County Commission - Regular Meeting

We should probably

stuff. No, these are the ones from prior. Oh, really? Okay, [clears throat]

those need to come back to here to get So, tell me who you are. I'm Sher Stevens with the Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity. You're alone today. I'm not alone today. Um, August Grenath is joining virtually. He'll be presenting and then I'm your outreach manager here. So, I'm here in person. Okay. So, there's two August. Yeah.

Okay, let's let's go ahead and get started. We have a quorum here. Is Mike on with us as well? I am. Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah, good. Welcome, Mike. Welcome everyone here for our work session December 2nd 2025. Um we are going to I can't hear August. Are you there? He's just logging on. Okay. August, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself?

Oh, your mic's not working, hun. So, who who am I hearing? Kate, you're on. How are you feeling, Kate? Nope, not yet. August,

can you hear us? Kate, I can hear you. I'm We're working through August. um mic issues. Still can't hear you, August. Commissioner Blocker, do you want to go ahead and Can you hear me? Okay. In the room. Yeah. Good job. Thanks, August. Yeah. Yes, he can.

Yeah. I don't know if I can hear you though. Let me see if I can. So, what happens when you don't have Sherry by your side? Huh? You don't. There you go. I think I can hear you now. Okay. So, Sherry, have you you've not met Matt or Von?

I I haven't met them. So, I sit on the CEO board with her and she's with Go and she's been amazing to help out Morgan County and comes up with educating us and helps us with our ideas and she's been amazing. So, thanks for coming here today. Thanks for having me. It's nice to meet you. Okay, August, we are going to turn the time over to you then. Okay, great. Um, can you see the document I just started sharing in the room? Yes.

Okay, great. Well, I'll get started then. Uh thank you all for taking some time out of uh your work session today um at your county commission meeting um for for myself to present um a draft of the rural economic blueprint u from Morgan County that um I put together in tandem with um Kate Sherry and uh the CEO board serving in the capacity of the steering committee. Um we've been working for a couple months on this project and today my intention is to basically share this draft with you um uh I'll do a kind of a brief overview um with some focused um kind of uh dives into specific sections and then I'm open to any questions or feedback. The idea is that this is the the first time you're seeing this as a council or commission, excuse me, and that if you if you want to take more time to read this after today's presentation, that's totally great. If you'd like to provide feedback in today's session or in email to myself directly to make any revisions before uh potential adoption at a future meeting, then you can do so. So, just to emphasize that this is this is a draft form. This isn't the final form of this um as we want to make sure that the commission feels good about what's in here. And we'll we'll hop through um what is in this report. Um there's a little brief acknowledgements for those who are involved in the process, a quick overview of the process itself, a look at some economic data um from various sources um that just provides a little bit of background on Morgan County. Um then we take um a more qualitative look at the economy and create a SWAT analysis um set set of of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and a kind of a a statement for the ideal vision for for a future economy

for Morgan. Um that um is based off of interviews that I've had with the folks on the steering committee. We'll take a look at what is in the current 2021 strategic plan for economic development in Morgan County and a set of new goals, strategies, and projects set forth by this report. [snorts] So, just a quick um overview of who is involved um and and can you see this? Okay. Is the is the magnification level of this document um readable or should I zoom in? It's good. Good.

Good. Okay, great. Um so the core team was myself, Sherry, um an individual named Olivia who does the data work at Go and Kate representing Morgan County. Um, we had a handful of great folks contribute um, insights and some working time towards this largely made up of folks that that are sit on the CEO board including um, Steve Gail uh, mayor of Morgan City, Andrea Brooks on the Morgan School Board, Darren Rogers who works for Department of Workforce Services, um, John Barber who's the chair of the for now for now the chair of the CEO board. Um, Andrew Willis the small business development center director from Morgan and Davis. Tracea Wardell, uh, Chamber of Commerce president Marcer Owen, who's the park manager for East Canyon and Lost Creek, and Justin Reese and Becca Nelson, um, on the tourism team, uh, for Explore Morgan. We had some great people, some great insights. Um, this is just a brief overview of kind of timeline, dates, and context that I won't go into now. Um, we dive a little bit into some population statistics here. um just showing that um Morgan County's population growth has slowed um cut in half about um when you look compare the 1990 to 2020 periods and compare it to the last 5 years which is on track with the rest of the country um in terms of largely seeing a slowdown of about um half. Uh uh Morgan County is a relatively young um county about in line with the state and much younger than the country. Um great employment rate ahead of the country's employment rate just slightly behind the states. A very high median household income um much higher than the national um average and and higher significantly than the states. Um a high level of educational attainments um in the area. And then if we look at uh major

industries um over over 50% of employment is due to the top five industries which is spread across construction, healthcare, um professional, scientific and tech, jobs, education and public administration. Um this this table uses a tool called location quotient um which is this this um column on the far right uh basically to describe you know on one hand it's good to know how many jobs are in a particular industry but it's also important to know how many how how does that compare to the rest of the country um so this takes the percentage of jobs in that industry say 13.5% in um Morgan for construction uh divided by the percentage of those jobs across the country um which in this case in construction is about 7% and shows that you know in Morgan about twice as many jobs are due to construction related um industry than the national average which can tell you something about the specialization of your region. Um so mining, quaring, oil and gas is a high high location quotient here. Agriculture is a high location quotient. Public administration and construction all score very highly here. Um, we also have the top employers for Morgan County as described by um, paperwork submitted to the Department of Workforce Services for unemployment claim statistics here. Um, these two buckets of 200 100 to 249 employees and 50 to 99 employees um, are what is displayed here. I should clarify that, you know, these these job numbers um aren't saying that, you know, wholesome Wholesome US is is employing more people than Wasash Peaks Ranch within this bucket. It's just alphabetical. Um uh

but just giving an idea of who are the major employers in the area um as a reference point for the commission. Can I take a look? Sorry, was that a comment? Can I just ask a question on that? Are those numbers of employment are those residents of Morgan County that they employ or they include outside of Morgan County? So this is by employment site. Um so this would be anybody who's employed at these um places of business. So it's not necess So somebody who works at Wasach Peaks might live in Weaver for example. Okay. Thanks.

Yeah. Whereas on the flip side, I believe that the this industry tab is by um Census Bureau data. So this is this is based off of where you live and what your job is. Um even if you maybe you commute to to do that work, if that makes sense. So they're they're slightly different um indicators there. Great question.

Um excuse me, the the SWAT analysis here. So have some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And I'll I'll briefly describe these. So in terms of strengths, um community cohesion is is the top strength. Stakeholders consistently identified that small town feel and neighborly support was the county's greatest asset. The community is highly engaged, patriotic, and values its rural heritage. We got the second uh strength here. High quality recreation assets. Uh Morgan County hosts Snow Basin Ski Resort which is slated to be an Olympic venue in 2034. East Canyon Lost Creek State Parks and the Weber River. Um although private and not open to the public, Wasach Peaks is another quality recreation asset that also contributes significant employment to the area. Um another strength is high income earning and well educated resident base. Uh the county's median household income as described before is quite high, significantly higher than the Utah average. Um and folks are well educated. This indicates a highly capable wealthy resident base that can support higherend amenities and services. Also high performing industry clusters. Um so despite being a bedroom community um with a lot of out migration for people um people's daily jobs, Morgan has strong local specialization in the mining, agriculture and construction industries. Um these major employers like wholesome US and Wardell Brothers Construction anchor these sectors. Couple other um key strengths. Strategic location. Um situated between the Wasach Front and Park City, Morgan offers the best of both worlds location for rural living with 30-minute access to major metroeconomic hubs. And then lastly, for strengths, um agricultural heritage, strong legacy of farming and ranching provides the cultural soul of the community and potential for agurism.

Moving on to weaknesses. Can I ask you a question? Strong weakness is retail and commercial activity. Uh so the retail trade accounts for only 5 and a half% of local jobs with a very low location quotient. Um about half as half as many as other um communities across the country. I think you can hear us. Um not Oh, I can hear you, Sher. Sorry. Okay. Um Commissioner, so were you just ignoring her? Jen, [laughter] can you hear him? I can now. the audio when I'm talking it's hard for it it doesn't break through for whatever reason. So, but I can if if restated I I can hear it.

Okay. So, my question is is how how do you come up with these things? How are you coming up with these statements or

with these? Sure. So, um and maybe I should have spoken uh to the process a little more specifically. So I interviewed um 10 stakeholders um in the community largely based off of the list of people who were on that CEO board. Um asked them a list of questions half an hour to an hour each. Um largely focused on what is the state of the local economy from your perspective? You know trying to get a range of positions and opinions. um and then what what does the ideal future um economy look like to you? Um and took those and basically assembled all of those interviews and tried to tease out themes that um are aligning kind of with this SWAT analysis. Um and then I brought a draft SWAT analysis to um a group of the steering committee, asked them for their revisions. Basically, does this sound right? What things should be changed? um saw some saw some really good and important revisions from that. Um and then this is kind of that next step in the process, right? So um so far, you know, no one's no one people have given me feedback and I've adjusted um these findings so far and if if if there's additional revisions that comes from this conversation from from the folks on the commission, then we'd welcome those as well.

Thank you. Yeah. August, can I ask one question too? Yeah, of course. [clears throat] Okay. The you're talking about here under the lack of retail and commercial activity and where we spend approximately 214 million down below in Weber and Davis counties and only 5.5% of the local jobs are here in our t in from from here I mean to the jobs in our county. However, we have a lot of employees that work up here from on the other side of the mountain. And you did not mention anything about that because down in Mountainate that I didn't quite hear what you said.

Basically, basically you've got um you've got we spend a lot down below in the other areas. However, local jobs is only 5.5% of local or people working from the county that live here. um that 5.5% number is only speaking to retail jobs, right? Specifically my question. So it's not saying of all jobs. It's just saying that we import a lot of employees from down below. A lot of employees now work up here in Morgan County from down below. So it's not mentioning anything within that.

Well, he's mentioned it right here. says twothirds of its workforce commutes out of the county daily. No, I'm not talking about the twothirds out of the county. I'm talking about the other third that's coming up here. Lee's market is totally covered with people. There's very few people that live in Morgan County, but it's a big employer and those employees come from the other side of the mountain. So, there's no no mention of that in here. Well, is that a weakness? Um, yeah, because our own people aren't working. So, it's basically pointing out the fact that we are in our areas. We're not supporting our own businesses by working in our county. Well, they probably wouldn't make as much as going down below.

Okay. Maybe. But when they're saying it's a lack of retail and commercial activity, I'm a little bit concerned about that that we don't have it. In reality, we have it. We if we want to stay rural, we have those retail activities. We just don't support our own people. That's all I'm saying. You used to have it in your own business. We didn't support you here, so you went to Kisville. Uh, I see what you're saying. I I didn't read I don't didn't see it that way from that.

Okay. I'm just I'm just saying from an economic aspect. You're you're taking into account here lack of retail and commercial activities. Um and and it it just kind of irritates me that yeah, we may not be a lot of people working in the county. They're working outside the county, but we have a lot of people that come into the county also from other areas. So, we have activities, we have commercial, we have retail, [snorts] and if we try to bring about large amounts of retail or large amounts of other commercial items, they're going to fail because we're not supporting the ones we have. That's all I'm saying. So, so I think that ought to be part of this whatever it is you're doing.

But I don't think that has anything to do with the employees part of it, does it? It has to do with our weaknesses. Oh, yeah. Can I try to restate? Can I try to restate what you're what you're saying, Commissioner, just to make sure that if I were to make an addition that it that it feels like it's capturing the comment you're making here? Okay.

Um, what I understand, what I'm hearing you say is that, you know, in addition to people leaving the county to work elsewhere, um, there are people that are commuting into Morgan County to work jobs that are available locally. Um and and you're saying that um we should be supporting the the the the the local retail activity that is available locally, whether we're working for them or spending spending money there locally. Is that kind of what you're trying to get at?

That's that's what I'm trying to say. Yes. because we need to have the people in this report. If this is a a report that's going to be published or whatever, I want people to really realize what's happening in Morgan County. And I don't see this as being a depiction of what's happening in Morgan County. Not totally. And I think just my opinion. So, do you think you would want to add an additional bullet to any one of these four sections or just modify how I'm describing second um kind of like weakness there under the weakness is just a lack of retail and commercial activity under that one just a second bullet with the information.

Okay. So just add add a comment that is people are commuting into the county [clears throat] to to work some of those jobs in particular. That's correct. And I think he was saying that people are leaving our community and spending their money elsewhere instead of supporting our local businesses. That's correct, too. Right. That maybe that's part of the contributing to that being a reality. Does that sound about right? [clears throat]

And Sher, are you taking notes on this and we can we can work together on revising based on those? I am. Yeah. Okay, great. Okay, we can we'll certainly add that. Um that note, thank you for for making that comment. Um I'm going to keep um pressing on here and feel free to to let me know and and maybe because I can see Sherry, I can see you much easier on the virtual meeting if you just like raise your hand if there's a comment in the room and I'll stop talking and so the the virtual audio can uh I can hear a little better. Sounds good.

Okay. Okay. So, another another weakness here uh is uh uh a lack of accessible public land or affordable private land. Um because 93% of land in Morg County is privately owned. Visitors and residents alike um can see the mountains and may desire to recreate and explore in them, but ultimately may find that they don't have access to those areas. Um, this lack of accessible public land or affordable private land stifles the growth of tourism opportunities and limits the county's ability to stimulate commercial growth or develop public amenities. And then we've got um a third one here. Slowing population growth. Annual population growth has dropped from a historical 4.1% annual growth rate from 1990 to 2000 to just 1.6% annually in the last 5 years. Uh stakeholders attribute this to housing affordability issues and a lack of starter inventory um which is resulting in decreasing school enrollment numbers. Any other comments on the weaknesses before I move on to opportunities?

May I mention one more?

Sure. The last few days I've been talking with people in the tourism industry that are very very happy with the fact that we don't have a lot of public land and we've got private land and you're saying it stifles the growth of tourism opportunities and in reality I think it's the opposite. If we can get other things working along the tourism line of work and if people are willing to allow that, I think that we can actually have a robust tourism opportunities on private ground. But it's going to take a lot of work and a lot of effort by individuals within the county to want to have something like that. So yes, it's a weakness, but there's also opportunity

for sure. And by I think it's important by stating something as a weakness, it doesn't mean that it's an unmovable object or or something that can't be overcome, but is trying to just describe the status um of condition uh on the ground and something that might have to be uh kind of faced. Um and [snorts] so what I'm hearing you say is that there are opportunities on private land to develop tourism, you know, products. And I think that's very true, for sure. Um [clears throat] and so we can we can note that as well. [snorts]

I'm just making a note here. August, do do you think the population growth has to do with people having less children as well?

I I think that's probably part of it. I mean, as you saw in the table that I showed earlier, nationwide, you're experiencing a demographic kind of fall off in terms of um uh replacement rate or or just just the number of um kids or people who are migrating to an area. Um net people who are um dying [clears throat] or or out migrating. Um and so in almost every place around the country, you're seeing a decrease. Um whether it's a migration issue or it's a not enough births issue. Um so that's a really consistent trend across the country and and actually having a 1.6% growth rate um is is better than the national average. Um and I believe the state average too. I had to double check that, but um so I think it's a combination.

Okay.

Okay. Okay. I'll I'll pop on over to opportunities here. Um uh first and foremost, doing a commercial land inventory. Um it's a big priority that was identified by Kate here. So identifying and zoning specific parcels for light manufacturing or other commercial activity um could attract business looking for access to the Wasatch Front but looking for small rural town quality of life. Um another opportunity is the development of the Mountain Green Town Center. Uh development of a designated commercial town center in Mountain Green could represent the single largest opportunity to capture leaking sales tax and create a walkable community node. Uh fourth, another opportunity is um on the theme of tourism uh trying to drive um from a day trip kind of tourism economy towards more of a destination even if marginally. So looking at Snow Basin as a host venue, the 2034 um Olympics are providing a catalyst to secure federal and state funding for the I84 interchange um and develop more hotels and dining opportunities in that area. Additionally, building up amenities along the Weaver River in the state parks and leveraging [snorts] local a assets to develop more agurism could turn a largely dayrip tour space into overnight revenue generating visitors. And then lastly here for opportunities um you have a high uh percentage of of folks working in professional, scientific and technical service jobs which is higher than the national average. Um, and this combined with kind of the rise of remote work allows higher income resident residents to stay in the county during the day, potentially increasing daytime spending at local lunch spots and service businesses um, as they are available. So, really kind of looking at that remote worker economy as another opportunity. Any opportunity questions before I pop down to threats and kind of barriers to progress?

