Caribou County Commission Meeting 9/22
Kevin McLain—Road and Bridge
Flashing lights are up on Government Dam road. They are working the way they are supposed to.
Sand went up in general, but the location in Tooele is much cheaper. While the sand itself is 18$ rather than $50, gas to drive down to get it adds to cost, though it still represents a savings.
One of the sanders is installed. A second is in the works. Should be done in the next two weeks.
Grace area was hit hard with spud trucks during harvest, so they county is touching up the roads.
Andrea Gunn--Simplot
Representatives from Simplot visited the commissioners in April. Since then, they have hosted a Kids Safety Day, where Soda Springs fifth graders visited the site for the first time. They raffled off two bikes, one of which was won by a Soda Springs kid. “My pipe dream is that we host an event here in Soda Springs and invite Grace and North Gem schools,” Gunn said.
They worked with Paul Gritton to sponsor a movie in the park.
Dan Darlington
Smoky Canyon Mine. “We’re trying to make a little more of an impact on the 4-H programs over here.”
He has plans with Jim Stoor to represent Simplot at the Fairs. He helped with the purchasing of animals at the fair, and they are used for raffle prizes for their employees.
“It is something we try to make a presence about.” They process and raffle off the meat.
“That’s a great idea!” Commissioner Somsen noted. The prize represents a significant value, and it guaranteed to be excellent quality.
Darlington explained that operations are looking good. They mined three mines this year. They completed the second phase of the pipeline.
Kevin McLain asked whether they were in progress on the South trail area, as the county was planning road repair there.
Caribou Loop Trail has signs explaining what is happening with ongoing projects. “You’ll see agriculture, timber, mining, and everything that Idaho has to offer,” Commissioner Somsen said, speaking of the trail, which is shared by a number of counties including Caribou.
Russ Roper—Sheriff
Black Mountain Repeater funds needed to be ratified. $8K are needed to repair the repeater on the Black Mountain site. This is necessary to provide radio communication to a large part of the valley. The request falls right between budget years, which required a discussion about timing.
The source of the funds was determined to be available from the 2024-2025 budget in the Radio Maintenance line. A motion to approve the repair and purchase an antenna for a bit more than $8K was approved.
A contract modification with Sawtooth Medical about services for the jail was discussed. The contract includes a 10% increase in cost. The contract was approved at $191,400.
A Junior Sheriff onesie was inquired about on the expense claims. Each child born to someone in the department is given one. While the expense was not a problem, it did lead to a discussion about making the claims clearer in their recording.
George Hulse
Hulse spoke to the commissioners as a representative of the TV Translator Board, of which he is the secretary. The TV Translator Board maintains equipment that provides access to over the air television broadcasts, as well as emergency service channels.
The fee that supports the board has not been increased for many years. The power bill for the broadcast equipment has doubled in that time. Hulse requested increasing the fee by $5. The fee would require a public hearing to increase.
“This is a true fee,” Jill Stoor said.
A public hearing could be held during a county commission meeting.
“We are working on that,” Huske said when asked about the loss of one of the Western Channel. The board are working on getting channel 4 back online. It had been overridden by a competing, high power broadcast from out of the area.
The commissioners committed to looking into what they needed to do to move the process forward. Angie Mendenhall was mentioned as the main person of contact, as she is the person who sends out the county bills, where the fee for the translator district would be included for purposes of billing (though the district is separate from the county otherwise). Lightning strikes had affected some of the equipment used in the translator process.
There are 2900 people in the district. Aaron Cook noted that getting everything ready to approve an increase of the fee in time for this year’s county bill, which goes out very soon, would be difficult. The translator fee is under the emergency communications fee, as the towers/repeaters that broadcast emergency signals require the same infrastructure. On tax notices, the fee is noted as such. The funds are collected by the county, but the district is its own entity which is not under the control of the county with regard to its budget.
The commissioner discussed some issues with the board, such as whether the fee was set by statute, what the state requirements are, etc. The commissioners and clerk’s office, as well as Aaron Cook’s office, will look into the issue further.
Eric Hobson noted that since Dish and other services often no longer carry local channels, the number of people who have been installing antennas to get local channels through the translator has sharply risen over recent years. The translator allows for over the air broadcasts of local network stations, as well as a range of channels like GRIT, MeTV, and many others.
Justin Hatch—Extension Office
There is $2460 left in capital outlay budget. Hatch would like to use it for chairs for classes and events at the new county Event Center. The commissioners discussed chair options.
Eric Hobson offered the observation that in his experience, using tables and chairs for public events ends up with one or two tables being lost due to damage each year.
It was determined to get ten more tables, and chairs to go around them. The expense will be divided between the two budgets. 200 Chairs and 10 tables, and carts to go with them.
The materials would be used at the Event Center for classes and other events.
