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MINUTES
BOX ELDER COUNTY
COMMISSION
MARCH 22, 2005
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 MARCH
22, 2005. The following members
were present:
Scott Hansen Chairman
Clark N. Davis Commissioner
Suzanne R. Rees Commissioner
LuAnn Adams Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor
The following items
were discussed:
1. Delinquent Tax
policy – Monte Munns
2. Senate Bill 190 –
Commissioner Davis
3. Cricket Control –
Commissioner Rees
4. Weber County – Gina
Allen
5. New Court Building
Security Concerns – Dale Ward/Lynn Yeates
6. Ambulance Hardship
Policy – Lynn Yeates
7. Fleet Management –
Peggy Madsen
8. Assignment Review –
Commissioners
9. Staff Reports
10. Correspondence
The work session
adjourned at 8:59 a.m.
Chairman Hansen
called the regular session to order at 9:00 a.m. with the following members
present, constituting a quorum:
Scott
Hansen Chairman
Clark N. Davis Commissioner
Suzanne R. Rees Commissioner
LuAnn Adams Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor
Commissioner Rees
offered the prayer.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
THE MINUTES OF THE
REGULAR MEETING OF MARCH 08, 2005 WERE APPROVED ON A MOTION AS WRITTEN BY COMMISSIONER DAVIS, SECONDED BY COMMISSIONER HANSEN AND THE MOTION CARRIED
2-0 WITH COMMISSIONER REES ABSTAINING.
AGENDA: ATTACHMENT
NO. 1
FOLLOW-UP BUSINESS
Death Of Sergeant
Rocky Payne
Commissioner Rees stated that Sergeant Rocky Payne is the first person
from Box Elder County to die in Iraq.
She said the Commission is very mindful of him. The Commission has been asked to lower the
flag on Friday, the day of Rocky Payne’s funeral. The funeral will be held in the Garland Stake Center. She stated there is a chance the governor
will attend.
MOTION: Commissioner Rees
made a motion that the County fly the flag at the County Courthouse at
half-staff on Friday, which is the day of Rocky Payne’s funeral. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
REPORT – COMMISSIONER REES
Commissioner Rees said she attended a NACO Conference in Washington, D.C.
two weeks ago. They worked awfully hard
going from office to office asking that the PILT payment not be cut and that
the Counties receive the same payment as they have in the past. She stated that the President’s budget is
cut 11½%. RC&D is on the chopping
block as well as CDBG Grants. She
talked about the agriculture department and the agriculture bill and that many,
many things will be cut. She said the final word they received was they need to
be conservative as people because the United States is at war and military
action is very costly and the government has X amount of dollars. She said the County needs to be conservative
because as programs are cut, it will affect the state and county.
AMBULANCE HARDSHIP
POLICY – LYNN YEATES
MOTION: A motion
was made by Commissioner Davis to table
one week. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.
INDIGENT BURIAL –
LORNA RAVENBERG
Commission Secretary Lorna Ravenberg stated that Greg Myers, from Myers
Funeral Home, came in with a request for help with an indigent burial. Mr. Myers filled out the form, did a
background check and found out it is a needy situation. The request is for a 56-year old female that
was separated and her husband is in a nursing home. She lived with her retarded son.
They were on food stamps and Medicaid and have no money for burial.
MOTION: A motion
was made by Commissioner Rees to
allow $500.00 to be used for the
indigent burial. The motion was
seconded by Commissioner Davis and
unanimously carried.
DELINQUENT PROPERTY
TAX DEFERRAL - MONTE MUNNS
MOTION: A motion
was made by Commissioner Davis to table
for one week. The motion was seconded
by Commissioner Rees and unanimously
carried.
ENVIRONMENTAL
ORGANIZATIONS – DAN SCHROEDER
Three environmental organizations were represented: Dan Schroeder, representing the Ogden Sierra
Club, Val Grant representing Bridgerland Audubon Society and Joan DeGiorgio,
representing the Utah Nature Conservancy.
Val Grant, President of the Bridgerland Audubon Society in Logan, Utah,
said they represent a lot of conservationists in the northern part of
Utah. He is here for a couple of
reasons. (1) There is a lot of wildlife
involved in the area of the Rocky Dugway and Devil’s Gate. He said having these places open is going to
put pressure on the wildlife values and that is a concern to Bridgerland and to
our people. (2) A factor that has hit a nerve is the aspect of private property. He has been raised to have a great deal of
respect for private property, and it seems to be going away and eroding. By allowing opening of people’s private
property to anybody who wants to come in, we are allowing a certain category of
people that can get there because the property we are talking about takes
special vehicles and special abilities to get into the place. He said for special people we can allow them
to ride through this property and access public property. If we are allowing this type of thing to
happen, we are all of a sudden opening up this property for people to come
through at any time. Essentially what
we are doing is if you are going to come onto someone’s property, you get
permission. What is happening now is we
are getting the government to allow trespassing. He said this just does not make a lot of sense. It seems that if this is the case, we can
just come up on certain people’s private property and say we want this road to
go through because this connects to public lands and we really need this for a
small group of people that want to use this road and this access. He said there are a lot of times that
Bridgerland wants to go birding or camping.