Okay, I'll I'll I'll I'll move on. Um, one of the big threats that was repeated by stakeholders um was a housing affordability crisis. So, the median home price and lack of density um high median home price, excuse me, are taxing seniors out as described by one stakeholder and preventing young families and teachers from living in the community, creating a labor labor shortage for local services. Um, another [clears throat] threatened barrier to progress is the potential for unchecked um sprawl to kind of create a loss of the agricultural feel of the community. So without intentional planning, county risks becoming a generic suburb of Weber County, losing the rural character that attracts residents um and drives up service costs. As farmers age out and land values rise, there's a large there's a risk that large amounts of agricultural land is sold for residential subdivisions um and loses the opportunity to preserve some of that land for agriculture or agurism uses into the future. And two more that I'll mention um [clears throat] before getting any any notes. Uh external encroachment is a risk um from neighboring Summit County that is purchasing land within Morgan County boundaries um effectively removing that land from Morgan County's tax base and shifting the service burden for those parcels to Morgan County residents. Um and lastly, um uh there is some level of cultural resistance to growth in the Morgan County area, um which threatens to block some of the commercial developments like the town center in Mountain Green, um that are needed to subsidize, um the high residential tax burden, um and shift it towards um more of a commercial tax um uh base. Any questions or feedback on this threats and barriers to progress section?

No.

Okay. All right. And then we have this four bullet kind of ideal vision for a future economy. um that tries to kind of summarize, you know, if we look 15 to 20 years into the future, um what are what are the components of what makes up um where where Morgan County should be based off of these stakeholder conversations. [snorts] So, number one is a balanced tax and housing ecosystem. So, a thriving commercial tax base in Mountain Green um and Morgan City uh should offset the residential property tax burden. This revenue funds um hopefully a future community center builds public trails while diverse housing options stabilize school enrollment numbers by allowing young families to return to the county. Um second kind of focusing on this tourism component here from day trips to destination. Morgan County transforms from a drive-through corridor into a stay and play destination. The Weaver River is activated with public access points and dining and the county serves as the primary lodging and hospitality hub for visitors skiing at Snow Basin or visiting East Canyon State Park. Third here, kind of a high value homegrown economy. So leveraging the high median income, high educational attainment, and increased recreation amenities, Morgan transforms from a commuter bedroom community into a remote work capital. Robust broadband and local professional services allows residents to work where they live, keeping daytime spending within the local economy. These local professionals help to drive entrepreneurial activity and support main street establishments. And lastly, development focused in Morgan City and Mountain Green. Uh growth is concentrated in in those particular areas rather than expanding into a gener generic suburban sprawl. These highdensity nodes support the commercial activity needed to capture sales tax and reduce residential tax burden while preserving the vast open spaces and agricultural lands between them. Any thoughts or feedback on on this section?

I have one question. Can you hear me? Yep, I can hear you. That's not my question, but [laughter] can you hear me? Can you hear me now? Um, under Yes, I can hear you. The ideal vision um Yep. If this were all to come to pass, how many years would you think that would take?

Well, when I asked people this question, um I I framed it within the 15 to 20 year timeline. So, this is like several iterations of of um elected officials and and future change. I like to think of it through the lens of, you know, it's it's 5 years after um [clears throat] the 2034 Winter Olympics, um which feels, you know, quite far away, but also not so far away that we're not actively planning for it and how how might that impact the area and 5 years after that, what does the area look like? Um and so that that was kind of the time frame that the vision um was looking at. I have a question.

I would say that the projects listed in this are more on a five-year kind of um timeline in the next section. Okay. Question I have for you, August. Um, as long as that time frame and a few other things in here, did you look at anything that we have already that we've done in the past for like our tourism plan or the trails plan or any of those kinds of things that we've got to look and see how this coordinates with a lot of that?

Yeah. So, so Kate sent me pretty much every plan she could think of that was on file. um and that was used as a reference for putting this together. The the next next section here is looking at um the AC the five-year vision, five-year objective, excuse me, in the 2021 economic development strategic plan. Um, and so we reference that here um, in this blueprint before we we kind of set forth a new set of objectives. [snorts] Um, so I won't I won't read this particular page detail line by line, but just we we put this in this blueprint as a jumping off point before before looking at new goals, strategies, and projects. And if if we're good to move on, I can hop into those goals, strategies, and projects if that works for you all.

I'm good.

Okay. See if I can zoom in a little bit on this. Okay. So the the first goal here um it is stated as diversifying the economy with new industry to offset residential tax burden. So the first strategy here is to increase the amount of available land for commercial and industrial use through kind of two different projects. First project is to map and inventory available private or public land for commercial and industrial use. And then the second is kind of an action based off of that um mapping designate appropriate zoning uh purchase land or identify kind of commercial and industrial space to help um local businesses scale but also attract new business. Um and the second strategy here marketed parcels for development is all along the lines of that new business recruitment. Um collaborate the project is collaborate with with Goyo and EDC Utah to attract prospective industry to Morgan County. Um just this week um uh our team on the business development side launched a new portal um to solicit um uh responses to requests for information for site selectors. Um and so um engaging with that portal by putting you know these targeted parcels that come out of this process into that portal to respond to site selectors who are looking to relocate business to the state of Utah. um is going to be a great opportunity for Morgan County to do some of that um industry recruitment. So long as it's a good fit, the community has the option to opt in or out of any of those particular um uh projects that are interested in the state of Utah um based off of your own um preferences really. And the third is to kind of drive homegrown entrepreneurship. there's a conversation around yes uh obviously there's great

things happening in Morgan City and and Mountain Green but also driving some of the kind of more rural economic entrepreneurial activities such as farm stands um um or other kind of cottage industry and business that are happening in some of the smaller communities um within the state and or within the county and encouraging that behavior. Um [clears throat and cough] here any questions for for goal number one before I go move to goal number two which is kind of focused more on infrastructure. Nope.

Okay. Um and this continues onto the next page but um this second goal here is to maintain and improve infrastructure necessary for economic development. So first strategy is to u maintain existing levels of service for residential and commercial users. this is kind of doing um business as usual um excellently. So the project is continuing to appropriately fund staff planning and development and public works departments. Um the second strategy here is to improve infrastructure to alleviate capacity constraints that allows for the pursuit of additional economic development opportunities. First one here is fairly obvious, but continuing to work with UD do forward the Trappers Loop I 84 interchange improvement project. Um the second one was brought up by the mayor of Morgan City. Um trying to address some of these access issues to the commercial street um over there. He had mentioned that there's a long range kind of loose hope to kind of close the intersection right after the railroad um underpass there and create a different um kind of safer uh roadway to access there. Maybe potentially building new roads. Um, so I mentioned that here as a project, although largely Morgan City focused. Um, third here is to develop the Mountain Green Town Center. My understanding talking to Kate is that that's currently in negotiation with developers to come up with an amendable development agreement for that project. And fourth, this is just mentioning um uh the dome uh kind of project that was purchased for installation at East Canyon State Park um that that is currently um unused. And so basically just saying let's find a way to either repurpose that or sell it if if possible. Um and then we've got

Yeah. Can I make one comment on goal number two? Yes. Yep.

Okay. Under we did like 2.1. Wonder if we could add to that encourage you DOT to um develop Snow Basin's new strawberry road uh for the Olympics. Um, one for safety reasons. Two, uh, it will create a tax base in Morgan County from Snow Basin as they build new lodges and do ticket sales and ski school on our side of the county. And three, um, he'll alleviate um, traffic, especially all the buses going up to the Olympics.

Okay. Okay. So, so and this wasn't on my radar, so thanks for bringing this up. Um but in may maybe this is just an additional project or or an addendum to this first project, but encouraging you do to develop snow basins new strawberry road um largely because that could potentially drive additional um commercial tax um revenue from sales tax or or property tax if there's additional commercial buildings on the Morgan County side of the county line. Does that sound about right? Yes. Okay. And I'll look into that a little further to make sure I've got that worded right. Talking to Sher and Kate.

So, but I've got that captured

for for goal two strategy two. Okay, move on to the next page. Um goal three here is to transition from a drive-thru corridor to a stay-in play destination. Um the first strategy is to kind of promote and grow community events, recreational opportunities, and amenities. Um focused on events really. The first project continue to support the existing special events such as Morgan Valley Car Show, County Fair, the Morgal Days Rodeo, Hometown Christmas and Tree Festival, Morgan Truck Polls, Front Street Festival, and the Fourth of July celebration, and explore additional events project 2 such as farmers markets, um, or races like the Nika High School mountain bike races that could be held at a future at a at a future trail system at the East Canyon, ultramarathons or triathlons. Um and then moving to strategy two develop additional recreation and event infrastructure. Um a couple projects here. One is to work with agricultural partners to develop agurism experiences for tourists and locals to enjoy. Um a good example of this that was brought up to me was the uh excuse me the Morgan Maze. So other opportunities to kind of continue to have agricultural land be active um but through a lens of of tourism activities. Second uh is to collaborate with East Canyon State Park as they develop mountain bike trails on the newly purchase purchased parcel north of East Canyon State Park. Um and similarly um uh explore the possibility of a competitive level disc golf course at East Canyon State Park. both things that um Mercer over at state parks had mentioned are priorities for him at state parks. On the other state park project is is is um they are developing

improved campground amenities at Lost Creek. So that's another opportunity um for tourism amenity development in Morgan City. The mayor had mentioned um that they are planning to develop a fishing pond on city-owned property um adjacent to the river in the city. Um, another couple things here. Um, a goal to develop a public facility for community gatherings, weddings, and senior and youth activities was brought up by several folks um as as a goal. Um, another project uh trail to connect the golf course and Morgan City. And lastly, trail to connect Morgan County to Mountain Green um and Mountain Green to Eden and Huntsville in the Ogden Valley. Several of these I think are in progress. Um, but we just want to note them that they're that there's still an objective. Um, and then I'll just mention this third piece here under tourism and then we can any questions on this page we can dive into. Kind of a larger strategy around activating the Weber River corridor. Um, first is just develop better access points to the river. Second to develop riverside amenities such as restaurants and rentals to capture economic activity from voters in Morgan County. third to develop a kayak park in and a city area and fourth to add more benches and covered areas to the Mickelson mile through pathway behind the high school. I think similarly to Snow Basin while the activity is done in Morgan, a lot of the sales tax stacks is in the adjacent counties or whether it's Weber River Activities or Snow Basin um home base. Um any any questions or revisions on um strategies one 123 for goal three.

We we are putting quite a bit of emphasis on on having some fields and stuff for our sports and things and we're already starting to do some of that. Okay. Any any particular parks or sites that that's taking place at? If I were to capture that in here, that would basically be the fairgrounds [cough and clears throat] to improve upon our fairgrounds.

Fairgrounds and the Kent Smith Park. Is it an expansion at the Kent Smith Park? And and we've started some fields at the fairgrounds area east of the field of the fairgrounds. And the only [clears throat] other infrastructure that I mean there's a lot more infrastructure going on here than just the one through eight. You have a whole list of things that are happening. Um right now [clears throat] between counties I'm working with the counties of Weaver and Davis County to try to to get us a trail that goes all the way into their counties. And so those are some projects that we're working with with WFRC to try to get that to occur between the three counties. Uh so there's more and then also there's other goals that we want to try to get the trail up to uh all the way up to Echo and onto the rail trail up in Summit County. So there's a lot more things going on than just this. I don't know if you want to put an and etc portion in there that explain some of these different kinds of trails that we're trying to do. what we're trying to do.

I did have we have by I had at one point a kind of and etc kind of um catch all um but I also if there's specific things that I'm missing um we can send this out to the commissioners and if you can respond via email with specific additional projects that we can include I'd be happy to do that. [snorts]

Okay, I'll go to the last one unless there's any other comments before I go to the last piece here. Um, this the last kind of tourism oriented one. Um, the strategies around tourism marketing and policy. Um, the first kind of project, you know, the goal is to increase occupancy rates for overnight accommodations. Um the second is to continue to support explore Morgan marketing activities and uh lastly on the policy side um to anticipate a increase in short-term rentals around the Olympics and to create cohesive policy for managing um those short-term rentals largely in the Mountain Green area. Um my understanding is Kate's already working on this. Um so I just wanted to capture this here. There's

And then lastly, kind of a catch all implementation goal. Oh, yep. U there's another thing on here that you're under your tourism marketing policy. Um Okay. We also have within our county international Dark Skies um designation up at East Canyon. And that is an area that I think we need to put in this kind of a plan as to what we want to try to do within that because that's going to bring in people from outside this area that want to come and enjoy that. So that is another area that when you're putting that in this into play, at least mention it.

Okay. So really kind of focusing on marketing and leveraging that dark sky designation for the East Canyon State Park as part of that kind of marketing and attraction strategy. Yes. Okay. Okay. Any any other comments on this um fourth uh strategy here? I think one of the policies is to continue to work with the office of out of tourism and outdoor recreation to try to make sure that we have policies surrounding these different things that we want to accomplish.

Okay. Okay. So, continuing to work with the office of uh tourism and office of outdoor wreck. Okay. Great. Anything else before just going over this last goal here? Hey. Um, so this is this is largely just saying that, you know, not wanting this to become a uh report that sits on a shelf, but rather something that is actively uh kind of continuing to be worked towards. So the first strategy is to create systems of accountability and support to ensure that the plan is implemented. Um three projects here. Create and designate an implementation committee to oversee the completion of the plan. Two, assign specific staff with the responsibility of implementing the plan. And lastly is as necessary allocating sufficient funding to support staff and committees as they implement um this blueprint. And that's it. Um, we've got um a contact sheet here on the back page. Um, I can send this document out either if Sherry has all the commissioners emails. That's probably the best way to distribute that. I believe we're we're hoping to get on the agenda in two weeks um to consider um approval of a final version of this document. And so we'll we'll try to take any notes that we had during today's meeting and incorporate and make a final draft of this um and also um solicit feedback through email so that if you have the time to read through this on your own uh more thoroughly and you find anything that you'd like to make changes to that we can make those changes as well before bringing it to um commission for for final approval.

Thank you so much. Really? It's nice to see it all organized like that. Appreciate it. Thanks, August. And and I should say this is a free service from Goyo that's new this year. Um so, you know, the commission didn't expend any resources to make this project happen. Um this just [snorts] wanted to mention that. Awesome. We like that. Thanks, Sher. Hey, any more questions for me or should I give you guys a break before you got your um full full agenda? Mike, do you have anything? I do not. Thank you. Okay.

Hey, thank thank you, commission. Thank you, Sher, for being there in the room and and thanks, Kate. And I hope Kate feels better. And uh we'll talk soon. Thank you. Thanks, Sherry. Byebye. Thank you.

Okay, we're going to take a few minute break. Jeremy needs to do some stuff with the mics and and we'll be back for session at 5:00. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. Debbie, can you hear me? Test test test.

How's your kitchen?

[snorts]

Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started. Uh, welcome everyone to our December 2nd, 2025. Morgan County Commission meeting. Um, the Honorable Commissioner Von Nickerson's going to lead us in pledge of allegiance and a invocation and we'll go to that point. Dear father in heaven, we are so grateful for this opportunity we have to meet as a commission and to discuss the needs and desires of our our county and pray that thy spirit may dwell with us to guide us and that we may all work together for the betterment of of the people that reside amongst us. We're so grateful for the moisture which we received this last weekend. Pray that we'll continue to get that much desired and needed moisture for the coming year. We're [snorts] a group for those who are out that are protecting our way of life and put themselves in harm's way to protect us. We ask you to watch over them and bless them and their families. We are so grateful for all our many blessings that we enjoy and for the freedoms that we have and we're grateful for this time of year where we can celebrate family and friendship. And we ask that our spirit will be with all of us this evening. We say this in the name Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [laughter] I didn't I thought you blurted something out.

Sorry. Thank you. Thanks, Von, for doing that. Okay. Um, consent agenda items. Has everybody had an opportunity to look at those? Yes, but I have a question. Okay. I don't know if we want to discuss it. I'm just trying to figure out what have we paid in the past for indigent defense services and and how did we come up with an amount like that for the RFQ. So maybe we can pull it out of consent agenda. Maybe you could maybe you could um address answer that question. So is the question about the RFQ?

