County Commission - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. and we're going to go ahead and get started. Um, appreciate everybody being here. I just wanted to make sure you were here really.

Um, want to thank everybody that's online with us as well. Appreciate you listening. Um, beautiful day. Wish we could be outside instead of in a meeting, but here we are. So, um, we are going to go ahead and get started with a invocation by Commissioner Blocker and she will lead us also in the p pledge of allegiance. Our father in heaven, we're grateful to gather here tonight for our county commission meeting and and to discuss the needs and wishes of the county. Please guide and direct us. help us to work together and listen to each other and collaborate and and do what's best for the county and our residents. And we're grateful for all we have and for the beautiful sunshine that's shining in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen. I pledge algiance 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. All right. Has everybody had a chance to look through the consent agenda items and are there any changes need to be made there? Okay, I'll look for a motion then. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the consent agenda.

I'll second it. I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I there any opposed? Okay. Are there any declarations of uh conflict of interest? Okay, I do have one myself on E5. The nine line hangers. Um I go ahead. I also have um E12 are uh my some of my family.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Now's our time for public comment. So, um, anybody that has a anything they would like to bring before the commission, um, if you could take just three mission three minutes and state your name and address when you come to the pulpit. Okay. Seeing none, we will move to our action items. E1, MHS graduate 26 monetary donation for project graduation.

This was mailed in um looking at the commission's donation history. They've never given to this before. Um literally any amount, but that's up to you guys. Do you want to donate? They didn't ask for a specific amount. They did not. This is the This is exactly what they're just the form letter they send to everyone. Correct. Have we donated in the past? No, not ever seen this before.

I will note that Operation Graduation operates a food booth at the county fair. Um and that's generally where they derive the vast majority of their funding. They they generate quite a lot of money from that. Um we do support that in that we're providing the facility at no cost. Uh I don't recall if we charge them I think we charge them the fee or have just like any other vendor but I could be wrong. Um but that might be an opportunity perhaps that we could do. Yeah, perhaps if if that's something you'd like to consider being

What is the fee? Well, we you can't wave the deposit. So, but that's the cleaning deposit. We wouldn't wave. That's reimburseable. It's It's a couple hundred. So, that's pretty good. Yeah. I would I would be in favor of that myself. Okay. Maybe we can work that out. And you're sure we've never waved that in the past? I don't believe we have in the past. We can confirm though, but I don't think we have because we haven't for any other of the nonprofit groups that use literally make. Yeah. Yes. Thousands. Thousands.

Okay. I'll move um in support of Morgan High School's operation graduation that the county commission authorize the waiver of their um booth rental fees for the Morgan County Fair for their food booth for for 2026. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second second by Commissioner Froel. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Oh, sorry. I was an I. Okay. Okay. E2. Aaron bot from our library. Aaron, do you want your PowerPoint? Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

All right. I wasn't sure how many questions or how much discussion we would have tonight. So, I prepared just a really brief PowerPoint to kind of give you an overview of what I'm requesting. If you want to move to the next slide, these are our librarians. We currently in the library department have five librarians, two historians, and three pages who work after school. Of these 10 employees, I am the only one that is full-time and benefited. But the county has grown to the point that we could really benefit from another full-time employee. So, what I'm asking for tonight is authorization to move money from the library supplies line. So, money that has already been allocated in the library budget to the permanent employees line to make Jamie a full-time benefited assistant librarian. So, if you want to go to the next one. So, one of the questions I anticipated that you might have is why why do we need a full-time position as opposed to multiple part-time positions? That has worked for us in the past, but we have simply outgrown it. The top reason is retention. We are losing good people. I lost two excellent assistant librarians last year alone because they moved on to full-time benefited positions. And this is affecting the public because we're losing people right when they know what they're doing. So we don't have great continuity of service. You can go in on Monday and ask one librarian a question and get one answer. Go in on Tuesday, ask a different librarian the same question and get a different answer. Which means I'm spending a lot of my time training and correcting rather than doing my job. And we're not following our policies, which opens us up to potential liability and is also just bad service. The public deserves better than that and they deserve more consistency.

With a full-time person, we will also have improved accountability and ownership. Somebody can see a project through from beginning to end and there won't be quite so much hot potatoing of difficult tasks from one person to the next. And we also hope that it'll minimize duplication of efforts because, you know, the Tuesday person won't have to spend their morning trying to catch up on what the morning per the Monday person didn't finish. Um, I recognize that on paper, I mean, two part-time roles is appear is cheaper than one full-time, but there are other values here. You know, the part-time results in higher turnover, which is more hiring and training costs, lower program effectiveness because this person doesn't have the ownership and doesn't have the feedback and doesn't have the relationship with the patrons. So that's reduced community impact and frankly missed opportunities for grants and partnerships. There have been grants that I have not applied for or that we have been awarded and I have given back because we didn't have the manpower to execute the program and we don't want to do that. Um why now? That's another question. Why didn't I ask for this at budgeting time? Great question. At budgeting time, I did not know what my approved 2026 budget was going to be and what number I was actually going to have in that supplies line that functions as kind of a surplus line for the library to make sure that our revenue and our expenditures zero out. That in our 2026 budget is $124,965.96. We don't need an extra $124,000 just sitting in a bank account. if the public could get more value from having another full-time librarian. The other big factor that I have now that I did not have in August is that I have staff who wants it. I sat down and talked to

all of my staff and asked them if they would be interested in more hours and at the time they were not. None of them were. Now I have somebody who is qualified and eager and who wants full-time and benefits and I want to keep it eight. This is a horrible graph and I apologize. I'm horrible at charts. But basically the question here is is it sustainable? Right? We don't want to bring somebody on full-time this year and not be able to pay him next year. This is the library budget over the last four years because we are funded through a mill levy which is a property tax. It's it's rooftops. Our budget has not gone down. We have a surplus every year. We have sufficient even if we were to flatline we would be able to fund this position in perpetuity. So budget should not be a problem and the money is already there. So we're not asking for any additional money. We're just asking for a better way to use it. and Kate, I think my last one. That's it. So, those are some of the questions that I anticipated you might have. Do you have other questions for me? Perpetuity was my biggest um question on that is that that it was sustainable to be able to have that um because I don't want to see the budget be asked for next year. that we do it one time. That's kind of like onetime monies, you know, and so that's that was my biggest concern.

Yeah. With the with the growth, new growth, we're seeing that budget increase year-over-year. So,

yeah, and our operating costs are not increasing significantly. I mean, staff is our most expensive expenditure as it is for most departments. But, yeah, it's not it's not getting more expensive to check out books, but it it is expensive to have the people and the time That amazes me that you've been the only full-time employee over there for 106 years. You're doing a great job and you look so young. No, I appreciate you putting so much time and thought into it. To have someone that actually wants it, so is going to be invested in it is is huge.

Thank you. And that is huge because I really we do expect a lot of investment and a lot of commitment from our librarians. It's after hours things. It's community outreach. It's reaching out to individual people and patrons. And we want them to know that we are as invested in them as we expect them to be in us. So, a question I have. I don't mind the extra one. Um, what about dropping the millenn? that will require a lot of re-evaluation.

Okay. So, I mean just because we have the money doesn't mean mean we need to spend the money. Agreed. So, the question is how does it best value the community?

That's right. Now, the other thing is is I have a question on your historical historic history um people over there. And I know that that is something that you may be wanting to consider also is that sometime maybe someday they might want to be going fulltime. I don't know if they do or they don't. I'm just saying that's a potential of something that could happen which could benefit Morgan even more and more. And uh so I'm just trying to figure out if it if if our dollars are being spent wisely in all areas, not just in the library building over here, but all over in the history department, which is part of yours. And um because over time it's going to get bigger and bigger and we're going to need more and more. So next year you're going to come to us and ask us for a full-time person of the history. Maybe I'm just say I'm just bringing that up. And so where does it end?

I would just say like she hasn't asked since I've been here and we've had one full-time for 106 years. That's kind of an unfair question. It's it's not an unfair question to say where does it end. I mean but but the question is is where does it end? because we are growing, but we're not growing so much. And I'm saying it's not a large amount, but it's basically $80,000 a year. $40,000. How with benefits, it's $80,000 a year. Okay. Tell me what it is. $4,000 more than what is currently budgeted. Okay. You've got budgeted now 20,000 approximately approximately for that employee.

Okay. We increase that by 20 more and then we have another 45% on top of that for his benefits or whoseever benefits it is. So that's an additional amount, 45% of it between 40 to 45%. So I'm just saying

I'm just saying that this is money that yes, the public says our property taxes are too high. And I'm saying, okay, if we're going to bring our property taxes down, how are we going to bring property taxes down when the values of land is still going up and the values of houses when all of a sudden we say, "Okay, we got a great employee here. We want to keep this employee." and I I think he's a great asset to the county. But what I'm what I'm saying is is do we really have a need at this time or is it a year from now? Is it I mean, you know, how are we going to stop the the the amount of budgets that we continually just continue to grow and grow and grow? And we're not stopping. after you. I can tell you another thing. The attorney's office is going to ask for another employee. The planning department is going to ask for another employee. Before long, we are basically we got to raise taxes.

