County Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming out. Um, today is March 3rd, Tuesday. It is uh 6:00 and we are located at the county building on the third floor in the council chambers. We welcome you and thank you for coming. Uh, we'll be led by a pledge of allegiance by our assessor Joy Peters. You'd all please stand. I aliance 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.

Thank you, Joy. As far as roll call, we have our county attorney, Scott Broadhead, here. Thank you for being here. And as far as councilman, Councilman Hoffman, Councilman Thomas, Councilman Stroberg, Councilman Hamner, Councilman Wardle, present. Uh, county manager's office, we have our county manager, Andy Welch, assistant county manager, Britney Lopez, and Nikki from the clerk's office um taking notes and recording. And thank each of you for being here. That will bring us down to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience by raise of hand like to make a public comment? Seeing none, that will bring us down to minutes. February 17th, uh, 2026. Council, is there any corrections or additions to the minutes that are presented here? Um, if not, chair entertain a motion.

So moved. Hear a motion from Councilman Hoffman. Is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman uh Thomas. All those in favor of approval of the February 17, 2026 minutes say I. I.

I. All those may oppose say nay. That sounds unanimous. Thank you. That will bring us down to discussion item. Uh sheriff's office. Uh Mr. Whmer, Mr. Paul Whmer. Uh thank you chairman and uh council. It's my pleasure to come before you and uh open this up this topic up for discussion. Um uh many of you well uh Councilman Thomas he's well aware that uh Chief Deputy White has uh served on the uh advisory board for the new reflections house for uh uh some time now. and uh he uh recognized an a win-win opportunity for uh uh a program that they run as well as the sheriff's office. And what it is is a transitional employment program and uh uh that they offer uh we have uh the director of it uh Zack Bergener and uh one of their success stories Stephanie Jacobson here tonight to answer any questions you may have for them. But uh uh what they do is they try to place um those that may uh suffer from a mental disability or illness uh with some gainful employment uh throughout our community. And uh uh we have a a bit of a need in the uh sheriff's office where uh as you guys may be or may not be aware of, we don't have any custodial services. Most of our cleaning is done by uh inmate workers. Where the challenge arises is when it comes to our front office area and individual offices. Uh I I'm sure all of

you can understand why we may not want uh an inmate in our personal offices vacuuming and uh uh observing any of the documents or uh sensitive information we may have housed in our offices where uh it would be beneficial to us to have uh alternative options when it comes to custodial because as it is now um uh I'll it'll be me vacuuming my own office or the chief vacuuming his. And so, uh, we thought that may not be the, uh, best use of resources by having, uh, uh, the, uh, administration, uh, run the vacuum through, uh, front office, common areas, as well as emptying the trashes. So, we thought that there would be an opportunity to offer some part-time employment and participate in this program and uh uh be a good community partner in uh uh utilizing uh uh some of the uh uh citizens that they uh cater to and uh give them an opportunity to come develop some work skills within the sheriff's office. and then they would eventually rotate them out when they get gainfully employ gainfully employed elsewhere and we would take on a uh a new member of the program. Uh the the reason I'm bringing it up is this would require a bit of a budget adjustment in the in our personnel and the exact amount uh I wanted to have the conversation before I request the funds uh and request HR to go through and determine uh what the true cost would be because I think it needs to be a wage that is appropriate for the uh work uh being performed. Uh but we view it as uh uh what we need is the flexibility in

the hours as in when there's even times when we don't have an inmate with the clearance to come out of the secured portion of our facility to do any of the cleaning whatsoever. So, our lobby, uh, our, uh, uh, training room, our conference room, stuff that we could typically allow an inmate to come up and clean, still isn't getting addressed because we don't have an inmate with the proper uh, credentials to come out of the secured area. And so when that happens, then again it falls to uh sworn deputies or uh myself or the chief deputy running that vacuum through them uh areas of the office. And we believe that when we don't have that inmate, we would give the the uh transitional worker a few more hours that week, but on weeks we have the an inmate worker, we would reduce them hours and it would fluctuate according to need uh versus guaranteeing an absolute minimum uh amount. But we view it as a part-time. our rough our best estimate is about 15 hours a week at a uh a wage that uh I believe uh HR would be better to determine. And so that that's the conversation. I'm here to answer any questions you guys may have uh for me or if you have any questions for uh the program coordinator or uh Stephanie uh or chief deputy is a member of uh the uh advisory board. Um, any questions?

