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MINUTES
BOX ELDER COUNTY
COMMISSION
FEBRUARY 10, 2004
The
Board of County Commissioners of Box Elder County, Utah met in a work session
at the County Courthouse, 01 South Main Street in Brigham City, Utah at 8:00
a.m. on FEBRUARY 10, 2004. The
following members were present:
Suzanne R. Rees Chairman
Clark N. Davis Commissioner
Scott Hansen Commissioner
LuAnn Adams Recorder/Clerk
The following items
were discussed:
1. Fire Department
Update – Greg Martz
2. Assignment Review –
Commissioners
3. Policy Regarding
Snow Removal – Amy Hugie/Denton Beecher
4. ARI Agreement –
Rodger Harper
The work session
adjourned at 8:59 a.m.
Chairman Rees
called the regular session to order at 9:00 a.m. with the following members
present, constituting a quorum:
Suzanne R. Rees Chairman
Clark N. Davis Commissioner
Scott Hansen Commissioner
LuAnn Adams Recorder/Clerk
The prayer was
offered by Chairman Rees.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
THE MINUTES OF THE
REGULAR MEETING OF FEBRUARY 03, 2004 WERE APPROVED ON A MOTION BY COMMISSIONER DAVIS, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN AND UNANIMOUSLY CARRIED
WITH A FURTHER EXPLANATION ON THE MEDICAL INSURANCE PREMIUM.
AGENDA: ATTACHMENT
NO. 1
FOLLOW-UP BUSINESS
Commissioner Davis
reported that Personnel Director Peggy Madsen did some checking and found out
the County is unable to make the premium payment for Eldon Kimber with pretax
dollars.
Administrative
Control Board, Perry Flood Control & Drainage Special Service District–
Commissioner Davis
Commissioner Davis
stated that the Perry Flood Control & Drainage Special Service District was
created by Box Elder County in 1984 when the County had the last major
flooding. The district has taxing and
bonding authorities and other authorities that cannot be conferred upon another
governmental entity. In 2001 the
Advisory Board’s powers were revoked, and the Commissioners have been the
Advisory Board. Since that time all the
reports have been filed with the State Auditor’s Office and money has been freed
up. County Planner Garth Day has
advised the County of special projects in the amount of $100,000 for the
current year. Commissioner Davis said
the Commissioners asked County Attorney Amy Hugie to check into Perry City
Council having control. A resolution has been prepared that allows the
Commissioners the right to appoint members to the Advisory Board. Commissioner Davis said they would approach
Perry City with the idea that the Commissioners would like to confer
administrative control back to Perry City.
County Attorney Amy
Hugie would like to see the County go to Perry City on Thursday and present the
concept idea.
County Planner
Garth Day entertained discussion on the number of board members.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to adopt Resolution 04-05, a resolution
amending the powers given to the administrative control board and amending the
process in which members of the administrative control board of the Box Elder
County and Perry City Flood Control and Drainage Special Service District are
selected. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and the motion carried 2 to
1 with Commissioner Hansen abstaining.
(See Attachment No.
2 – Resolution 04-05.)
Utah Transit
Authority Agreement – Commissioner Hansen
Commissioner Hansen said he has reviewed the Utah Transit Authority Agreement, and he is proposing no changes as far as the County is concerned.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Hansen to adopt Resolution 04-06, a resolution adopting and approving an Interlocal Agreement between the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) and Box Elder County expressly authorizing a waiver of fees and to approve the Interlocal Agreement regarding fixed guideway systems located within railroad corridors. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
(See Attachment No. 3 – Resolution.)
Grouse Creek
Advisory Board Alternate – Rodger Harper
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to approve the appointment of Lorraine
Kimber to serve as an alternate member to the Grouse Creek Advisory Board. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hansen and unanimously carried.