Yeah. And what was the question? The question was is we had put in there a set amount as to what we were going to do versus having it by like we've had it the last I I don't know that's what I we need I need an explanation

just that with the budget that we have that's what we can decision because it's kind of a conflict of interest for my office to interview and make those decisions. if that makes sense. So, will that So, so what have we been paying for that in the past? The same.

Has it been the same? I was thinking it was it was on a per hour basis or how much time they'd put in. It's not. Okay. We'd pay a lot more if it was on a per hour basis. Okay. All right. Okay. I'm fine with it. Then I move to accept the consent agenda. Second. Okay. Okay. So, we have a a motion by Commissioner Ferrell and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I.

Are there any opposed? Okay. Motion passes. Commissioner, declarations of conflict of interest. Anyone have a conflict tonight? No. Okay. None. Mike, you there? Mike? Sorry. No.

Okay. Then we'll take some time and have public comment. If anyone has any public comment, you're welcome to come forward. Now, we have several uh public hearings. So, if there if it's a question or a statement on public hearings, save that till that time period. Otherwise, come forward now. Okay, seeing none, we'll move on. We have no presentations, so we'll move to our action items. Action item F1, Erica White. Is she not here?

I know that Erica is at training right now, but uh this was one that was previously discussed discussed. And I thought we approved it for something. It was approved, but there was a follow-up question on the fixed cost and yeah, page 33 of the package of the travel and stuff. Yeah. And so there are emails also identifying this, but it does say um the pricing is fixed, travel, shipping, other it's all included. Okay. New motion. Yeah, let's do Yeah, let's do a new motion just so we verify the current uh pricing structure.

Second. Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Blocker and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, Valerie. [sighs] It's a public calendar. Oh, it is. Yeah.

Uh, so the uh state legislature uh made requirements that all general plans needed to have a water element. Um, our deadline for having that in our general plan is December 31st of this year. uh planning outpost uh put together a basically a stop gap uh element that meets the state statute requirements. Uh it doesn't have everything that a final water element should have for when we finish our new general plan, but this one meets the state requirements. Um so we're just trying to meet state deadlines and get this done. And I'll turn it over to Valerie and she can kind of okay walk you through it. Okay. Good evening, chair, members of the commission. Valerie Clawson with planning outpost. Um, that was the exact term I was going to use was stop gap so that um, the county can can meet the state deadline for December 2025. Um, this did proceed through all the proper noticing channels though. We met with the water providers. We gave them a comment period. We um, heard what they had to say. They were not surprised because most of the the bigger ones already have conservation plans that are required. And so we explained, yeah, this was just to support and complement what they already had in place. Um, and so then, um, we bring this forward tonight for adoption to the current general plan and then we will update it again once it goes to the final draft in 2026. Um, Josh is going to give me probably a couple little updates and some cleanups for this this one. Um, for instance, we'll change um some of the wording on one of the goals um about the public providers having the uh 10% reduction. You guys are already meaning that because there isn't any of those in the county. Um so we'll reward that though because there's some stuff underneath that that that still can work where we can encourage and support um the the private and um other providers outside of the county or not outside the county that aren't county that are still

public providers. Um, so I'm happy to either go through the plan or just take any questions you might have, whatever would be best for you. I think as long as we're it's it's fluid still. So, as long as it's fluid, we're we're fine with meeting our requirements. I at least I Well, we're putting into place a a ordinance. And so I'm just trying to make sure that if we're putting in this ordinance and then we're going to change this ordinance next year, is that really I'm not sure that that's really the way an ordinance should run?

It's it's an it's an update to the current general plan. So it's an element that the state code is requiring. And so actually the county could update their general plan every year if they wanted to or pieces of it. They don't. Um, and so what this does is this meets this meets the state's requirement for having that element in place by December 25. Okay. So, so, so I mean I have a lot of questions on it and I've got it written up notes galore on it. Then get those sent to me and we can get that figured out for 26. Okay. That that's that's what I would recommend is get those over to me as soon as possible. There no reason to to change and wait, you know, until later, but

All right. Because there's there's a lot of things missing in it. And I mean a lot of things missing in it that I know of just as a lay person um that are missing in it as far as even ditch companies. Secondary water public versus private ditch does not have to be in there though. But you've got secondary water in Mountain Green secondary water association or you got secondary water anything that was connected to residential. So the state code doesn't go over the farm and you might want to did I am I covering what you're covering? [laughter] Okay. So like the farm waters and those aren't that's not what this is about. This is about development and growth and residential. But the only problem is every one of those secondary water companies, ditch companies all pertain to lawn watering.

Oh, for the I mean they're all residential. Also, you've got you've got uh um West Porterville Canal Company that majority of their water is not just necessarily on on agricultural ground. It's on their lawns. Gotcha. Yeah. So, so I mean there's a lot more than that, but I'm just saying and if the county wants to expand, that would be something that we'll have we'll we'll vet out then this through the process when there's the time

versus the emergency, hey, let's get this on the books. But the the ones that were included and have to be included were the ones that had any kind of residential connection to it. And so that was where that line was was drawn because I noticed an area here that you have Um, then we can go over it then if you want. Yeah, we can I mean we can get this stop gap taken care of, but there's a lot of things in here like uh how do you find the amount of water and that's in here when in reality it might be more or it might be less water available. I'm trying to find it again. Um, it was on

Yes, we worked with the county engineer cuz the way that that gets reported to the state is kind of wonky. And so that came I believe yes, it's on under the budget page on page four. Is that the one? It's within that. Yeah. Projected surplus. Yes. Is available. Mhm. Yeah. So, yeah. And if you have additional information, again, please get it sent our way and we can we can okay figure out what that number looks like. And how do you determine public versus private in terms of

well like uh let's just take Wasach Peak Ranch. There's their culinary system. It's open to their place only and not the whole public. Otherwise, I I'll hook into it. uh public system still a public system would be like Morgan City. They have a public municipal system, water and sewer. Uh every other system that serves the county, they are private privately owned. They're run by boards or they're run by the individual owners of the water companies. They are not municipally owned. They're not owned by a jurisdiction.

So then why do you call them a public then if they're in reality private? um mainly because of the state definition and how the the state identifies them. They are serving members of the public, but they're not public systems. I'm just trying to figure out why we had to put in that. I don't know. I mean, if it's something within the law, I don't know, Garrett, and I'm just trying to figure it out. Okay. Because you say that's a public one, that means I could hook up to it.

No, that's not true. [laughter] So, so like even in the city you you have to pay for hookup, you know, there you can't just hook up to it, but it's also the area of the city too. And so even the city, they say we're not going to extend our hookups to certain areas unless they're annexed in and right like there there are jurisdictions. I I will say even because you brought up the Wasatch Peaks. They have their own um well there's the road and fire district and then I think it's also called the infrastructure district. No, it's because that one's more financing the the PID, but they have the fire and water district. Fire water.

Yeah, it's anyway it's a certain name utility. I think it's the utility district and those are quasi public too because they like they're a special service district. So there's multiple areas but the the ones like the Peterson pipeline for example it's privately owned but it serves the public as well and the division of drinking water they have all of their requirements and they manage that and they do it [clears throat] according to how they're designated. And so some of these definitions are specific to the the state um I guess like the divisions divisions that monitor them.

Okay. And and to answer your earlier question, if you think back to when we did Senate Bill um 174, 274, whatever it was that we had to do and it was a temporary regulation just to come in compliance and then we finished it later. The same thing happens here. It is an ordinance, but the ordinance will be um overwritten when we pass a new general plan because then this one that has been amended is no longer our general plan, the 2010 one. It'll be the 2026 one. Okay. All right. Thank you.

Yeah. The there will be plenty of time in the next 10 months to go through this in more detail than you'll ever care to go through. Um this is just putting in place something that the state is requiring us to do. So it's not perfect. It was put together very quickly to try to meet those requirements and demands. Okay. Thanks for doing it. Thank you. I do have a another question, but I can ask before we vote. Okay, I'll look for a motion to go into public hearing. Mr. Chair, I move that we go into public hearing. I'll second.

Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor favor. I Okay, we are now in public hearing. If anyone has anything that they would like to come up and share, please state your name. This is Kate. Garrett, did we I didn't see the agenda. Did it get changed to where we can have a public hearing before 6? Oh. Oh, no. Thanks, Kate. Sorry. No, thank you. Yes. I don't know why that one got thrown in there before.

Yeah, I think we had planned to move it till after, but but yeah, it was not moved. Okay, we'll uh put that on. Yeah, if you want to postpone it. Um that way Valerie doesn't have to stay around. I'll stick around for the remaining. Okay. Can I have a motion to just postpone for or can I just postpone it, Garrett? Okay, let's just postpone it till after the other.

Thanks for coming, Valerie Brett. Pull that off every time. Okay. We had this we had this about um probably about 6 weeks ago I guess by project up on Morgan Valley Drive where hearts gravel comes down runoff water with the springtime runoff water.

Johnny, I wish we could go and capture that water when it runs off. You just need to put it in a reservoir where it wants. Yeah, [laughter] that's what I'm saying. Let's put it in the reservoir. Build the reservoir down here. Put it right through Canon's property.

Mike, did you have any questions on this? I do not. So, we need to award it. Is that what we're doing tonight? Because there's two different ones. We'll definitely need to award it if we'll just call them one and two. One and two. Yeah, it should have two bids on them. And uh number one would be the No,

that's just for that's for the rightway or the So, did we get the rightway yet or not? We do. We have to do those in two separate items or can we do it all together? So, the right of way is not it's there mainly for your information rather than any approval tonight. Okay.

Just to let you know and sorry I keep forgetting I'm Oh, no. Okay. So, the other one wasn't in the packet either. What the letter was is just for him to acknowledge, yes, I'm okay with this. And and the concern that that my office had is if we put something in and we don't have the ability to go in and repair it, then it, you know, is there going to be more damage or is the asset that we're putting in going to be wasted if we can't maintain it or clear it out? And so, um, Mr. Kilbornne is trustee of the trust who owns the property is open to having that easement.

Yeah. And that's public court's position, too. We got to be able to go and fix it if something happens to it. So, that was the biggest reason for us to But he he he's already signed it or Yeah. So, I this Well, this one is the one that I signed. It was dropped off to me, but um Janet was a rock star and was helping us get the packet together too and I was trying to track everything down and this is the copy I had to make it in on time. Okay. But yes, he has signed it and is ready to move forward. Okay. I'll look for a motion then. And the funds should be coming from the flood fund or were we putting it from the from the department? Uh emergency management

emergency management fund. Um, flood mitigation. Oh, flood mitigation. Okay. All right. Okay. You may we don't have to have anything else. Okay. I move that we approve um bidder number one for a total of 24,000 whatever it was 975 um to be used from the the funds to come from the flood mitigation. Second. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Ferrell, second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Okay. Thanks. Motion's unanimous.

Sean. Good evening, commissioners. So, I put [clears throat] this presentation together and uh the purpose of it is to show you where we are and where we're going. Um, the county is growing and it's important for us to stay on top of it and use our own resources to to hold the county's data, the public's data. Um, it it makes us better as as one. Um, so we're, you know, going away from, you know, things that we've done. We're moving forward trying to help us as the county and the public. So hope this presentation and presentation is just advance advancing the GIS and the pls infrastructure. You go to the next. So what is GIS? Can any of you tell me what GIS is? It's a map I pull up when I want to see different parts of the county.

Geographical [laughter] geographical information system.

So it it you're correct. It's a map, but it goes beyond just looking at a map. We're looking at ownership. We're looking at parcels. How do we put that in the map? We take that from the a document that gets recorded. We're taking the descriptions from subdivisions. We're taking information from what we gather and we're putting it on the map. We're looking at multiple layers on one map that provides a huge amount of data to the public and us as the county. [snorts] The whole idea of this is creating something that is an all in one group that serves us and and the public. Go to the next one. So on this slide, it's important for for us to be able to provide, you know, we're we're we're looking at the at the public. How can we give back to the public? How can we give the public what they what they need? Right now, we have years of history, years of records that are just sitting somewhere. G the GIS can take this that history, the records and place it on the map and be able to basically do a record search as if you were to come into my office and go through the books. You can go through the history of when that parcel was was created. Did it did it have a breakoff? Did it did the boundary change? That is all within GIS. So yeah, you're correct. It's just a map. But how does that map get created? You have to you have to take it from the

data that we get and place it in the map and create it. Go to the next station. This slide. So, as you're looking at the map right now, you're looking at it. You have all the data. You have parcels, you have addresses, you have street addresses. We currently have the subdivision PDFs on there right now. We are going to be putting on the rectal surveys on there. Now, this was not here before. We have started this from scratch and and our whole goal is to make it as good as possible for us as a county and the public. And it it's it's important for me and it's important for the other departments like we've discussed to have this there for everybody to view. Go to the next slide. So again, kind of the next slide or the from previous slide. Now we're going into planning and zoning, being able to show the zoning, being able to show voting districts, being able to show you any information that we have on that map. Um, now go to the next slide. So, right now, and we'll get to the next slide, but right now, if you Let me ask you this. Getting on the map, do you guys know where to go?

I think the biggest issue is bouncing from one to the other to the next trying to find. Yeah. So, as I was looking through this, just to see those layers right in one will make it so much nicer because our website's confusing because you don't know which map am I looking at, what am I trying to find, right? So, yeah. Yeah. You know, my frustrations.

So, like I said, this has not we're starting from scratch. And as you guys know, we created a GIS position full full um full-time inhouse for the county's purpose. It's never been done before, but this can take us in so many different directions. Um you know, this is just the start. We have got so much more that we're going to be bringing in and it's just going to help the county as help help the county as one and help the public be able to get what they what they need to see. No, I love the transparency and the layers. And I remember when I first ran for public office in 2020 trying to figure out the boundaries of my district. It was literally remember that it was like printed out 8 by10 sheets [laughter] on the wall um trying to figure it out. So this is going to be a huge asset to the community [clears throat] to to everyone in the community. So thank you.

One question, Sean. When you said it's never been done before, do you mean just here in Morgan County? Like in the state or

so as No, just in Morgan County. So a lot of other counties have their own GIS department in in house. Morgan County has contracted out. Somebody else outside the county has taken care of our data, our mapping, addresses, the layers, updating it. It's not inhouse. It's outside of Morgan County and that's what we're trying to get away with. We have we have the tools to do it. We just need to start doing using it and not contract out and this is the whole idea. Um so going forward with with the mapping the layers us as departments have gotten together and we've have we have discussed how can we make this better for us the public and trying to get away from the multiple maps that we have. Nobody knows where to go. Nobody knows where to go find something. You know, you if you want to look at zoning, do you know what map to go look at? Do you know if addressing you know where to go look at for ownership? Do you know where to go look at? That that's the where we're trying to figure out how can we make this better and we are on the right track and now it's just part of building it and putting it putting it together and getting it out there to the public.

Go ahead and go to the next slide. um other applications, you know, we're the emergency management is is going to be heavily involved, public works, um the utilities, uh community development. This isn't just for the recorders, the planning and zoning or the assessor. This is everybody. This is countywide. um being able to show any layers if they are wanting to show it. It's anything that's necessary. It's available here.

So, I asked you this already, but I I there's more to it. So, I'm going to ask again, where are we? Where are we right now with GIS mapping, the tools that we have right now? We on layer one, two, three. I don't think we're anywhere yet because we got too many different We still have all the old maps we're doing.

There you go. Okay, so go to the next slide. This is what we're looking at right now. Now, I want to point out that there are a few of these that don't even get updated. They're not getting updated. They're not correct. We don't use them. So why have them? Why do we have them? Why are we putting information out there that's not getting updated? It's a huge question. That's confusing.

How can we make it better? So right now we have have eight maps. There are hundreds of layers just sitting out there. Who manages them? What are they for? What were they used for? It's [clears throat] unknown. There are so many. We don't know who created them. It it's it's unknown. We don't know. People just they don't know where to go because there's so much out there and it can be simplified. It's easier and put together, you know, in in one map and then it's all there and we can do away with all the other layers that are out there. Go to the next slide. So, where are we headed? Forward. Good job. [laughter] So, we're going forward. We are

Morgan high school training right there. [laughter] Well, we are in high school right now because we haven't done anything. So, I I want to point out something to you as commissioners.