Well, maybe more of a statement if I can, you guys will allow me before I ask is we actually use them at the chamber. Uh, we had reflection house for about 10 years. And so they um, the way I understand it works is they bid on it each year. Is that how it's still done? And they're assigned. Okay. So you'd have a roll over each year for who's the new worker. Yeah. uh you know in the materials that was provided under the discussion it it uh they kind of assign a timeline of six to nine months. So we would anticipate a a uh new worker to rotate in as another one rotates out every 6 to9 months.

So how how it has worked for us is they come in with the new employee. They go through the whole uh what what you need done write up a to-do list. So they go through that. It's pretty thorough and so that to-do list is there and they just check it off. It's been worked out great for our uh the chamber office. We love working with them. So, it's been um wonderful. I don't know how big of an area you're talking about to have cleaned.

Yeah. and and it will fluctuate depending on our inmate worker uh uh access at the time because uh different inmate workers have different credentials to operate within different areas of the sheriff's office. So you have like uh any of them if you're at trustee status, you can work the kitchen and you can clean in the secure area of the facility, but you can't come out of the secure area of the facility. And even when you do, you require the uh attendance of a deputy to shadow you everywhere. You know, that's to prevent escape and to pay attention to what they're doing. And uh this would uh uh fill a gap that exists because we don't always have inmate workers that are credentialed to come out up front and vacuum our hallway to uh uh run a vacuum through the sheriff's office, you know, and uh or the chief's office or the lieutenants and you know, any of our front office staff and uh or even the nurses area,

you know, and I think their philosophy is to teach skills so that they can get gainful employment and continue on live a productive life. And so, uh, we looked at it as with it being really at a part-time, you know, if we can do it for 15 hours a week, we think it has minimal impact, uh, on the budget, uh, when you're talking a salary amount, I view it as being less than 10,000. you know, that's not including any uh peripheral benefits that may come with just the part-time status that uh HR would calculate into the formula. Any other questions or Oh, Councilman Thomas.

Yeah, thanks. And I've been a little involved with New Reflection House over the years and one of the highlights and uh of the services is just amazing is go down and have dinner at Thanksgiving time and the dinners that they the people work and serve down there. So this is a great opportunity and thanks to the leadership at New Reflections House doing good things for people that work really hard and just so I'm very much in favor of this. So if you need a motion, I'm ready to make that. Are you asking for a motion? I'm all over it. I'm excited. So it's in discussion. Okay.

Do you know how has this been tried in other counties to know how successful it's been and stuff? Uh, I uh, pardon. I think I was gonna say I'm unaware of it being tried in other counties, but I also don't know what resources exist in other counties as far as uh, a similar program such as uh, the new reflections house and their transition like the janitorial services for the sheriff's department. Has that been tried anywhere? Oh, just for the sheriff? I I I don't know. Um, that type of thing specifically hasn't been tried yet. Yeah. Okay.

Not that I'm aware of. I I actually think that uh Jared actually provided the most insight that I the most real world experience with the program of anyone I know. And uh we were just willing to uh uh try it out and see how it works cuz uh everything Chief Deputy White has seen with the program and their presentation, he was pretty impressed with it. And uh because we've been looking at, you know, anytime we have overflowing trashes in our break room, we start to get concerned. We know that our inmate worker has been processed out of the jail or been moved to another facility and uh we lose them cuz there's a lot of movement when it comes to inmates, whether it's uh

sometimes it's daytoday, right?

Yeah. And uh and so you they can get a pass to come clean up front. uh that and then they they get released or they get moved to a different facility if they're a state inmate. It it's just it's very inconsistent in uh when we have the the uh help and uh there is no uh there is I don't let inmates in my office and uh uh and the chief doesn't let no one lets them in their office. Not that I'm above cleaning my own office or vacuuming it, but at the same time, uh, I don't know that that's necessarily the best use of resource.

Well, yeah, he was just saying that for the courthouse, the janitorial services have to be background checked and stuff by the state. Is there there's no provisions like that for the sheriff's department? Uh, well, uh, that's why they don't get to come in the office. So, well, that's what I that's what I mean. And so, uh, new new reflections, the program coordinator, they do, uh, a background on them. And then we would also do our checks and balances to make sure that, uh, they can, uh, be where they'd be allowed to clean because if they can't come in my office and run a vacuum through it and, uh, through the front office area, uh, it's of no value to us. Okay. Yeah. It's a win-win.

