Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Yeah, I got a question. How long has the seat been vacant, and how long does it have to stay open before we can fill it?

Any other questions? I'll move the vote. I'll move the point. Joe McNeil. Second.

The only thing I'd ask is that midday flight would be smarter to push for a Reno instead or... or even just push for a Reno flight in addition to, I sure would like it. And also I think it'd help with our conversations with Carson City if there was a flight, but just a thought.

I mean, in the past, Salt Lake was such a huge Delta hub, there was not even a question. hub that would be smarter just to switch to Reno anyway? Or are we just at the hands of Delta? It doesn't matter.

Anything? Rex, I know you're... I'd just like to add that we just really need to encourage the community to use this service. If we could get the flights up or we didn't have to pay that subsidy, we could have the money to subsidize somebody coming in from Reno if SkyWest doesn't want to make the hops. Just the community, please use this airplane.

And it is nice now. That is a nice plane. It is quick. I mean, it's up and down. You're there.

Mr.. Chairman I move to approve this item from the agenda as as Stipulated by their conditions which were basically they have to keep the law, okay?

Can you go down to the aerial level? I couldn't tell which. The other way. The other way, yeah. Which? There you go.

Okay. Okay, gotcha Okay, any other questions No, I'll move to approve with the staffs recommendations findings and conditions Second, okay has standards your motion Gail second any other comment?

Any public comment on this action item seeing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye aye vote aye also motion carries Thank you

Okay. Steniger moves to approve Resolution 2026, staff's 30. Okay, I'll second. Thank you, any other discussion?

I was a little unsure on that, Corey. So it comes off the main road there, and that's still going to remain public?

Could you go to that vicinity map? Because I couldn't tell from that map where this is.

Oh, okay, okay. Right along Lower South Valley Road. Yeah, there's numbers on top of it. I didn't see that, so thank you.

I, Brian Gale, move to approve the request of G4. Okay.

Corey, I had a question on that. Are you sure that's Hamilton Stage Road?

Sounds good to me. Steniger will move to approve Resolution 2026-30.

I think the bottom line is it benefits the property owner, and he's asked us to do it.

This is a good example of public-private cooperation because a difficult landowner could require the road to go around their parcel and rebuild the road. In this case, he's offering it at no cost to the public. That's correct. So it's something that is a win-win for the public. It also benefits him. because he likes the road there. Sometimes if somebody tries to close off a road like this, it results in litigation because the other owners, like yourself, would say, well, that's always been used. It's a prescriptive right. And they'd come up with theories of why it should remain open. And that

So it is a big enough area that, I mean, it's over two acres.

Seeing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. I vote aye.

This is the background check, so we're good. Carr makes the motion to approve. Second. Gale.

I've got a question. Go ahead. Is there any purpose that the county should hang on to a couple of those? I mean...

Okay, any other questions, comments? I'll just go into Mr. Gell's question. I think it's also important that the sheriff not have any breakdowns on the way to a scene. That's the last thing you need is a mechanical problem, so you've got to keep your vehicles in tip-top shape.

I was just curious that the separate billing for the time over the 20 hours at $175 an hour, does that get covered by the enterprise fund also? Technology fund. Technology fund, right.

I noticed the GIS system was down last week. Was there a problem with the server or what was... I don't know if there was anything, but there was some parcel maps we pulled up or property details where the map would not load.

Any other questions? Standager removed to approve the GIS Enterprise Consultant Agreement.

Okay. So do we charge back the customer? Like if I pay my bill online, do we charge the fee?

I see in this item it says the option to pass on the product. You're going to take that option, huh?

So we're going to pass it on. I was also curious about, the agreement includes a processing rate of 1.25% plus interchange fees. It doesn't give an amount to that.

Yeah. So question. The customer who pays by credit card for their ambulance service will not pay an additional 1.25%. They'll pay an additional 1.25% plus whatever their card says. So it might be 3%. Yeah.

So yeah, you need to just set it at a standard like 3% and be done.

Well, Steniger will move to approve the GIS Enterprise Consultant Agreement in item J1.

Yeah. Does that make sense? Yep. I mean, I think that's a board decision.

I think I'd include that in whatever services we charge a credit card. If I pay my property tax for the credit card, I pay these guys. It's all kind of the same. So we really should, if we're looking at, I agree with you, then bring it all unless there's parts that we can't, but the parts we can have as a standard rate, I think we should. So I'm agreeing with you. Okay.

Yeah, but that's not on today's agenda. So we can't discuss that.

Yeah. And each service is different. This is different than taxes, which isn't such a timely emergency-type payment. But in this case, if you find that people are balking to charge their card because of that fee, it would probably be better to back off the fees and just collect the money rather than have to collect it later and lose even more. So, I mean, I imagine you collect more up front if you take the credit card payment. So, I mean, it's a trade-off.

And I guess it's not that they're sitting in the ambulance. They might be at home after they're already out of the hospital.

Okay, so it's not an amount. Okay, that clarifies that for me.