So, as us department, we are here to serve the community. We are here to make Mortyn County as as best as we can when we are trying to show you as commissioners where we're at, what we are up against, what we're trying to improve, and what we're trying to what our goals are. We're not doing this just to better one department or a couple. We're doing this to better everybody. And I I couldn't have done this without all the other departments coming together and having their ideas being put into this. I want you guys to understand the work that is coming behind us. It's not little. It's not something that is just easy by the click of a button. It is taking data from every department and putting it into one map and making it available to everybody. So, it's this isn't something to take lightly, but we are here trying to make the county better and using our own resources. That's the biggest thing. We stop contracting out. Let's use our own resources. So, I'm here showing you guys where we're at, where we're going, and and if you guys have any questions, my door is always open. Come ask me. Come see what we're doing. You know, I I want to show you. And this is the whole reasons for the presentations so I can show you what we're doing. And if you have questions, come ask. Doors are always open. I'm happy to sit down and explain to you. Go to the next slide. So, right now, where we're going is we're going to one map. We're cleaning it up. Organ

organization is a huge huge huge one. um and in one spot. So, you're taking all eight maps away and you're just putting one on that map, that one map, you're going to have, as you can see on the the left side, you're going to have columns for each department. Every department in this county is going to have a tab that you can drop down and you'll be able to see every layer that in invol that involves that department. Each department head will be able to control what they want to have seen on that layer. You will always you can have all the layers turned on. You can have one. You can have five. It's all going to be right here and you can see everything that you want to see all in one place. The next one

is it going to have a section for school district? I know that's not sorry. What will there be a section for the school district? So we right now we don't have anything for the school district but it's something that can be done if we have the data to work off of. It can be done. GIS is it takes us so many different directions. We just need the pieces. We just need to know what we need to show and we can do it. Um, so yeah, so dropping down onto each uh column, you'll be able to see any layer that you want, turn any of them on, off, all in one map.

That's awesome. Is there any questions? I'm just excited to see it. Yeah, that's awesome. So go going forward um right now Jeff Ward is contracted for part of the GIS data mapping group. We are ending that contract and starting January 1 is when this new map will be live for Morgan County.

Nice. So January one is when you'll see all eight maps go away and one map here and all departments will be working out of one. Wonderful. Any other contracts that we have? The other one is Wasat Civil and I've talked with Josh about that. U more conversations will be had but the only other one that I'm aware of is Wasach Civil. So are they going away on that portion of it too or what happens there?

Wasach Civil's contract states that it's for engineering surveying uh GIS and other services as needed. So, Wasach Civil isn't necessarily going away. Um, we have been asked to continue doing the addressing. Um, but that would be the pretty much the limit. Everything else would be in house.

Okay. I'm just looking at if if this is going to replace all of that, that's great. Um, because I don't want duplicating efforts. do a disrupt service um because it was technically already email contract so we could ask them to do that work. So if we were to dissolve in order to dissolve them doing all we have to do is call everything you don't need to be doing any more GIS work. We can't dissolve the contract. It's literally like right I

I understand that. I was just I was just talking about this GIS stuff that we're doing under this. Is it going to replace what they will do instead of them doing it? Just like Jeff Ward is not going to be doing it for the assessors anymore. I just want to see if it's all under the same roof now instead of being three different offices that use three different people for the same service. So, as Josh stated, Wasat Civil is more than just GIS. Okay. Well, I know that

on every GIS item that was civil is doing the addressing. I I talked to Josh and I told him I I would like the addressing to come from [snorts] him where he is. the land use authority. I want that to come from him. We'll update addresses but other everything else will fall under our new GIS. Okay. Department.

All right. I just want to make sure that all departments are working together instead of separately. So to to add to that Blaine and that's why I why what I just stated is us as departments are coming are together working on this. Okay, we're trying to we see the bigger picture here. Okay, we we're seeing how can we make this better and this is what we're doing.

Okay, there's not one department that's out. There's not one department that's saying no. everybody is on the same page and we're here to serve the community and make it better. Okay. I just really wanted so Janelle Walker assessor um I just wanted to thank publicly what we've been doing for all the departments cuz we really have been working together and trying to make this and Sean has kind of been the one that is heading it up and we have some certain mandates that are coming in for criterias of properties that need to be um subsidized for GIS purposes. So we're working with him as well um and Charles so he can make sure so they can go into an assessor spot and they can see how many bedrooms, how many so it's all of the criterias of how it's assessed. So it truly is making our whole county more transparent. So it it is a great effort and I I think that's the whole thing is we are all behind this GIS project because to be able to have it inhouse is a vital aspect.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Appreciate that. Is there any other questions on that? Um, just thank you. I'm just glad to see it being done. What? I'm glad to see it being done.

Okay. So, the other big issue that we have here in Morgan County, as I've talked to you guys about this before, is the PLSS. Um, do you know what the PLSS is? That tells us it's right there. Public land survey system, [laughter] landmarks. What is it for? What do we use it for? Isn't that where all your everything comes off of those points is where you measure everything from. These are your corner sticks.

Those monuments are what hold the county together. That is how parcels are created. Um GIS, if there was no ops, GIS wouldn't be able to do what we do. So tell me something on that just out of curiosity. If a contractor comes in or a home builder comes in and they they move one of these, what happens? I'm gonna get to that.

Okay. All right. Go ahead. So, [snorts] it it these monuments, they're 3-in brass caps, and it there may be 10, 20, 30 parcels that are tied to that one monument. Think about it. If one gets that one gets taken out, how do you find that parcel? How do you retrace that parcel? It's more than just a cap. with more than just a stone. And I'm here hopefully tonight to help you guys really understand the importance of this and where we are now and where we need to go. Um, and so it again the PLSS is more than just a it's what is holding this county together. The next one. So this is just kind of a di diagram of how how it works. You've got it split up into quadrants. You have one section. You have it split up into and multiple different quadrants. Um now there's a section corner for each corner. Um got the townships. It's the 6x6 miles containing 36 one mile sections. Um you sub it can be subdivided into halves quarters and it keeps on going. corners. You have the sections, the quarter and center, and you can even go into 16th and witness corners, benchmarks, and there's a handful of them. And kind of give you a example of kind of where it's looking. Next one.

So going over this, why these matter when a subdivision comes in, how's that subdivision getting tied? Where how is that getting put at the correct location? How do we know where it goes? These are all things that come from the section corners that these surveyors are getting data from to tie these subdivisions, the surveys. any description that gets recorded, it's all coming from if it's not there, you run into big issues. Next slide. So here again, it's um types of section corners. This is showing you you got the center, you have the northwest corner, the northeast corner, the southeast corner, and the southwest corner. and you divide it up into smaller quadrants. It's all you're just splitting it up and it's all going to always going to have the southwest, southeast, northeast, and northwest. But when you divide it up, you're still going to have those corners. You're just broken up the section into quadrants. There you'll [clears throat] see the 16th corner. And then the center is the center monument that sits inside each section. Next. So, this is kind of to show you what kind of monuments are out there. You have the the 3-in brass cap and you have the on the lower left picture is the stone which is the original stone back in 1965 when the BLM came through and set these stones by chains. Um it was either stones, it was either a mound of stones which was outside the ground. Most of these stones that you

see in that picture were buried and then as surveyors go out and find these stones, they're placing monuments next to it. You're never to move the stone. You're just placing next to the stone where the point is seen multiple different monuments for different the reasons different, you know, because you know, ground isn't always going to be just dirt. So have multiple different types of them to serve.

So who maintains the LS? you there there you don't specifically but you are in charge of making sure that it's done. Okay. So what goes be I'm the recorder. I don't I'm not certified. I can't go out and survey these but I don't have the equipment. So you have to I don't have the equipment to get the data.

So here we are again. contracting out to have this work done right now. I can tell you that the money that we spent in just my surveyor and then what we got from him is ridiculous. If I can say the amount of money that we're putting into this and where are we? Nowhere. These monuments are getting destroyed daily. And the longer we keep going, the more issues we're going to have. We're already in big trouble, if you will, the way that our county is right now with the PLSS, that it's going to take us years to get back on track. But the sooner that we can start, the sooner the better it is for the county. So to answer your question or and I oversee it by state code if the county does not have full-time surveyor it falls under the recorder but I can only do so much and try and get the data that we have and make that available. But I I don't I'm not certified. I don't have the equipment to go out and locate each section for me. And we're only getting maybe seven to eight monuments per year from my contracted survey.

So, how many are there? So, go ahead and go to the next slide.

Go back. I'll get to that. I have that all. So as the county s as a recorder yes I it falls under me but what what am I doing with this data? It has lacked for so many years. We need to do something now. So going this the surveyor consists of being out every day finding as many monuments as you can replacing as many as you can making the data for these tie sheets that you see on the screen available to the public available to other surveyors making it known what is there in the ground right so this tie sheet up go back so this tie sheet right here this is what is going to be filed [clears throat] or placed on GIS the map to make it available as a PDF along with this tie sheet this is showing the history of the monument showing pictures locations what year the cap was what kind of condition it's in the history when was it when was the stone placed when the stone or was it just a stone when was it replaced to a brass cap and it keeps going anytime that's visited is supposed to be on here. And then following that tie sheet is just the history of the other tie sheets to the field notes to the BLM notes and that's where the section was created. Um so to on that I have gone through and I've gotten all the field notes. I've gotten gone through and I've gotten all the LM notes. Now we're working on putting this on the map as one tie sheet. So the history is there. that takes care of that issue, but it doesn't take care of the issue of what

is out there, right? We're only going off of history from 1800s that what was there, what was placed, [snorts] the next one.

So, back to the GIS. If pls wasn't there, plss wasn't there, GIS wouldn't be able to place this. PLS is used in every direction to place the ownership maps, subdivisions, surveys, tie sheets, data tie into people's properties. Didn't have them. This stuff wouldn't be here. The next one, the common challenges that we are facing today is lost or destroyed monuments, the historical records, um, you know, inconsistent just because we don't have the data that we need. We have data from 20 years ago, but when we get a subdivision in or a description and it's calling off of something totally different than what we're showing, that's an issue. So, how do we place it? the um we have a lot of mountains in Morgan County, so it makes it a lot more difficult to get this data, but it all can be taken care of if we have a surveyor that serves more count. Um you're going to get conflicts between survey evidence. That is a huge thing because we don't have the data. We don't have today's data because we're going off of 20 years ago and we all know it's not the same. It's changed. How many times the money can move? Somebody could have moved it. We don't have the data. Limited funding for corner maintenance is a huge challenge. I am working off of very limited funding and what it's costing me to have our contract surveyor go out is is eating it out and I'm not

getting anything from it. And that's not what we should be doing. It's been going on for far way too long. We should have the amount of money that we have spent. We should have a full board of sections. So why is it not happening?

I can't I I can't answer from 20 years ago. I can't answer what the fire recorder did. I can't ask answer what fire surveyor contracted surveyor did. I'm here telling you what we need to do and what we need to do going forward. Go to the next one. So here mainly is the corner. So currently right now we have about 2574 in Morgan County. We have 123 that we have some data on. It may just be the BLM notes. It may be just the field notes. And then 102 of those monuments are online 100 out of 25.

So are you saying you only know like how many of the 200 2574 do you know their location? 123 or 102 just 102. So where's the 123 coming? I mean if you know where the 102 is what we know we have record of but we don't have positions on to where we can place them on GIS. Okay.

102 is what we have northern and east the coordinates of that monument. We have that so we can place it on GIS. 123 is just the extra that's missing from the two is just filled up. So we don't have enough data to place it. That make sense? Yeah. So you're going to explain the other three.

So total tie sheets we have 317. Again, not all those have data on them. So, do they actually go toward the 123 or are they missing? I mean, do you have the the the monuments missing from those tie sheets? In other words, you've got 317 of them that you've got record of, but they're semi-record of. Do they attach to those 123 or 102 or is it are they I mean 102 from 317 is 200 215. Does that mean those are missing? So monuments.

The monuments in GIS is what we have current what we had when I came into the office. Okay. It's what we have. The habited monuments are the the monuments that we have. All right. Let me back up. The GIS monuments are what we have norling and you need the coordinates so we can place them on the map. The rehabited monuments are the 123 are one, okay, are ones that have been rebuilt, but it's part of the 102. So, you're missing 10 or 20 of them that don't have data to them.

Even though you've got 317, 317 is what we have tie sheets of. So, a piece of paper, this that may have pictures of the monument or it just may have a map. It may just be handdrawn, but we don't have coordinates to place it. We don't have the data to to know if it's there or not. Okay? Does that make sense?

And then the again this is there you're still looking at the 2574 monuments. Really, we only have We know of about 123 monuments that are there, but that's 10 plus years ago. We don't have current data and the seven eight monuments that we're getting from our contracted surveyor, it's nothing. We're losing them. So, I hope this kind of puts it in perspective of what we're dealing with and what we're we're seeing and it's getting worse every year. Do you have any more questions on this?

So, what's your solution? So, go to the next slide.

So, go back. So, this is to kind of show you this is a board in my office and you guys are welcome to come in and see this. This is what we're looking at. This is a board of showing the monuments that we have. Some of green, some of them are we have they're colorcoded ones that we have current data on, ones that were destroyed, ones that we just have record on. You can see missing a lot. So with all of this, how are the surveyors that are out there, how are they making sure that the land is proportioned correctly within the townships and everything else? So

if we don't have monuments, so the as the county, we don't know what's out there, but you have a private surveyor going out and surveying for a subdivision or a survey for just private property. They're getting the data because they're searching for the monument, but that data is not coming to us.

So we're just going off of record to place those. So maybe what we need to do is in combination of what you're going to be proposing probably um is to have the surveyors when they go out to do that, wouldn't it be nice to have them or ask them or make an ordinance where they have to bring us in where the location is and then we can either replace it or or get it correct. That's great and all, but how are we supposed to check it when we don't have the data right now? Well, but that's true. Does that make sense? We have no data to to verify that that is what a surveyor brings in

the there's things there's a a map called bearing sheets. I've heard we have none. They are what provides the distance the bearings and distance from corner to corner. Right.

And that is what we should have. So, when we're getting subdivisions in, we're comparing those bearings because they have to tie to two governmental monuments. We should be able to check the compare those two and see if they're the same. If they're not, it raises red flags. We're very limited on what we can do because I mean I mean, and I'm doing from experience as people as surveyors have come out and done surveys on different lands. Some lands have gone like this and others have increased. And in reality, I mean, you bought like 30 acres and yet you don't have 30 acres because according to that, you've got one monument over here and one monument here and two different surveyors and then in reality they're squeezing you down to now you've only got 25 acres. So, how is that happening?

When you're getting two surveyors involved in one or both of them are coming up with two completely different outcomes, that is outside county that will turn into civil and it's going to be between the two surveyors and the two property owners. We can't do anything until I mean at that point it's just going to go to court. So, we won't be able to do anything until it's decided by a judge. County wouldn't do anything about that as far as that goes. That answer your question? No, I guess I can. We'll let Blaine come and meet with you. I'll come and meet with you. My door is always open.

Okay. This is the point is there's I me coming to you guys and telling you if you have questions come and ask because if you guys aren't asking questions and aren't understanding what us as departments are trying to do and what we're up against, it goes nowhere because here I am up here and I I don't know if this has ever you guys have ever been shown this before. I haven't.

But you guys don't know about it. So, how are you supposed to help me if you don't know about it? So, I I am asking for you guys to listen to this and really take it in of where we are at. The next slide. So this is a a picture of a subdivision new that monument that circles in the middle and then there's a note on the right side of it saying that this section corner is going to be destroyed. It's going to be destroyed and we have no way to go out and get the data from. Why is it going to be destroyed?

Because you're going to have home build a house on top of it businesses. That's a commercial. Well, either way, you're going to have It's a structure. So then So then, so if we've got these monuments, how are we going to get I mean, why are we letting them build structures on top of a I mean, there's got to be some some kind of an ordinance goes and says you cannot build on you've got to leave the monuments where they're at.

No, you can't deny someone from building on top of a monument or destroying a monument. there. If you have the data, if you have the equipment and if you have the crew, if you have the surveyor who can who is certified, they can go out and they can get that position before any development happens and they can place four reference monuments outside of that development to be able for surveyors, anybody to get the data from that one. Oh, so it's so it's so when you say it's being destroyed, it does it's not really being destroyed if you do it correctly.