What's that? Yeah,

win. That's uh that as the chief and I spoke talked through it, that's how we viewed it. Uh we felt it was beneficial to uh both parties involved and and at a relatively reasonable cost without an awful lot of uh uh commitment from us as far as I'm you know, we're not looking to do a full-time benefited position. This is basically a transitional employment uh program that uh we feel we can participate in at a reasonable cost. And so I just wanted that uh to lay it out before I go ahead with it because it will require the funding that's necessary to fund that position.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Thank you, Sheriff. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, that will bring us down to uh contracts to the enzyme engineering. Oh, thank you.

Thank you, chairman and fellow council members. This is a contract for engineering services provided by Enzyme Engineering. It is a multi-year contract. That is why it is before you. They are proposing a rate of $185 an hour. If we do a two-year contract, if we go year-toear, it's 225 per hour. They are involved in many projects, many multi-year projects throughout the county and they are an engineering firm that is local and they do come to our offices two full days a week. So, they've been very accessible and very helpful.

What's the rate for a three-year contract? we could ask. We did not ask. We brought a three-year contract before you in 2023, and that was not something the council was interested in entertaining, but since then, we've been a little more open on multi-year contracts, so we could ask for a three-year if you would like. We have certainly have enough projects that go out that far. I know. So, what we have here is a two-year contract. I guess we can talk about it later after maybe after a year and see if it wants to go three years unless the council wants to go back to the drawing board. If not, is there any other

ask them to grandfather us into the new you you negotiate that any other comments or questions from council? Okay, I'll make that motion. Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas is favorable. Is there a second? Hearing a second from Councilman Strumberg. All those in favor say I. I. I.

All those who may oppose say nay. Thank you. And yes, we know that we use quite a bit. So, thank you. Uh, Energy Solutions Aquatic Center. Corey. Good evening, council. Thanks for the time. Um, Tul County Parks and Recreation is looking for the approval to enter into a contract with Superior Coatings um to repaint the concessions buildings and some of the the buildings around the Energy Solutions Aquatic Center. Uh, this uh request for proposals was issued for the painting of these buildings and Superior Coding came in with the lowest bid at $121,23327. Is there any other questions or comments? Council,

when we open it, Kendall wants to be there. We're opening this year. I don't know if I want to give you a date yet. Sounds like a politician. Been at a little bit. Chair to entertain a motion. Motion for the contract for energy solutions. Here a motion from Councilman Strongberg. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say I. I.

I. All those may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Unanimously. Thank you, Corey. That will bring us down to resolution 2026-06 amending increasing the 2026 Twilla County budget. Allison McCoy, you're online.

I am council. Thanks for accommodating me as I'm traveling. Um just have a couple budget adjustments. These are our first ones for 2026. Uh the first one that we have is just to create a new line for election filing fees. This is to uh reflect that some of our filing fees are um passed along to the state during our state election years. So, this will just help us track those expenses more accurate accurately. Um the next one that we have is a 5,000 grant that was re or $5,000 grant that was received by our emergency operations center group. Um the next one that we have is there's a lot of roads projects that are getting ready to start and so we just need to get all the money in the right spots for this. Um so the essentially what we're doing is removing the funds um that were approved by COG into the road roads funds and then getting um the funding that we've been saving in our fund balance for uh in the capital projects funds up and ready to go for the Idaho road project. And so um that's what you're seeing with these two roads projects adjustments. Are there any questions or anything I can help with on these?

Any questions or comments, council? Okay, that will require us to have a public hearing. So, I'm looking for chairs entertain a motion to open up public hearing. So moved. Second. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman, second from Councilman Strumberg. All those in favor of opening up public hearing on resolution 2026-06 say I. I. All those may oppose say nay. That is open to the public. Anybody in the public that would like to uh by raise of hand comment on this uh specific resolution? Seeing none, chair entertain a motion to close public hearing.

So here a motion to close public hearing. Councilman Stroberg. Is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas. All those in favor of closing public hearing resolution 2026-6 say I. I. All those may oppose say nay. Public hearings now close. Chair entertain a motion on resolution 2026-06. Hear a motion from Councilman Thomas for approval on resolution 2026-06. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Stroberg. All those in favor say I.