So, the answer to your question is when does it stop is when the commission says no. And so, that's what she's coming before you today. She's presented it. And all the hypotheticals of what may happen in the future are irrelevant except in your mind of saying I may say no in the future. You might say no tonight but the question and what's on the agenda for discussion is not future potential correct hypotheticals. And so if we can call the question or or get back to the I want to make just one statement towards that and and then I think we should you know I'll make a motion I guess but the the library levy we have not adjusted that in more than two decades

tax rate has actually the tax rate has gone down year after year after year for over 25 years because we have not adjusted that budget up and the new growth has more than compensated for that. So what residents are paying today for library services is significantly less ratewise than it was 20 years ago. I understand.

So to to say, well, where does it end? Well, we're growing and as we grow, we're going to need more services. That's that's the truth of the matter. The attorney's office is going to have more cases. As we grow as a community, they're going to need more people. We're going to need more people in the planning services office as we have more construction going. I mean, that that's that's part of growth. it's going to happen. So to ask the question, well, when does it end? Well, it ends when the community stops growing. But I, for one, don't want to see that because a community that stops growing is a community that dies. And we don't want a community that dies. We want a community that continues to grow and develop hopefully appropriately and in a good way. But I think to to ask that question is a little unfair, especially given that this the library in my seven years here, eight years here almost has never asked for an adjustment to their budget above and beyond what they're already pulling in from the military and they haven't in the last 20 years. That's why it's where it is. That's why the yes, the rate or the the dollar amount has gone up that we bring in, but that's simply because of new growth. It's not because the rate has changed at all. In fact, it's dropped year after year. So, I would move that we approve this. The the funds are already there. It doesn't affect the general fund at all. It's out of the library fund balance. It's funding that otherwise would roll back into the into the fund balance. And there's a healthy fund balance there as well of over $450,000. Last time I looked, it's probably more than that now because that was last year. So, it's probably closer to half a million today. Um, and this is sustainable into the future. So, it's not even onetime money. We're talking about sustainable money. So, I would make a motion that we approve the $40,000 $40,31163 to be moved from the supplies to the permanent employee and uh salary and benefits line.

I'll second that. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton, a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I. Any opposed? A. Okay. I think um Blaine I I think we have to Blaine Blaine was an A on that. That was an A. But I'd like to explain it if I can.

I I think we have to have some confidence in our in our uh managers over the departments in what they feel like is needed. Each of us have been given assignments over those things and I I think as we discuss that with them um we definitely need to discuss that in a private setting I think and and go over exactly why or why not before before we get even to this point. So um but we do need need to trust them. That's that's why we hired them as well is so because of their ability to manage and and uh know what they their department needs. So go ahead Blaine, explain your nay.

My nay is is basically because I mean I can agree with you that we need one eventually. I'm I'm opposed to the fact that it's midyear and I would like to have it brought up at budget time instead of now. That is my reason. And uh because we went against our own budget, even though it doesn't go against an increase in our budget this year, it will be next year. Uh even though it's within your budget, and I have nothing wrong with you doing this, but it's just against the budget. And uh so that's my reason. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Aaron. Thanks, Casey.

Um, can you tell them about the cheat sheet you left on there? Oh, yeah. So, there's a cheat sheet. This is a smallest font. Find anything for He's got young eyes. He can remind me to bring my glasses.

So, if on the top left corner you can see Cassell. Cassell is what we're currently using. I have it broken down by per payroll cost. So, they charge us annually in July, that's $6,660. And then they charge us $1,400 each pay period. Uh because we have 26 pay periods, that's at $36,400 number. Um and then I've also included this at the applicant tracking system that we use for an annual total of $47,000. the we went out for RFP on our HR payroll system and most of the vendors gave us a three-year cost because they had the implementation fees and then they dropped down. So you can see on the very right or sorry the middle ADP so ADP year 1 was 41,000 and then year 2 was 35,000 and then goes up to 45,000. So, I thought it was fair a fair comparison to do a three-year cost breakdown. And so, the Dominion Payroll, which is the middle, bottom middle, is the one that is going to be the cheapest. I've gone on a demo with them, and they have better service. So, one of the complaints I get constantly from our employees for clocking in, especially our our referees, our summer interns, all of those the younger uh employees, is there's no app for them to clock in. And when they go to the website, um it's a really long URL that they have to type in. They can't just like they can't Google Cassell because if you go to Cass Google Cassell, then you go to the wrong link. And so, Dominion Payroll does have a uh an app that they can clock in and clock out of, which is also helpful because then it can tell us where they clocked in and clocked out of, they have

a geo location on their phone. So if we see that employees are clocking in from their home residence, then we can have an issue with that and bring that up to them, which currently they can log on to their computer at home and clock out and we can kind of infer things, but we can't say. We we know for a fact that you clocked in from home and you didn't clock in, but that's besides the point. That's just it got a GPS tracking. Yes. So when you click punch in, it will tell you where you punched in at. So if you're at the McDonald's down the street and you clock in, we can say, "Hey, you were getting breakfast. You weren't at in your seat. You were

It doesn't give you the chance to say only when using this app or not at all or it's just automatically." It it does, but if you if you say no, then we can make sure that it doesn't. Then we know you're just doing it. Well, it doesn't allow you to collect it from your phone. if you if you deny if you deny the the location services.

Uh so some of the payroll problems that we've had with Cassell is that it takes a very long time to get payroll done. So I started payroll at uh 10:00 a.m. yesterday and I hoping they're finishing up soon today. Um but I'm not certain that they're going to be done. I think they'll be done tomorrow morning. Um maybe so that's been frustrating for us that we have to send it out to Cassell for them to do all the payroll. They send us back a payroll register. We tell them, "Hey, we found a couple of issues here and here. Can you fix it?" It gets sent off 3 hours later. They send us a new register. We say, "It looks good." And then they start on finalizing their processes. And it takes usually, so I sent him the okay back today at I think 11 am and they're still working on payroll right now. And so with a new system, it would allow us to be able to keep that inhouse with better customer service. So our treasurer's department has had issues with their reconciliation and it's been a hassle to get a hold of Cassell and Dominion Payroll. When I've been on the calls with them, they've sent us a sheet that says how many calls they've gotten, the response time, and they've had I think they their last one was 81% of all calls were answered within 20 seconds. And um 100% of all tickets were answered within eight hours. So it is better service for cheaper. So

the other thing I would add is the urus. Oh, and the late fees were paying.

Oh yes. So, we have had Cassell doing our 941s and which is our quarterly tax filings as well as our URS uploads and they have been doing those late and we just got an invoice at the end of last year that it was a $100 because they had filed our URS after the 30 days and then we also got a $100 penalty from uh Department of Workforce Services for filing our 941s late. And so I've since taken those back over, but um they the Dominion Payroll said they would be able to fulfill those responsibilities for the 941s to be able to get those done on time.

Are there any other like local entities that are using Dominion that we know of? Uh UAC said they were using it and they said they had a good experience with it. I will say I've had so Dominion Payroll has a license for Isol which is the actual software we'll be using and they'll license it to us. Um I'm not sure exactly how they they define it but I have used in the past and I did not have any problems with it. So

question if I may. Um I appreciate you doing this. Um, one thing I've noticed with Cassell and when we were trying to do it five years ago, um, change things around at that point, um, Lesie brought up the fact, and I don't know if she's in here or not. Okay. But anyway, Lesie brought up the fact that the other company we were looking at at that time could not integrate with Cassell. So does this one and will it be able to integrate with Cassell unless we change Cassell 2 which I would too.

So what the the integration is they said they can export the GL's from payroll and they can import it into Cassell so that our budget will match and we'll just have to do it each time. It should only take a few minutes to export and import export out of Dominion import into Cassell. Okay. So Leslie is on board with this. Yes. So Casey, maybe you already answered this and I missed it. So you um itemized years 1, two, and three. So $31,78. Will that be the same cost for four, five, six?

So yearly contract, does it go up? So we pay them per pay or sorry, per month. And typically what you see with these contracts and I noticed this with ADP uh NEOGV and Paycom is they have an option to raise it 1 to 3% after the the three years but when we get to that point then we can negotiate those costs with Cassell it's also been the it's been increasing by that 1 to 3% every years I believe each year it's been for Cassell. Okay.

So, I I can't guarantee that these costs will continue to go, but if if we were to go with another payroll provider, it would raise at the same rate. Thank you. There is a 90day notice and so we're not locked in long term either. That's 90 days for either side to give notice and then we could put it out for another RFP or whatever it is and and look at a different provider. Thanks. So has the contract here been reviewed by you and are we are we voting on the contract itself as well as as a

that's my understanding is what is being presented tonight. I know that there's some lag time or we want to get this going as soon as possible.

