Brundage Project Moves Forward, Despite Some Delays
On Monday, July 14th, the Adams County Commissioners held their first monthly meeting. Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, updated the commissioners on some issues with the applications at Brundage that were not the fault of Brundage but were holding up the process and putting them behind a month. Fisher and the commissioners brainstormed some ideas to try and expedite the process.
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste said he didn’t have any good news. The loader was still broken, despite the new parts they had put in, a resident was causing problems at the transfer station, and the wells were drilled for the landfill, but the results were a mixed bag. They hit water at 121 feet on one well and at 50 ft with the other. This didn’t sound promising for getting the arid exemption for the landfill. Commissioner Daren Ward said he had some conversations and agreed they shouldn’t go after the arid exemption. Commissioner Viki Purdy asked about some geographical features to make sure it wasn’t runoff they were hitting, but it didn’t sound like it. The arid exemption also depended a lot on where the clay layer was. Not having it would actually help expand the life of the landfill. The commissioners were confused about how long the current landfill expansion project should last the county. Commissioner Ward said he had been given different answers, anywhere from between 25 to 100 years.
Shelton said he would like to get a little CAT with GPS to move sand and make sure it’s 2 feet deep. He also received some prices for used loaders. He thought they weren’t budgeting enough for monitoring the wells and they all brainstormed how to get their own equipment to start doing it themselves.
Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, had a quote for the culvert on Fruitvale Glendale Rd and thought they needed to move forward with ordering the culvert soon. Balderson also said if they can’t find anyone to work in New Meadows they might need to think about contracting it out. However, the only people to contract with would probably be coming from Valley County, which would cost a lot more.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman arrived next. He said there were 24 state inmates and four county. They had a busy 4th of July. There was a wild, violent incident in New Meadows, but the suspect is now in jail. Zollman said they had two good interviews last week and if they can hire both the Sheriff’s Office will be fully staffed for the first time in a while.
They spoke briefly about the interest in mining and how that will be impacting the area. Zollman also spoke about the increase in activity and thought the state needed to do something to relieve small counties where they don’t receive taxes for a majority of the land because it is public but they still have to provide services. He said he went to Black Lake last Saturday and tons of people were already going though. Last year there were more fatalities on side by sides and motorcycles than in cars. “We still have an obligation to provide services to these folks on a shoestring budget,” said Zollman.
Commissioner Purdy said the project to expand the Gordon Titus parking lot had fallen through. Zollman thought that was too bad. County Clerk, Sherry Ward, said they had $40,000 in a snowmobile fund and she wondered if they could use some of that to expand a parking lot. Zollman mentioned one really popular spot that needs work was up by Bear.
Next, there was a joint meeting between the county commissioners and the city of Council to discuss the city of Council Impact Area. Council Mayor Bruce Gardner and City Council members Mendy Stanford, Dan Huter, Mark Edwards, and David Tubridy were present, along with City Clerk Ashley Scott, Public Works Director Caleb Shumway, and City Attorney Geoff Schroeder.
Schroeder explained that new legislation had been passed that required cities and counties to update their areas of impact. There are new restrictions on size so they will need to redraw the impact area to keep it compliant and the county will have to have a public hearing on it. There is a new limit of two miles from the city limits. Also, they can only include “only those areas that are very likely to be annexed within the next five years.” The deadline is the 31st of December. Mayor Bruce Gardner said that considering their responsibility to provide infrastructure they weren’t really in a position to annex anything. Schroeder said the problem was if they don’t do this and ignore it they won’t have the options to do anything later. The Council City Council decided they would review it and decide on the new proposed impact area and then put it in ordinance form for the county who will then hold a public hearing. Notices will be going out to any property owners affected by the changes. The City of New Meadows will be coming next week to have the same discussion.
Bob Looper, CEO of Brundage, was next on the agenda. He wanted to give the commissioners an overview of the construction and things coming to Brundage. Looper said they have been working with DEQ for over two years on their wastewater treatment plant, which will be state of the art and produce Class A wastewater. “There’s nothing like this in Northern Idaho,” said Looper. It will produce very high quality water. He expected it to be operational by November of 2026. To pay for it, he said development has to keep going. They are hand in glove, he said.
They are two years into Phase 2, because they had to solve the fire problem, which they did. Looper was frustrated with all the delays, but proud of their work with the fire district. They have 22 trained fire personnel that are paid on a stipend basis for training. They are developing mutual aid agreements and building a new fire building that will house the ambulance too, It should be completed by fall. They have EMTs and paramedics. Last winter they had 30 ground transports, they only had to call Meadows Valley or McCall Fire for one which needed ALS. Looper said they were operating very effectively and are now handling dispatch on the mountain. The commissioners wanted to know how they were funding the fire and EMS. Looper said they were being funded by the Brundage Mountain Homeowners Association.