I. All those may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you, Alison. Um, that will bring us down to ordinance 2026-03, reszoning 232.52 acres located off Burmester Road, I80.

Thank you, chair and fellow council members. This is a reszone request for property that is owned by Acuro and Zen Charles Acuro with Zenith Partners. It is part of the inland port project area. It is surrounded by MG zoning. This is one that went before planning commission. It's located off Burmeister south of Interstate 80. It went before planning commission in 2025. Commissioner Mitchell made a favorable recommendation with the condition that UD do be provided the traffic study. This could potentially increase the traffic on Burmester and the I80 offramp by about 15,000 trucks per day at full buildout. So the traffic study has been sent to UD do has provided comment which has been addressed by the applicant. That is why the reason is before you today. The UD do questions and the applicant's answers are included in your staff report and staff recommends that the council make a favorable not a recommendation that's planning commission. I'm just used to saying favorable recommendation. Make a motion to approve our easy 2025-046 which is compatible with the surrounding areas and the uses in the area. and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Any comments or questions? They met all the requirements there. Okay. Uh chair and entertain a motion. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we adopt ordinance 2026-3 resoning 232.52 acres uh located off Burmester just south of I80 from MU40 to MGZC. I'll second it. Thank you. Hearing a motion from Councilman Wle, second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say I. I. All those may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you, council.

That will take us down to boards and committees. Um I'll just mention it once again that we have some vacancies. If you'd go to our website, we're happy to have you look at those. And if you know anybody who would like to serve on a board or a committee, uh there's applications there to fill out and have a discussion. Um Mr. Chairman, we will we will have one that uh we've had somebody apply for the career service council. I'll bring that to you next at next next meeting if that's okay. Just wanted to verify one thing first before we bring that to you. Wonderful. Thank you, Andy. That bring us to council updates. Um Councilman Hoffman, you want to start? Sure.

Start us off. I'm just going to give a little bit of an update about the Niko. I thought it some things went really well there in the public lands meeting the first day. Um Celeste Malloy, our current or local Utah congresswoman, was um the main speaker in there that addressed a lot of the issues and stuff. And um she basically encouraged county people to get become more she said you guys have probably are in the prime position for advocating what you need and what you want even more than a lot of the state officials do because we're more in touch with a lot of the locals than they are. So she said, "You guys really ought to take advantage of that power that you have with your senators in Congress, people in Congress, and um utilize that more." Um she talked a lot about water and I'm not going to get into that but basically in the future what she thinks is going to have be happening with water to address all the issues that are that everybody's dealing with water whether it's drought whether it's growth um is a lot of future smaller projects that are going to be led at the federal level whether it's desalinization smaller dams um bigger deeper wells things like that um let's see she talked about PILT and how that's and SRS SRS got refunded until 2028, but that's becoming a more difficult battle, a much more difficult battle each and every year to get um passed. So, she highly recommended that we make sure that we go back to um the PIL flyin and talk to the number of congressmen that and that don't know anything about it because there's quite a few of them that really don't know and understand it. Um and then there was um a panel on SRS funding. They talked

about also about how it's getting harder and harder to um get through every year. They they were thinking that they ought to look at some long-term solutions like some endowment funded endowment and then have that. But the downside to funding an endowment is that a lot is that a lot of that is done by the special interest groups and they want and how the money spent. So that can be a double-edged sword if you do something like that. Um then Tom Schultz was there from the US Forest Service in one of the meetings and he was talking about fires and one thing that I found interesting there is for every dollar spent on um proactive fire prevention um save $7 on firefighting and restoration. I didn't realize it was that big of a disparity between the two. So, and that's not as big of an issue for our county as it is for some of the others that have a lot more um forest service land. Um, one of their biggest issues is um tackling deregulations. They're looking to um get rid of over 3,000 regulations, which will help speed things up for a lot of the things that they want to get done. Then um BLM guide Bill Graphy was there. He's the acting director for the BLM. He talked about the BLM lands. Um in 2024 there was over 844,000 jobs on BLM lands. Most of it um natural resources type jobs. He said so in last year alone they approved over 6 thou they approved 6,027 oil and gas permits in 2025 alone. this administration um which is great because we know the energy shortage that we have. Then um