So it has been um reviewed. I have two things that still I think need to go back to the contact that Casey has. And um it's on page two um section G, it talks about the limitation of liability. There's just some language there that needs to be updated to match the Utah Government Immunity Act. And then if you go to page four, it talks about that it's going to be under Virginia law. And I just want to have some conversations about that to make sure that everything's clarified and and we know what we're getting into. But once again, it's a 90-day, so if there was something wrong, we're not locked in long term. But those are the two things that I would request that it's approved subject to negotiation of those two terms with with the county attorney's office. You raising your hand, Commissioner Walker?

No, I was just wpping in the Are you ready for a motion or is there more? Okay, Mr. Chair, I'll move that we approve um the agreement uh the selection of Dominion as a new payroll provider for the county and the agreement as listed in the um packet this evening with um the adjustments and approval of the county attorney as discussed. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton, a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I. Are there any opposed? Thanks, Casey.

Thanks, Casey. Okay, we're going to go backwards on the agenda for just a minute. We had a late comer for public comments. So, we'll open the time up for 3 minutes for our late comer.

Just need to state your name and where you live, please.

Sean York. I live in the Highlands community. I appreciate you going back for me. Um I just came I had talked with most of you about this topic about the um upcoming changes to the Kent Smith Park uh there at the base of the Highlands community and um it's my understanding that the you know with these potential the potential of the 4 acre lease from the Mount Green Sewer District for the additional land there um I'm advocating for the inclusion of completed baseball field. There's a back stop there, but the pickle ball court got put in left field. Um, and so we have a lot of young men in Mountain Green that play in the valley. Um, there's nowhere for us to practice. Um, my my boy plays um, competitive baseball and there's nowhere for us to practice in Mountain Green. So, we either have to stay down there or we have to come to Morgan for a field. And if you know baseball, the the the ability to get your kid to throw from where he's filling it to first base or third base, it's important to have that time on a field. And um so um and I really don't uh care about the design, but I know there's a design plan in, you know, being put together. Um so reusing the back stop, moving it um you know just the inclusion of a field that can be used uh from 8U up to at least 12U um which would require the basable baselines for um like the posts that you can move the baselines. So that's that's all I had. I just wanted to be on the record and I appreciate

pitching mound movable I'm assuming.

Yep. Pitching mound movable as well. So, it's about a 200 foot and I've walked it. I think the you there's enough room on the um west north corner if that was your your home base line. Um I think there's plenty of room there. I would assume that if you're leasing the sewer district ground, you wouldn't want to invest in this on that ground, but the soccer fields could be on that ground really easily. Um and uh and then obviously we need some some bleachers there. I have had thoughts of starting um an 8U team or 9U team and building it around my boy, but there's no option to do that unless we can practice in our community um you know as a team. So, um, and and I appreciate the time all of you have given me on the phone otherwise, and I appreciate you going back for me. Thank you.

Thank you. I like the going to bat pun.

Uh, Haley's running late, so I don't know. Okay,

we could go through it if you want. It's pretty self-explanatory. Okay. Um, Jubilee Tix, which is the company we've used for probably 10 plus years for for ticket sales at the county fair, has gone out of business. And so we're we're forced to get a new vendor for that. Um, we did an RFP. We got responses from four vendors. Um, we we really had to kind of go badger them because a lot of them were just not a big enough event for them to chase us, to be honest. But um there are four options here. Um they have varying advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately we believe that that first option listed there is is the best option. Um feewise that will actually probably end up slightly less than what we have been paying um under Jubilee. So um I think it it will work out pretty well. Um and and even the

you're talking about ticket spice. Uh yeah, something name. Yes. Ticket spice. So um the the second option would be that Sapphire, but that 7% of ticket price on a on a $15 ticket, that's a dollar plus. So it's more than the 99 cent cost ticket price is is requesting. But Sapphire is compatible, right, with VMO? uh cut you off.

I I believe they are. However, we've never used Venmo for ticket sales and I don't think we intend to do that. Um they would still you'd still be able to buy the tickets online. Like we've never had Venmo set up for the fair. We're hoping to this year for some ancillary things. Oh, sweet. So, it'll be for things like um not for actual ticket sales, but things like make and take and ride tickets and bounce house and things like that. We really need to have people because we're doing reserve seating. You really have to buy your ticket online because you have to select a seat. So, I don't know that the Venmo thing really matters at all in terms of compatibility with the ticket retailer.

However, wouldn't it be nice to be able to I'm just stating this is as a person that does not want to always have to do it online beforehand is to be able to purchase it at the fair if there's an open spot because there you can still do that with this retailer. Okay, cuz that you can do that with any of these retailers. Um, you know, they could come up to the booth and that's what we've done in the past with Jubilee. Any open seats, we would still sell them and and somebody could come to the ticket booth, select their seat on the iPad there and and do it in person. So, there was still last year there was one night that was not filled and if you know if it had been available for people Oh, it was okay.

It was available and and we sold a number of tickets on site. Okay. All right. So, it's just you have to if you if you if you have reserved seats, you have to be there somehow to to select it online. You can't just it's not like the old days of cash where we would just hand them wristband and people would go in. Now, we have to, you know, know which seat they're taking. Okay. And I think it's been awesome. Yes, the reserve seating at the end of the day has been, you know, there there was a little adjustment for a couple of years of people getting used to that, but it's been much much better than no blankets

and yeah, we don't have to worry about the blankets. You don't have issue of people taking up too much space. We're able to, you know, fill the stands. We know how many tickets we've sold in advance. There's a lot of advantages to it. So anyway, I would I would make a motion that we move forward with awarding the the proposal for county fair ticket sales to Ticket Spice um pending the county attorney's review and approval of of the agreement for that service. I'll second it. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton, a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor?

I. Any opposed? Yeah, I almost got beat up over a blanket once. That's It's You definitely get yelled at sometimes. People get pretty ticked off if you move their blanket. Yeah, take it place. I just cut. Okay. Um we are on E5. John Cannon for nine line. Did we have a vote on the last motion? Did we have a vote? Yeah, we didn't vote. Second, but we didn't have Did we? No. Oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, we did. Yeah, cuz I said Newton Walker.

All in favor? And then I And then I made a comment. She's got it in the notes. We're good. Okay, I'm fine with it. I just shortterm memory. What are you guys drinking? I need some of that. I need to have some. I'll take a drink.

What is this? So, appreciate your time tonight. I'm here representing Buster Delmani, who is the uh president of the Nineline Project. And uh Buster is probably available by phone if we have to tonight, but he's still out of town visiting his grandkids. So, um, when I left my house tonight, uh, heading this way, my wife asked me a question. She said, "Do you know that at the store they sell there's a rack for reading glasses for men and for women?" I didn't understand it, but when I got out of the car, I think it might mean that I'm wearing girls glasses today. So,

they they look good. I'm not sure what she meant, but I think these might have come off the women's section of the reading glasses. So, my husband has those. But anyway,

so here here we go. We'll try to be quick tonight, not take up too much of your time. I I I don't think there's any new information that we'll be discussing tonight. Um quite a few items tonight regarding the Morgan County Airport. So, I thought I'd just give a a quick uh history of the airport. Uh the airport was founded in in 1958. Um county uh resolution 124 on April 1993 reaffirmed that the county uh felt the airport was an important part of our community. Um phase one development of the airport, which is the private section of the airport, uh commenced in 1994. The runway and the ramp was paved in October of 1994 and five uh phase one of the private section of the airport was completed September 27th, 2023. And in your packet, I included the occupancy certificate just for fun of that last hanger. So that was quite of an quite a few years of accomplishment to get to where we are today. Um phase two which is uh has been determined by the council to be the commercial aviation section was started June of 2020 and is ongoing right now. That's what we'll be discussing tonight. Um, so the Morgan County Airport consists of 28 acres of land and over the last 12 months, let's see, we had 9,272 aircraft operations in our airport. Um, that's broken down. This this is out of FlightAware data. So there would possibly been more flights than this.

Um, 25 flights per day. 93 of those flights were general aviation and training exercises for student pilots. 6% were the military and one around 1% was airmed and lifeflight. Uh we currently have over 150 aircraft that are based out of the Morgan County Airport, all of which pay um registration fees to the state of Utah, which are are used to maintain our airport. We have around 30 student pilots who have received check rides who are on their way to the airlines. Uh a fair number of those were actually Morgan County High School graduates that are currently there at the airport. And these things are kind of hard to accomplish. Um Bon's son is on his way to the airline. Just finished his instrument rating. Correct.