But at this this this time where we are at right now, it is going to be destroyed because we don't have the equipment. We don't have the resources to go out and get our data. You don't have a way to digitally preserve it and we're not going to get that data back. I thought you we had an a surveyor that could go out and do that. We contract your surveyor. I don't have the budget. That's why I asked that. What does it cost for to re you're maybe looking 15 to two grand for one month? Okay. And so what does it cost to recover that someday? It's going to be a heck of a lot more.

That's what I'm That's what I'm saying. Why? Why do we when we say we don't have the budget? Um if you were to come to us and say we're going to spend 2,000 or 10,000 We probably would find the money, I would think. So, if I can ask you a question, Matt. Okay. When I came into budget and was asking for more money for the PLSS, you questioned it. Okay. And I understand why you guys don't know anything about it. You haven't been brought this ever before. But why are you questioning when you don't know what is really going on? Because we're trying to be good stewards over people's money. That's right. And if we don't know what's going on, then we can't do that.

But now we're looking at things that are getting destroyed that is tying to people's property. This is what holds Morgan County together.

Okay. So, so why Okay, we're updated in ages. We now have GIS. Okay. Why can't the markers be within that map to where it's supposed to have been so that people can follow that? I I mean, but everything's in the sky and in the cloud. Now, I'm just trying to figure out, okay, we've got this landmarker down here. If that landmarker is found, then why aren't we recording it at that point to be able to go and let it be known that this is the spot? It might be on top. A house might be on top of it. But at least we know the spot. So that that way if we ever have to reference it in our GIS maps, it should be able to be there because I know there's a lot of differences between terrain flat and everything else. But you can you can you can give a somewhat of a location of a monument and [clears throat] that's what our map does right now. But it's not accurate. If we don't know that a monument is there, us as the county cannot go there and say this is where it's at.

But we can record it. We have no data. If we don't have But if you found it, if you find it, why can't it be recorded at that point? Who's going to go find it? Well, I'm just saying if Okay, if somebody's building over top of it, they're going to see it. Why can't it be recorded at that point? Because as Morgan County has gone on for years without making this stuff known, making it known that we need to protect these.

Okay. So maybe we need to right now make it I mean not right this minute but you know in the next meeting we need to make it a rule or a code or an ordinance that says you cannot remove any kind of um monuments or you have to verify that those monuments are correct. It's already in state code that a county can make a developer make someone that's just working in the streets pull a permit for these monuments. But that takes care of knowing if something's there or not. But we still run into the issue of how do we get that data? I don't have it. I don't have the equipment. I don't have the staff. I'm not a surveyor. Maybe we should have maybe we should require them to

to provide it. Maybe Sean, walk us through this one that you have up on the screen. So, there's this builder and he's going to build on top of this monument. So, how did you find out about the monument that it was there? Just by getting this. So, this is a new subdivision. We got it. You know, we're we're reviewing these plats. So, we're reading the notes and we seen that they had stated that they're going to be destroying that section. Oh, so they so the builder stated that the monument was there and that's how you found out about it. Yeah. So, if you look in that on the right side in the red box where it's highlighted, that note states that they know that that monument's there and they're going to be

it's going to be and then they have to lay the reference ones now or not. Is that state code or no? If we, it's not us, not state vote, but if we had, you know, if the county had the equipment, the surveyor to go out there, take the the data, the shots on that monument, based reference monuments, and that would Why can't we require them to to cover that cost since they're developing that property? Because these are Morton County's responsibilities. Well, that's what we're doing. as a responsibility. We make the code that says I mean we enact the code that says that they have to let us know.

So real quick going back to what you're saying what you're saying was you find out there's a monument here it's going to get destroyed but you don't have the manpower or the resources to go out there and look at it and put the new reference. At the end of the day I'm not certified. I'm not a certified surveyor. So, I can't. But you're saying you don't have the budget to have somebody do it. But I don't have the budget. Can [snorts] I ask for more? Yes. But that that doesn't take care of this issue.

So, and and maybe because I know we're after our public hearing time and there's probably more discussion to be had here. I I do know when I look when I zoom in, it does say developer must coordinate removal with the county surveyor. Um and and so is that something that can be communicated to the county surveyor to say this is the priority of the pls that we want at this point? And looks like Josh might

I've been texting Mark Miller feverishly to try to get an answer. Um, it would be the developer's responsibility to relocate that monument. We can add that as a stipulation of approval for this subdivision. That I would think it should be on it should just be on everything. Like if it's there, not just this subdivision, but every every subdivision, you know,

or anybody that has it on their property, farmland or whatever it is, if they have one on their farmland, they need to let us know or have it recorded somehow or another. And I know some of them like we ran into the guys were out there and I thought my neighbor I'm like you know you got surveyors down out there and digging in your field and so we drove out there and and they were looking for they said they've been finding monuments 3 ft underneath where it's been piled over and piled over and so your farmer may not even know it's there. That's right. So for to I think as we start to develop and this grows if we can put put that pressure on the developer like look we know it's here somewhere and you need to preserve that you know because like I said they were out there digging with a shovel and he's like well I can tell you where it's at. It's over here. [laughter]

Yeah, Sean Sean's really the first person that since I've been here that's pointed out a marker that's going to be destroyed um going forward. If if he continues to do that, then we can continue to add that in as a stipulation of approval going forward. I think we should. I think so. We need to

also may need to look survey. I know we're out of time, but going forward there's options that that are out there. Working with Josh, having the the monument encroachment permits there, having, you know, MIAs, the monument improvement agreements there. I I I it's worth the discussion to have had, you know, to have for this situation going forward. I'm not asking tonight, but I do need you guys to know that I am going to be asking to have a a full-time surveyor position created to serve Morton County, to serve [snorts] the to take care of these issues, to be able to have that person stand up here and be able to say that we're working on it and be able to certify to his work. So in your

back would you tell them what the survey modified survey came in for summit?

So if as you guys know a couple months ago we had an RFP sent out for the ser the survey work up in Summit County. It came back with we it we had two proposals come back and they the amount was huge. So, we remodified the RFP and we only got one back and we're still sitting at 22,000 for that work to be done. Um, again, if we had a in-house surveyor, we could have had this done a year ago. It's just think those things that are just have in the back of your mind that a lot of issues could go away if we had our own surveyor.

Well, I guess so that goes with all the surveys are we're contracting out. I mean, what are we paying a year for all these surveys that we're doing? And what's that? It's a lot. I don't have the exact number because we looked at that last year or two years ago. Okay. We looked at one potentially getting one uh just to take care of this, but we didn't do it. So, back So, two years ago, we were spending over $100,000 a year on contracting survey. That's when I looked at it. And we were getting $40,000 from the state and now it's down to what 25,000 or so from the state to put in these monument markers and all the other budget. So I mean that was a long time ago.

Sure. I mean two years ago was a long time got any cheaper. So my question then for you is is what's the difference then if we go and have an elected position of a surveyor which is what you know the state would like us to have versus hiring a surveyor. So kind of if you can give us your opinion on that the difference between an elected and just a surveyor. There is no difference really. Okay. They're both certified. They're both licensed. The whole point of it is just to get a licensed surveyor in house to serve the county to take care of. Would you rather have an elected or would you rather have a point?

It doesn't matter to me. I'm just these issues and they're out of my hands. I can only do so much. I just know that there's a lot of issues and whatever you as commissioners decide to do when I ask that's up to you. But I would like your guys' support. Okay. I appreciate you bringing it up. RFP for the proposal. It did not make it on the agenda. Um I will Is that one in here?

No. No, it's not. It did not make it on the agenda. But there is one more thing, a contract at the very end of this presentation. I need to ask for an approval and for you guys to sign this contract before January one in the budget. This is for us to uh move to enterprise. It's a mapping with GIS. We are currently with Ezri. Now we are moving to enterprise which now opens up the doors for all the departments to even work closer. I asked it in the budget give it to you

a while ago. Um, I just need signatures so I can submit it. If we waited till after January 1, we would be charged our current license plus this one. Okay. So, we put it into the budget, right, this year? Yes. Okay. Just need a signature so we don't get charged. Have we gone and have we approved it then? We we had, but we will when we do the budget. the contract.

So, we need to vote on it tonight. Did we get other bids or does it fall under an exception for bids? These are the same people that were working there currently. We're just moving licenses. We're just upgrading licenses. Oh, that makes sense. Okay. So do we have to have a we need a motion a motion to what? Just to sign it approve the to approve this approve this contract. We had already approved it. We approve we put it in our budget. We haven't approved it.

Okay. I move that we approve S E SRI for this three-year budget amount of $90,000 $90,600 um to be put in our budget. Is it for the next three years or just you're just approving the contract? The contract. In that case, we approve the contract, however you want to say it. Okay. Okay. And the contract does have a provision that if funding isn't available for government entities that as long as you let them know before the next year starts that it doesn't have to be three years.

All right. So then I move that we approve the budget item for ESRI for them to continue their work. The contract of contract. The contract. I'll second it. Okay. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Ferrell and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? I

real quick, Sean. Hey, as I travel around the state to different meetings, um, multiple recorders have pulled me aside and said, "Do you realize that Morgan County has one of the best recorders in the state? Do not take him for granted. So, don't leave us. You're doing awesome stuff. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, we're going to jump back real quick to public hearing on F2. I'll if you can make a motion to go into public hearing.

So, um, chair, if we can do F5 first. This is the one that's supposed to be as close to six as we can and then we do F2 after. That'd be that'd be great. Thanks. All right. Okay. I move we go in. We not yet. Go ahead. Good evening, commissioners.

Our first public hearing will be um per Utah State Code 176641. We are required to hold a public hearing on county executive offer officer wages. Um they are in the packet. Will you go a little bit farther, Garrett? Right there. So, that's what we need to hold a public hearing on and then we will hold the public hearing on our budget.

Do you have any questions? Yes, we we um we all were wondering how these got set because we approved colas, but nothing ever else was brought before the commission. So, we're So, you approved how these numbers got you approved a merit plan quite some time ago. We can't hear you, Mike. You're really broken up. Try again, Mike.

Now we can't hear you at all. [laughter] You got to start again. Start over. You're cutting out bad. right now barely

in between sentences. So, while we're waiting on Mike, so he and I I I what I'm hearing from Mike is is he has cola plus 2%. Correct. And so, I was kind of going through my notes. The elected official for the elected department. That was the electives. So, my notes from September 5th say electeds would get a 4% increase. Commission would get a 2% increase.

That's my notes that I wrote that that night. And I asked the treasurer for her notes as well. Her notes match my notes. Same exact thing. And I and I started texting Mike because I was going through my notes and last year I wrote it down in the binder and this year I was trying to type and I didn't get as good a notes. So I texted Mike and he was going and that's what he was trying to say. He's like he had the 4% in his notes as well. Basically they're they're getting the 2% like everybody else and then they're getting a 2% on top of that. Correct. So further the discussion I remember is because the electeds don't have we don't follow under the merit policy right we don't have a department head that can recommend a wage for us

and so that's where you came up with we'll do 2% for basically merit I guess if you want to call it that and 2% for cola now the rest of the employees on that list if they are a department head that's how they came up with that increase was through the merit program. So that's their Casey is that their 2% cola plus whatever their merit was. Is that correct? Okay. So you're saying that like for instance recreation director based up on her evaluation she gets the cola and then that half a percent. Is that correct?

Mhm. [clears throat] So, she's only getting a 2.5% increase overall. Okay. Okay. So, this is the total increase. 3%, 4%, 2 and a half, whatever. I got these numbers from Casey. So, yes. Okay. So, case and Kate was the person that evaluated that or if she's over that department. Yes. Okay. So, in your sheet and I'm going to ask this to Casey. So, you might want to come up. You're on you're on paternity.

I don't know if I can ask that. Whose name did we say? We haven't said a name. Nobody else. She's just saying make sure we recreation. We just said recreation. You said recreation. Okay. Thank you. And and maybe I can also say I think Kate evaluated everyone um except I think the sheriff chief deputy would fall under an elected but everyone else it looks like is a department. Okay. So my question is is on our other sheet that you sent to us yesterday um the percentages don't match.

Yeah. So the the reason is because I did it based on a calculation of what their actual would be and divided by or minus what their current is divided by the actual and Excel rounded down. So if it's a 1% Excel said it's a.9999% because you're rounding to the nearest cent and so technically you'd have to go six digits past the scent to get that full 1%. But I didn't want We don't do pennies anymore. Exactly. And so so I think the one what we noticed is like all the twos were 1.96.

Yeah. So so it's it's just around it how it rounds. It's just that's the way Excel did it. And so that's I mean technically this is rounded and that one is rounded. They're just rounded how it it comes to it in the the formula I did it based on this and that. So okay. So then when you get I'll have to get to it and you'll just have to explain it. Which page was it on? Oh, it was on the different one. Okay. So, when you're getting the 1.96, but three 3.85, is that really a 4%? 4%. Yeah.

Okay. So, you're going to go through and fix those. So, so when I put it in into my Excel spreadsheet, like I said, it rounds to the nearest I I think I rounded it to the nearest uh dollar and I rounded down. So, if it was like uh $50, 2022 48, uh it would be $50,26. So, that percent is just because of the the cents in it and because I just want to make sure that we give them if we agree. Yeah.

No. And and it is it's it's rounded. It's rounded where um it should be like I said, it would just have to go down to like the seventh decimal point if you wanted to get the perfect 2%. It's just because it's um it's so close. and and so if I I wanted to give you um up to two decimal points so that instead of doing rounding to no decimal points because then it would have put a 2.5% up to a three and so I needed to have the 2.5 in there but with that it then went instead of the full 1% it went.9 96% so

so okay I got that I just have one other question on another employee and we can discuss if you want separately, but uh this employee has has worked here for more than a year and yet a new hireer is coming in and is getting the exact same salary. Is there a reason for that discrepancy? I'd have to look and and you can we can kind of chat about that depending on who it is. Um because I just want quality. Yeah, for sure. you know, one way or another, I want to [clears throat] have it for all employees whether or not they're and that's why we ask for this information even even though I kind of ruined some people's Thanksgiving

and part of that could be that that's what the market dictates because the the point of a cost of living adjustment is to be with market and so certain part-time employees that are getting just the cost of living and not so much the uh or not the merit are you're going want to see people come in at the a similar wage because that's what the market dictates and that's what we have as a minimum um because they're not getting merit increases.

Okay, any other questions? And then just to so I was texting Mike. He's driving through a snowstorm. That's why he was cutting in and out. And he says he heard what we were talking about and he agreed with I didn't want to put words in his mouth but he says yes in his notes he did have he wanted to clarify that. So well and I was trying to think because I was like I knew the commission was only getting 2%. And so I was like I said I was trying to type notes last year. I wrote it in the binder but it was great not to carry the giant binder but my notes were not as good as I was hoping they were. So glad we didn't have it this year. Yeah. [laughter] So I appreciate too. Okay. Yes.

I appreciate everything you guys did. Even though it didn't sound that way. Okay. Motion. Yeah. Go ahead. You do it. No. Railen was going to. So I was like, Railen, go ahead and make that motion. I move we go into public hearing. A second. Second. Either one of you by favor I I back with us. Okay,

we'll turn the time over to the public if anybody would like to come forward. Okay, seeing no public comment, I'll look for a motion. I move we go out of public hearing. Second. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Blocker and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I I opposed. Okay. Okay. Now I'm here seeking approval of more. Can we do these both at once? Do we need a vote or do we need to vote on this one right now?

So they should be done separately. So, I'll introduce the budget and then we'll hold up budget hearing.

Um, seeking approval of Morgan County's 2026 budget. Our uh budget process began back in August. Requested budgets were submitted by August 20th. Work sessions were held September 3rd, 4th, and 5th where department heads and elected officials met with you and discussed their budget requests. You then recommended budgets for each department. There was a 12% increase in medical insurance and a 4% increase in dental insurance. For your information, we currently have 75 full-time employees and 42 part-time employees. The tenative budget was then approved by you on October 28th per state code. The budget hearing notice was published and posted. The budget was ready for public inspection on November 20th. Morgan County is not asking for a tax increase for 2026. We will be taking some fund some fund balance money to balance certain budgets. I just appreciate the departments who requested conservative budgets. It's super hard to run on a tight budget. This definitely helps us be fiscally responsible. We are doing our best to conserve with taxpayer dollars. Do you have any questions about the budget?