Zeke spoke, you guys all remember Zeke from UAC who's now at Niko. He he talked about their um things that they want the counties to get involved with at the higher level. One is the basic act which would be good. I don't know if you guys have heard about the basic act and they want us to look contact our senators about this. This is where it's looking to send um road money and project money straight to the counties and the cities versus through the states, which would probably help get a lot more money to at the local level. Um the FEMA act, they want one universal FEMA application for FEMA projects and issues. the speed act. Uh that is to limit the scope and scale of the NEPA re reviews and that's one they also want us to reach out to our senators about to help speed things up for um NEPAS and then the housing for 21st century act he mentioned he that will increase um CBDG grants that's the benefit there. So those are ones that NOA is really pushing and they want the counties to get involved with. then went to the um energy thing, the discussion there and a lot of that didn't apply to us, but just one thing about energy that they handed out there that I found very interesting. Um they talked, you know, about the need for more energy. And this little thing here that they put out is a 1 in square uranium pellet. puts out the same amount of energy as 17,000 cubic feet feet of natural gas, 149 gallons of oil, and one ton of coal. And so that's the amount of energy that can be done with uranium. So, um, that's most of the update I want to give on that was a

public lands meeting today. They talked about House Bill, um, 41. This is our favorite one on the WOOI. You're fan of this, Eric? It there is a provision in there with this substitute um three. It's looking to give where the counties can give provide written recommendations that they will probably have to accept or they will have to respond to which is a big improvement. So now because of this, they're wanting UAC to support it because they think this is as good as it's going to get. If we don't support it, it may end up being worse where we don't have that ability to do it. So um and then one that they don't like is House Bill 501 substitute 2. And this is one by Bridger Bolander. It's about um the water and resetting charge on secondary water where um secondary water can there can be more expenses for that. So, they are opposed to that and and um just an update on that and I don't think I think the only secondary water that we really have is is a settlement around here is is there any in Grants Hills secondary water

there's also an irrigation comp middle Canyon irrigation company right and then we also have one other not secondary but another irrigation company in Wester Well, that's right. I forgot about them. Okay. So, this would require metering and stuff like that for them and people are just opposed to it because it it can create a lot of issues and a lot of expenses for them. That's my update.

Thank you, Council Councilman Thomas. Yeah, it's been a busy session uh at the legislature and it's my time I uh get frustrated with the the voting regulation bills that pass through and some of the immunization bills that uh that they try to pass and at times it gets really frustrating up there. I'd tell you what I thought but won't tell you about them. But anyhow, but it's been good. It's nice to be involved and to see other good county elected officials up there. St. Joy up there and St. Jerry up there. There's been others, but people have been all of our elected officials have been there at one time or another. So, thanks for your support. Uh we're recognized up there on the hill and it's nice to be uh to play a part in hearing good things happen. So, that's wonderful. Councilman Stroberg.

Uh yes, just a quick update from uh Nico. So, as um sitting on the Justice and Public Safety um policy committee, one of the things that was talked about that I think is um something we just need to be aware of is they talked about uh emergency management and the gentleman that runs the division of emergency management for uh Texas talked about there's a lot of these programs. I know we have one where you can get the alerts um that'll come through your phones. Um, but that only works obviously for those that have signed up for it and it only works if that's local to you. So, you know, the example he talked about is we're all back there in DC. You know, we're not getting that. So, I think one thing maybe just to um think about and maybe have some conversation with with Bucky and the emergency management team is especially as we look at having um you know the the peak build out and more and more visitors, how do we make sure that someone that's here visiting in our county would know if something's going on? Um so, what options do we have there? Uh, so I think we need to continue to work with um Tula and Grantsville and making sure we're all um aware of what options we have when it comes to um that system. That was one of the things that was also brought up is if your local municipality has an issue, do they know how to, you know, work them with the county to get that out? In our case, we're I think most of that system is set up with the county. Um so that was um one of the things they they just talked about. Um and it you know I think we have a great team that does this but um you know one thing they pointed out is a lot of times uh the individuals that are doing this you know there's no degree there's no necessarily you know uh requirements for

these positions. So you know I think we have a great team but they said hey you know as you have change over are you putting in the right people to to do that. So I think that's just one thing, you know, we need to think about is are we putting the right people in these these positions when there are changes going forward. So

