Purdy to Chair BOCC
On Monday, January 23, the Adams County Commissioners held their third public meeting of the month. All commissioners were present. First on the agenda, the commissioners addressed reorganization of the board. District 1 Commissioner, Joe Iveson, has been Chairman of the Board and did not want to do it anymore. They decided to elect District 3 Commissioner, Viki Purdy, as the new Chairman of the Board, with District 2 Commissioner, Daren Ward, as Vice Chair.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, arrived next. She said that Mountain Origins, the company buying the final plat of phase one at Brundage, is coming in tomorrow for a meeting. She hasn’t heard anything back yet in response to the letter they sent regarding budgetary concerns.
Fisher also brought in a copy of the setback ordinance the commissioners were thinking of changing. Currently the ordinance says no structure shall be closer than 80 feet from centerline of right of way, except in high density zones, where it may be 50 ft. Commissioner Iveson thought 50 feet might be more appropriate for everything. Commissioner Viki Purdy thought they should ask some of the previous commissioners why they made it 80 ft to begin with. Commissioner Iveson said he still needed to get measurements. They thought they needed to talk with Road and Bridge as well and consider parking, snow removal, and sliding snow from rooftops. Commissioner Purdy thought they should also consult with the Building Inspector regarding the pitch of roofs and the direction of snow shed. She said they couldn’t account for all scenarios, but thought it would be better to err on the side of giving people back their property. Commissioner Iveson thought they had never enforced the 80 ft rule that he knew of, and if people came in wanting something different they had been accommodating. There is a sixty foot right of way in the Road and Bridge ordinance and that was made because they were having problems with fences during snow removal. Commissioner Daren Ward thought if they had two conflicting ordinances they should look at both of them and make them consistent. Commissioner Iveson thought they should talk about it during the next meeting, which is in two weeks. Fisher wondered if originally it was supposed to be an eighty foot right of way, instead of 80 foot from centerline. She said she would do some research.
The commissioner signed and approved a document indicating their support for confirmation of appointment of Washington County Commissioner, Jim Harberd, to the Southwest District Health Board.
Next Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, arrived and they went into executive session to interview applicants for the open position.
After the executive session, there was a meeting of the elected officials and department heads. County Clerk, Sherry Ward, announced there would be a training on slips, trips, and falls on May 1st which helps with the discount on their insurance through the State Insurance Fund.
Commissioner Iveson said they were interviewing one applicant for the position of IT director, but he wanted to know how everyone was doing with Council Computers, who is currently contracted to do the work. Everyone seemed very pleased with Council Computers. Sheriff Ryan Zollman, who’s department relies heavily on IT, said he had no complaints. Assessor Stacy Swift agreed. She said that they have been very prompt with coming and addressing issues. “It’s important for me and my office that when we call, someone is coming,”she said. Iveson asked if they would prefer having someone there in the office. Zollman said every time they call it’s 30-40 minutes at most and they are there fixing it. They think the hours should be dropping drastically in the near future as they are working out most of the problems in the system. Commissioner Ward said he talked to Council Computers and they said they had used a little less hours then they thought they would need to, and they were pretty pleased with how things were going. Ward said his worry with having someone in house is they have one person to rely on. With Council Computers, there are a couple people available to help and with different knowledge bases to draw on. Iveson said they are currently costing the county around $60,000 a year, which is less than a full time employee with the benefits. Iveson said the school has been very happy with them as well.
Clerk Sherry Ward said she would like to see them do a mock backup in case they have a ransomware situation. They talked about ransom situations for a bit, which happens more often than people realize. Fort Hall Indian reservation has been down for a month and Weiser Memorial Hospital has been struck. Sheriff Zollman said he would like to have another elected official meeting after the interviews before the commissioners make a decision regarding IT.
They next talked about mapping and Sheriff Zollman said for evacuation and other emergency purposes, if they could take the map and break it into zones that were available to the public that would be good. They struggled with evacuations during the Limepoint Fire, and it would be good to have areas broken up into preset zones. Zollman stressed again that they don’t make anyone leave, they will tell people that they are in a level one evacuation and this is their last warning, but if they choose to ignore it that’s their right. He said there was an agency in Oregon that was arresting people for ignoring evacuation orders. “There’s absolutely no way in the world,” he said that they would do that here. They mentioned encouraging firewise construction. Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said they could always put it into conditions for new subdivisions.
Sheriff Zollman said the county building as a whole is still out of compliance with the fire suppression system, and they need to update the sprinklers. He thought they should think again about doing an inspection, evaluation, and get a bid.
There were 23 inmates in the jail, 21 state and 3 county.
