June 23 - Last Day to Appeal Property Assessments
On Tuesday, May 27th, the Adams County Commissioners met for their final public meeting of the month. It was budget day, and every department head who came in presented to commissioners with a proposed budget for the next year to look over.
First on the agenda was Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning. Commissioner Daren Ward said he talked with the owners of Exeter Lane Gardens and they thought they had reached out initially to make sure that everything was okay with Planning and Zoning. They were dismayed to hear that might not be the case and wanted to know what they needed to do. Fisher said she had the impression, after talking to the commissioners last meeting, that it was an agrarian use and the only concern they really had was the signs encouraging people to park along the road instead of on the property. They determined that that was a one time thing for the opening day and would not be a regular occurrence. The commissioners were supportive of the business and appreciated the owners efforts to clear everything up.
Next, Fisher went over the Planning and Zoning budget with the commissioners. They talked about making a separate budget for the Mountain Origins project, similar to how they have done with Brundage. Commissioner Iveson asked about the possible Red Ridge project and wanted to know if Fisher had any updates. Fisher said the last time she talked to them they said not for the next 15-20 years, but she wasn’t sure if that was still accurate. She mentioned planning ahead for growth and told the commissioners to think about impact studies or development agreements.
Before going into an executive session, Commissioner Iveson mentioned he had been receiving heat about his comments on the proposed new ambulance districts. Commissioner Viki Purdy also expressed some of her concerns about the proposal and her problems with growing government, as the creation of new ambulance districts would add three new commissioners for each district.
After the executive session, Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, gave an update on the landfill expansion project, He said that Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, was helping him find river rock. The commissioners were excited about the project nearing the end. Then they talked about new hires and next year’s budget for the landfill, and whether there was room in it for a rock truck. Commissioner Iveson said they needed a rock truck.
Adam Balderson, with road and bridge, asked the commissioners about new cutting edges. He said that carbide tooth cutting edges that last 3-5 years are $9,000 a set. They were demoing them in Bear and really liked them. You could replace the teeth and they also made teeth for snow plowing. Balderson recommended them. He said right now they were spending $8-10,000 a year on cutting edges so he thought these would pay off. The commissioners agreed.
Balderson said he was watching the mini excavator they had talked about at the auction and it ended up going for a pretty high price. He didn’t think it was worth it getting a used one with no warranty at that sort of price and the commissioners agreed, so they approved the purchase of a CAT 308 that they had been getting quotes for. Next, they went over the budget and talked about getting a new grader for Council. They also needed a loader but didn’t know what the budget was for one until they got the numbers for the new shop. The City of Council was supposed to go over numbers for the lots for sale at their next meeting on June 10th. Balderson also mentioned getting a new pickup, both of the current ones were getting pretty high in mileage. He said the culverts on Council Cuprum Road were going to need attention at some point. There have been no applications for the open position in New meadows.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman arrived next. He said they filled one of the vacant patrol positions and they have someone in the jail they would like to move to the other, but they need to fill his spot first. They also just lost another in detention so there are currently three open spots in detention, but he has two applications in backgrounds right now that he thought would work out well.
Clerk Sherry Ward asked if polygraphs were used in court. Zollman said they were not admissible in court. He said it was more of a piece of mind for him that they did a polygraph for new hires. He thought their background checks were pretty rigorous.
Next, Zollman talked about the budget. He started off by saying the only increase he was asking for was because of the growth of the county, and the types of calls and the types of people they were dealing with. He said he needed deputies. Commissioner Iveson mentioned they couldn’t even fill the spots they had open already. Zollman thought that would be getting better due to more housing availability. Clerk Sherry Ward said the Homeland Security money they had might be going away. Zollman seemed prepared for that, he wasn’t excited about it but said they have spent the money on things that would last for a while. He spoke about the COPS grant and how it could be used for wages, but because they were only three or four year grants he didn’t like relying on them to pay a salary and preferred to use them for equipment. Commissioner Ward said he was in favor of using the COPS grants if they needed to grow so they could get moving and have time to plan for the growth. Zollman said there were also regulations worked into them about things they have to enforce that he didn’t like. He said revenue from state inmates has been up. Commissioner Iveson said his goal was to get the department one more position but they needed to see where the PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) money came in first. There were 21 state inmates and 4 county.
Next, county Treasurer Tonjua Spelman, arrived to go over her budget, which didn’t have many changes. “The crappy thing is everyone in this county is pretty frugal and we still don’t have enough money,” Commissioner Iveson lamented. Commissioner Purdy asked how the interest on investments came back into the budget. Clerk Sherry Ward filtered it back into the general budget. “I think her interest is the reason that we have been able to use more cash,” said Sherry Ward.
Next, the commissioners canvassed the votes for the recent election. There were 6 votes in the Salmon River District for Supplemental Levy 243. Four in favor and 2 against. In New Meadows for the supplemental levy there were 107 in favor and 65 against. They mentioned that in the future the new machines will do the tally. Commissioner Purdy was not terribly pleased about that. They would still be able to do a manual audit.