Yeah. Very close to that. So now I'm going to get different glasses out cuz those don't work. These are my wife's glasses. Just so you're just so you are they're not quite nice. Anyway, um so ba basically I'm just going to I'm just going to very quickly go back through the phase 2 project. Um nine lines committed certain things to the county which I feel they have kept their commitment on these things. Um these are basically the Nineline company is is a unique part of our community. The owner and the president lives in the right there ne adjacent to the airport. Um they've de they committed to build a high quality six finger six figure hanger. They committed to make the make that hanger look nice and appealing in the community. and they committed to landscape and complete all the improvements which they did. Um they committed to create job opportunities. They've opened a they uh certified a maintenance shop and they've taken Morgan High School interns into that shop under the supervision of the uh mechanics. Uh up to this point, uh Nin Line has invested around $360,000 in planning cost, fees, and infrastructure into our airport. Um they commit they have committed to uh continue with the Aeroc Club project, which would be hanger number five, um that we've talked about in our lease. And that would be an opportunity to

bring in some type of an arrow club to make it uh less expensive for people to get into aviation. And lastly, uh they committed an air carrier to our community. So, um the Morgan County Airport now officially has an FAA certified air carrier. Uh this was certified October 2 was the the certification started October 2022 and the certification was completed January 29th of this year and the first uh charter flight left Morgan for St. George. So that's kind of an exciting thing for our airport. So uh just kind of moving forward. I kind of uh scrubbed out a quick letter and uh of of the reason we wanted to visit with you guys tonight and as I reviewed our previous meetings, we've been here before the council four times and then we've also had work sessions um I don't know three or four work sessions probably on the topic and it was kind of it was kind of interesting to relisten to those meetings and listen to the concerns and comments and things of of the council and it made me realize how hard everybody works to try to get something that works for everybody involved. So, we really appreciate that. And so basically we're here tonight um we have submitted building permits uh for hanger three for let's see two three and four. So those would be the 360x60 hangers. Well I think we've submitted

for the other smaller hanger also. And um we're in that process working with the building department and they've been good to work with. Um we have a good relationship with them and and Dustin's been great working on our plan reviews and helping us find the documents and things that we sometimes miss. Uh anyway, uh we were informed by the staff that the administration had informed them to reject our building permit applications. And we don't really understand why that is. And so we requested a meeting through the airport manager and the airport manager referred us to the county council. So, we're here tonight to try to scrub that out, figure out where we're at, and move forward. Um, and so that's kind of why we're here tonight. I have included and you know, for our review, I've I've included an airport lease. I've included our um the documents that went along with that. And so, we just want to find out what the concerns are. and then see what we can't do so we can get moving forward on the project. So, if I can speak, I I think that there's been other communications that have happened since what you just suggested because um originally I sent an email to Buster saying, "Hey, um it's my understanding that XYZ is happening. Here's where I see the lease." And you were copied on that. And so you know what the concerns are at least from my perspective. And then there was um

regarding our building permits. No, regarding human occupancy or habitancy in the hangers. Okay. We're happy to discuss that tonight, but I haven't had any any information regarding our current building permits that we and I don't know that that's accurate either because I had a phone call saying that um with Commissioner Wilson because he texted me about it and and we said that at this point if you know the building permit is limited to the shell only and it doesn't deal with habit and so I tenant in Plute. We haven't applied for any tenant.

Exactly. And so so the building permits aren't being held up. Like there's no question on that. That can move forward. And so I just I just want to narrow the scope of what we're talking about cuz I think that information came directly from the um the building department. They called me on the phone and and they haven't called you since. I have not had any communication with them since. Okay. should have been Dustin. Yeah, Dustin called me and he didn't say that you can move forward with this. We have not had any information like that yet. Okay. All right. And and you know, we're just waiting. You know, we we need to go through the regular process. We

we haven't paid our fees. We haven't, you know, gotten our, you know, possibility there's something else he needs. But um so so so we went from him informing me that the process was stopped and so that's kind of where that's kind of where we're at today and I'm happy. Let me just say if the fees haven't been paid the process hasn't started because you don't get a building review until you have

we've paid those fees but we haven't paid for our permits yet. So, we'll get we've paid $750 for every hanger that we've submitted and every permit we've asked for and those reviews are in process and at the end of that process we'll get a bill from the county and we'll pay that bill and then we'll the permit will be issued in my understanding of the process. Okay. If I'm incorrect about that, let me know. But that's how it's always worked in the past. I just know that last week we had the conversation and the building permits were going to move forward as that has not been relayed to me at all. Okay. I've had no information regarding that.

I wouldn't mind addressing It seems like it's it it seems like for some reason, Garrett, someone is concerned about what Buster would eventually want to do with these buildings. And I'd like to scrub that out tonight because the issue to me is um as we look at it as the contractor, I have to inform him like, okay, what is the future use of this building? So if he wants the future use to be a certain thing, we may have to bring more utilities in or we might have to bring a fire sprinkler system in or we might have to do something that we have to stub into these buildings prior to so that when the tenant improvements happen that that the infrastructure is there to support it. So, if his lease allows him to do certain things, say for example, a paint shop, okay, and he wants to put a paint shop in there, the fire marshall might require a sprinkler system for that paint shop. And so, right now, we would want to spend the money. We'd want to bring those water lines in, stub those utilities in to make sure that uh those things are available so that you know when the tenant improvement comes in, he wants to do a paint shop. It's it's it's easy for us to do that. We don't want him to have to spend more money. Um, the other issue is that it seems as if I've heard rumors that you guys have a problem with is the lease allows for shortterm lodging for equivalent to an FBO or a uh VBO

VRBO type situation where um pilots would fly in. This was discussed in detail when we were scrubbing out the lease and uh well I have the timestamps and it wasn't discussed in detail and I I'm happy to speak to it because I listened to all the meetings myself and made no I'm just saying that when you're saying it was discussed in detail it really wasn't discussed in detail. It was a passing comment that then shifted to sales tax discussion. So, so at the end of the day, let I'll just let me stop you there because I'm just going to say you can't enter an illegal or unconscionable agreement. A court will never uphold an illegal agreement.

So, are you saying our lease is illegal?

There's a portion of it that is under your interpretation and there's a superseding portion of the lease. And so rather than spinning our wheels in a public meeting and hearing the whole presentation, I can direct you to that, we're already doing um research into FAA requirements because the FAA, they preempt this field. They occupy the field for aviation. So even if we passed an ordinance that said human habitation is allowed at the airport and we go against what our code currently says, if the federal says you can't do that, then they occupy the field and preempt our code and supersede it regardless of what this five member body does. Okay?

And so I don't know what those answers are completely. we've looked at. Well, I think that'd be a good process to go through because what we don't want to have happen is we don't want to have a lease that we all worked on together.

Um that in that lease, we specified certain things that Buster was allowed to do. if he's not allowed to do these things and if his conditional use permit does not apply to these items, okay, or if we made a mistake and these things are illegal or whatever, we need to take care of that before he spends a lot of money and before this turns into some kind of a big old fight because he felt he was he felt he was being allowed to do this. He's moved forward. he's invested money and then next thing you know he feels like that we're acting in bad faith and that he's backed into a corner and we have a fight. So if you have a suggestion, I'm happy, you know, I'm happy to accept your suggestion. Um, if you want to meet, if you want to go over those things, if you want to get with Buster and explain to him, you know, why he can't do the certain things that we've done in the lease, if we if we need to modify the lease or redo the lease, I don't think that we'll find that Buster is um unreasonable whatsoever.

And I don't think that either. In fact, that's something I did want to say is as I'm going back, I can totally see where everybody worked hard on this. both of us are saying different things using the same term that wasn't ever defined. So, you know, as as he's going through, he actually says um he says, "Sleep with your plane and go skiing." So, he actually said those words in the public meeting. Correct. And so, there there wasn't anything where he was trying to sneak something in. No, we're not trying. Nobody's trying to sneak anything in.

Yeah. He's he's acting in good faith. But then every time I'm talking about it, I'm talking about housing the plane and comparing it that it's different from phase one. And so we're we're both in our minds talking about what it is. But at the end of the day, the lease controls and section six of the lease says that he has to comply with any current laws in place at the time and our code doesn't allow for habitation at the airport. Also, the conditional use permit. I'll just go back to the conditional use permit that came before the commission and was approved in about August of 2022. Correct.

It was only related to aviation related activities at the airport, not about habitation because a habitation cup has completely different conditions. Josh can speak to that. So, once again, I don't think that there was any bad faith on either side. I think that we were talking about what was in our minds and the way that Buster interprets it and what he was presenting isn't allowed by our code. And I think that it's fair to say that if Josh had heard, you know, pilots sleeping with their planes, if I had heard that, and I don't know what the commission remembers and and what they took from that, but I think if we had heard that, we would have been like, "Oo, whoa, that's another discussion."

So, help me understand this. I'm not an attorney and you know, when I listen to you going through and explaining everything, I think you did a great job and I think you worked really hard on trying to get what we needed in these agreements. I know that I know you spent a lot of time doing that. But, you know, as we look through in in section one of the lease, we specifically put in here short-term AVA tour lodging rental. Okay. That language was specifically put in the lease to to address this concept that Buster's talking about.