I don't. You like Clargov? You want to stay with Claregov? I love it. Great. I like it. Yeah. Thanks. Good to know. I just got to type faster my notes. [laughter] Yeah. Don't go back to the other. What a binder. Good to know that you like it. Yes. [laughter] Okay. So, we do that one first. So, let's vote on the first one and then then I'll open it up for then we'll ask for public. So, you don't need to vote on the the increases for Okay. We just because it's included in the budget. We just have to hold a public hearing. All right. So now you just need to do a motion to either Well, actually, you got to hold a public hearing. Public hearing. Then you [clears throat] can make a motion if you So I'll look for a motion to go into public hearing.

Mr. Chair, I move that we go into public hearing. Second. Was that Commissioner Ferrell? Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay, we're now in public hearing, if anyone would like to come forward and speak on the budget. Okay, seeing no public comment on the budget, um I'll look for a motion. Mr. Chair, I move that we close the public hearing. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? Hi.

Hi. Hi. Okay. If there's no questions for Lesie, then which I didn't hear any, can I get a motion for budget approval? Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the 2026 uh Morgan County budget. Okay. Say the resolution or not? Oh. Oh, sorry. Resolution CR-25-58. I'll second it. I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I. Any opposed?

Okay. Motion is unanimous. Thank you, Leslie, for all your hard work. I know that's a lot. You can go home and sleep like a baby tonight. Now you can breathe. Thank you. Wish I could, but So, I'm going to be filling in for Kate a little bit here. Um, on Well, do you want to do this now or do you want to do something else? I guess I should ask you that. Uh, the changes. Are you looking at 5C for this year? I can wait. If you want this for this year, not for

these are mixed together. So, there's some 26, there's some 25. I think it would be easier just to go page by page. Is it going to change next year's budget? Some of them. Yes. I thought we just approved it. Well, we did, but you know how the budget is. It's constantly in changing. So, if you want to wait, I I'm good to hang out while if you want to handle other stuff. I'm Should we do the last public hearing and then we have two more public hearings, but I'm I'm here. So, if you want to You're fine. Okay. Let's Let's finish up where we started then. Let's go back to F two and I'll look for a motion to go into public hearing. Move

that we go into public hearing. Second. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Ferrell and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. We're now in public hearing to just for refresher a discussion on the water element update to Morgan County general plan. So invite anybody to come forward that would like to speak to that. Okay. Seeing none, I will look for a motion to go out of public hearing. So moved. Second.

Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Facel and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I I any opposed? Motion's unanimous. Okay. F Oh, I'd like need a motion on that. The approval of that water element update. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the emergency amendment of the water element um CO-25-22. Okay. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I.

I. Are there any opposed?

Okay. Motion carries. Okay. F6. Josh. Uh the state legislature. Um it was either uh this year or the previous year. Uh thought it would be a good idea to change title 17 in relation to um land use and zoning and other stuff which basically me makes every um [clears throat] notation in our code that references the title 17 obsolete. Um, so, uh, this text amendment is to renumber our code. We've gone through and we've identified most of the section 17 that's in the table there and where it's found in our code. Um, we're still busy cross referencing and making the numbering changes. Um but because of deadlines and um planning commission schedules and things like that, uh we wanted to get this on in front of you uh to get approval to move forward with the reing. Um, and so the motion that we've uh put together covers it and makes it so that we can make additional changes in the future to the numbering if we find additional references that we've missed and consider those as scrier errors. I have some questions, but these different codes that we're wiping out, I mean, we're not wiping them out. We're just giving them a new number. Is that correct?

We're making no substantive changes at all. So, in our code, you'll find references to title 17. Like in 31.01, you'll find a reference for 17-16-6. Well, 17-16-6 no longer links to the section of code that we're trying to talk about in 3101. So, we're changing the numbering to what the state legislature changed it to. So, it's not doing anything different.

There is nothing in this text amendment that actually substantively changes anything. We're just taking out the old number that the state statute is referenced as and putting in the new state statute reference. That is all. I I've noticed one thing like if you go to the state and you try to use some of those old numbers, they don't take anywhere. It's just like it doesn't exist anymore. Yeah. So, I could see it becoming a major problem. It's going to be a few like what a nightmare, you know? Not only that, but I I was talking to the county attorney earlier today in our meeting and um he has a theory that this might affect some of the um some of the different It's an internal theory though. [laughter]

Yeah, it's an internal theory. So I won't go is that called a conspiracy theory. Yeah, but you know we all know that there's the difference between fact and conspiracy is only about three months. So [laughter] So has been true especially this time of year. So when you're talking about substantive, are you changing those other than numbering? No. No. Okay. Just so because I know that in 30 31-1 and 31- a bunch 30-1 and a bunch of those, they pertain to a lot of things here. And are we changing any of those codes? Are they staying the same? The only thing we're taking out is the 27 the 17-16-6 is this one example. And we're going to put in the new number. And I don't know the new number off the top of my head.

Okay. So, which one was that? Let me get back to it. It's the one right under title. So, the state code isn't changing either unless they unless the legislaturator's changing it. We're not changing anything in our codes. We're just changing our references to the state codes.

So, often the legislature, they'll say, "I'm just, you know, we're just going to renumber this because we prefer this number or something." And then they'll change it. But all of our if all of our code is citing old state codes, then it's not helpful to our residents applicants that are moving things through Josh's office because then we're citing them to obsolete code references. We've done this with multiple ones this last few years. The document stays the same. Um to change I mean we can go ahead and change the numbers. I'm just hoping that we're not changing any parts of the code. Well, we didn't we didn't advertise or notice it that we were changing anything but the numbers.

Okay. So, it would be illegal for us to go back and change other things. Well, if we're going to change the text, it actually has to come here to change the text. This is just rening. So, you can actually find your information. And the planning commission did recommend approval.

All right. to give to Commissioner Fel that fe ordinance that was in the signature packet showed the old number it was good and then all the numbers new reings went into effect November 6 of this year and so the fee ordinance that they passed had both if you if you'd like a contextual visual of what that looks like. Well, that's what I was looking at. Like 17-16-6, which in our code section was 31.01. Um, I looked that one up and I I didn't know that we were going to change anything within it except the number.

Just the number. Okay. And Kate, are you referencing a fee ordinance from a prior meeting? Is the state number? Okay. So res approving like the conservation district and the board everything in section 17 or like put code 17 blah blah blah if I were to type in that code and it was before November 6 that code pulls up nothing because it got okay so we're basically just following the state codes numbers. Okay. Thank you.

Our ordinance code, our county code so that our citizens don't have to do the we have to do when we when we pull the you have to have like you have 17 blah blah blah for according to code right now. take a look at our county code and we reference that code. It's going to pull up a code that is nothing. So, we need to reumber it so our citizens can pull up the new code. The state did not change the wording of the code. They only remembered it and we just need to match the new number from the state code to the county code. So, so,

so Blaine, uh, Commissioner Ferro, on the screen,

I'm I'm on the Utah legislative website and I was trying to go into 1727 A608 that's talking about a subdivision amendment. If I go in Well, I'll just open it again. Oops. So if I go into the code, I go 17278, I can't even find a part 6 at all to find 608. So then I type it into this historical code and it says that it was rem reumbered on uh November 6th of this year to 1779. So that's where I have to go to find the prior 1727A 608.

Okay, does that make sense? So, it didn't it's not amending the subdivision amendment code at the state level. They just reumbered it to make it harder. That's what I needed to know because if we're going in and changing all these codes without us having two weeks to look at them at least, we're just changing code citations to the state code. We're not changing any codes. Okay? And the way we've written the motion is so it covers any that we may have missed because it has been a quick turnaround. So we don't have to come back if we unless we decide we want to change that for our whatever benefit. Well, then it would start the process over and we go back to planning commission. Okay.

Except some of them shouldn't even be in planning. So this this this motion allows us it makes it a little bit fluid so we can add the things that we've missed. Yeah. If we find any other references in our code, we can just make those changes and um update them with And so our code numbers are going to be the 155 or they going to be the 17- whatever. So our code numbers are always the 155 but the state code and so the county code is going to be the 155 whatever state code will be 17-

okay. So are you our code is not our main code sections that are shown on the right are not changing at all. That's merely to show how many references to title 17 are in those code sections that we found. So we're going to still have 30 01 300 those aren't changing. Okay, so the number of those was still the same. 31.01. Okay, 31.01 as an example references 17-16-6. All right, you got it. Okay, I got it. You got it. [laughter] Any other questions? No. Okay,

Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the Utah code title 17 update code text amendment based on the findings listed in the memorandum dated December 2nd, 2025. This approval covers the changes currently proposed and also authorizes correction of any scriveners errors, minor technical errors or omitted references that may be discovered during continual staff review. Any future minor adjustments of this nature shall be considered scriveners correction. Hang on. Hang on here. Don't we have to We have to have a public hearing. Sorry. Thanks. Yeah. So that all again. I got halfway through it and you stop. [laughter] I was looking at it, too. As soon as he finished, I just I just was thinking, didn't Lesie say wait for the next public hearing? I move we go into a public hearing.

Why would we have to have a public hearing? Why don't you follow the code? This says it right there. I I know it says it, but I'm I didn't read that part. Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson, a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor to what? To go into public public hearing. I I Any opposed? Okay, we're now in public hearing. If any of the public would like to comment on the um title 17 code update that the state has mandated. Please. And I don't Okay, I'll look for a motion. Seeing none, I move we go out of public hearing. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Blocker and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I

I I. Any opposed? Okay. All right, Bon. Take two. Oh, I was going to say you want somebody else want to read that? No, you you've got it memorized now. [laughter] I don't think

I'll probably I probably can't even read this. [snorts] Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the Utah code title 17 update code text amendment based on the findings listed in the memorandum dated December 2nd, 2025. This approval covers the changes corre currently proposed and also authorizes correction of any scrier's errors, minor technical errors or omitted references that may be discovered during continual staff review. Any future minor adjustments of this nature shall be considered scrier's corrections and shall not require further county commission review and do not substant substantively alter the intent of the amendment. Okay.

Second. Just a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I I I I. Any opposed? I'm going to start using that scrivener's corrections. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks, Josh. Okay, go ahead, Lesie. And we'll let you finish up so you can go have a good night. keep going on. I can just wait till the end if I'm fine with that. Okay. All right. Okay. Kimberly, you ready?

So, um, with F7, this is something that Kimberly has talked to Janet and I about there. There was a cash handling policy that was put into the packet, but I think that there's a few more things that we're trying to work out. And so, if we could just get this postponed to the December 16th meeting. Okay. We'll look for a motion on that. Move that we postpone item F7 discussion on cash handling policy till December 18th. 16th 16th 16th of this year. Okay. Second.

Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Ferrell and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I I any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Okay, F8, IFAC grant application. So, uh, this was prepared by Janet and I guess also a huge shout out to Janet. I didn't say this at the beginning of the meeting, but she helped pull this packet together as well and did a really good job and make sure

she said she never wants to again. I don't know that she wants to again, but I think it also goes to a shout out to Kate of what she does, you know, every other week because we're trying to get all these items through. So, thank you to both of them.

No, [laughter] that's not a decision she can make. So, um, but I think she's on the same page as I am as well. So anyway, with this IFAC, I think I don't know if you have any questions about the memo just to introduce it. There was an application made. It was very focused on uh public private partnership. Um and and it's it's limited in what it can do for the county. There's also some concerns with UD do's participation. And I know I wasn't at the meeting when it was discussed. Um after I would recommended we reach out to UDOT and see if we can get anything in writing or perspective from them. Um, all that being said, the recommendation from the attorney's office at this point is to look take a deeper dive into what we can do to have more of a benefit to the county and if we apply to just reapply next year just be just because there were some deadlines that were coming up. It wasn't approved for application. The application that went in wasn't as county focused as it could have been. And now we and we don't have uh agreement from all of the stakeholders that own property subject to the application. And so at this point that's the recommendation, but there's a memo here and hopefully I can answer any questions.

So you're basically saying you don't want us to do enter into this agreement. I'm recommending that if we do it that we do it appropriately as far as getting commission approval ahead of time before the deadline for the grant that someone from the county is the one that makes the application um or someone that's authorized by the county makes the application and that when the application is drafted it has more of a a county benefiting focus. And so that would not happen until next year because the deadline's already passed for this year.

So, so this that has happened, we have been approved on a short list for this grant according to what we heard two weeks ago or a month ago, whenever it was. So, is that not true? It was based upon representations that all of the stakeholders were involved and UDOT is not involved in this and to my knowledge hasn't um been in touch with anyone at the county a million bucks to help us with that area down there.

It doesn't help with the area. It helps with planning the area out. But as a public private partnership, it it's mainly opening up public funding or or low funding to private people as if they were the government and that's what requires the partnership. But my understanding cuz I did meet with UD do ahead of time and they said they're not in favor of it, but there was more information that needed to be gathered. My understanding was if there was anything involved in if they were to turn over maintenance or ownership of the asset in that area that they wouldn't want it back. And so now we have the maintenance going forward. And so at the end of the day, I'm recommending and and Janet, you know, based on our conversations would also recommend that we don't do it this year and that we actually look at it in depth and come up with a good solution for next year.

Will it be there next year? Yeah. Okay. I just don't want to see us get put behind further and further and further. It's not a one-time grant. It's been going on for years and years. But I just don't want to see us get behind. And I know that the Mountain Green area needs to develop in the way they want to develop. And if this is a help for us to do that because we haven't set aside any money to do it and I'm just worried if we're going to be behind another 10 years. Well, let me ask what's your understanding of what the IFAC can actually do for that area? Help in planning. Okay. And that's the biggest thing

planning for what in particular for the future development of Mountain Green. Okay. Future development of Mountain Green and for the future development and and the benefit of the county, right? So, we want to look at maximizing those dollars, whatever they are, right?

The the biggest issue right now though is I've seen the emails with the person that's saying, "Hey, if we can get XYZ, then we can move you forward." And part of that XYZ is a partnership with UD do or their sign off or something. And any indication that we say to them, yes, we're going to partner with them or we have a partnership or whatever is a misrepresentation. And and so until that happens, we can't move forward. And my understanding based on my discussions with UDOT is they have no interest at the meeting on October 21st. My understanding is that there would be some contact with UD do. I don't know if that was ever made uh at the October 28th meeting. I was not in town and so I don't know what was discussed there

by the submitter. Was that by the submitter? A more contact by the submitter by by the county by the county. Yeah. Who? And we did um and they came back with that explanation that they were zero interested. I passed that on to the applicant who was on the county and they stated that they'll just call the head of that and you speak more into your

I wasn't saying anything. [laughter] So what you're saying, Garrett, is we do not want to turn this application in as a county because it's [clears throat] misrepresenting UD do when you do DOT did not come into agreement. So we don't want to falsify this application. Exactly. It makes the county look bad.

It's falsified at this point, which I think limits our options in the future if they say, "Okay, we've we've been waiting for you to get this documentation. there's representations made that something is going on, but every time so and and based on what Kate just said, anytime someone from the county has reached out to you do, there has been no interest in being involved. They don't have a lot of interest in other things, too.

So, so are do we just I I'm confused on the is there any decision to be made here or motion to be made here or do we just let this die? We might not even get it. Is that what you're saying? Well, I I think Yeah, there's no motion to be made. I think that the assignment or what I Okay,

so the last time this was on the commission agenda, the commission stated that they wanted to be and that they wanted to make a decision on if they want to move forward with it before we found out we were awarded. Okay. Okay. and but I'm getting a text from Janna as well. And I think that one second, Mike. I I think it would be important to make a motion to withdraw the application as the county never filed it anyway, but just to put on the record, we didn't authorize the filing of the application and our position is that it should be withdrawn.

Go ahead, Mike. I Mr. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion that we withdraw the IP application that was submitted on behalf of the county but without the county permission. I'll second. Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Newton, a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. So, are we going to do anything about this next year?

I I think we should I think we should look into, you know, and and follow the proper channels and look into what is really the benefit, how can we use this money and really have a plan going forward because if we can get UD do on board with it, that gives us that much more credibility. Why do you think UDOT is not on board? So I think it comes down to they they don't think that the

Yeah, you've had a more recent conversation with them. Thank you. Their concern was more a concern on our part because they they didn't really grasp that they would have to give up the infrastructure to the county and we would be responsible for it and they know the cost of maintaining that intersection. Um and then that might make it to where our whole plan for the inter is messed up also because now there's an additional partner into where that interchange is supposed to go. Um that's so it would almost restart the interchange process. So that was the two biggest concerns were more concerns on us not understanding the legal effect of what would happen should we go through with this application and the county support and request you guys to give them that property. So is that is that by by accepting the grant um that they have to give up that property and we would have to accept it or or that's just what they're saying. So

that's part of the grant. That's part of the grant. Okay. All right. Well, we don't want that. We definitely don't want that. Well, so what so what would change that we would want it next year? I guess that would be my next question from the county.

