This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Leaders in Tooele County have mixed feelings about building a new state prison in their area, but they are united in their opposition to the only plot now under consideration.

They see no logic in putting inmates adjacent to the Miller Motorsports Park and the Deseret Peak Complex, a county facility housing a big swimming pool, demolition derby track and baseball diamonds.

"It is the gateway between Grantsville and Tooele and all the areas around there," said Erik Gumbrecht, chairman of the Tooele Republican Party. "To have that contain a prison, I think, ruins the whole potential opportunity."

He envisions businesses and homes filling up a prime undeveloped area now owned by the family of the late Larry H. Miller. This plot is one of six that the state's Prison Relocation Commission is now considering. The commission's task is to recommend a site for a new prison that would replace the existing one in Draper, with the final decision up to the Legislature.

The Miller Family Real Estate company isn't pushing the site for the prison, but isn't taking its land out of the running either, instead staying quiet as opposition grows.

Commission Co-Chairman Jerry Stevenson, a state senator from Layton, isn't surprised by the flood of community anger coming from Tooele and other potential sites in Utah and Salt Lake counties. "Nobody wants a prison," he said, though Stevenson noted that officials in Tooele County were "vying for the site" in recent years.

Gumbrecht said the Tooele GOP's central committee is 100 percent opposed to the Miller's site, but split evenly over whether the county should explore other potential prison locations. All three of the county commission seats are held by Republicans.

"I believe it is important to sit down and discuss it," Gumbrecht said. "You don't want to draw conclusions too fast and there may be a good location we haven't thought of."

Tooele City Mayor Patrick Dunlavy said he'd fight any effort to move the prison near the Motorsports Park, going so far as to refuse to offer water or sewer services to the land now in unincorporated Tooele County. Grantsville Mayor Brent Marshall has made the same threat. But these two mayors have different views on whether there's any site in Tooele that should be considered.

"It is like everywhere else, it depends on where that site might be," Dunlavy said. He suggested one out in the west desert, away from the population center, would face less opposition.

Marshall, however, is outraged by the suggestion that Tooele County should take the prison off of Salt Lake County's hands.

"I feel offended that every time Salt Lake County doesn't want something they throw it in Tooele County," he said. "We are not a dump."

He also dismissed the argument that the prison in Draper is old and will soon need to be replaced.

"We've got schools that are older than the prison site," Marshall said. "Come on, get real."

Jewel Allen has joined a community group opposing the prison, and like Marshall, sees no reason why Tooele County should covet something that Draper is trying hard to get rid of. She believes the prison would make it more difficult for Tooele County to grow and attract businesses.

She's helping to organize a protest with county leaders Thursday on Sheep Lane, the road that separates the Miller Motorsports Park and the Miller's land under consideration for the prison.

Among those expected to attend are County Commissioner Shawn Milne, who questions how the consultants for the Relocation Commission could select sites that have all triggered immediate condemnation from locally elected officials.

He and his colleagues are seeking a meeting with the Relocation Commission to better understand the process. Part of that discussion would be used to determine if the county could get behind any other proposed sites in Tooele.

While there are six finalists, the commission initially looked at 26 sites and seven of those were in Tooele County, including one that's northwest of Grantsville. That site, ranked seventh, just outside the list of finalists.

Milne said that location is closer to the freeway and is surrounded by heavy industrial sites, which would likely result in less residential encroachment, and, possibly, less opposition. But he said that's hard to say. The uproar over the Miller's site has left the county skittish of the selection process.

Milne can't fathom how that site scored 10 out of 15 in the Relocation Commission's "community acceptance" category. A report says the state consultants determined that Tooele was "neutral" about moving the prison there.

Milne said: "It doesn't seem like we are reading from the same page of music."