Should they be able to come to people’s property and come right across it
and come up and access the Wellsville Mountains or where someone lives and say
lets go on through? We can walk on
through that property. We do not have
to ask permission; that is a way for us to get across and it is the same type
of thing if we come up to a gate or somebody’s fence, and we can cut that gate
because this is for us to come through.
What this is pushing is lets take the respect for private property
away. Lets just open it up to anybody
who wants to come in and do what ever they wish, and I think we are just
looking at chaos from this whole thing.
Essentially private property has brought a lot of order to this
society. What he sees people doing here
is opening this whole thing up to a chaotic experience. As a private citizen he would look at coming
in and saying let’s publish people’s addresses and let them know if you want to
come over here and camp or if you need an access up to the mountains you just
go right through these folks property, and let’s put it on a website and let
everyone know about it. The excuse that
you are trying to use is we have had access here. The Rocky Dugway is nobody’s access. He has been across the road and it is something you don’t drive
up and say gee-wiz, hey that was a fun time.
You are taking a special vehicle up there and the special vehicle that
you are taking is probably going to get knocked around. He is asking, please--private property is
something that we have to maintain respect for. He said maybe there are some people who want a route that they
can take their off-road vehicles around.
There is so much public property that we have in this state. The people can get to that. They have access to it. They can do whatever they want. It is wide open. Why, why come back and push this chaos on a private property
owner. Essentially if he came in and
came across somebody’s property and started cutting their gates, they are going
to get very angry, and they are going to threaten him with the police and
everything else. They are going to know
what the Selmans and the Devil’s Gate folks are going through. He asked please, please don’t let this
happen. If people want to use a place,
let them ask permission. That is the
way it has been ever since he was born and lets keep it that way. These private property owners are very
forgiving and very loving and they will help people out, but they don’t want
anybody and everybody zooming all over their property all the time.
Dan Schroeder, representing the Ogden Group of the Sierra Club, said they
are a volunteer-led organization and have no financial interest in this dispute
and as far as he knows none of the other members do either. Sierra Club has about 700,000 members
nationally, about 5,000 in Utah. The
Ogden Group, which Mr. Schroeder represents, has about 450. The Sierra Club is made up mostly of urban
residents. He said that leads to a lot
of misunderstanding between Sierra Club Members who care about the environment
and rural folks who also care about the environment but may be from a somewhat
different perspective. He said this
whole process has been educational for him.
The Mission of the Sierra Club is to explore, enjoy and protect wild
places—conserving wildlife, native plants, open space, clean air and
water. The reason why they care about
these things isn’t for the sake of the environment itself, but for ourselves,
our families, our future and the next generation. The Sierra Club supports
hunting, ranching, farming, all traditional activities that have gone on public
and private lands in rural areas as well as recreation which is a growing
activity that is on an increase and sometimes in conflict with the other
three. He said they do not support any
of these things without qualification.
He said we do not support hunting endangered species or overgrazing or
large factory farms that put family farmers out of business and pollute the
water, nor do they support recreation without reservation, but we think all
forms of recreation generally have their place when they don’t have an impact. The challenge is to find room for as many of
these things as possible, and it is not always the case that all of these
things are going to be possible in the same place. He showed maps of the area that they are talking about. Mr. Schroeder feels it is unfortunate that
Box Elder County, for a few years now, has been selling maps to the public that
indicate otherwise, showing routes through the National Forest as open to
motorized use, and he is sure this is all a big misunderstanding. He said former District Ranger Ruth Monahan
wrote a letter to the County Commission about four years ago saying, “We are in
general agreement with the final Access Management Plan and County
Ordinance…You have our full support and agreement to move forward. We will continue to work on finalizing our
planning efforts so that we can be consistent with the County Access Management
Plan and Map.” He said it sounds like
the decision had already been made when actually federal law doesn’t permit the
Forest Service to make such a decision before giving public notice in the
federal register, inviting all interested members of the public to participate
and going through an environmental review process. He quoted Federal agencies “must insure that environmental
information is viable to the public officials and citizens before decisions are
made and before actions are taken.” The
environmental review for this decision is still going on. It was premature for
Ruth to make that decision when she did.