POLICY REGARDING
SNOW REMOVAL – DENTON BEECHER/JOHN COLLOM
County Surveyor
Denton Beecher said it has come to the attention of the Road Department that
there have been several requests throughout the years for individuals to have a
road opened up that is normally not opened during the winter time. Mr. Beecher said in the last Road Committee
Meeting it was decided there should be a policy in place so it is not at the
discretion of the road supervisor to open or close a road. Mr. Beecher presented the Commissioners with
a draft policy for them to peruse and asked that this item be put back on the
agenda for another meeting.
Commissioner Davis
asked Road Supervisor John Collom what the current policy is. Mr. Collom said in the past it has been left
up to him to make the decision. Mr.
Collom said there are problems when there are large amounts of snowfall. This year Mr. Collom has had to open up three
different cemeteries and roads to the farmer’s granaries. Mr. Collom wants to have them sign a
release. Mr. Collom said a list of open
and closed roads is not published.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to table and refer the policy to
Commissioner Hansen who is over roads to meet with Denton Beecher, John Collom
and Amy Hugie to iron out the policy and bring this item back to the table when
ready. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hansen and unanimously carried.
LONG DIVIDE – JAY
DEE SCOTT
This item was cancelled.
FAMILY INSTITUTE OF
UTAH/CONTRACT RENEWAL – SHERIFF JENSEN
Sheriff Jensen said the Family Institute of Utah is licensed by the State of Utah to provide substance abuse treatment, domestic violence perpetrator treatment, and domestic violence victim treatment. They provide six hours of programming in the jail. Sheriff Jensen said we have used The Family Institute of Northern Utah for the last 6-7 years, and they do an excellent job. All of the instructors are licensed. He said the price is the same as last year. County Attorney Amy Hugie has approved the contract.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Hansen to renew the agreement between the Family Institute of Northern Utah and the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Department for services at the Box Elder County Jail. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
FAIRGROUNDS
FIVE-YEAR PLAN – JAY HARDY
Commission Chair Suzanne Rees said one of the things the Commissioners have asked for is a five –year plan at the fairgrounds. There has been a lot of work put into this plan by volunteers, but no cost in dollars to the County. Utah State helped put the plan together. She said demands at the fairgrounds was a consideration. The Fair Board took into consideration anything to invite people into the County and to use the facility year round.
Fairboard President
Jay Hardy thanked the Utah Extension Service for the plan draft and commended
them for their work. Mr. Hardy
explained the plan. He explained the
upgrade to some of the existing buildings, greenery that will be donated by the
soil conservation, a second arena and a proposed multi-purpose exhibit
hall. He said a building committee
consisting of Janet Carter, Reed Coombs, Garth Day, Jay Hardy, Gerald Smith,
Tom Shaw, and Baty Morrison has been put together to look at the feasibility of
the building. JimWilliams from
Bridgerland will help do the initial planning.
Mr. Hardy said he has met with a couple of businesses that have offered
to help fund the building. Jay Hardy
said the existing exhibit hall was overwhelmed last year and feels another
building is needed during the fair. The
building could be multi-use during the rest of the year. He said we do not have a building for year-round
events. The sports people are now going
to Weber County and Logan and they are interested in using the building. The farm sector holds a lot of meetings, the
manufacturing businesses need a place to hold meetings, and it could be used
for family reunions, weddings, auctions and swap meets. It could be used as a cultural center to
hold musical events and dance reviews.
He said Box Elder County owns an 80-acre facility. The site preparation is there as well as
18,000 parking stalls. Snow removal is already onsite, and the County has
people taking care of the grounds. He
said we would be adding an increase to what we have and not redoing the
wheel. Mr. Hardy feels this building
could enhance tourism and tourism dollars throughout the whole County. The northern end does not have enough rooms
and restaurants to accommodate big events.