And it was by Buster and copied and pasted because he said, "I need all the commas." And I said, "Okay." So, we put it in. And I and I totally agree with this was a mistake. We need to scrub that out. I think so. But the way I read that is, you know, I've never called up a hotel and said, "Hey, do you have any lodging available for my car?" You know, I might say, "Do you have any parking?" But I mean, you know, and so if that was put in there, you guys missed it. I think that's what we need to talk about and try to work through and understand that. But um but let me take you to six. Can you go to six? Kate,

can I just say I don't think we missed it, but I was interpreting it the same way Garrett was where is lodging for an actual airplane, not a person. So I don't think we missed it. I think as Garrett said, we were interpreting it. I and obviously I knew I knew because I'm involved with it, but last time I checked if you park your plane, you got to have a place to stay. We don't have don't have a hotel they can walk to from the airport to go to the hotel. So, you got to have a place.

But if they fly in, they go skiing, they're I mean, they're going to be traveling to go skiing somewhere and then they'll stay at the Waldorf or the Motel 6, right? Whatever floats their boat. Well, sure. So, but that his whole thing was was I'll have a rental car for them. I'll all that stuff. So, it's like you said, sleeping with your airplane. It's and I do remember that. Obviously got missed. I remember he said it and then Blaine went immediately into sales tax like right after that. So, I mean, you can watch the meeting, but but regardless of what of what is in the lease, section six is still a superseding

um a superseding paragraph because we get that if not allowed by the if for some reason he's prohibited to do it, you know, we understand that. I think we need to work through that just to make sure that that there's no no misunderstanding. And I would like to just, you know, I'd like to set up a time and and try to do that with you and see if we can't help him work through that so he understands. But the bottom line is I think Buster would say that I've spent hours with him and I've always been willing to meet with Yeah. If he wants to meet, I'm totally willing to meet with him.

Um, so so I I think we should do that. We can hammer it out. I'm willing to do the research on the FAA stuff and if it's allowed then discussion with the commission to say do we want a text amendment to change our code so it's not illegal under our code. I I think that all of those are reasonable places to go but it's not you know we can't hang our hat on one piece of language from the lease if it would result in an illegal application of our code.

Okay. And I understand that. I just want to make sure that um during the last meeting I had before he left town, you know, um he is an asset to our community and he is spending a lot of money down there at the airport and uh we play this game. What business will survive in Morgan? We do it all the time. Oh, what what business could we bring to Morgan? You know, I even know people that, you know, a couple idiot brains that thought a bowling alley could survive in Oregon, you know, and uh and and it didn't work out very good for those guys, you know, but everybody say a bowling alley, a bowling alley is a good idea. We have to remember that that we have limited Buster. Now, this is coming from me personally as a citizen of the community and not the general contractor. Those two things are different. We have limited him. His scope is limited to what he can do with these hangers. If everything goes wrong after he invests millions of dollars at our airport, if everything goes wrong, he is not allowed to rent that to a private individual to put their airplane in. He's not allowed. The lease does not allow him to do that. He does not have that flexibility. Now, for me, I'm out. I'm out. I'm not going to put my million dollars down there at our airport because I don't have the flexibility of doing what I know will work. What will work is we can find somebody who wants to rent one of those airplanes for their private plane and we know that will work. But that's not what the commission wants. The commission wants commercial use. It it was hammered out. It was very clear uh the the you know through through that process and so where he is

limited to commercial use related to aviation he needs to have as many tools in his belt possible to make this thing work. Now I happen to do some work for Aviat aircraft. Um, so I travel to Afton, Wyoming, where the factory is, and we would love to move some of those operations to Morgan, but we don't have the facility to do that. So, what happens what happens in Afton, Wyoming, is they have lodging available at the airport. Um, whether it's on airport property or not, I'm not sure. It's very close. They have a lot of residential housing units connected at the airport there in Aton if if anybody's ever been there. So whether they're on the airport property or not, I don't know. But what happens is when people come in for training, that's where they stay. Those are concepts that would be good for Morgan where we collect the tax revenue, they fly in, they stay at the airport, um they get their training, we collect their taxes, they fly away, they never drive their car on our road, you know, and so so for me, I just want to make sure as we go through this, we make sure he has the ability to be successful because our runways is 3,900 ft long and 50 ft wide. And there's some aviation businesses that just can't operate at our airport. They're just not going to come. And so although we we want that, we also it's not going to do any of us any good if he fails in doing this. And so so this VBO concept that he talked about throughout the course of negotiating the lease, this was a concept that he believes in. he feels strongly about and he would like to do.

Now, if it's illegal for whatever reason, I I don't know, you know, or if there's some problem for whatever reason, I I don't know. But, um I think we need to be sensitive to those things. And, you know, otherwise, if he feels like he's backed into a corner where he can't be successful, he's not going to want to invest his money in our airport. And I think right now having this commercial center at our airport would be really good for the air. It's going to be the most beautiful spot on the airport. If you look at what he's done, it's the only piece of the airport that's landscaped right now. And they're doing a great job getting the rest of the landscaping down done down there thanks to you guys putting up the the money to do that. But um I think we kind of want that down there. I for you know for me personally I think it'd be a good thing for our community and good revenue generator. I'm happy to answer any other questions

and to be fair to the county I'll just give the other side too. Going back and listening to these meetings I think the commission did a great job being reasonable and acknowledging that Buster does have a monopoly at the airport as far as commercial goes. So so it's a great opportunity as well as an investment. I mean it goes both every two-edged sword cuts both ways. Um, when he's bringing up the VBO, he never talked about it being in multiple hangers. It was always, you know, maybe one for a VBO and then he had these other options that are coming. I don't know if he was planning it in all of them just to have the option.

No, I don't believe I believe it got documented in the leases on all of them to give him flexibility. And I I think the words he used as I reviewed those those minutes was, you know, something like flexib flexibility is the key to air power or something like that. I think what he said and so so he don't think he just wants flexibility. I if the lease wasn't based on a VBO that that was one option of many commas that we provided in the case.

And so to say that this throws everything off, I think is unfair to the whole process of how the county was working with him to provide as many commas as possible and say, "Well, does this work for you? Does this work for you? if you think of something else, come back and let's make sure that the commission approves it, that there's no additional cup required, that it falls in line with our land. Correct. All of those things. And so I think

and I think that's where the wordage of of the list of items, but not limited to that that you wisely put in the agreement, you know, was to try to give him that flexibility. So, you know, we're not uh you know, we're not saying that anybody's acting in bad faith or anything like that. We're just trying to make sure that, you know, this is just a concept that he likes, that he believes in, and uh whether he does it or not, I don't know. But I sure hate would I sure would hate to build his buildings and not put the infrastructure in for future tenant improvements and then have him say, "What were you guys thinking?" You know, I need another water line. I need more power. I need, you know, I need a bigger service. I need the, you know, these items. So, we're trying to scrub that out right now and

and get that taken care of. I will agree with you that Buster is a great asset to the community. He's a great person, and we want him to be successful, but the county didn't ask him to come buy this land, all of it, and and develop it, right? And buy any of it. We're leasing it to them at a really really cheap rate, I might think. not buy it. It's the cheapest land in the entire Invest in it, I should say. Thanks, Mike. Invest in it. It's an investment, right? It's a risky investment. Investment is risky. Hopefully an investment,

but we want him to be successful. That being said, we had other people that are interested in leasing the land as well, but we ended up going with Buster, and he does have the monopoly over there. So, yeah, we do want to follow the code and figure it out. So,

right. And I think I I I think and I agree with what you're saying and uh I I think though that that Buster's proven himself to the county on on what he's willing to do and and and the effort and the time that he's spent on it. I mean, if you were to look at an ROI on some of these aviation businesses, we're, you know, it's going to be tough go. Somebody's going to have to work at it pretty hard. And so, um, you know, I just think that as we move forward, we want to make sure that we're supporting and you know, trying to help him with, you know, be successful as we can. Okay.

And I think I mean to mirror to what Commissioner Blocker said, you know, we we want him to be successful. Um, with that said, I I met with with Garrett and Josh just briefly before the commission meeting and we discussed the VRBO, the the options, the ideas that basically we're wanting to delineate a line between section one and section two, phase one, phase two, commercial versus non. Um, with that said, there, as you said, there are things that he can do that others can't and things others can do that he can't because of where they are. And that's where Garrett was kind of going with the FAA is if we decide to do a text amendment, we want to make sure that we're not encroaching upon what the FAA says you can't do. And that's where I think Garrett was like he, you know, if we want to do this, if we do want to make a text amendment to change our code to allow phase two and Airbnb or things like that, I think we need to make sure we cross our tees and dot our eyes that we're not that we would be, if we do do it, that we would be in compliance with federal law,

right? And I don't believe our airport's governed under FAA regulations, nor do I think it should be governed under those um those regulations. The pilots that operate out of the airport are governed under FAA regulations. See, I but but we don't we don't accept we that I know of. I could be incorrect. Okay. Um, I don't know that we're accepting funds right now from the FAA on our airport, nor do I think that our airport would meet their standards. So, it's private county airport. We did once, but we did receive money from

$94,000 three years ago. We have I've worked with the grant managers on that and we're still subject to but but I think that's a discussion for another time because you know at least for today it was very limited in scope to discuss concerns. I think we've done that and and maybe done follow up on that as well. I think that'd be great. So okay any other question for me?

