Ordinance for Rock Pits
On Monday, June 24th, the Adams County Commissioners met at the Adams County Courthouse for their last meeting of the month. The Board of Commissioners will also be meeting next week, July 1st, instead of their regularly scheduled meeting on July 8th, due to summer schedules and conflicts.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said that P&Z had their meeting regarding a new rockpit and recommended denial because the rockpit did not comply with the ordinance specifications for location. Specifically, there were multiple houses within one mile of the proposed location. Fisher said the applicant may be planning on filing an appeal. One thing that was mentioned is that there is another rockpit operating with several houses within a mile, but the owner of that rockpit had a legal document that the homeowners signed that said they would not sue, which is very different then residents signing a document that they were okay with having a rockpit there. There are several other rock pits that are also breaking the ordinance in the county, but they were active before the ordinance was written. Fisher has said she doesn’t think that the current situation would be suitable for a variance, and the applicant is understandably not happy with that. Commissioner Daren Ward said he received a call from one of the neighbors within the one mile who was very opposed to the rockpit and wanted to encourage the commissioners to follow their ordinances. Commissioner Viki Purdy was somewhat conflicted, and mentioned that we are a natural resource county and every one of these natural resource situations poses a different problem. The rockpit complaints are similar in her mind to the people who move here and complain about a farmer baling hay at 5:00 in the morning, or a logging truck driving by at 3:00 in the morning. Fisher and the other commissioners agreed but also mentioned it was one thing when a person moves to an area where these activities are commonplace, and a different thing when they are starting something new that will impact existing homeowners. Fisher also said that maybe it was time to have a conversation about whether there should be a blanket, no rock pits within one mile, maybe it would make sense to have exceptions like no blasting with houses within one mile of residences rule, or if there was a legal document residents could sign that they would not sue and were okay with it, maybe that would work. However, it probably wouldn’t apply in this case because there are 18 residents within the one mile radius and several were definitely opposed and would never sign such a document. Also, there are legitimate concerns if the rockpit could potentially be affecting the water table or home foundations. Purdy asked if there was any change that the ordinance was unconstitutional. Fisher said she has not received any feedback like that but will ask again for Prosecutor Boyd to put eyes on it. Purdy said she wasn’t sure you could get a mile from any house anymore with all the new development. Fisher agreed, but said that would have to open up a county wide discussion on the impacts. Fisher said that a variance is specifically for properties that can’t comply with ordinance due to some reason unique to the property, and she doesn’t see how that would apply in this case.
Building Inspector Kody Williams said he was at the New Meadows meeting two weeks ago and they were talking about moving the scale and not knowing where they wanted to put it. Commissioner Joe Iveson mentioned they did need to buy one. Commissioner Purdy said she would inquire if it was for sale. Purdy then told the other commissioners about a resident who had inquired with Mahon Logging about purchasing firewood, but Mahon said they didn’t have any available and the Forest Service was making it impossible for loggers to get firewood. She brought it up at the PFC meeting and was told that they have to put it in their contract or they are basically stealing logs. From the county’s perspective, Purdy was concerned that they would not be able to get firewood for the county’s senior firewood program. She has asked Council District Ranger Jeff Jones and Mark Mahon both to come to a commissioners meeting so they can hash this out and figure things out. Clerk Sherry Ward said the Forest Service was supposed to be coming in on July 15th.
Steve Shelton with Solid Waste said they have been trying to get the GPS coordinated and are still working on that. Clerk Sherry Ward wanted to go over the budget for the landfill expansion project with him and the commissioners, so they all reviewed that and decided they were more or less on track.
Adam Balderson with Road and Bridge said they haven’t started paving yet. Chip sealing on Hornet Creek is going well, they are still planning on being done by the 4th of July.
The commissioners decided they agreed on the contract for the janitor, with him supplying his own supplies. Commissioner Iveson said it was under budget and he thought it made sense, the other commissioners agreed and sent the contract to Prosecutor Boyd to look over.
Next Tyanne Roland, Nikki Zielinski, and Jennifer Rininger came in to discuss with the commissioners the fair and extension office, and hours and overtime hours. The commissioners said that they had noticed overtime hours that weren’t allocated for fair time and were wondering what they were for. Zielinski said that was for open class and the livestock sale, but someone else is doing open class this year. Roland discussed some of the other projects they had been working on, and said Rininger has taken on the vendors and sponsorships for the fair the last two years and has been making a lot of money in sponsorships. They have added new events to the fair this year as well. Commissioner Iveson said he just wanted to make sure they weren’t paying overtime hours on something that was supposed to be volunteer fair board hours. Clerk Sherry Ward made the suggestion that they don’t add extra things into her job until after the fair is over and they see what hours are left. The other commissioner agreed and said to just watch the hours, because the budget is very tight and anything unused is very helpful as well.
Next several representatives from Meadows Valley Emergency Services and Travis Smith, the new Fire chief at Brundage, came in to discuss de-annexation of Brundage from the Meadows Valley Ambulance taxing district. Meadows Valley Fire Chief, Doug Buys, gave the commissioners the proposal and a new district boundaries map and said that after their previous meeting he thought they were still on track to de-annex in August and wanted to see if the commissioners needed anything else. The commissioners were interested in hearing what the status was at Brundage. Travis Smith said he is doing fire and another person is doing EMS. EMS couldn’t apply for transport licensure until July. He is not sure how long it will take, he knows the intent is to be fully functional by ski season. They will have mutual aid agreements with New Meadows and McCall in the meantime as well. Prosecutor Chris Boyd asked Smith if Brundage wanted to be de-annexed from Meadows Valley. Smith answered that they are kind of neutral but they see the point for Meadows Valley. Advanced life support will still be coming from McCall. Fire will be fully functional by August, EMS might be a little longer. Donnelly Fire has been allowing them to use their facilities for training while they are still outfitting. The commissioners reminded Buys that if they de-annex, Meadows Valley will lose their funding from Brundage. Commissioner Iveson said that their concern was that they would de-annex and then suddenly leave Brundage without service. Iveson said he would have Boyd go through the resolution and see if they have any changes they wanted to be made. The commissioners also mentioned that the wanted to update the contract between Meadows Valley and the County as the one they have been using is very old. After the meeting, Commissioner Iveson said he was good with the proposal if Brundage was functional and there were mutual aid agreements in place. Commissioner Purdy said she would not support it until after Brundage was fully functional. The other commissioners agreed. Clerk Sherry Ward mentioned that everything needs to be sent to the Tax Commission by December in order for it to be effective by next year. The commissioners didn’t think de-annexing by August was realistic based on the state of the EMS department as they understood it, but thought that it sounded like they would be ready before the December deadline to get the new district going.