Tom Shaw feels the
fairgrounds is a jewel that needs to be protected and preserved. He said four goals need to be met: (1) make sure that we prove it is needed (2)
financially feasible (3) can we make it past the tourism test and get those
people outside of Box Elder County to spend money (4) can we determine that the
majority of the taxpayers of Box Elder County are in favor of expending those
monies. Mr. Shaw said as a committee
they will need to put facts and figures together to answer the four
questions. He said if we can answer the
questions, we should build the facility.
Jay Hardy said none
of the funding is proposed to come out of the general fund or bonded. He said if we cannot get donations and
grants, this building project is dead.
Gerald Smith said
Jay Hardy and the Committee have come to the Commissioners with a five-year
concept plan to get the blessing of this plan so they can step forward to get the
design plan.
Commissioner Hansen
likes what he is hearing. He said we
need to look at upkeep and building repairs.
He would like to take a look at a five-year spending plan. He said these kinds of things have to be
done upfront.
Jay Hardy said repair
and maintenance of the buildings was part of last year’s budgetary
process. There are capitol projects
that cover three new roofs and repairs on the Farm Bureau Stand and cook stand
at the rodeo. There is funding to do
more venting and replacing a door to be in compliance with ADA. There is also money to replace brick.
Tom Shaw said
everything has an opportunity cost, and the Board will look at the funds to see
what opportunities we are missing if we use the funds for this project or if
there is a better opportunity.
Commissioner Davis
said the County Commission is supportive of the fairgrounds operations budget
and currently there is $80,000 in the budget for capitol improvements. In the past the Commission has come under
criticism for being arbitrary in using the tourism dollars. There didn’t seem to be a master plan in
place. When Gerald Smith was
interviewed for his position he was asked what ideas he had as far as
developing a master plan. In the past
the concept was we have a capitol projects fund that is an accumulation of
restaurant tax dollars and no priorities.
There was no strategic plan in place for the utilization of the funds. A
strategic plan will take a lot of pressure off the Commissioners and ranked by
the most important priority. There
needs to be an argument that these expenditures are critical and central to the
fair’s operation. The utilization of
tourism dollars needs to stand the test.
The fairgrounds are subject to the same budgetary process as all other
County departments. We will have public
hearings and committee meetings. He
said even the public does not understand the difference between general fund
and capitol projects funds. We cannot
spend the money arbitrarily and capriciously.
It does not sit well with the residents. Commissioner Davis said we need to be cautious as we are going
forward. He said we have an excellent
fair board that works well, and the Commission has tried to be supportive.
Jay Hardy asked the
Commissioners to accept the concept plan so he can go ahead and look into the
design. He said part of the plan would
be to map out the needs of the fairgrounds over the next five years. He said a building committee has been put
together to look at the needs, and they will come back with a hard figure, and
said it might take ten years to put the funding into place. The Board is trying to be accountable with
their stewardship.
Tom Shaw said
categorizing what they are doing is in the same vein as what a planning
commission would do. The first step when someone comes in with a concept plan
is to say okay, it is just the concept and it is worth having. Next they bring in a preliminary plan with
much harder numbers and a little more engineering. Then they take the
preliminary plan, refine it and get more details then come to the County
Commission for final approval. He said
we could take the same scenario. The
Board is at the concept stage and do not have facts and figures.
Commissioner Davis
commended the Committee for their work. He said we haven’t had a conceptual
long-term plan, and we need it as we are trying to go forward.
County Auditor
Roger Handy said part of the hesitancy is sometimes a concept is taken as a
commitment to build. He said as long as
everyone realizes that the building will have to meet the four criteria and
final approval needs to be given.
Everyone needs to understand this is not a final commitment.
Chairman Rees said
a lot of thought and time has gone into the concept plan and the Commission
needs to approve the concept and allow the board to go to the next step. She said we need to let them know they are
headed in the right direction.
Commissioner Hansen
applauded the Board for doing the plan.
He said this is a giant step in the right direction.
