Planning & Zoning Issues; Future IT Expenditures
On Monday, February 10, the Adams County Commissioners met for their first public meeting of the month. All commissioners were present. Commissioner Viki Purdy told the other commissioners about a meeting she went to where they discussed the fire situation with the Forest Service. She said there is a person that wants to make a video about the Lava Fire that will be similar to a 60 Minutes documentary that was done about a fire in California. She thought it was a good project and wanted to see if they could find $2000-2500 to support the video. Commissioner Daren Ward said he thought it sounded like a great project but wasn’t sure how they could justify funding it when they hadn’t even been able to give county employees a cost of living increase this year. Purdy thought the video would benefit the whole county. She thought it would be good PR for the people who suffered from the fire and would help spread awareness about some of the problems the county was having with the Forest Service. Commissioner Joe Iveson asked if they could table until next week so they could look through the budget and see if there was somewhere to pull the funds from. Commissioner Purdy did not seem super pleased with this and said she would be personally donating as well to the project.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said they are finalizing the Walker Resolution, which needs to be recorded in the court office. She wanted to get the commissioners opinion on a conditional use permit inquiry from T Mobile, who wanted to update equipment on a tower in Indian Valley. She wasn’t sure if they needed a new conditional use permit or not. The commissioners didn’t think that was an expansion of use and thought they didn’t need a new permit, however it was brought up that they might be upgrading equipment with new technologies that could cause concerns for some residents. Prosecuting attorney, Peter Donovan, said he was wondering the same thing and asked if it was a functional upgrade to something else even if it looked the same. Commissioner Purdy said that if there are people that have concerns they should certainly address those concerns to the commissioners or to the company. There was also some discussion about a possible partnership between Starlink and T Mobile and if this could be in preparation for that. After looking at the project description, it appeared that they would be adding three 4460 radios that operate at two additional cellular frequency bands to provide 4G LTE network coverage.
Fisher also wanted to discuss with the commissioners a letter they received regarding the Yantis Rockpit Commissioner Ward thought that though the letter had not mentioned litigation, but potential litigation, they should discuss it in an executive session with Prosecutor Donovan before giving a response. The other commissioners agreed and decided to put it on the schedule for next week.
Steve Shelton, with solid waste, said everything is going good. Then they went into executive session to discuss solid waste personnel.
Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, spoke with the commissioners about dump fees for the city. Commissioner Iveson said they don’t typically charge fees for other taxing districts. Balderson said he also spoke with CAT about loaders and they have several different payment options. He will be getting numbers from them. Commissioner Iveson asked if they can get a list of equipment that Road and Bridge and Solid Waste has and will be needing so they can start to work out a budget for replacing older equipment
Sheriff Ryan Zollman said last week there was a power outage and it took out all their phones and 911 was rerouted to Valley County. They have at least four battery backups that didn’t come on. They got a quote from Micron for a whole room battery backup system, for $23,000 and they will also have to have an electrician come in and rewire things. He thought that seemed like a lot, but they need to figure out something for the delay until the generators come on. This was something the previous IT Director was working on before she left. Ward wanted to know what Council Computers was recommending. Zollman wasn’t sure yet.
There are 23 inmates, 21 State and 2 County
After another executive session to interview a candidate for the IT Director position, Veronica Vasques, with Rose Advocates, arrived to give her annual update. Vasques said they are continuing to come up to Adams County and have been doing Coordinated Community Response Team meetings in the area to help to work with different agencies in the county. They are putting on a training at the end of February called Understanding Domestic Violence High Risk Cases, instructed by Angela Weeks and Alesha Bowls, for different agencies in the area and Vasques invited the commissioners to attend. She said it is very good for law enforcement especially.
Last year in Adams County Rose Advocates had 58 clients, 50 female and 8 male. There were 32 domestic violence cases, nine adult physical or sexual assault, 10 stalking or harassment, child abuse, assault, and sexual assault was 18, which she said was pretty high, teen dating violence was five, and bullying 22. She said they are trying to educate the community especially in the schools for the kids. Commissioner Iveson asked if numbers were going up or down. Vasques said that numbers were actually down last year in Adams County but have been higher in other counties. She also mentioned that they have a lot of federal funding and will be short on resources if that is put on hold.
Before ending the meeting the commissioners approved Resolution 2025-10 approving the personnel manual that they recently updated and decided that they would be meeting on the 3rd, 17th, and 24th for the month of March.
