oct. 24. At that time the county commission accepted the bid with the provision that the delayed start would be acceptable to the state.

Now the county is off the hook for those funds but what will happen with the state grant is unclear. It may be that the work Morgan County has done on the project will be deemed sufficient to satisfy the grant. If it is not, commissioners discussed giving back the $75,000 so as not to jeopardize future state grants for this or other projects.

“As far as the rest of the project they [State Parks] want to wait and see what happens with the dome itself before we even determine whether or not we’re going to go out for any more village,” Fackrell said.

Morgan County is still waiting for a response from the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity on whether the grant is satisfied, Morgan County Administrator Kate Becker told the Morgan County News on Oct. 10. She’s hoping to hear soon as the deadline for applying for another round of rural opportunity grants of up to $600,000 is Oct. 31. (Taxing entities are not allowed to apply if they have any open grant contracts).

Although the county commission has not finalized what projects it would apply for, the dome village project would probably not be on the list, she said.

“We have plenty of infrastructure needs,” Becker said. “The top two we are looking at are an extension onto the fire building and updates to the fairgrounds, like a new exhibit building.”€λ