The setting for his news conference was rather like the surface of the moon, which made perfect sense, given the idea the Republican candidate for governor was floating: Let's build a whole new state prison. And let's move it somewhere close, but not too close, to the Wasatch Front. Somewhere like, oh I dunno, Tooele County.
Back here on Earth, you could almost hear the collective huh? go up. Here on Earth, in this election year, Utahns keep talking about finding more money for education and reducing classroom size. Enough of them signed a statewide petition to get an open-space initiative on the November ballot. Better highways and more TRAX lines show up on wish lists.
Heck, everyone's favorite moral issues - abortion and gay rights - are commanding more attention this year than what to do with the prison.
Legislators who control the purse strings are urging that any relocation effort move slowly, but Huntsman sprang his surprise announcement with a sense of true urgency. He says the crowding at the 53-year-old prison is so bad "they'll run out of space at Draper next month." He estimates the sale of this prime land would fetch $350 million to $500 million.
It is a loving gesture to one of his major support groups - hungry developers who would love to gobble up one last real estate morsel at Point of the Mountain. It isn't enough that builders have already devoured a half-moon chunk out of the mound of land directly east of the prison. That sprawl called South Mountain continues to creep up and around the hillside. This despite a glut of housing stockthroughout the south valley.
But never mind what exists. We always need more. Draper-area developers, pausing briefly to dab at the saliva rolling down their chins, are talking about an amusement park, a business complex or a soccer stadium in the prison's place.
All of this may further please Huntsman's suburban Wasatch Front base. What he might be wondering is how his plan feels to the other 20 percent of the state. This small but bedrock Republican population could be Huntsman's insurance policy in what is looking like a squeaker of a race with Scott Matheson Jr.
Huntsman proposes siting a new prison in Tooele or beyond.
Leaders in outstate Utah reacted to the candidate's announcement as if he had - surprise! - pulled their chairs out from under them at dinner. Members of the Tooele County Commission hadn't heard of it, and when they did, were none too happy at the thought of more "waste" getting dumped on them.
Commissioner Greg Dettinger, whose Sanpete County houses a regional prison in the town of Gunnison, said [Huntsman] "hasn't talked to anyone in Sanpete County about that."
Do you think a timely phone call to Tooele or Gunnison might have been wise? Huntsman touts his experience as U.S. ambassador to Singapore in the first Bush administration and his appointment by George W. as a senior trade official to Asia, South Asia and Africa. Great. But in the case of pitching a new outstate prison - which we scarcely need anyway - those valuable diplomatic skills apparently went AWOL.
hmullen@sltrib.com
