County Commission—Caribou County 2/12/2024
CARIBOU COUNTY – The Caribou County Board of Commissioners met for their regularly scheduled meeting Monday, February 12. This is an account of the meeting, but not the official minutes for the meeting.
Kevin McClain—Road and Bridge
Kevin McClain spoke to the commissioners about looking for new source of gravel for road maintenance. The county will try to open up back roads as soon as they can, though Road and Bridge suggested that waiting a bit longer would help preserve the state of the road as the snow melts.
RB is also looking at buying more carbonite snowblades for $4700. They generally last about 3 years. The department has used a number of methods for preserving the life of the blades. They will plan to purchase at least two sets. Point S was consulted about tires for the graders, and an arrangement for upkeep on the county’s tires was discussed.
Eric Hobson/Larry Weaver—Fire
Ambulance
Eric Hobson updated the commission on an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the county and Bayer for an onsite ambulance. The county will hold the jurisdiction for calls to the mining site, but the Bayer site has the authorization to implement pre-hospital measures on site.
An old ambulance the county has in its inventory will be used through a lease by Bayer. A motion to enter the Dry Valley Emergency Services MOU between the county and Bayer for the calendar year was made and unanimously approved.
Replacing the roof at the ambulance garage was discussed. The roof repair recently conducted was not completely successful. Bids for re-doing the roof have been received. One for 29K and the other for 43K.
Originally 100K was slated for the roof, and the project should cost significantly less, which will allow the extra to be returned to the budget as capital funds in the amount of close to 65K.
Commissioner Somsen moved to accept the bid from Thomas Robinson Roofing for a rain gutter and reroofing of the EMS building for around 43K. The motion was approved.
The building earthquake inventory recently conducted in the county was determined to be inaccurate.
EMT Class is in week 12. 18 people are still enrolled in the course. They met with the EMS Task Force for the state.
Commissioner Somsen raised the issue of resistance to new taxes in Boise, but expressed cautious optimism. Somsen inquired about solar farms and wind farms on federal land. Hobson was asked whether the county has a resource management plan. With a plan in place, counties are able to limit the ways federal programs affect their regions, and how resources can be deployed on federal land managed by county entities.
Rowdy Larkins—Courthouse
Maintenance
Rowdy Larkins spoke to the commissioners about issues in the courthouse building. A bid for the judge’s chambers flooring has been received. Noise from the floor, as well as unevenness have been issues. The bid received was for $21,288K from Construction Services, and was approved.
The elevator is in need of an oil change.
Issues with some equipment in the courtroom picking up what is believed to be a radio or wi-fi signal from a local gas station, which intermittently broadcasts loud music into the courtroom were raised. The occurrence had been noted by many people in the building, and was being investigated.
Jake Poulsen—Keller Williams Contract
Jake Poulsen spoke with the commission on behalf of Keller Williams. KW presented a draft of coverage for services covered. The agreement portion covers such things as serving as the engineer in the county, coordinating with county officials, overseeing services for Caribou County commissioners. KW can respond to requests from the county in the form of task orders. Members of the office will serve as surveyors, road design and planners, bridge structural engineers, construction engineering inspection, design, hydraulic engineering, grant writer.
The company will also work at development review services, review of plats, checking conformance with design standards, provide input and consultation on a variety of things, including transportation, traffic studies, representation for/with county. The will work at the behest of the county on projects that require engineering work.
Commissioner McCullough asked whether the grant writers on Keller Williams would be able to provide service to the county for grant writing. Poulsen explained that those services were available to clients for a set $1K rate. Project fees are inclusive of time anticipated for travel and work in location.
Poulsen mentioned that the county would probably be well-advised to sign the ISPWC document that lays out the guidelines for planning construction projects in the county.
Attorney Wood mentioned that the indemnity portion of the contract might be in violation of direction from the state AG’s office, and that he would share some replacement language to Keller Williams to attempt to correct it.
S. Doug Wood
The County Attorney reported that he had experienced connectivity/microphone issues inside the courtroom during a trial. In order to connect everything necessary, cables and wires were stretched across the room. Jill Stoor reported that there were court funds available to repair whatever needed to be fixed.
Wood reiterated the existence of the audio problem in the courtroom. It was reported that as far as the court officers were concerned, the firewall protections for the network were in place, and should not be the source of the problem.
SS School District PTO
Whitney Lichti, Megan Ozburn, Ann Mathews from the School PTO approached the commission about accessing PILT funding to establish a communication board system on the playgrounds. The shop class at the HS is willing to put the boards together. They would like to put them in various places, including the library and other locations. This would be a method for deaf students and students with communication challenges to communicate with other students and each other.
The group was looking for a total of $4,618.32 to account for the equipment they ha dproposed. They have talked to the School District about funding, but the money was reportedly not available right now. The PTO has recently spent over $1000 on the project, but it can only spend PTO funds at Thirkill Elementary, while the group would like to reach the community more broadly.
A motion was made to approve $4K in funds for the group, which will go most of the way toward securing its needs for the project.
Lloyd Sorensen—949 Mountain Road
Concerns
Lloyd Sorensen spoke to the commissioners about road maintenance on Turner Road. According to Sorensen, the road hasn’t been upgraded for several decades. Sorensen sent pictures of the condition of the road to the commissioners.
Mathews asked whether the county had recently moved chips, etc. to the road. Sorensen stated that the section had been re-gravelled in the last 4 or 5 years. The road has had crushed slag on it before, though in the meantime the traffic has pushed it down into the mud. “There is no gravel on that road—it’s all clay. To live and drive on that is just miserable. A guy working on the truck said ‘where have you been driving that truck?’” Sorensen reported.
Funds for the road had been committed for use, but had to be used elsewhere. Gravel is in short supply for a number of roads in the county that need additional material. Clay has been brought to the surface as a result of weather.
A discussion about the positives and negatives of orange gravel, which has been used throughout the county was had. It has been reported that some of it has been perfect, but other loads have been overly heavy on clay components.
Kevin McClain of RB stated that putting chips or gravel down right now would result in the gravel being moved to the side of the street during snow removal. Due to the current conditions, it was advised that repairing the road should be held off until spring in order to make the repairs as efficient and cost-effective as possible. Chloride, which is good for dust suppression, also results in surface loss during weather changes.
The road has been on the list of roads the county is keeping its eyes on for potential upgrades, paving, or additional work.
“It’s a horrible time of year to try to fix anything,” Commissioner Somsen remarked.
Raegan Yamauchi
Raegan Yamauchi spoke to the Commissioners to thank them for support and report on her experience at the Miss America contest. Funds from the county were essential to her putting together her program, as she recounted. She explained her plans for the remaining months of her term as Miss Idaho.
Jill Stoor
Commissioner Somsen reported that Bonneville County was being hit with requests for solar farms. They had been offered 1000/acre for the placement of solar panels, though landowners would need to fund the infrastructure to start it up. The county has been explaining that the landfill will not take the refuse.
It was mentioned that the idea of solar farms does not fit into the county’s comprehensive plan.
The Idaho State Tax Commission sent a letter to the county. They have finalized approval for annexation in Bancroft near the park. This will change the tax code areas and election information.
Certificate of residency—fall approval as well as spring. The issue of backdating the certification was discussed. A motion to accept the certificates of residency was approved.
Fair board oaths were presented.
Candidacy forms for the commissioners up for election were handed out. The Prosecuting Attorney, Sheriff, Coroner, and two county commission slots (McCullough and Mathews), are up for election in this cycle.
Judge Brower will be interviewing candidates for law clerks.