Next, there was a meeting of elected officials and department heads. Assessor Stacy Swift said that assessment notices would be going out that week. Values didn’t change much, but mobile homes on foundations saw a huge increase of over 20%. County wide values are up 5%. The last day to appeal is June 23 in writing. Commissioner Iveson mentioned that Governor DeSantis in Florida was really pushing for no property tax, and Iveson was curious to see what the plan would be. He said he’s a fan of the idea but the money had to come from somewhere.
Treasurer Tonjua Spelman said she was gearing up for the June collection. Currently they were at 69% collected.
Prosecutor Peter Donovan said that there was an increase in activity and one particular case has been eating a lot of his time recently. It is an older case and may end up being moved to another jurisdiction.
Adam Balderson said roads were bladed and were starting to open up. There would be some closures for work.
Dave Herold said Indian Valley was sprayed and they were working on moving up towards Council. Stacy Swift asked what they use to spray. Herold said a variety of things depending on the weed, but mostly a product containing 24D. The county right of way goes to the fence line on most county roads and they try and spray them all once a year. They do not do blanket spraying, but target the noxious weeds. He said they strive to use the least powerful chemical that they can and all the products he used have pretty good safety profiles, there were no restrictions on grazing. The annual Weed tour was coming up on Tuesday, June 17th, the public was encouraged to come and lunch would be catered by Shy Simon’s. There would be some chemical reps there as well. Commissioner Iveson asked how they could get a weed added to the noxious weed list. Herold said people need to start a petition for the state. The county could also add it temporarily on a county basis. He also talked about drones as an alternative to crop dusting.
Sherry Ward said the janitor compiled a list of old vacuums he wanted to get rid of if anyone wanted one, or they were going to the thrift store. Sheriff Ryan Zollman said they were coming to their busy season. He said someone approached them about blading Middle Fork Road to the snow and thought they were doing a Forest Service road. He corrected them, but they were wondering why they were doing roads like that for visitors before roads that citizens use every day. Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, said they do everything in the valley first, then they have to do everything at least once. Zollman said social media has been a huge asset for his department in communicating with the public and suggested it would be good for other departments too. “People are always going to seek information and when we don’t provide facts, their opinions become facts” he said. Much of the county gets their information from social media, and he highly recommended other departments consider it.
After the elected official meeting, Prosecutor Peter Donovan stayed to give his proposed budget. He said he was requesting a little over the 3% that everyone was asked to work into their budget because he didn’t want to take on any extra clients. He said, unlike Boyd, he wanted to devote himself fully to the county. He was also requesting extra for his paralegal because of the extra work she was doing for contracts, which he gets extra for but she does not. He thought she should be portioned something from the contracts. He also said he’s trying to be looped into Planning and Zoning more so they don’t have to contract out for that in the future.
Building Inspector Kody Williams said he’d like to get his travel budget and training and education budget back. He added the 3% plus some for the maintenance, which he has been doing as well. He said they are still looking at the sprinklers and getting a bid to replace them. Lines need to be painted in the asphalt and he thought it might be a good community service project. Iveson said the school has a line painter they have borrowed in the past. There were two compressors out on the AC for the county building and the fan wasn’t turning on.
During lunch, the commissioners did a jail inspection. When they returned there were more budgets to go over. Dave Herold, with the Weed Department presented his budget and talked more about the benefits of drones for spraying.
Sue Warner, the County Coroner, came in with her budget. She also said she was concerned about home burials. There currently was no county ordinance about home burials and people weren’t registering them with the county. The concern she had was that they should be set back from property lines and water sources, and should be designated as a cemetery. She was worried that if they are not registering the burial and then someone sells the property they could later dig it up and… it could be bad. “It’s getting more prevalent” said Warner about home burials. The commissioners agreed that they should probably regulate it.
Warner said she has not been able to locate a powerhead for the stretcher for less than $20,000. Brand new they were over $70,000. She said she was not planning on running in the next election. She has been the coroner for 31 years. The commissioner told her that they appreciated her. She said there were lots of changes coming at the state level to coroners office’s.
Next was the IT budget. Council Computers arrived to talk about it with IT liaison Teresa. Commissioner Ward asked what travel and office supplies were for when they were contracting with them. They decided it was for account specific things like the Association of Counties membership. Ward didn’t think the county should be paying for Council Computers to send their employees to trainings, he thought they would send Teresa as their employee. The other commissioners agreed.
Assessor Stacy Swift was the last one to present her budget. She said she was requesting steps for her staff. She said she hadn’t requested them in a while and she was training them to do the various things that she does. She said she was retiring at the next election and she thought multiple people in her office would run and that whoever wanted to should go for it. She didn’t want them to be in the position she was when she arrived and she was trying to pass on her knowledge. “I feel very blessed to have had that opportunity,” she said. Swift thought they would do just fine without her and that was what she wanted.
The commissioners did not make any final decisions on any of the budgets that were presented during the day and took them home to review.