He had three main concerns regarding wildfire. First was the Idaho power line, which he said was their number one fire risk. Goose Lake Rd was the next threat. There were many dying trees along the corridor. He would like to turn the road into a fire break. They are trying to get grants for thinning as well and are doing some with their own crews. He said their number one risk is how they manage the timber.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, came in and told Looper that she recognized Brundage did not drop the ball with the recent review and they are looking into having a special meeting instead of waiting until the August deadline. Fisher also said they will be changing the way they contract so that this doesn’t happen again. Looper said he likes the county’s attitude, but he feels they have had to jump through hoops unnecessarily and the process has been very complicated and it doesn’t need to be that way. Fisher said that has not been the intention. Looper said he didn’t think it was their intention either but they have other projects going on in Valley county that have been more smooth and streamlined.
After a break for lunch, three representatives from the Region Three Behavioral Health Board, Joy Husmann, Melissa Mezo, and Mark Dominguez, arrived to talk about starting a recovery center to serve Payette, Washington, and Adams County. They have recovery centers in Gem County and Canyon County that are part of nine original recovery centers the state has funded. Payette, Washington and Adams County were identified as areas where the services could be needed. They are meeting with commissioners in each of those counties to see if they are interested in having a discussion about what that might look like.
Commissioner Daren Ward thought it was a worthy cause but said what it was going to come down to was what it was going to cost the county. Husmann said there was a lot of funding and grants available and they want to set something up that will not fail. Commissioner Viki Purdy said there was already a really good clinic here and she would prefer that they stick with them. Husmann said they don’t have a lot of the same supports, such as 12 step programs and actual recovery support services are not provided at the clinic. They said that the recovery center would be a free service. Washington and Payette county commissioners said this was something they were interested in. Purdy said she was concerned about it being regional government and that they wouldn’t really be in control of it or be able to drop out if they wanted to. She also thought it was a form of socialized medicine and that it wasn’t free, they were getting grants from state and taxpayers. Husmann said they were hoping to get $50,000 from each county to get things going, but there are other ways they could support it. Gem county commissioners donated a building, for example. They thought that having the recovery services saved taxpayer money in the long run by helping to eliminate the need for other county services. Purdy asked if they work with churches and they said they do. Husmann asked if the county was currently utilizing the opioid funding money and the commissioners said they were. No decisions were made.
Next, Rianne Horsch with Council Valley Ambulance came in with a resolution to sign for Drug Free Idaho establishing a policy for drug testing new EMTs and ambulance drivers to help reduce liability for the ambulance. Horsch said the Ambulance District Advisory Board also wanted to meet with the commissioners in the near future. Commissioner Joe Iveson asked if they are still planning on pursuing separate ambulance districts. Horsch said no, not after the last conversations. She didn’t want to throw money away trying to pursue it if there wasn’t a need.
Building Inspector Kody Williams came in to talk about the inspection for the old Starkey buildings the county was considering purchasing from the City of Council. He said the warehouse looked pretty good. The office building looked like the sprinkler system was broken and had flooded the crawlspace and he thinks it must have been flooded like that for a long time. One side had quite a bit of water under it, had a lot of mold and had rotted out a lot of plywood. Williams said it was a big deal, but it was fixable. Structurally it seemed good, but to get it functional would probably cost $70,000-$100,000. Iveson thought they should still buy it and fix it, but they should offer less the cost of repairs to fix it. The other commissioners agreed. They spoke to City Clerk Ashley Scott about timing. Scott also asked if the mold was bad enough to warrant an insurance claim because they had insurance on the building. They all thought she should look into it to see if it would be covered under insurance.
Williams then talked to the commissioners about the state of the air conditioning units in the county building and options to get them repaired or replaced, none of which the commissioners were pleased with. They asked him to get some more quotes from different companies before deciding what to do.
The Commissioners were scheduled to go into Board of Equalization next and Kaitlynn Fellows arrived from the Assessors office. She first presented some numbers that the Assessors office had prepared at the request of Viki Purdy to find out the impact it would have financially for residents if Brundage was de-annexed from the Meadow Valley Ambulance District. Fellows went through the values and projected values of the buildings and new construction at Brundage. They estimate that if Brundage was de-annexed there would be a loss of $21,814 tax dollars not collected just by phase 1A. The total current assessed value of everything was over $47 million. Using their levy rate that would be an estimated tax loss of $35,036 just from Brundage. These numbers did not include many of the future projects. This would mean a significant tax shift to the rest of Meadows valley. Meadows Valley Ambulance District has stated they wish to de-annex Brundage, but currently they are collecting taxes from them. Brundage did not wish to be de-annexed originally. Commissioner Purdy said that the way the law is set up, if Meadows Valley de-annexes Brundage they would be allowed to double their levy rate. Meadows Valley has stated they do not want to raise taxes, however, Purdy didn’t think there was any way for them to achieve their stated goals without raising the taxes. If Brundage was de-annexed from the ambulance district taxes would decrease for homes in Brundage.
The commissioners then went into Board of Equalization for the rest of the public portion of the meeting.