I I've got a couple for you. Um I'm just kind of concerned where you said that you're and I'm going back over what you've just discussed. Um the staff you requested a meeting with the staff and were denied and then you were referred to us. Okay. Um so my question is is why were you denied and what was the problem with being denied? And that may be on you. It may you okay? I need to know the answer. Okay. So, and I don't know that that was Kate. I don't know who that was. I was so he had met with Garrett. Garrett had given him an answer

and then or G well we was on an email thread. Okay. So then on Tuesday, March 31st at 11:07, he sent an email wanting to meet that day. I don't know if you ever tried to meet with me the same day. Yeah, I know. You can never can. There's no way. Um, so I hadn't responded to the email. Dane called me and said, "Hey, he wants to meet with you on this today." And I believe my words were, "Well, if dad said no, mom's not going to say give you a different answer." But I and I don't have time to meet with him. So, all right, that's good.

And then he said he was going to be out of town. So, we didn't even originally have him slated for this meeting. Okay. which is what Matt and I were texting about to get him back on the agenda because we missed the part where John was going to be.

So then my second question is is under his lease agreement May 6, 2025 under premises and terms under 1B. Okay. It says the lease may perform commercial aviation related activities including but not limited to FFA approved air taxi and charter operation, pilot training, aircraft paint shop, aircraft sales, fixed avi fixed base av operations, aviation fuel sales, sale of aircraft parts, short-term aviator lodging rental. That right there, if that's in our lease, he's allowed to do that. you missed the whole discussion that we've just had, Bla. So, I'll copy it, I'll clip it, and I'll email it to you because I'm not going to explain it again.

Okay? But I'm just telling you that this is in his lease and I can see where he's got a problem. And I totally agree and we discussed that at length. We can discuss it later and I don't think we ought to continue discussing it right now. And that's exactly what I just said. So, thank you for

So, just kind of just kind of in closing closing, I want to make it clear. I don't think we have an adversarial relationship with the county or the building department or or anyway anyone. Communication is a is a is a difficult thing and so sometimes we just don't get communication the way we should, but the building part department has always worked well with us. And uh you know, we're not saying that anybody had any malice in this situation. We just wanted to try to scrub it out as quick as we could so we can move forward. Okay.

I agree. And Buster and I, we communicate very well and we answer emails and we meet often when when something comes up. So, okay. To do that. Thanks, John. Thanks for the history of the airport. That was fun, John.

Okay, Kate. Okay. So, uh, in going through trying to clean up our airport leases, we have four that are, um, oh, did I miss a word on the agenda? I did. Um, we have four that are not signed by the commission chair. So, this is my request to affirm those. Hangar D3 was done June 7th of 2025 and or July of 2025. I do have the meeting minutes where it was approved. It was just never signed. So, since we were going through the motions, I thought we would just go ahead and affirm all of those leases so that uh Commissioner Wilson can sign those this evening.

So, these are all affirmed just or these are all approved, just not a We want to affirm these first four A through D. I know DD3 is the other ones I can't I can't find. find, but they do like they do look like the forms as of the dates that are shown on the lease. They have there's many iterations of the lease over time and they're all signed by the parties but not by correct. They're just missing the commission share signature and hanger DD3 that was the most recent one. If you look at the assignment and assumption, um I I have signed the approved as to form. We just didn't get the commission chair signature.

Okay. So, all we're asking for is a signature. Yes. To affirm the lease so that um Chair Wilson has the authority to sign. Mhm. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve and affirm the leases and and approve signature for hangar A-2 dated January 13, 2021. D-1 dated January 15th, 2013. Hangar CC2 and 3 dated October 5th, 2021. and hanger DD3 July 125. July 1st, 2025. I'll second.

Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I. Any opposed?

So before we get to eight, and the reason that this is in the order that it is is in the current lease, um so there's an lease and assumption of lease or assignment and assumption of lease. Bless you. So you have, you know, Kate assigning the lease over to Garrett and Garrett assuming the lease. In the current way that that's written, if I were to sell my hanger, my hanger lease to Garrett right now, he inherits whatever my lease rate is. Um, I don't think listening to the conversations with the commission over the last 12 months specific to the lease rate of the county, some of those are ex exceedingly dimminimous. And so the question is does the commission want to change the language in the lease and assumption that if you assign the lease to someone else as of today's date that it will be at the most current rate uh per square foot for that lease. There's two lease rates. One is for the hanger lease itself and some of them also have an external cement pad that they pay a separate uh rate for. But the right now they would be literally assuming the previous's lease. And if that's 8 cents a square foot, they're inheriting 8 cents a square foot.

I thought we had discussed that. It's never been like when we were doing the rate increase that we did and telling them it had to be on the new leases that it had to be um 3% plus a 5year average of the CPI. Uh at that time we also said any new leases would be at the current even assumptions they had to come back to us for a and I understand that that was your intent. We just need to clarif but the meeting minutes are specific to new leases and do not speak to the assumption of a previous lease. And that's why I need clarification that if on an assumption

since it's not technically a new lease, it's assuming the responsibilities of the previous lease within the previous within that contracted term, which is why we attach the previous lease to the new assumption and assignment that it will be at the new rate. I think we should do that. I think we should do it new rate too because that's what we discussed. Yeah, we just need to we just need to clarify. Correct. So clarify and vote on it. Mr. Chair, I move that we um clarify that any assumptions of airport hanger leases will um be required to match the current lease rate. I'll second it.

Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? So in that you have two uh transfers or assignments and assumption requests. Um this one is completely new. Um it is from Steven Hooper to William S. Dunn. Um the language in this current will need to be adjusted to what you just voted on to match um the current lease rate. Um, so I will need to modify that. Otherwise, like I said, it would currently be at the assumed release of 15 cents at 2%. So um we will need to modify um the assumption for this one, but that's this is the transfer um request and it's for Charlie Charlie 4 going from Steven B. Hooper to William S. Dunn. And so you're going to be putting in there the new rate which is whatever the 16 16

26 cents. No, that that's for the commercial 16 cents at 3%. 16 plus 3% per year. So whatever the rate is currently, correct? Right. Yeah. And so any So this would just be approving assignment and assumption subject to the rate increase. Um, so I have a question because it's different than the second one. At one time we had been discussing and I don't know if this has come about yet. Um, we had discussed a rate different for those residents residences versus non-residents of the county. Since this is county property,

we were thinking of changing that and I don't know how that is in the process. So we are in the countywide is in the middle of its impact fee and fee analysis study and part of that fee analysis study is airport fees to include hang releases, tie downs, etc. Okay. So um I will make an additional note to LRB that the commission is interested in a residential rate versus non-residential rate. That's correct. And you want residential as in county or state? County. County. Okay. That's my opinion. I'm only one though. I think that's a good idea, too. Well, you'll have to, right? They'll give you two different rates and then you guys can approve it.

Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the assignment assumption of hangar CC4 from Steven D. Hooper to William as done with the adjustments made for the the lease per square foot, cost per square foot. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries.

This is one that you affirmed um two action items ago as F6 Delta or Echo6 Delta for DD3. It this was the one from July one that um that missed the signature. Um when the lady that um took over the lease filled out her paperwork, she filled it out as flight mode aviation LLC, which does not exist. It is actually flight mode LLC. No word aviation. So she asked if she could modify that and I said, "Well, you can, but I have to have a new lease." So this is the same owner, but correcting um the LLC. This is already at the current rate at the 3% um year-over-year.

We just we approve the correction. Well, you're it's technically a new lease. Okay. So, Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the assignment and assumption of hangar DD3 flight mode aviation to LLC to flight mode LLC. Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and the second by Commissioner Fel. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Yeah, we'll uh take a five minute recess and Thank you. Oh, you're fine. Oh, good.

Okay. So, do we need to recclarify that vote? I don't think so because It's coming. Interesting.