Okay.

Okay. All right. Understood. Understand why the applicant put it in there as a because it does us for this application higher on the rankings because then it directly ties us to the um snow basin and the upcoming Olympics which put sorry the application higher ranking however

yeah well with Janet maybe I'll just jump in, Kate. So, so Janet, one of Janet's conclusions was that if we withdraw and reapply next year, then it's a county-driven application that could focus on some of the public needs like a county asset inventory, corridor safety, condition assessments, staff training, formal coordination with UD do and UTA and and so and I just have to hand it to Janet. She dove into this really deep and I can't speak in as much depth, but she says there are some benefits to the county that it wouldn't impact UDOT in the maintenance and and some of those things. And um maybe what we could do is have her present at one of these meetings and just give a summary of here here's what we could do and this is what the process would look like and the deadlines for application. But but we can apply again if there's an outstanding application. And if we have an outstanding application that doesn't have all the stakeholders on board, then it prevents us from reapplying.

Okay. All right. Sounds good. Thank you for all that work. That was a lot lot. Thank you, Janet. She's a good one. Janet and Kate. Okay, we will move to F9. Morgan County Bo E. Guess we have to move into Yeah. Take a break. Well, it's going to We're going to be standing here for a while. Do you need to I don't right now, but I might take a break in the middle. Who knows?

So, do we have to move into BOE? Yeah. Well, do we have Yeah, we'll have to move into BOE, right? first talk about it. Okay. Yeah. I move that we go into BOE. I guess resolution 25-7. Just just uh convene as a board of equalization. So close meeting. I move that we convene the board of equalization. Second. Okay. Have a motion by Commissioner Ferrell and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? Hi. Hi. Okay, we are now a board of equalization.

Do we look any different?

I I know. I'm helping Leslie out. Um she uh she just needed some help going through this. So that's why I am standing here is with her. Uh we also we need to kind of discuss on why we're doing this separately. uh why it's maybe changing a little bit, but the hearing officer recommendations um are something that you guys also need to approve. If we go with the just so that we're kind of aware of how it works, but um what the hearing officer recommendation states um if we as the board of equalization, if you go through with that and you approve that, then that's what we would change the values to um to the county. and so decide to go to the uh state, they still have that opportunity to go to the state. So, we just wanted to make that kind of clear first. Um, one thing that I tried to do just because of what the sheer mass that we're going through thing is is if anything is changed as the assessed value over a million dollars, it has to have its own agenda item. So, that's why there's so many of them as well. But, let's go through. I made a Excel sheet just so that it's easier for you commissioners to understand. So it's that one that has the blue on the top. Garrett, will you

So is this the same one that we went through last? The first one actually that's all the ones that you approved this last So then why did we have to go into an extra meeting that we did not have to approve something because we did something wrong last time? Cuz you're ahead of the game. We're not. That's actually So, this is We're We're going to repeat over it. No, this is the the agenda that we went through last time. So, we need this page. It's the next one down. There you go. That's the one we need. And good luck anyone reading that cuz I can barely read it. All right.

On my page. So, the first section that we have it is starts with the blue and it has I guess the first one would be anti and financial. All of those are ones that the hearing officer has heard. Um, the ones in the green, so uh, Rebecca London's and then Soderby LLC, they I placed them in green because they stipulated with the value that was explained to them with the hearing officer. So, they're the ones that stipulated. Everything else did not stipulate. So, they have the appeal right to be able to go to the state. Um there was only three changes. One, two, three, four changes. So where you see in the pink um I did do the differences of what that mark this is all market value. So we need to be aware that it is all market value that we're talking and discussing. Um those are the the changes that were made by the commissioners from the assessed value in 2025 market value. So you can see that right next to the two orange uh lines and then the hearing officer went with the value that is represented on his column. So there is three basically changes. The rest of them were basically stated that they would stay the same value as the assessed value. So that's the first section.

Okay. So Okay, that's the very first section. up to the next blue line. Correct.

So, those do not need to be individually done even though two of them are over a million dollars or actually there's quite a few over a million dollars. No, they're not. They're actually the difference officer recommendation. The very first one is 1.170 million. Okay. That's not the market value. It's the change that happened. If it's over a million dollar change, the purple column, Commissioner Fackerel, is pink or purple. Yep. Okay. I'm just trying to understand it better is all So that's the where the difference in the market value is. So the first line, uh, Commissioner Ferrell, it says 19,000. So that's the change that was made was 19,000 lower.

Correct. lower. So this other one, the next next third one down, 828,000 lower. Yep. And that is because it is also uh green belt property. That was on that one. Actually, no, excuse me. That was the house that is the Fernwood LLC um 44 100 West Ranch Boulevard. So, we went through that boulevard. That one was we had it assessed at 4.9 and uh we went he went down to the county stipulated said that they would go to 4.1

and so that is what the recommending officer said to do. That is what he is recommending that we approve. Yes. So he did not No, they have not stipulated this value on the Fernwood. No. So does that so does that mean they have the right to go to the appeals board still exactly at the state? So anything that's not in the green or the yellow like bright yellow those are the ones that stipulated that they're done they've closed the BOE process

everything else that's open yeah everything else is open to still go to the to the state. So where it says no stipulation they cannot it's saying are they going to the state no slash they stipulated. So the question at the top of the column says going to state question mark and so it's saying no they stipulated not going to the state because so it doesn't mean no stipulation. It says no they're not going to the state because they stipulated.

So basically they did not get a reduction or they did get that 50% reduction. They did not get the reduction because there's no so where the difference is see how it's all negatives in the red. I'm having a hard time understanding. You've got a pellet opinion or value is 50%. So that's what they were asking for. Okay. The next column is saying this is what the hearing officer recommend was the recommendation 420. Then you'll say whether it's stipulated or not. And then you'll go to the next column and it will say that this is the market value. The market value is the exact same value as what the hearing officer is valuing. So there's no difference in the red.

So basically theirs is totally saying the assistant did a great job. No, but Pat myself, right? No. No. It's just basically saying that you know what the recommendation is that we're not we're just going to stipulate to that and they didn't find evidence of why the assessed value should be different. Okay. So, that's kind of the first section that I just want you guys to look over. Um, if there's anything on there that we need to discuss or if there's something that you do not want to go with, the value that you do not want to go with with the hearing officer that is your right as the board of equalization to deny that

on this first section on the first. Yeah, we've got to keep it in sections because Well, I personally think between you and the hearing officer, we should have a correct amount at least in and there's really not like a huge difference between the market value and the hearing officer. I mean it's

and things that you have to realize there is there is changes that didn't make you know that were made but it is coming from that there was a a reason of why we we made the difference and why we did um for example like the Fernwood one we are still in a 20 24 um state appeal and so what we decided as the assessor's office we assessed it and then We went through and put it as the last appraisal that we had had uh for 2024 and say until the state cuz if he goes to the state then they can decide whether they go up or down with that value.

So now they could that Fernwood could possibly have a they're still waiting on 24 now they'll be waiting on 25. How long can they drag this out? Forever. Forever. Every year you have the opportunity to appeal to the board of equalization. Okay. So it can it can prolong itself until it cleans itself up. And so these the purple is what the difference is going to be. Yes. And that is the market value, not the taxable value, not the taxes. Right. So that one at Ridge Cottonwoods LC,

that one actually is um uh that was the one that I was saying that was a green belt. That was a green belt value that we adjusted. the other one. No, the top one. Okay, let's go down. We'll just go down the So, the first one was actually a home and then there's nothing. And then the next one is a home. Uh the next one is a home and then the last one is actually green belt land property and it is right above the Cottonwoods. So, we adjusted that value down about 600 well 644 661. So the one that is the ridge at Cottonwoods LC what's that one 644 that was that's the green belt

that's the green belt value so it's market yeah just just that one okay so I'll have to ask these later I guess Mr. Yes. Yes. Mike,

I was just going to say I agree with your assessment that between the county assessor and the DOE hearing officer. I trust their judgment. I mean, they're they're the experts that that do this from day to day. I don't know how the commission would know any better than them. I would I would be ready to just make a motion to approve all of all of these as as they currently are. You mean in the top section? Okay. I I will take that motion. I'll second it. Is that in this top section? The whole thing or just the top? Just the top section. You have to do We have to do those individually. The other ones. All right. Thank you. Is that the CR25-07?

Yes. Okay. Do you want to say that Mike? CR2507 BOE. Include that in your motion. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton, second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay.

Ready for the second section? So, these are the ones that we have to do individually. um to be able to go through the process. These are ones that are over basically a million dollars in change or a difference that they make. So the first one, the pain real uh real estate investment. Um there were actually Do you want me to kind of go over how because these are WPR? Yes. Do

you want me to go over how this worked? Okay. So, uh, we assessed, we had some sales that we would have talked about. We had some sales that we had for the county. So, as the assessment came, we placed a market value. We have a few homes that are now in the WPR. We have a few of them that are at 100% now. So, we placed a market value with the improvements on them. Um after we started with the appeal process, we found out that there were um information that we found from the appraisals that were given through the um through the appeal process as well as with dealing with attorneys um from other places for the WPR as well as um appraisers enlightenment of maybe how they're assessing things and how they would change values. uh we realized that maybe we could adjust some of the improved part of where we're sitting uh as the county. So once these assessments were made, we went together as uh Mitch and I as appraiser and we re-evaluated everything to make it so that not only is it equitable around the Wasatch Peaks Ranch, that they were comparable to them, but it was fair and equitable not only to the county, but also to the WPR residents that are in the WPR pit. So, uh, what we were looking at is each individual one, the ones that we're looking at in this middle section. They are all of the improved values that we have had. So, these are things that are not only in progress of being built. Um, we only have a few of them that were 100%. So, these are percentage complete uh still new growth coming uh that will come for 2026 year. So this is a little

bit of a learning curve and trying to realize number one without uh correct data of sales because we don't have any sales um that have not been disclosed. It's kind of one that we start out with. It is 36% complete. Um we did make an adjustment on it from a it was a it's a lot value and that was 36% complete with the improvement and so the difference is $2.8 million difference. So the hearing officer as well as the assessor came to the value of uh 4,593,674 for the first one. Um when we get them to be more at 100% we will be able to re-evaluate these a lot better too to be able to get them to a market value that is more representative of where they need to be. You want me to go down the whole line of those?

So the things just so you guys can see. Um, so the Neville Living Trust, same thing, was was actually only 8% complete and so there was a about a million dollar adjustment, a little over a million dollar adjustment. Um, the 5961 North Roer Drive LLC, that one ended up to be a three million uh $3.4 million adjustment. It was 45%. Um the one that is John Wagner, he had his home at 100%. Um and that one we actually did adjust. We did adjust it uh 3.9% going down to the 8.7. The C10 LLC we went from about 2.2 two at 95% adjustment and that was at 95% and then the last one that's on there was just a lot value that stipulated. So it went from um 3.2 million to 2.5 million. So there was a smaller adjustment 750,000 on that one. Um but everything that is in green stipulated uh to those values that we are placing that the hearing officer also recommended.

You want me to keep going down the line? No. Okay. Don't we need to do those? So do we need to go through these and approve them individually or can they just be approved in one group as well? I think that we can um approve them total together. just name them all. But they just need to be named and they need to basically say that it is because they are over I mean they are over the million dollar threshold. So we don't have to go through and say CR25-09 and so forth. Yes. But I don't we have to say the CR numbers, don't we? Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think that's fine to do that in one motion. Yeah. Just in one motion of

I don't want to do it in one motion. So the ones just so you are aware on this section that the ones that are in the green or the bright yellow they're the ones that um they're the ones that stipulated to that value. So going down from uh the WP01 LLC. So that's where the white starts. Um this one there was an adjustment that was made and that's where all of the pink if you go through. So that's a $4.3 million adjustment. There is a correction that I noticed on here when we first had it. Uh we had it at 98%. It's actually 73 76%. So we did make that corre we need to make that correction on there. If you [clears throat] guys Which one? It's on the first one that's white. I noticed it after

76 or the Are you down in the next section? That's still in the middle section. It's just the next line down. Okay.

Um that's at at 76%. Through the appeal process we found out. So the assessed value we had it at 98% and then we found out that um as January 1st it was actually at 76%. So we did make that adjustment as well. Um and then we have Wasatch LLC or Wasach Lot LLC, excuse me, and that was a a $2 million adjustment. That home is at 100%. Um, the Clifford Fox is, let's see, this one actually was a little bit under, but I just put it at his own because it would have been lost if it wasn't. So, um, it was $8982,000 adjustment. That home is at 47% complete. And so, uh, the snow shoe trek LLC that adjustment starting to get lost in my Thank you. Thank you. my my line shoe. So, that is a 1.9 um dollar adjustment. That is 45 47% complete on that home. Um, oh, 100% on that one. And then the DJ WPR LLC, that's at 47% and it was a 1.9% uh $1.9 million adjustment. The Snowberry Lane C2 LLC, that was a $1.1 million adjustment. That home is at 32%. And then the Matt Coleman uh home was at 45% and that was a 1.3% adjustment. And then um the Hyde Leonard he actually did stipulate and that was a 500 thou $534,000 adjustment and that was also one of those um lots to the seven. So we have

put that to the 6.7. So on that last one you say they have not. So, that one has stipulated. They have not completed any kind of the building. No, that's just all they've got is just the land that they purchased at $4 million and they want to have a reduction. Nope. It actually was at 7 million and we adjusted it to 6.7. Okay. So, well, okay. So that is all the improved and as we're going with this then I just wanted to discuss the next if you want to go to the next section too or if we want to just focus on the improved.

Okay. What questions do you guys have on the improved values? How can you go from when you pay $3.2 million and it comes down and they only they say their stipulated value is 2.9. How can that occur? So you're saying where their stipulated value where which one are you talking about? The second one in the group in the next 8% new land. Uhhuh. Yeah, that one. So it is at 8% um that we have it's stipulated there was it was at four million and we went to 2.9 right for that which was less than the cost of the of the

one of the reasons why this was is because these are so all of the ones if you see on the serial number they'll say 12 WPR1D do you see that so all of those were in fifth column over it's on the on the serial number. I'm not seeing where you're at. Oh, okay. Right there. Okay, got it.

So, all the ones that were in the D, they're the ones that are actually we we actually lowered their value of their lot value because they're in the section that's in the center of the village. So, we didn't make their lots as much um because they have less value. Number one, I think they're actually on smaller they're on a smaller lot value that they or smaller acreage as well. But why did they why did they buy purchase it for 30 32? So they didn't You have to realize though, Commissioner, is that it wasn't purchased at that value. We don't we don't have that value. We don't have a purchase value. I thought that's what it was on the records when they bought it. No,

because when I was looking in the state of Utah, it is a non-disclosed state. So, no one has to say how much they purchased anything for. They don't and so that is that is per state code and we no one has to actually state what they purchased any improvement or land for. I've noticed though, Janelle, tell me if I'm wrong, but I've noticed that typically uh what a home would appraise for the valuations from the county are always so we have that 10 to 20% less is

that is typically the way that kind of goes that's kind of been the in the past as well I know that's kind of like tradition that the assessor is always lower right but as we are getting more data as we are getting more sales um we're able to get a tighter figure I have to stay at 100% of market that's what is per state code it says is I have to say what those sales are. I dare say that now we're getting to that space where a lot of times people will come in to appeal and um they are like well that's what I sold my house for is what you're valuing it. So, we are getting closer to that value just because of where um with our with our abilities to get more information. And I think that's kind of the key in this is to be able to the ways that we're able to assess um we try to get to close as market value as possible. And the hard part that a lot of people see is our lean date is January 1st. So January 1st, we're assessing that market value and no one gets their evaluations until July, August, and then we get our tax notice in November, we've had a whole year of a market trend going up or down. Um, and as you've seen, like this year, um, we've seen houses kind of slow down a little bit, but in Morgan, we're still actually doing pretty well. We're not I

mean, we're still in that 60-day range, which is a healthy market. Um, and our values are still sustaining themselves. They're not dropping. People are not giving concessions to be able to purchase a home in Morgan. So, that's also saying that we're also in a healthy market. So, um, these Wasach Peaks Ranch homes are interesting because they are, um, high-end homes. They are something that is they're all individually built, so they all have different contractors. Um and trying to get that type of information is very difficult uh especially when you are the assessor. So didn't you you said that a couple of people had filled out that

yes and told they paid.