Commissioner Davis
is in favor of moving forward, but reminded everyone the County goes through a
regular budgetary process. Any proposal
will be part of the regular budgetary process competing with proposals
countywide and meeting priority funding.
The budget cycle starts in August.
The Commissioners will have meetings with Jay Hardy and Gerald Smith.
The Commissioners
approved the basic concept plan and gave approval to go ahead with the building
design phase and get ideas on dollars and exact costs. The Commissioners gave the Board the go
ahead with the study.
Tammy Berry read a
letter with fairgrounds concerns from concerned citizens.
(See Attachment No. 4.)
Arthur Douglas,
Fairboard Member over entertainment, said the Sons of Pioneers would be playing
at the Fair this year on Tuesday night.
They will kick off the theme “Best in the West”. He said we are looking at seating
3,000. The price of the ticket will be
$10.00. The Sons of the Pioneers have
been playing for 72 years and they are still performing. He asked everyone to mark his or her
calendar now for Tuesday, August 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Jay Hardy thanked
all the fairboard members. He said they
are a diverse group.
FENCING ORDINANCE –
LANE JENSEN/ROBERT JOHN
Lane Jensen said pretty close to three years ago he met with the Commissioners regarding problems with the fence ordinance. He is here again today asking what the progress is regarding his concerns.
Commissioner Hansen
said the description of the fence is being addressed and issues and concerns
are being addressed. He said the state
is changing some decisions, but they have been pushing as hard as they can.
Robert John said
the lack of meetings is a problem. He
said they are only having meetings two times a year. The legal questions need
to be addressed. Mr. John is worried
that in the last 4-5 years people have created bad habits during the drought
years. There is no one set of rules
that will take care of everyone. The
Committee needs to meet on a more regular basis. Mr. John said the fence in and fence out is a minor issue. The
legal description of what constitutes a fence is the problem.
County Attorney
Hugie said she met for two hours last week with the Committee. She said part of the problem is the
Committee is waiting on her office to do research on the ordinance and
liability. Her office has been asked to
draft a possible ordinance. She said
the biggest conclusion the Committee came to is we need to change the description
of what constitutes a fence. She said
her office would have the ordinance drafted in the next 1½ weeks. Hopefully the ordinance would address some
of the concerns of liability of not only the cattle getting out, but
trespassing and how to deal with it civilly.
Her office is figuring out a better way to enforce the law.
Denton John has
seen some frustration with the meetings that have been conducted. He is appauled they have gone on for three
years and not much has been done. He
said maybe they need to change the structure of the committee or get a
facilitator to move things along. There
have been no sub-committees or assignments made. There has been a meeting with people who have had problems and
voiced their concerns. He would like to
see them address the real issues of what is a fence and what is
trespassing. He is also concerned that
the makeup of the committee is predominantly cattlemen.
Commissioner Hansen
is the Commissioner heading up the fencing committee. Commissioner Davis is wondering if Commissioner Hansen and County
Attorney Hugie would report back in a week with a proposed time line for
holding a public hearing and creating an ordinance.
Following the
fencing meeting Chairman Rees would like a report back on the meeting.
FINANCIAL ADVISORS
– MONTE MUNNS
County Assessor/Treasurer Monte Munns said Roger Handy and
himself came to the Commissioners with the idea of bringing a financial advisor
on to be a consultant to help with debt issues. A RFP was sent to see who was interested. Proposals were sent to Wells Fargo, Zions
and Lewis Young. All three
responded. After reviewing the
proposals the Committee consisting of Monte Munns, Roger Handy and Garth Day
recommends going with Zions Bank as the financial advisor, understanding that
unless we have issues, there will be no cost to the County. It also prohibits them from participating as
an underwriter.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to accept the recommendation of the
committee composed of Monte Munns, Garth Day and Roger Handy and award the
independent financial advisor to Zions Bank.
The motion was seconded by Commissioner
Hansen and unanimously carried.