What happened? Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started here. So, we are back on E9. Josh

Jeremy,

thank you, Mr. Chair, and good evening to the county commission. Action item E9 is the Wasach Peaks Ranch phase 4A.1 upper town homes residential site plan. That's application number 25.054. The applicant being the WPR entity, the project location being approximately 5233 West Wasach Peaks Road and is identified by the parcel number and serial number in your meeting packet tonight. The current zoning of the property is a resort special district with an applicable development agreement. The acreage being uh 3.7 acres for tonight's request and Mr. The request is for site plan approval of the Wasatch Peaks Ranch uh phase 4 8.1 upper town homes residential site plan to allow for the construction of six town homes. The site plan application is a longer and involved application with a lengthy checklist that includes several items for staff to review. There is a full engineered site plan submitted. Uh there is a parking plan of which um unlike commercial projects this uh the parking is just shown as four total driveways to that T and two that are individual for each unit. The landscaping plan was submitted. A photometrics plan that measures uh uh again compliance with the county's dark sky ordinance was submitted. the building materials uh while generally being reviewed under a site plan application in this case uh is actually uh uh reviewed against the the applicant's development agreement. Uh an elevations plan is also submitted along with utility and grading and drainage plans. So staff or reviewing staff consisting of the county engineer, the

fire department, and planning staff uh having reviewed this application recommends approval to this body tonight. The planning commission heard this item at their regularly scheduled meeting on March 26th, 2026. Uh there were no um uh comments made during the public comment portion of the of the meeting. discussion from the planning commission was minimal where uh addressing a a comment from hold on one second uh oh the planning commission discussed the the the application process for a site plan. They asked the question of why site plans come go all the way through reviewing staff to planning commission recommendation and then to county commission approval. um they discussed ways to hopefully uh take some steps out of the administrative process for uh such a robust application as a site plan application and that uh concluded most of their their discussion. Uh staff indicated that that any changes to the application process would be better discussed with the county commission directly. So there may be a work session in the pipeline with the commission. So, just by way of heads up, the planning commission voted to uh give a positive recommendation to the county commission with a vote of five to zero. Uh member Watt was absent from the meeting that night. Uh Mr. Chair, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Uh Josh Kent and I can answer those questions and the applicant is in the audience tonight. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Jeremy. Any questions for Jeremy or the applicant? No. Sounds real straightforward to me. Okay. If not, I'll look for a motion. Mr. Chair, I'll move that we approve WPR phase 4 A1 upper town home site plan and small subdivision preliminary and final plot applications. I'll second it. We have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? Any opposed?

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Action item E10 is the Wasach Peaks Ranch subdivision phase 6C and60 preliminary plat modification. It is a it is file number 25.051. The applicant and owner again being the Wasach Peaks Ranch LLC group and the project location again being at approximately 5233 West Wasach Peaks Road identified by the parcel numbers and serial numbers in your packet tonight. The current zoning being again a resort special district with a with an applicable development agreement. The acreage affected being much larger at approximately 276.60 acres combined. The request is for preliminary plat approval of an 18 lot subdivision divided into two more phases namely 6C and 6D. Um the previous application having been closer to the north village area. This application is north of the north village area. It's the most northernmost FA phase at this point and the request stems from the fact that plat 6 has already been recorded by the county. In that plat phases A and B were completely defined with both boundaries for the subdivision and individual lots uh defined but phase C was not defined. Only the subdivision boundaries were defined. And so the reason for that Mr. share was that there was an ongoing uh geohhazards report that was being filed with an applicable geoscoping application that was not completed at the time the subdiv subdivision. So this was following a recommendation from staff to get plat 6 forward. Uh the geo has uh since been completed I believe and so this request does two things. It

defines phase 6 C and then it completely adds both subdivision boundaries and uh defined lots for phase D. That's a mouthful, but uh that's the reason for the combination of two smaller phases uh with again no previous slot entitlements for phase 6C. So the the size of the lots in the subdivision, Mr. Chair, they there are some smaller lots. The range of these lots ranges from 0.74 acres at the smallest to 7.23 acres at the largest. The majority of said lots being larger in size. Mr. Chair, uh the applicable utility utility services in the area are the Wasach Peak Wasach Peaks Ranch Utility District, the Wasach Peaks RFD, that's the road and fire district. Um and again reviewing staff having consisted of the county engineer Morgan County Fire Department and planning staff all having reviewed this recommend approval uh to this body. The planning commission heard this item on their regularly scheduled meeting on March 26th. Uh there were comments made during the public comment portion of the meeting regarding the the need to respect landowner water rights and maintain ditches, irrigation channels, and waterways particularly in the area of the subject property. Uh discussion from the planning commission included questions about whether ditches needed to be labeled on subdivision plats and and staff has been commissioned to research that question. Uh planning commission did vote that night to recommend approval of the application with a five to zero vote and again member Watt was absent from the meeting. Again Josh Kent and I can answer any of your planning related questions and the applicant is again in the audience tonight. Thank you Mr. Sure.

Thanks, Jeremy. Questions? Yeah, I have some. Okay. On your plat map here that you got. Um, you've got some parcels here. Whether it's you or them, I don't care who come. I think it's Jeremy. No, it's not. So, I don't know if you want to bring up the apple. Sure. Is there a spot you want me to zoom to?

You're on the right page. It's just that there's one, two, three, four, five, six um questions or six plots that I'm kind of questioning. How do Okay, it's B54 B5. Well, that one's okay. B64 and B39 and B38. Um, these do not have access to a road. How are they going to get into them?

B54, B50, B64. What was the other two? Okay. B54, B50. Got it. B64. Got it. B39 and B38. and

um some of these have shared driveways. So if you look if you look a little further on the the sheets like C1.01 and uh you know 1.02 and 1.03 etc. You are going to see those driveways particular on C 1.04 you'll see a shared driveway there. All I see is a ski run. Are you Are you looking on sheet C1.0? This is all I have in this. This is all I have here. What's up there?

So, each of the staff reports has a link that you can click on that brings up all the documents related to this application. View a fullsize version of it. Yeah. Um, their development agreement allows a lot of their lots to not have access on a road, but to be served by access easements. Um, so that's not really an issue. Well, but it is an issue because if I were to buy B, if I could ever afford it, B30 or whatever, it it's on the other side of a ski run. And yeah, I want the privacy of the ski run if I ever skied. And so I'm how am I going to get to it if I wanted to buy that one?

Uh there's a driveway on one of the sheets that uh Brian referenced. So each of the lots has access to a road whether they front on it or not. Okay. I just know when Robert was here, he would question those things just like I'm questioning now. No, Robert did question it and the answer is the same today as it was then. that uh the lots are allowed to be accessed through access easements that they don't front on a street. So, okay.

I think part of the confusion is you don't have C1 if you had that extends from the road to Okay. And then in your discussion you were saying that B65 is more than the 7 2 3 acres that you said. Um so is that is there a reason that one's so much bigger? Is it just a selling point or what?

Actually I think there was a um a mistake in that. Those are the B AE sizes, the building activity envelope sizes. So, um that's why you see 7 acres versus 14. So, the whole lot is 14. The buildable is 7 acres. Okay. And so, none of these areas are going to be agricultural. That's correct. Our master declaration and our design guidelines do not allow it. Okay. All right. I just don't want somebody coming back and asking for green bill. Hopefully I answered your questions. Yeah, it did. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Any other questions?

Mr. Chair, I move that we approve WPR phase 6C and 6D preliminary plat modifications. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Good evening. Uh this is Kent Paige. He is the county's new senior planner. Um he is going to be doing the presentation for the next one, but I thought I'd introduce you uh to him and then if um you know, fun fact, he did work here in 2001 when there were triple Kents in my office. So you have questions for him, feel free to grill them.

Welcome, Ken. Thank you, chair and and county commission. We have this item number 11 before you. Um it's uh application number 25.057. It's for a final plat for Shadow Creek Development. It's located approximately 145 South Morgan Valley Drive. Staff has reviewed the final plat and recommends approval. It's for 14 lots in the RR5 zoning district and it meets all the zoning requirements. Um the applicant is here if you have any questions for them or staff is also willing to answer any questions you might have for this final plat.

The shaded area is what like um back towards the river. What does that mean? plane. Flip plane. What is it? Flood plane. Flood plane. It's non-buildable area. Well, non-buildable without some work, right? Yes. Without extra. Okay.

I just want to thank the applicant for working with our new fire chief and kind of working through those issues and and coming to a a good conclusion there. Um, you know, it's kind of exciting to see some of that work going on. I mean, it's it's hard to watch the change, but uh it's hopefully going to be a good thing. I think people are looking forward to it. So, I'm excited about these larger lots. I think they're they're great. Should be nice. Steve, hopefully you get some kids up here. Okay, perfect.

The the two best ones, right? So, senior senior planner. Was that in reference to gray hair? Is that I think I have a little bit. Welcome. Thank you to Morgan. Mr. Chair, I move that we approve uh the final plant of the Shadow Creek uh subdivision and 14 lots identified by parcel numbers 00-0093-4182 and 00-009-2565. I'll second it.

Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I. Are there any opposed? I'm an I on that. Okay, that was painless.

Okay, Jeremy.