Mr. Schroeder talked about the environmental impacts of motorized
activity in some of these areas. He
said impacts are: (1) wildlife
disturbance (2) noxious weed invasion (3) impacts to the soil, rutting, route widening
(4) travel off of designated routes. He
showed a map from DWR showing high-value summer Elk Habitat. The DWR objective for elk populations that
they call the Ogden Harvest Unit, which includes this area, is 1200 elk and the
most recent estimate is 650. Motorized
activity is almost certainly one of the reasons. He talked about Columbian Sharp-Tail Grouse and Sage Grouse. He said these are species that are not yet
on the endangered species list, but they could be in the near future if more
habitat is lost. He touched on noxious
weeds. He showed pictures of noxious
weeds along some of the routes. He said
in some of the remote areas there is not a lot of these weeds, and feels there
is some hope for eradicating them if we can get some people in there to do some
control. He does not know how soon that
will happen. The forest service doesn’t
have a lot of resources for this. He
showed many photos of soil compaction, rutting and route widening. He showed pictures of ruts and riders going
around no trespassing signs. He showed
how the ruts are widening. He said
route widening is a problem of people not staying on the designated
routes. He showed the vandalism. He
also pointed out there is a critical winter range.
Mr. Schroeder said in conclusion: (1) signing and law enforcement has
helped, but trespass and environmental damage continue (2) adequate resources
to maintain and patrol the entire loop are probably not available (3) promises
of seasonal closures and peer enforcement have not been kept (4) wildlife
impacts would be significant even if other problems could be eliminated (5)
Devil’s Gate – Sink Hole Loop is not appropriate for continued public use.
(See Attachment No. 2 – Mr. Schroeder’s Power-Point Presentation.)
Joan DeGiorgio, Utah Nature Conservancy said they are a member
organization and have over one million members and work in all 50 states and 27
countries. The organization has been in
existence for about 50 years and in that time they have been able to protect
over 117 million acres, mostly working with private landowners and willing
sellers. They have a Utah office and
are interested in protecting sensitive species. In this area one of the species of greatest is the Columbian
Sharp-Tailed Grouse. It is listed by
the state as a sensitive species. She
said to be on that sensitive species list, the Division of Wildlife Resources
Scientists will make a recommendation.
That goes through a public-review process that is approved by the
Wildlife Board. There is a lot of
scrutiny to get on this list. A
definition of a species on this list is that their viability is
threatened. They are in pretty bad
shape. In Utah the Sharp-Tailed Grouse
habitat has been reduced by 86%. One of
the problems is they like to live where we like to live on the nice
rolling-grassy benches and of course that is where a lot of development has
occurred and probably will occur in the future. Ms. DeGiorgio said we have some of the best habitat left in Cache
County and on the Selman Ranch. That is
why they are interested in this area. They have been working with the Selmans
for about one year talking about options of how to protect those values. It is good habitat and there are fewer birds
there because of the activity on that road.
The birds are very sensitive to disturbance. She said we have a situation.
We have some private landowners who have great habitat, who have the
wildlife that is at risk in a shrinking pool and opportunity to really expand
on their own property. They are willing
to do that but the fly in the ointment is this disturbance. She is here today to alert the County
Commission of their interest in the property and in working with the Selmans,
willing landowners to protect important wildlife habitat, but that we really
can’t expand that population if we continue to use that road. The existing use is impacting the birds, and
any increased use will probably eliminate their being there. The other point she wanted to make is the
importance of this area for watershed.
She said they are not only working in this area because of the
Sharp-Tail, which is the most important thing, but mostly because of the
Selmans. They are incredible Stewards
of their property and have been. One of
the examples of that is that they have not grazed the Mantua site ever since
they have owned the property. That is
of value to a community. She said in
Salt Lake they are a little more developed as an example of the watershed. In 1985 Salt Lake restricted motorized
use. It was allowed for at one
time. They pulled it back also as part
of her water bill contributed to a fund to purchase a watershed so they can
protect it. New York City recently
spent 2 billion dollars purchasing property in the Catskill Mountains, which is
their watershed, to avoid building an over 8 million dollar water treatment
plant plus the cost of maintenance to maintain that plant. She feels those examples are useful to show
the incredible value to a community of protecting a watershed. Right now you have a private landowner who
is willing, on their own, to protect these wildlife values and to protect the
watershed, but they can’t do it alone.
Ranching is not the easiest thing to be in. Every difficulty adds to the difficulty of ranching. The more people on the road—it is a burden
to the landowner that sometimes this increased use can create. They wanted to come today and let the
Commission know of their interest in the property, and how important they think
it is. It is one of the prime
properties that they are working on in Northern Utah. It is not only a value to conservation but also throughout the
community for its watershed values.
The group thanked the Commissioners for letting them make their
presentation.
PUBLIC HEARING –
SMITH RE-ZONE PETITION – COMMISSIONERS
Chairman Hansen declared the public hearing for the Smith Re-Zone
Petition open at 10:00 a.m.