ARI AGREEMENT –
RODGER HARPER
Rodger Harper,
Director of Fleet Management, said upon review of the ARI Contract, it does not
allow piggybacking on the state agreement.
The state is going to renew their agreement with ARI in March. Mr. Harper recommends that we work on the
agreement when the state has their agreement in place.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to table and refer back to the Sheriff and
Rodger Harper to negotiate and return when the state bid is completed. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hansen and unanimously carried.
OUT-OF-STATE TRAVEL
FOR JOHN HANSEN/BRUCE MORRIS – RODGER HARPER
Rodger Harper, Director of Solid Waste, asked for permission to send John Hansen to general maintenance school in March and Bruce Morris to advanced maintenance training in May.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to approve out-of-state travel for John Hansen and Bruce Morris. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Hansen and unanimously carried.
.
APPROVAL OF
PHYSICIAN’ S ADVISORY AGREEMENT FOR AMBULANCE SERVICE – DENTON BEECHER
Emergency Services Director Denton Beecher said the County needs to reapply for a license for the ambulance, and this year a physician’s advisory agreement for ambulance service needs to be in place before they can get the ambulances relicensed.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Hansen to accept the Physician’s Advisory
Agreement. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
INTERNET PROPOSAL –
COMMISSIONERS
A committee consisting of Keith Keller, Monte Munns, Roger Handy and LuAnn Adams was formed to look at various options and proposals for a web based system to allow Internet access for land records and taxes. The Committee recommends going with Davasi Consulting out of Brigham City to build the web. The proposal was to complete the project for $14,000 and not to exceed $18,500 with a completion date of March 15.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Hansen to accept the Davasi Proposal on the advice
of the computer committee. The motion
was seconded by Commissioner Davis and
unanimously carried.
Brian Marble,
computer consultant for Box Elder County and representing Landlight asked
questions regarding maintenance.
Keith Keller stated
that the proposal with Davasi provides hosting an offsite location with backup
maintenance for $129.00 per month.
SET PUBLIC HEARING
DATE FOR AG PROTECTION – GARTH DAY
County Planner Garth Day said the County has received a petition for an agriculture protection area in the area known as Harper Ward. The Planning Commission reviewed the proposal and found that the following conditions exist (1) the land petitioned for Agriculture Protection is being used for agriculture production except for areas where structures exist (2) upon review of the property it appears that the 323.0 acres located in the County are viable for agriculture production (3) the proposed farm and any future improvements will remain in the current nature of use. The Planning Commission does not foresee any changes until the ownership changes (4) the anticipated trends in agricultural and technological conditions would be for better usage of the lands to produce a higher crop yield. The Planning Commission feels the property meets the requirements set forth in the Utah State Code and recommends the Commissioners proceed with the process to create an Agriculture Protection Area in the Harper Ward area. The Box Elder County Agriculture Protection Area Advisory Board also recommends approval of the request.
Chairman Rees noted
that she owns property adjacent to the proposed agriculture protection area.
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Davis to set the public hearing for the
Agriculture Protection Area for March 9 at 10:00 a.m. The motion was seconded by Commissioner
Hansen and unanimously carried.
WARRANT REGISTER –
COMMISSIONERS
The warrant
register was signed, and the following claims were approved for payment: Claims number 29460 thru 29478 in the amount
of $26,200.67. Claims 29479 thru 29584
in the amount of $69,779.47.
ASSIGNMENT REVIEW –
COMMISSIONERS
The Commissioners reviewed assignments.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made
by Commissioner Davis to adjourn. Commissioner
Hansen seconded the motion, and the meeting adjourned at 11:31 a.m.
ADOPTED AND
APPROVED
in regular session this____day of
February 2004.
_______________________________
Suzanne R. Rees,
Chairman
_______________________________
Clark N. Davis,
Commissioner
_______________________________
Scott Hansen,
Commissioner
ATTEST:
__________________________
LuAnn Adams,
Recorder/Clerk