Box Elder County Commissioner Brian Shaffer was invited to the Bonneville Salt Flats last week by Mike Cook, Bonneville 400 expert advisor. Shaffer said Cook is interested in bringing events to a piece of salt in Box Elder County boundaries that is one foot thick and 13 miles long.

Shaffer said it was quite an experience. The county vehicles got up to 90 miles per hour. He also witnessed a hydrogen car built by Ohio State University go 303 miles per hour.

“It sounded like a whisper going down the track,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer said an event like this could bring in a lot of tourism dollars.The Bonneville Salt Flats aren’t looking for any funding from the county; they are just looking at ease of access to the area. They will be in to see the commission and present their proposal next week.

Commissioner Rich VanDyke added that tourism dollars are excellent revenue generators with very little cost to the county.

“I look forward to this event possibly turning into an annual event,” VanDyke said.

In other business, the County Commission renewed its state inmate contract. Box Elder County Sergeant Marvin Miller said the contract is still for 30 inmates at $45 per inmate per day.

The commission passed two ordinances at yesterday’s meeting. The first was ordinance 318 which will require anyone in the zoned areas of the county who wants to build a gravel pit to get that property rezoned for that purpose. The second one was Ordinance 319, which requires anyone in any area of the county who wants to open a municipal waste zone to get the property rezoned for that purpose.

The commission also accepted a contract with U.S. Pipeline to lease 40 acres of county property to be used as a staging area for the Ruby Pipeline project. The lease, which begins Jan. 1, 2010, will be for $10,000 for the first year and $2,500 per month beyond that.

The county has been approved for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation grant of $203,300 to go toward improving energy efficiency across the county. County Auditor Lee Beverly said the first thing they plan to do is conduct energy audits on all county buildings to see what needs to be improved.