We had four state surveys. So those are done on an individual basis that they can basically it's just getting us information and we did have four of those returned to us and that's where we assessed our value at and where we decided to make sure because there is there is certain parts that we have to understand with WPR there is um a club membership. So that is called intangible value which cannot be taxed or can be assessed. So we have taken the responsibility of saying okay with those values uh we can adjust and take off that membership fee that's intangible. Um and I feel like that's one thing that we really tried hard to do in our in our office um is that we did make that quote unquote discount of the membership fee and taking that off so that we did not assess and make that that as the market value. Was that membership fee was that something that was disclosed to you or is it something you just kind of had to kind of flip a coin like we're think it's somewhere around here or

So there was part of it that was open and that was disclosed to us. We did have um some information that was given to us before we made the assessment. Um, we had talked to Wasach Peaks Ranch to say, can you explain why these values are so much higher than what I have it assessed to for this year? And so they did give an analysis to us um that was an intended user for Morgan County uh to be able to use that towards our assessment. Mr. Chair, can I make a motion? Sure.

Uh, I'd like to move to approve each one of these items. Unfortunately, I don't have each of the numbers in front of me. Um, but if you guys can just tell me, Commissioner Newton CR 259 and ends with 14. Okay, Mr. Chair move that we approve county let's see co CR 25- 09 BOE through CR 25-14 I'll second it have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Blocker all in favor I I

opposed nay okay one opposed motion carries. So also um our assessor has discussed CR 2515 through 21 as well. Is that correct? Not yet. Nope. Those are all of the lands. Yeah, that's the next one. Okay. So, all right. You go through. You're correct. from 15 uh to 21 has also been

is also those those are all because the first the first section was the improved section and then the other ones are the ones that stipulated and then the one that is below is the ones that have not stipulated. Okay. Can I move that we approve resolution CR25-15 to resolution CR25-21 BOE. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton. Second. Second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I. Nay. Any opposed? Okay. One in opposition. Motion carries.

All right. Thank you, commissioners. Okay. We're going to go back to um the 25-8 BOE. So, this is going to be the last section. Um and these are all of the lot values that um appealed that were in the WPR as well. Um the recommendation from the hearing officer was to leave the value that was assessed. So all of these are um the recommendation of the hearing officer and what the market value what we was what was placed as of 2025 values.

I've got a question. So if so with all of these just like the ones before if we approve this here then they're going to take it to the state and appeal the hearing officer. So, if they have not stipulated, the board of equalization is still open for them and they still have the due process that they can go to the state until they either decline and say they're done or they can um they can stipulate to the value that has been given. Okay. So, and then when they go to the state, excuse me, when [clears throat] they go to the state, they have a first initial hearing and then they have an official hearing with the state. and they can go clear up to um what is it? My brain just completely left.

State tax commission or well that's the has the initial hearing and then it can it can go clear up to the district court. There you go. So yes, some of these can last years. Okay. So basically we're not talking about any differences. So I'll look for a motion. Okay. I'll move that we approve CR25-08 of the BOE. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Blocker and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I clarifications 258. That's what Yeah, that's what I said. Did I say it different?

It didn't pick up on Oh, yes. Commissioner Blocker and Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I I Okay, do you guys have any other questions? Nope. Thanks for all your hard work. Thanks. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys and thanks Leslie for all this. Easier, right? We're We're getting there. We're getting there. So, thank you. And thank you guys for everything that you do. You bet. Thank you.

Thanks. Kate, do you want to do this or do you want me to just do it or equalization and reconvene public meeting. Second. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Nickersonson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I I can be a county commission again. Much handsome.

I'd prefer to stay in commission. Better looking this way. Okay. Doesn't change anything. Go ahead, Kate. I [snorts] I don't I can't see the screen. I can only see what the owl can see. So, I don't know what it So, the WOOI. It's the WOOI. The Woo. The WOOI that that we've been asked to have passed before the end of the year. That was so clear. And Yep. Clear path. So clear. Of course, we can change it again next month. Seriously, it's kind of the same. It's kind of the same thing as the water.

That's right. We can change it next month. It probably are going to want to I know one of the concerns I had with the the WOOI is just to kind of bring it up and I maybe you guys got it different than I did was that the map for the county is drawn by our own fire marshal, fire Whatever. What stops him from just saying the whole county is in Wooi? We don't Well, we don't have one. Maybe a commissioner will have to be it. Well, and that's what they mentioned in our meeting is that we fire marshall needed to have one person there from the commission on that committee to determine who was in the wooi and

who was in the wooi and who isn't. It just seemed like it was pretty. I mean, there's certain areas in the county that absolutely would be, but if you start coming like you're into the center of town and it's like that kind of concerns me a little bit, but Los Angeles burned up too and they were in the center of town and when you talk to, you know, people dealing with that Rocky Mountain Power over there, it's like you got too many homes jammed on top of each other. You can't stop the fire if you got sprinklers and fire trucks and Yeah. LA is a perfect example. California. Exactly right. Uh Hawaii, everything. They're just they're two packed together. And then also in that that meeting they just that's why I said Hawaii. It's closer. It's it's paradise.

And they also discussed in there that they were working on a map that is not going to be done until two weeks from now. And then we still have to approve this before they're finished with the map. Correct. So this is kind of like the water thing. Yep. It's just a it's just a just a thing going through the motion. this week that we do have a new fire. If you want to table this next week, I can see if you can come up and walk you through it or not next commission meeting. I'm good with that. I don't

I think that's probably a good idea. It's It's still December. So, so do we need a postpone? Post a motion to postpone. Yep. Mr. Mr. Chair, I move that we postpone uh F10A to our next commission meeting. Second. Motion from Commissioner Nickerson and a second from Commissioner Froel. All in favor? I I J 910 ranch letter draft. I want

Yeah, I can speak on this. So Kate and I had a a meeting just about 9:10 and kind of what's happening there. Um Kate might have to remind me of who the the woman was that was on there with us. Was she with DNR? State Street Forestry. Oh, State Forest Street. Okay.

Jamie. and and so we we discussed the issues that we have with 910 with Summit County purchasing land in our county kind of restricting our access to it. So her recommendation was to draft a letter sharing our concerns as a commission with the direction that um Summit County is attempting to take with the property um because they're going to be part of the group that's overseeing this and and helping direct the usage and and whatnot. And so that was kind of what was brought to us was a letter of support from the commission saying or not support but our concerns um taken to the the division of forestry um and they can help us kind of work through these problems. Is that did that kind of hit it Kate? I was in the middle of a job when it was going on. So I was requesting that we send a letter to the commission of objections to the purchase and how it like obviously the negative effects that it would have on Morgan because according to her she's been going to Summit County this whole time and Summit County has been telling him oh yeahgan's 100% on boarding

with no with saying we don't have any concerns Yeah. Okay. So, this this states our concerns.

Yeah. We have a lot of concerns with county over 1800 acres. Um [clears throat] Sean was very kind and he pulled all the taxes for me. Um but of course being that this is all it's not a it's not so much a huge um tax shift because it's agriculture. However, at the end of the day, um, that's a lot of acreage and at the end of the day also, someone is not putting the full bill. They're not even putting half. So, it's more of an issue of them using a federal grant virtuous ground inside our county. And then Mike um was also very kind on vacation gave us a great text message. See if I can pull it up his concerns.

I do you want me to pull that up and go over that Kate? So you don't No, you're fine. I'm I this go beyond the ownership issue and more to the access.

Okay, so this was this was Mike's and so I'll read it for him. is um I think the issue of Summit County buying up land in Morgan County presumably because it is less expensive and available is a big concern. I also don't agree with their sentiment that the property which is being purchased with public funds is to remain privately owned by Summit County unless they plan to continue paying property taxes just like a private owner. I also don't agree with them taking federal money to buy property in Morgan County when they easily could have brought Morgan County in as a partner in the purchase. Summit County has assumed that the sheriff should patrol the property even though it is in our county. And lastly, and perhaps this is just my political leaning as compared to the bright blue in Summit County, but I don't like that they are buying land to supposedly be public access, but then make it all walk-in access only. The pro to prohibit any the prohibi to prohibit any vehicle, ATV, snowmobile, etc. access. And their reasoning is that motorist motorized access would be inappropriate in my mind should be open to multiple uses, not just walk-in access, which severely limits the people that can access the property. They could absolutely have responsible ATV access. So, that was Mike's text to the the group um that meeting. The one of the other things

go no I was gonna talk um the hunting did come up and that was a stipulation in the purchase itself. Um so if if if they were going to allow hunting then the purchase would not even happen. So that was one thing where the it was required of them to prohibit the hunting by the the seller and so that wasn't even up for negotiation. and if they were going to allow hunting, the purchase would not happen. And so that was a concession that they agreed to to to be able to buy the ground.

Another question I have is is are they really going to put livestock on that piece of property, 1,800 acres worth or are they going to put are they going to keep the fence up so that way it doesn't happen? Because in reality, they shouldn't get green belt if they don't have anything on it. Mhm. I don't care what it looks like. If it's straight up a mountain, they don't get green belt because it's not true agriculture. So, it's according to law. I think that goes back to your comment.

I just want to clarify. Are you saying that we should be pushing for that before? Well, if they're not going to allow if the cat Yeah. If the cattle have been taken off, then I think we need to go for roll back taxes. And if they're not going to be continuing to put it on,

I mean, I think I think the votes go back to the discussion county, at least in my all of the public information I received about this project, they have indicated that the property and they can keep it that way. So if it is in fact privately owned and not public property they ought to pay property taxes like any other land and roll back taxes would be a part of that as well. Yep.

Yeah, I can agree with that too. Well, and then that goes back to the green belt. If it's privately owned and they remove the agriculture, then they don't get the discount. That's right. Or that benefit. That's right. I just don't see how some county can own a private ground like that. It's public. Yeah. You know, who am I? So what needed to be done on this? Just this was just presenting. Do we need to vote on it? Do we need to add anything to it? Okay.

So if if I can speak to that, this is this is something that Janet pulled together as part of pulling, you know, the agenda together and she was basing it off the February this February this year work session and regular meeting with um so just the agenda. So, she is kind of um flying blind to a degree. And I think that's there's some other things that have been brought up tonight that should be incorporated. And so, this is just to get something on paper for you to look at. And if you can look at it and forward other thoughts that you have like the roll back, the purchasing, the things that Commissioner Newton brought up. She wanted it by the end of the week last week and I explained to her in the meeting that my next commission meeting is literally Tuesday and if I could get it and that would be the next time for that but I could get it approved as an official action of the commission. Um so I I do kind of need it tonight.

So So can we adopt it with the additions brought up in the meeting tonight? Okay. Okay. I move that we accept this letter that they've developed along with the conditions that we've talked about tonight to send us to the state forestry. Well, both Summit County and the state forestry and fire. I'll second that. I have a motion by Commissioner Ferrell and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay,

that's the end of our agenda. Um, we need to go back to is it 5C? Oh, yeah, we forgot that. Where? Yeah, the budget. Fourth quarter. Oh, sorry. Less for me. [laughter] Should have said something. You stuck around. It's all good.

Then you could have gone home. my plan not to go out of order but the one removing the 10,000 from the budget and moving in the 26 budget for the scanning project for quarters and then the request from Jeremy for the server purchase this year are synonymous. Can we do those together? [snorts] actually. Okay, you got to say those again.

Okay, that's why I can't find it. [laughter] So, right now in front of me, I've got the $3,200 one for tourism. Okay, so there should be two for tourism. Yes, that's correct. And one for a thousand. So the 3200 one is monies needed to pay for web hosting and web plugins like community calendar. The $1,000 one is monies for attending a tourism conference. They're both for 2026.

So that was not budgeted for money. The money I budgeted for web I guess what licenses for two years and so those that use next year is a higher amount. So our options were to take it off 5,000 specific or to reduce it out of our event money and car show fun. Thank you.

This is just the event money that we've set aside for things like the street festival. The um the corn may come to We haven't asked for money to promote a local event for tourism. We've never spent that much except for when we had a car show in there. So rather than take it out of I wanted to move that money since we already knew we needed to move it now. It just made sense to do it now rather than next year.

I agree. Are we approving these all at once or What do you suggest, Kate? I would say approve them all at once. Don't Okay, so the next one is a 2025 change for the garbage enterprise fund. Um, employee benefits were not calculated correctly. We're going to run a little short there. We're asking to move some money from fund balance to the employee benefit line. Does anyone have any questions? Correct.

Any questions on that one? The [clears throat] next one is emergency management. $1,000 for a temporary employee moving money from non-EP departmental to the ambulance budget. No, emergency management budget. Sorry.

Yes. So, this is um as you know, she just came off the way behind on some of our reporting and our emergency planning report. She also is our deputy EMS chief. She's got a lot on her plate. I said, "If we got an intern to help out research fun stuff, would it help you?" And she said, "Yes." I said, "What $1,000?" You know, like 18 bucks an hour for an insurance. Would that get you through? She said, "Absolutely. Probably entirely."

Any questions on that one? Okay, next one is the flood disaster fund for $10,000. We're moving uh money from its own fund balance to flood projects for the hard scrabble flood fix. This was approved by the county commission September 18th. Sorry, Kate. So we on that one. So this is 10,000 but we today we just approved 24,000 change. That's a different one. I only needed 10. over here. Yeah. See, this

wasn't this also, Kate, within that uh the flooding that happened up on hard scrabble uh near the roads that we went and repaired earlier. No. Okay.

Okay. Our next one is planning and zoning uh pass through account um for surveying. So we're going to be basically increasing revenue and expenditure for the pass through fees. The next one is the same thing, pass through fees for inspection services. Um those are for the 2025 budget. Any questions on those? Next one is recreation for 2025. Um some of her she has budgets for like tackle football, flag football. We're just trying to clean them up so they're not going over budget. Um so we're just kind of moving money around within her budget, but it still needs your approval. So [clears throat] there's one for 56960, one for 6106, one for $12,927, one for $5. And that's all on wreck. Any questions on those? Just kind of cleaning up our budget here. Um the next one is 2025. Um the fleet vehicle that the assessor's office uses was in a car accident. We have received insurance money. We just need to go in and uh budget revenues for the money we got from the insurance company and also so we can pay the bill. Moving some money from wreck to assessor fleet. Uh the rec w rec uh director was the one driving the vehicle and she's going to help pay for that. Any questions?

That is it. Kate, do you have anything else? Thank you. Okay, I'll look for a motion to go into public hearing. We don't need this. Not on this one. Just a decision. Okay, Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the fourth quarter 2025 budget amendments as discussed. Second. Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner FRO. All in favor? I

I Any opposed? Motion's unanimous. Thank you. Okay. Um We we need to do a uh close session this evening and so if we can keep our comments to a minimum that'd be great blocker. Um, I'll just say I've just been receiving texts in Mountain Green. There's a gas leak on Old Highway Road. So, they've shut the um on and off ramp.

Oh, this guy's down there and traffic is horrendous. Have to use Peterson. We've been getting off Peterson. It's backed up into the canyon and then Old Highway Road. Yeah, I'm just saying what happened. And then old highway was completely backed up. But people are saying please tell you do keep this open. And that's why we don't close the ramp. That's [laughter] right there. That's the reason.

Okay. Commissioner [snorts] Newton, do you have anything?

No. Okay. Commissioner Packro,

I just want to go over just the fact that in our tourism I had a tourism meeting with the state office of tourism [clears throat] about future plans for bringing a group of people from international markets to come to Morgan County to visit. And so they are going to put us into the rotation this next year in 2026 to bring in in particular the people from Canada and people from France and have them come to our county. So when that happens I'll let you know and I'd like to showcase our county. Okay.

Okay. I um I just I all I'd say is I actually enjoyed USAC this year. It was it was beneficial I thought and [clears throat] I learned some things. We definitely need to be careful as a county with scams true too. So, keep our I couldn't believe some of the stuff they're doing and it's a little bit scary, but um I appreciated all the work that went into that and the people that came and talk to us. So, it was good. Okay, I'll look for a motion to go into closed session purpose.

Mr. Chair, I move that we go into close session to discuss for discussion of the character, professional accomplishments or physical or mental health of an individual. Okay. Second. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Verel. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Are you in a secure?