Entertain a motion. I'll make the motion to approve K2 to ratify the county manager's preliminary approval to approve the mutual aid agreement with Wendover Ambulance to Ambulance Services of Tooele, Utah, or Tooele, LLC, doing business as Mountain West Ambulance.

Yeah. I stalled around and didn't get that done until last night. I sent a draft to William Simpson, and he...

We have, what, another couple of weeks to get that comment in?

Well, it's true that it would allow the Forest Service, assuming they actually do this, greater flexibility, consider road access, forest health, and fuels reduction. It's sad somebody will litigate this, but it sounds fantastic, so I'll make the motion to write the letter. Not me writing it. Let's make sure that's clear to me, but the county to write the letter.

Second. It's not me making the motion. Okay. Yeah. Car motion.

I'd just like to say I remember when this rule was first being discussed by the Forest Service, we went to the Forest Service and opposed it. And there was a lot of people from Elko County that opposed it because we could see how detrimental this was. to every industry in the county, and also to wildlife, also to forest and range management, especially with respect to fire. What we've learned is these roads are some of the best fire breaks. And if they're maintained and if they're accessible, we can put out fire. And this was one of the most wrongheaded rules that has ever been proposed. So I'

Oh, your father's cheerleading at the moment, I guarantee. Yeah, that was very scary because, that's right, it was very vague and probably intentionally vague. And even if they had defined the roads, they would have been closing more roads. I mean, it was scary, the roads they were proposing to close. These were very well-used roads and very important for firefighting. So I'm very happy to see this, that number one, it didn't go forward, and number two, that it's being officially proposed to be rescinded.

Since they left, can we just not give them raises? I'll make a motion to approve M1 as presented. This is Carr.

I'd rather take your word for it and approve it. This is hard.

That was Amanda's second. Is that possible? No. She doesn't have a vote.

Has this been four minutes already? I know. We've got lots of roads, and now we've got bridges.

Aye. Aye. I vote aye also. Motion carries. Well, look at this. Roads, bridges, and now we have the bus service to handle the roads and bridges.

I make a motion to approve because the location of that and this layout and the design, I don't think we have a choice.

Okay, I have a car motion. My only question was, they're getting a pretty good deal with the 3% increase over two years. I'm sure the cost of that service went up way more than 3%.

Do we get a second, yeah? Nope. Stanager, a second.

I'm just doing some quick math. If the county is being paid $218,000 for this service, that's $600 a day. So that's a pretty lucrative contract to help also get my ride going.

Acted the district courts ruling and Nevada Supreme Court's decisions are included for reference It's a great one to welcome you back It's a done deal I think it's a wonderful President that the Supreme Court has now put in that you can't just

So anybody else have anything else they'd like to add? I echo your comments that this was a relatively small mandate, but in principle it was a massive overstep. And if this had been allowed to slide or if the Supreme Court had not put an end to this, this could have been a 5% or a 10% or a 50% mandate down the future that would exceed a cap that was otherwise in place. So the government's got to follow its own rules, and this Supreme Court held them to that standard.

I was curious, the aspect of setting precedent I wonder if it'll affect, it seems like I remember they often say a community over a million. And that is specifically Las Vegas.

Actually, I remember reading that. How did you say that?

Correct. And I remember, too, because I questioned at the time. I go, hey, we're not in that range anymore. And they go, no, it was on that day that it was passed.

Maybe we just have this on the agenda perpetually. They are having desserts back there. All right.

I'll make that motion in Klubrand's name.

Yeah, I'm sorry the sheriff's not here, because I made a note that... Continues that we do not our sheriff's does not do sobriety checkpoints or police Roadblocks, and I talked to him when the city did it, and I know he won't do it, but I just wanted to say that in the record, okay How does everybody else feel I mean you have a motion for a grant for that purpose I No, it can be used for many other things.

Yeah, so I'll make the motion to approve it. And a note for the sheriff that that's not to include sobriety checkpoints.

Second, Gail. And that was a standard motion.

We'd work Steniger will move to approve q2.

I'm looking forward to meeting with the state engineer's office at the Dixie Creek 10-mile water.

overreach or Anyways, we're getting it back and that's all I got Okay Commissioner car So the couple meetings ago or meeting and go or whatever it was I said I would write a letter to our senators instead I had lunch personally with Senator masto And I'll go over how that went I I first talked about outcome-based grazing because we just had the news on Trump allowing non-tariffs on outside beef. And she actually said, why aren't we doing the outcome-based grazing anyway? Which led me to a big smile of going, good question. Aren't you on that committee and those things? So she actually recommen

I thought the Biden administration stopped it. I thought that was part of it.

As I recall, too, there are two different ideas. The outcome-based graving and the targeted graving. I don't know. Was the Biden?

I thought Biden, yeah, kind of went, because that was part of the.

Anyway, Brian, if you want to ask some of your fellow ranchers, you yourself, or however, I don't know how many grazing rights or whatever you have, but just see what the word on the street, if you try that, what comes back.

