EVANSTON — The Portland Rose Room at the Roundhouse was filled to capacity — 260 people, plus others standing in doorways and outside the room — for a special three-hour Uinta County Commission meeting at which CoreCivic, a private prison company that hopes to build and operate an immigration detention center in Evanston, presented its plans.

The public meeting was held for the purposes of hearing CoreCivic describe its proposed facility and for receiving public questions and comments.

Commissioner Eric South welcomed everyone to the meeting and turned it over to Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson-Kallas, who served as moderator to keep the meeting moving smoothly and to make sure everyone who wanted to had a chance to speak.

Howieson-Kallas began by establishing the ground rules for public participation.

As their slide presentation was displayed on the large screen, the CoreCivic representatives took turns explaining and adding information. CoreCivic originally was named Diversified Government Solutions Corporation and was founded in 1983 in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2016, it became CoreCivic and the company currently employs 14,000 people with facilities in 22 states.

CoreCivic claims to be the largest real estate holder for the federal government in the U.S.

CoreCivic Executive Vice President of Real Estate Lucibeth Mayberry said they are in the first official step in the process. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accepts the independent environmental impact study, they have 30 days to submit the next volume of proposal. Mayberry said it is a long process and they have a long way to go before building.

When questioned about hiring practices and just how many positions will be local recruits, the response was that they are governed by federal guidelines for hiring and that employees would be vetted through ICE.

Several in favor of the CoreCivic detention center thanked CoreCivic for coming and said that a WyoSayYes group had been formed on Facebook with about 700 members at the time. Kent Anderson, speaking as an administrator for the page, said Uinta County is worse off economically than any other county in the state and a new opportunity for jobs will benefit the community.

Jon Pentz said, “I will be the first to apply for a job and I thank you. There is more local support for you than is being reported.”

Evanston attorney Tim Beppler was last to express his concerns about the facility, “I have been a resident of Evanston for 32 years and was always proud of that; I am less proud now. We were led to believe that the commissioners would be selling the property to CoreCivic tomorrow. Is the contract with them and CoreCivic and ICE? What is the structure?”