thank you Councilman Stroberg. I'll just go through mine and then we'll end with Councilman Wortle. Public lands uh they have indicated that if they're sit and public lands BLM sometimes will switch properties. they are more likely to work with them because if you have a big ask or an ask that hey this will help the benefit of the community then have your state work with BLM and they're more willing to work with in this current administration was some of the discussion that they had and they want to preserve some of the uh public lands that we currently have certainly in Utah and other places that a lot of visitors go to but if there are public lands that is not then and there's a great need out there. If you can justify that with your state, then have the state ask and they're willing to work with them on that. The other thing is if you didn't hear uh President Trump publicly committed to helping the Great Salt Lake uh committed uh upwards of a billion dollars to that to um whatever that may need research or other things that u Governor Cox came out and asked him before the State of the Union and he committed that his administration is willing to work with the state of Utah. We currently work with the state, the um county here, um because we know that the state is purchased on auction the property of US Mag and a lot of the companies that currently use US Mag some of their um brine and other things for their success. Uh the state's working with them and helping them that they uh can certainly stay whole um and what they're going to do with that property. We've been in discussions with the state. The other thing to bring up in the a division is um the a farms are

very concerned because a lot of foreign um product and foods have been coming in which causes the food prices to go low. The only thing that they've said in there that they've currently made profit on is beef. Everybody knows beef's high and so they're monitoring that and that may mean more tariffs on foods, but um they're working that out currently to to stop the flow of foreign foods coming in if we're not raising it ourselves. Councilman Wle. Uh so I sit on the community economic workforce uh and economic development committee and we had some really good sessions and we had some really bad sessions and the bad ones deeply concerned me. They were moving suggested policies were to move counties into paying citizens uh $500 to $1,000 a month just to pay them. Um, and that in the process of doing that, they're establishing pilot programs mainly in the Midwest and California, Washington, to establish this, but they they have no line items. They have no way to pay for it. And it's a policy that is now being discussed heavily, at least at the national level, within NATO. Uh, we indicated our displeasure with that. Um, it's a terrible fiscal policy. and we hope that that will never come back again in front of NATO. Second one is uh the this may have been the best session I've sat in in a government training in my 21 years. I think it's 21 years of government. It was um dealing with workforce development, development,

housing, uh homelessness, and key components to combat it. And and I just want to share a few things. First of all, and I feel so great about our county. Many counties do not have assets in place and they're having to go and figure out from the bottom up how to create these assets because they're not coming from the top down. Uh there's an education component, there's a community partner component, there is a state partner component, and then there's the county component. And in our county component, it is how do we bring county and city governments together where we can to partner and multiply our resources and economic development and the attraction of businesses and companies that stretch us beyond the current economic infrastructure. And here was one of the statements. um quote, "We need to get ahead of the great disruption and displacement that will occur because of AI in the next 10 years. How do we train up and develop models that are scalable and implement implemented to meet these needs? It will require tough choices, collaboration, and one of the things I love about our county government, we see this in almost every level, is innovation is the key to success." and that as we innovate with our community partners that will be very helpful. So Gordon Gee made a statement a few years ago who's president of West Virginia and he said the great the smoke stacks for the 21st century will be education and that where you can tie high school tech college and university programs together you have a a much better

advantage in the workforce and especially if they are close together. And so they said this. They said greater economic development occurs when training and trained workforces are present. Federal funds we should advocate that are flex with flexibility that can solve the problem. So for instance, fed funds could come down to the county and then we can work together with the technical college or Utah State University, the chamber of commerce, uh businesses and developing workforces that start to meet the changing needs. Uh for instance, one of the great initiatives that the state of Utah is working on, but we are sorely in need of is employees who can work in the nuclear engineering or nuclear field and that is going to take a whole infrastructure to build that group up. Uh which will impact us greatly. Um, education, here's a quote, education with the Chamber of Commerce, education meaning technical and college education with the Chamber of Commerce, Board of Education, workforce development, business and co governments working together will make a huge difference. And then the guy gave the coolest analogy. I thought it was hilarious actually. Goes he was watching two government workers. They were going down the street and one was digging a hole. The other guy would come behind him and bury the hole. So the citizen kept watching. Government worker goes to the next block, digs a hole. Guy comes behind him, buries the hole, next block. So he's seen this consistency. So he walked up to the first guy digging the hole and he said, "What are you doing?" He says, 'For 30 years, my job has been to go dig holes. And he said to the guy who covered up the holes, he said, "Why are you

covering up the holes?" Because for 25 years, my job has been to cover up the holes. And today, we're missing the guy who puts the tree in. And I went, "Holy cow." Um he said doing the same thing every day the same way kills creativity, innovation and critical thinking in government which is most needed in community education and workforce development right now. So that's my report. Thank you. Can I mention something else I was going to mention but I thought you guys might. No thanks. Briefly.

