P&Z to Meet with DF Dev. Rep
On Monday, November 25th, the Adams County Commissioners met for their final meeting of the month. Building Inspector, Kody Williams, asked if the commissioners had spoken to the Fair Board about contributing to repairs. Commissioner Joe Iveson said he had not yet. County Emergency Manager, Carol Walsh, came and had two grants that needed to be signed to approve. The commissioners asked what they could use the State Homeland Security Grant for, Walsh said it could be used for things like security doors, cyber security, and voting. Commissioner Viki Purdy wondered if it could help with their IT budget. Walsh said perhaps if certain programs were needed.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said she had a courtesy call that the Henderson Rock Pit will be blasting tomorrow between 12 and 2. She was planning to go out and check it out. The commissioners asked if they had also given courtesy calls to neighbors. Fisher wasn’t sure. The commissioners are still considering whether and how they might need to update blasting protocols and rock pit regulations within the county.
Fisher said she would be meeting with a DF Development representative to talk about the application that has come to Valley County. Adams County is mentioned in the application but they haven’t spoken to Planning and Zoning at all yet regarding this development. If they want to subdivide, they will have to comply with the subdivision ordinance. She also spoke with the McCall Fire department. They are very interested in what is going on because it stands to overburden their already strained services. In the plan, it mentions 4000 acres for residential development. Fisher is asking for a copy of the application that came to Valley County. She was somewhat perturbed that she had spoken with them this summer and there had been no mention of this upcoming development at that time. She also mentioned there are floodplain considerations on the land in question, which gets complicated and potentially very expensive. “The amount of money and investment into research that they are going to have to put into an application like this, they are looking at either a long process with a lot of utilities put in and really investing into making this a complete package for us, or negotiating a development agreement,” said Fisher. She listed some of the other considerations around that and also detailed some of the issues with the floodplain, which were federal regulations not Adams County regulations. She said she would hopefully have more information next time.
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, said they have a new phone at the landfill- a landline instead of a cell phone. The fence and the well will be in spring. Commissioner Iveson asked if they were starting to dump in the bottom. Shelton said no, not yet, they still need two feet of sand on top of the liner and also DEQ needs to inspect.
The commissioners were thinking of setting up a meeting to speak to the city about the land purchase, but decided they would wait until after the survey, splits, and appraisals had been completed. The consensus seemed to be the city was not interested in a trade, but would otherwise give the county first dips.
After an executive session to discuss snow removal and other topics with Road and Bridge and Solid Waste, Commissioner Joe Iveson mentioned he saw a rock hauler at JBS Auction and was wondering if it was something Shelton or Balderson were interested in. They thought it might be too large, but Ward said the bid was currently at $4100. They decided they would put it on the agenda for next time to approve an amount to bid up too. They discussed other equipment they needed as well.
Channel Sanderson, with Council Computers, came in and said the copy of their agreement looked good to him. Commissioner Ward said he thought they should put something in to say not to exceed a certain number of hours per month. Later, after speaking with Sheriff Zollman, they decided to have a cap of 80 hours per month without approval.
Before the commissioners left for lunch, the new District Administrative Judge, for the Third District, Thomas Whitney, came in to introduce himself to the commissioners with Trial Court Administrator Benita Miller.
After lunch, there was a brief report from Sheriff Ryan Zollman, who said there were 20 state inmates and four county. Kody Williams, while looking into building maintenance, took a look at the entryway where they wanted to put brick in front of. He had some concerns and came up with some other ideas which he explained to the commissioners. They thought it would look nicer. He said they could have it installed by spring. They briefly discussed IT needs for the Sheriff’s Office, and then went into an executive session to listen to a complaint