Okay, my understanding right now is it's really expensive to determine how much the animals have utilized the ground. So you have to get a professional. Right now we're going through the process of, well, we have a guy coming to our ranch and he's looking at everything and seeing what's there, what kind of habitat we have. And it's expensive because it takes a lot of know-how to do these types of studies on the ground. So that might be part of the problem. The good news is the technology is advancing to where you can do that with drones now, that a drone can fly over and say, OK, we've got 70%

Well, like I said, if you find more on that, and I can relay that back to the senator. Okay. I think Maggie Crick is actually...

There are a few. You're talking about the GPS callers? Yeah, there's a few people that work out there.

Yeah, and the fire, where cattle graze, the fire just can't go very well. I mean, unless you've got a lot of sagebrush overstory, you know.

But even then, it doesn't spread near as bad.

Yeah. Where the grazing happens, the fire just doesn't go as bad.

A couple other things, too. On the nuclear waste, they just appointed a new member to that board. And it said specifically, bragged about the fact that she had said she will never allow nuclear waste in Nevada. So we still got big problems there.

Well, nuclear waste is the yuck amount of storage. And the verbiage in here would still be the governor and the legislature want to approve what they could. So that's how they're changing the law. But also they are changing it that it could be recycled. So for some fluke reason, Nevada wanted to approve recycling it and bring it to Nevada. It won't probably happen, but at least the law will change that it could happen if Nevada wanted to.

And then also remember reading something somewhere. Somebody questioning the fact that the traffic deaths on US 93 are high. Remember that? And I don't understand how they could do that. I think they must be using the whole 93 instead of that section between Wells and Jackpot, because that just doesn't make sense to me.

I explained that whole reason why I think it's different. The short stretches of hills, corners, turns all the way up to jackpot. Whereas from Wells South, there's a lot longer stretches that if all of a sudden you're getting impatient. With the RVs and everybody else doing 50 and you're trying to do 70 but they've had passing lanes there for years So I will keep up on that because no I'd like to make that a priority because obviously it's a problem They have made improvements there.

I mean there is a really good passing lane north of the wine cup headquarters Yes, but you missed the days if they'd come here and go.

What's your prayer? Do we go? that road, and they'd kind of smile at us and thank you for your info, and just, we're studying it. Well, you know every inch of that ground. What part's studying? It was the same as turning at 80 miles an hour in I-80. We're studying it.

Anyway, that was my comments. Thank you, guys.

The county has an interest in improving beef production. And according to statistics, Elko County has 50% of the beef that it had you know, 60 years ago, and only 10% of the sheep, if even that, of what existed 60 years ago. And so I had an idea that the county could consider this as hiring a professional rangecon. Like Brian is saying, this is expensive work to hire somebody to come in and do a full study. But imagine if the county had a rangecon on staff that their job was to prioritize and map and study which areas are being underutilized and then could prepare more detailed studies where w

That's really exciting, Travis. That's really exciting. And also, we could use that range con. Yeah, and you're about in the ballpark for the price of one.

And we could... Add 50% of the benefits.

Yeah. Then they could also develop the science that we're waiting for. To develop the you know aerial assessment science for Using drones and stuff like that I mean Yeah, we were a county with enough cattlemen in it that it would make a difference if we could go from 50% utilization to 60% utilization that's still a very big deal and

If you could put some numbers together, you being closer to the industry, maybe we could continue to explore that or even talk to some experts and then bring it on to the agenda at some point.

Yeah, I'm pretty skeptical of that. First of all, I don't think the BLM would listen to you. They're not famous for that. They say... You take your cows off on August 15th, or you take them off on whatever. They don't care if there's a grass there or not. It's in their plan. But I do agree. If you're finding places with a lot of grass, we ought to look into it. I mean, whose allotment is that?

That's what I'm saying is if we could focus on the areas where this professional could identify this is clearly underutilized, then we hold the BLM and the Forest Service to their own standards. Because I think that it's not being studied. That's why they don't listen is because they don't study it, and they don't have enough staff to follow their own regs. So if we were enforcing their standards, they would have to follow them.

Under understaffing is always their answer. That's always why they can't do whatever they're doing because they just don't have enough people for it. And maybe they don't. And this is how the county can say to them that, yeah, you don't have enough people. Well, it's in our interest also. So we're going to put this forth. I'll look. I'll look into it and see if I can't find anything concrete.

By analogy, during COVID and so forth, when the federal government was closing all the national parks in Utah due to understaffing and due to their regulations, the Utah delegation came forward and says, we'll staff them, we'll open them. And they stepped up because it was in the state interest to keep those parks open. And same in this case, if the federal government's understaffed and can't do the job, then maybe it's time for the state to start doing, just like we took over more fire responsibility. We might need to take over more range conservation.

They're kind of a yellowish. Did you see them? Did you see their trucks? Our red trucks are handsome.

But no, I think Amanda's right on the money. That was huge. And I talked to them at the high school football game. They went and watched that while they were on duty. And, no, very professional. And good kudos. I'm glad you brought that up.

You're awful handsome today. I think something's coming up.