(See Attachment No. 3 – Attendance List.)
County Planner Garth Day said the County has received a petition to
rezone an area in Mantua. The requested
property is 187 acres. The property is
contiguous with Mantua in the area that is really not developable or sensitive
due to slope and some issues there. The petition appears to be consistent with
County plans and ordinances. The
property is currently MU-160 and is being petitioned for RR-5, which is consistent
to everything that it is adjacent to. The Planning Commission held a public
hearing on January 20 of this year and received no opposition. Every effort was
made to contact the surrounding property owners. The rezone petition appears to be consistent with our general
plan and with all of our ordinances that regulate this type of petition. The staff and planning commission recommend
the rezone.
Commissioner Davis said the Planning Commission had a lot of discussion
with the Mantua City Council and received no opposition.
Chairman Hansen then opened the public hearing up for public comment.
Karen Smith said she inherited the property. It has been zoned MU-160 and they wanted to break the property
down into five acres. They want to
build a few homes and also it will be more equitable to divide the property
between their children.
MOTION: A motion
was made by Commissioner Rees to close
the public hearing. The motion was
seconded by Commissioner Davis and the
public hearing closed at 10:07 a.m.
MOTION: A motion
was made by Commissioner Davis to
approve the Smith Rezone Petition as recommended by the Planning Commission and
authorize the chair to sign contingent upon completion of the ordinance. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Rees and unanimously carried.
SCENIC DEVELOPMENT
PHASE II & III – GARTH DAY
County Planner
Garth Day received a letter from Blake Parrish, legal counsel for the
petitioner of Scenic Development Phase II & III, and he asked that this
item be removed and rescheduled. The
developer is aware they are outside of the 45-day review period.
(See Attachment No.
4 – Official Request.)
MOTION: A motion was made by Commissioner Rees to table the item and reschedule within a
month; otherwise, it needs to go back to the Planning Commission. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Davis and unanimously carried.
WARRANT REGISTER –
COMMISSIONERS
The warrant
register was signed, and the following claims were approved for payment: Claims number 36351 thru 36369 in the amount
of $270,713.55. Claims number 36370
thru 36474 in the amount of $139,779.79.
Claims 36475 thru 36487 in the amount of $38,324.20. Claims 36488 thru 36616 in the amount of
$317,697.54. Claim number 36150 was
voided.
PERSONNEL ACTIONS –
COMMISSIONERS
SHERIFF/CORR: Ralph Bennett, compensation
change, effective 03/21/2005
SHERIFF/CORR: Susan M. Anderson, separation,
effective 03/14/2005
SHERIFF/CORR: Spencer E. Smith, compensation
change, effective 03/20/2005
SHERIFF/CORR: Austin L. Bowcutt, compensation
change, effective 03/20/2005
SHERIFF/CORR: Sherie Christensen,
compensation change, effective 03/20/2005
SHERIFF/PATROL: Cordell Thompson, compensation
change, effective 03/20/2005
SHERIFF/ADMIN: J. Lynn Yeates, compensation change,
effective 03/06/2004
ASSESSOR/TREAS: Carol Ann Gunderson, part time to
full time, effective 02/21/2005
EXTENSION SERV: Shauna Petersen, full time to part
time, effective 02/21/2005
ASSIGNMENT REVIEW -
COMMISSIONERS
The Commissioners reviewed assignments.
RECESS
The Commissioners took a recess
at 10:08 a.m. and reconvened at 10:28 a.m.
EXECUTIVE SESSION
1. Discussion of character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual.
MOTION: At 10:28 a.m. a motion was made by Commissioner Rees to move into an executive
session to discuss personnel issues. Commissioner Davis seconded the motion, and
the motion was unanimously carried.
RECESS
The Commissioners
took a recess at 11:13 a.m. and reconvened at 5:53 p.m.
MOTION: At 6:23 p.m. a motion was made by Commissioner
Davis to reconvene into regular Commission Meeting. Commissioner
Rees seconded the motion, and regular Commission Meeting was reconvened.
Chairman Hansen
explained that personnel matters were discussed during the executive session.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made
by Commissioner Rees to adjourn. Commissioner
Davis seconded the motion, and the meeting adjourned at 6:24 p.m.
ADOPTED AND
APPROVED
in regular session this 29th day of March 2005.
_______________________________
Scott Hansen,
Chairman
_______________________________
Clark N. Davis,
Commissioner
_______________________________
Suzanne R. Rees,
Commissioner
ATTEST:
_________________________________
LuAnn Adams,
Recorder/Clerk/Surveyor
The following items
were discussed in Work Session at 4:00 p.m.
1. New Justice Court
Building
The Work Session
adjourned at 5:45 p.m.