Meeting Schedule Addition, P&Z
On Monday July 21, the Adams County Commissioners held their second monthly meeting. All commissioners were present. The meeting was moved from the normal commissioners room to the Jury Room at the courthouse due to the broken air conditioning. Future meetings will be held in the Jury Room until further notice.
The commissioners discussed future meeting dates and decided they should plan on holding a meeting the fifth Monday of the month for the months there are five Mondays so that they don’t have a two week break. They also decided they could cancel the fifth Monday meeting if there was nothing to discuss, but it would be better to have it on the schedule. They also decided for September the meeting dates would be the 8th, 22nd, and 29th of the month.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said that they arrived at a quorum for a special meeting with Brundage on August 11th, which will be a week earlier then the date that was delayed, and they are preparing for that meeting in Planning and Zoning. She also said there was a conditional use permit application coming for an RV Park in New Meadows but the applicant already started construction and didn’t have the correct permits from Southwest District Health so there were some violations that needed to be addressed before it moved forward.
The commissioners discussed the buildings the City of Council were selling and decided they would send the city a letter documenting their intent to purchase the warehouse and two lots as soon as the plat was finished, and their intent to make an offer on the office building pending current investigation into potential repairs.
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, arrived with quotes from Volvo and CAT for a loader. The commissioners discussed the quotes and asked Shelton to go back to the dealer to try and negotiate and make some changes.
Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, arrived and told the commissioners they had someone put in their notice and they needed to hire a new person for Council. They still haven’t had one applicant for New Meadows. Balderson said pay is a big factor, and they need someone soon since winter is coming. They might have to contract it out but then they will be paying McCall prices for contractors. Commissioner Daren Ward asked what it would take to be competitive with McCall. Balderson said operators are easily making $35 an hour up there, but they probably wouldn’t have to pay quite that much to keep them here. The commissioners asked Balderson to get some bids for putting in a bigger garage door and moving the HVAC in the new shop and try to get the work lined up for October so they were ready to move once they finished the purchase. Balderson asked if it would be in the budget to get a loader this year with the shop too. The quote for the loader was $392,000 for a loader and plow, or $75-87,000 for a 5 or 6 year lease. John Deer was the cheapest but they were all in that ballpark. Commissioner Iveson thought they should finance the loaders, not lease them. He thought they should probably get one loader done this fiscal year.
Casual Merritt arrived from the Sheriff’s Office in lieu of Sheriff Ryan Zollman, who was still out on a welfare check. Merritt said there were 25 state inmates and 2 county. She had a quote for furniture for the dispatch room. It had to be custom made because the room was so small, but she said it should utilize the space they have. The total was over $39,000. She said some of it would be covered by donations and the rest from the 911 money. She said when they are busy they are running into each other and tripping over cords, and this will help. Commissioner Iveson said he guessed it was better to spend the money making the room functional then to build a new jail.
Dana Harris, New Meadows District Ranger, arrived next to give an update from the Forest Service. She said that the Lava salvage and Bear Claw logging operations are complete. Cold Bug salvage was complete, Iberia timber sale contractors have moved in, and there was a new timber sale, called Bessie, next to Bear. There was geotechnical drilling going on at Copper Cliff Dam. There were 9,000 acres in non-commercial thinning across the whole forest. All the cattle permittees in Council and New Meadow were turned out. Cabin Creek Campground renovations were complete and the campground was open.
Next week, they will be working on a pedestrian bridge by Goose Creek Falls. Cold Bear and Rough timber sales are active in the New Meadows District.
Commissioner Joe Iveson asked about a train that the OX Ranch has used in the past that was decommissioned and impacting how they could get cattle through. He requested that the Forest Service look into that. He also had a recommendation. He thought that the work that Rangeland Management Specialist Andy Bumgarner was doing was really good and very unique. Iveson recommended Bumgarner start going around to other agencies and other Forests and teach what they have been doing here, because it was a good system and seemed to be unique to this area. Iveson was worried that knowledge would be lost when Bumgarner retires, and he said it is a good thing that the Forest Service is doing and they should spread the word. “Let’s make Andy famous!” said Iveson. Harris said she would put a bug in the ear of the right people. Commissioner Viki Purdy asked if there was any update on the Herold’s road. Harris didn’t have any, but said she would put it back on the radar.
Next the commissioner talked about the budget over lunch. The budget looked much better this year compared to last. The preliminary estimates looked to be utilizing $550,000 of the $615,000 in PILT money they received, and that included a 3% cost of living increase for everyone, to new positions for the sheriff’s office, and step increases for many employees. The commissioners went over some more details and decided to put back into the budget some things they cut last year, such as money into Parks and Rec, money for a forestry advisor, and money for the veterans memorial building. Also the grants for Carol Walsh might be going away, so they decided to add that into the budget just in case. Commissioner Ward asked how long ago the step chart was made. Clerk Sherry Ward said it was before her time. Commissioner Ward said he hated studies because he thought they were a waste of money, but he was concerned about the steps, as evidenced by the lack of applicants for Road and Bridge. He was wondering if they could compare Adams County salaries with some other counties who may have updated it more recently .
The commissioners didn’t understand how the budget was so much better in comparison to last year, which commissioner Iveson described as a “nightmare.” They were not able to do cost of living increases last year. “We had no choice though,” said Iveson, “you have to balance the budget. It’s just like your checkbook, man, sometimes you have to go without.” This year, with the preliminary numbers it looked like they will be able to cover most things, and still put away a little PILT money for a rainy day, which they liked to do if possible. “We’re not flush,” said Sherry Ward, but the situation was much improved. Near the end of the meeting, however, Clerk Ward realized she’d forgotten to budget in costs of maintaining the new buildings such as heating and insurance. Commissioner Daren Ward said “But on the plus side, we’re still so much better than we were last year.”