No, go ahead please. the uh we met with um Congressman Kennedy. I didn't know him until we we got to interact with him and that he he's a sharp guy and he may end up end up being our congressman replacing Celeste. We don't know how that debacle is going to work out from Diane Gibson, the judge Dian that created the proposition for issue. We have no idea who our representative is going to be in Washington DC at this point. if he ends up being it, he he's he's awesome. The other thing, too, was we had a good meeting with the staff from Mike Le's office as well. So, that I thought you might

Thank you, Andy. I have just a couple of items. One, we did open the tourism grant um this year, and I think it's closed now. Is that correct?

And so, Britney and Megan met with the board to kind of um guide them through. it was a new kind of new application and just the the funding that will be available because the funding changed a little bit. And so along with that, one of the things that we talked about last year with the tourism grants was with um the transcript, the 101 things. And so we didn't set up a line item separate for 101 things. And so they'll be applying through that. But as you saw, I think we sent out we do have a contract now that we we worked on with Megan and with with Megan and with Nate that will show what the deliverables are as part of that. And so we sent that out to you just for your review. If you're okay with that, that's something we'd like to move forward with with them. We have more in line now in in writing than we've ever had with that. some timelines and when they have to get us the the preliminary and what we when we can review and so forth. Are you guys if you're okay with that, we'll we'll proceed on with with that contract with the with the transcript.

Yeah, I I think that's what we talked about to do. Any other questions on that? Okay,

if you're good to go, we'll proceed with that. Then just one more thing. This is a good good news thing. And so, as you're aware, we applied two years ago to start improving Drew Bay Road. We'd be reconstructing the road. we'd be adding about a foot to each side of the road for shoulder and then adding a trail. We applied two years ago with the new administration. They postponed all of those applications. Um and so we we've received this same funding for IBA. We received it for Mormon Trail. Then we applied then they postponed. Then we resubmitted. Um and they just awarded that on February 3rd. And so this first phase of Drew Bay will go from the Twilla City limits to about the railroad tracks is where the first phase is going to go. And so we received $5.2 million. We have a 20% match. We'll be coming to COG for that match. We probably won't won't come this year, probably next year. It usually takes a couple years for the money to flow down. And so we'll be seeking that that match um in a couple years. We just found out about that. And then of course 10 days, well about 7 days ago, we heard the next applications are due and you have 10 days to get it all ready to go. Fortunately, our team had already been ready because we knew it was coming typically when it's coming. And so, um, this next phase will go from the railroad tracks to about Bates Canyon Road will be the second phase. Um, we'll be submitting it by on Thursday. We just got letters of support. We're working on from the cities and that'll be for about $5.1 million will be the next round. And then we're teeing up for next year's, which we need to do some um realignment of the dirt part of Drew Bay um to realign with the gas pipeline there to make a better um road through there. So, we'll have to do a land swap of with a property owner who's just moving the road from one place to another. That'll be what we'll be working on this year for next year's application. But, just one more success in in getting the grants and and kudos to our congressional leadership because they've been very supportive of us and if we do switch Congress uh person next year, we

feel we have a really good project that we're working on right now. So, that's all I I have for tonight. So in the Andy in the military they have a philosophy hurry up and wait and what you're saying is it's rolled over to this part of the federal government too. Yes it is. Hurry up get that in. You only have 10 days and wait two years to be able to get work. Precisely. But kudos to Michelle's team and to roads department as well getting all that stuff put together kind of in a short timeline.

Wonderful. Okay, I think that's what we have. Um, our next item, next item is requ uh requires a closed portion of the meeting under the open uh Utah's open and public meeting act. The council may close a meeting only for specific purposes authorized by the statute. For this purpose, it's to discuss character and professional competency and physical mental health. Um, so I would look for a motion from the council and potential litigation. Um, hearing a motion, Councilman Thomas. Is there

Excuse me. Is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Stroberg. We'll take a roll call. Councilman Hoffman. I Councilman Thomas. Councilman Stroberg. Hi. Councilman Hamner's eye. Councilman Wardle. Hi. Okay, we will go into a close session.