All right, action item E12 is the Howard and Kelly reszone. That is application 26.002. The applicants being the very same Howard and Kelly Thirstston of 1300 West Island Road. That also be in the project location. The date of the application was earlier this year, January 13 with the parcel number and serial number identified in your meeting packet tonight. The current zoning is A20, which is an agriculture zone. The general plan designation also shows agriculture. The acreage is 26.00 acres even. And the request is res is to reszone property from A20 to RR5, that's the rural residential 5 acre minimum zone, and reflect that change on the future land use map from agriculture to ranch residential 5. Uh Ranch residential 5 is adjacent in a nearby uh subdivision. That's the island circle subdivision number two. um RR5, there's RR1 to the south on um basically south of the terminus of Island Road and staff has reviewed this application and if the commission finds merit in this reszone could could use the following findings as as a reference in their motion. I will read those Mr. Chair. number one that the proposed amendment is appropriate given the surrounding rural residential character and existing infrastructure. Two, that the requested reszone from A20 to RR5 is unlikely to adversely affect surrounding properties, several of which are 2 acres or less. Three, that the amendment that the amendment supports county land use objectives and maintains an orderly development pattern. four that the proposed reszone and future land use map amendment to rural residential are consistent with existing

land uses in the area. Uh if you if the exhibits get pulled up, you'll be able to see the existing um history of the property or zoning map and future land use map with the rural residential and r and applicable ranch residential designations from code and the general plan respectively are shown on on the mapping there. But the applicant is in the audience tonight, Mr. Chair, I should mention the planning commission addressed this at their regularly scheduled meeting on March 17th, 2026. The comments made during the public hearing addressed road safety and traffic as well as uh regarding the whether the road is public or private and whether as it it has been abandoned by the county. Uh county staff uh clarified that that the road is currently maintained. uh and staff clarified uh I'm sorry go due to ongoing maintenance by the county and further explained that the proposed reszone does not constitute spot zoning was a question that came up with the planning commission. Um the planning commission expressed the need for a master transportation plan and there's been some iterations of plans in the recent past to provide clarity on similar issues in the future. The planning commission did vote to recommend approval of the application with the 5 to zero vote for approval uh a positive recommendation rather. Member McMillan was absent from the meeting and Chair Maloney refrained from voting um uh in her capacity as chair. Otherwise again staff consisting of Josh Kent and I are happy to answer your questions. Thank you Mr. Chair. Maybe I can clarify as well because there was a question that came up in my office about public versus private portion of the road. In speaking with our public works director, um

there is a portion when it gets out of the city where the county has maintained and collects funds on, but it doesn't extend the entire length of the road. it goes to the turnaround where it goes off into two directions. And so I don't know if that helps clarify, but it's not necessarily a reszone question, but it does clarify what was presented at the planning commission meeting. So that point is is a center point, right? About the center point is what I'm Yeah. Or a tease. Center. Yep. Oh, because I thought they were it continued out to where Howard's house is and that's where it splits

and that's where I think there's some discussion of that and and when the applicant comes and speaks I'm sure he'll address it but but what we've talked to is based on

the the historic that that the county is aware of and the records that we have is we've collected funds only to that turnaround and I think that there is some discussion about in the past. Maybe they've gone and pushed the snow if they've had time to do it, but whether or not that was maintaining it consistently for the 10 years or not, that's something that would be on the applicant to show that it is a right-of-way. And then the county would have to decide, okay, if if there's a, you know, if it's shown that it is a right of way, have we taken any steps to abandon it? But we're we're not going to discuss the abandonment until we see if there's a right of way. But currently right now, it's not being maintained and we're not collecting funds past that turnaround point.

I would think for purposes of this application that kind of irrelevant. That's exactly right. Because their access is a whole different discussion that would come down the road.

Yeah. they they would have the ability to comply with whatever code requirements for access at a point when they're coming through the administrative process. So I was just bringing it up because I think to clarify what came up in the planning commission meeting. Yes, it's public but not the whole way. Why are we ending up with these little teeny weeny pieces that are kind of cut out of the Are you talking about like right here?

Yeah, that and then there's another one to the right of it. Yeah, those two little pieces. Is that not owned by the same family? No, it's just the one larger parcel coming forward tonight. Those are probably part of the other stuff. They pro that could be a map error zoning. The parcel actually goes there. Probably should cover the entire parcel of the existing and meets and bounds legal description changes over time. Many of them I'd say. Okay. Any questions for the applicant?

Okay. I I'd like you to come up. Howard, do you want to come up? And you know, you're always good for good talk.

Well, I don't know. I'm Howard Thirsten. And uh first of all, I start off by thanking Jeremy and the planning people. They've been very helpful and very upfront. And it's this process has been very simple to this point. And I'd like to thank you guys for listening. But the road issue there, Blaine, the county has put in Roto Mill and paved it right down to my house and they have been in there and they did seal the top of it. So, in the past, the county has plowed it. Uh they've hauled gravel down there. They've graded it over the years. Uh ever since I was a little kid, the county has maintained it. So, this is one thing we're going to have to work through a little bit, but yes, the county has maintained it. There is a at least there's at least a private rideway down through there. So, if you have any questions for I just wanted to kind of do this to break it up to give my uh kids some building lots so that uh I mean I'm 70 and when I die I hope they're 70 and at that point it's not going to be of much use to them. So, I'd like to get them to be able to use it while they're young enough to enjoy it. So, that's the reason for doing this. So, thank you. Boy, you preempted Blaine's question right there.

I was just thinking he was crazy to do it, but you know, hey, I figured I could ask him that later. There may be problems to having you found me that close. That's right. Okay. If no other questions, then I'll look for a motion. Chair, I move we go into public hearing. Okay. I'll second the motion. Okay. Have a motion by Commissioner Blocker and a second by Commissioner Newton. All in favor? I I Okay, we're now on public hearing if anybody would like to come forward and speak. Mr. Chair, I move that we close the public hearing and reconvene the public meeting. Second.

Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? I. Any opposed?

Mr. Chair, I move to approve the Howard and Kelly reszone requests reszoning property from A20 to RR5 as indicated in the staff report. I'll second it. Okay, I have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Blocker. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. So, the next one's my error. I think I misunderstood, but I'm sure um Josh will explain. Uh before I go on uh with that, uh this will be the last county commission meeting that Jeremy will be at.

Uh he's accepted a position at another community and so um just wanted to publicly thank him for all the help that he's given me over the last three years. It was really hard to find him. Um so I'm pretty sad to see him go, but uh he's on to bigger, better things. And uh hopefully we'll be able to find somebody that can fill those shoes.

And Morgan County is uh my first real job with real benefits and real pay. And so it's been three years like Josh mentioned. It's my first job out of college. And it's incalculable to uh list out all of the things I've learned, uh the ways that I've grown, uh the mistakes that I've made and learned from, and all of the uh the customers in Morgan County that I've so appreciated working for. Um and so, um it actually is u I'm a little emotional, but I've enjoyed my time here and I've learned a lot and I'm so appreciative. So, thank you to the commission. Thank you to Josh. Enjoying working with my co-workers in the office. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeremy. Good luck with everything, Jeremy. Yeah. Um, so the state statute changed. The state legislature uh made it a requirement for tier 1, 2, three, and four counties to have three contractors on file uh for building inspections. Um, and so this RFP is to not not terminate Sham's kota even though it's okay. Um, but technically it has to terminate and start again if they happen to be one of the new ones, right? No, we're going to keep them and get We have to have one more on.

Oh, okay. Well, if I get three Yeah. more. Where is my Yes. U I'm hoping to get a couple more so we can meet state requirements. Um Dustin uh meets all the new requirements though for building officials. So we don't uh we don't have to hire an interim building official to step in until he has those requirements. He meets those. So um the fact that he was able to get all eighterts in a year was amazing in my my opinion and um he deserves some accolades for that. But this is specifically for an RFP so we can meet state statutes. Um

that RFP is already posted. This was my misunderstanding. We are so um our request to to remove their request to terminate. Okay. So the request is just to put it out for RFP. It already is. But yeah, Mr. Mr. Chair, uh, I move that we approve the RFP for, um, county planning and zoning, county service agreement for a, um, building inspector service. Second.

I have a motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Froel. Do we have to include um, pulling that terminating? Could you please I and I will amend my motion to include that we are removing the item in the agenda that indicates that we're terminating the agreement with Shum's code. We don't intend to to terminate that at this time. I have a motion a new motion by Commissioner Newton and a second by Commissioner Fero. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Thanks. Okay, I think this is a pretty easy one. We've already approved this for Blaine. Um, he just is now requesting hotel accommodations. I guess his wife didn't want to go with him. That's right. And so that's exactly right. The kids did needed him. I couldn't take care a solo room.

Okay. I move we approve um Blaine's request for hotel accommodations for the 2026 tourism business development workshop which was free. The workshop was free, right? That's a free one sign you have for last time. Yeah. Do you have a motion by Commissioner Blocker? Second. I'll second it, but I can't cuz it's for me. Second by Commissioner FRO. Second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. Um

Okay. On your um election security edition. Um this is a uh

essentially how the engineering worked out. All of the condenser units will be needed to move onto the existing building's roof um and the lines rerun. So that's an additional cost above the bid of $34,17.60. Two of those condensers are over 25 years old. Um, so he's also put in here an option to replace those condensers while he's putting the new ones or the the other ones that are not 25 years old on top of the roof.

So, is this an addition to the the remodel that we're doing? I mean, the whole This is a change order.

It's a change order to that. It's an added expense to that. I called Corey because I this this is the stuff that concerns me when we go out to bid and then um we start getting change orders. Um I don't know um I couldn't remember nor do I know as I care to to know the if we have any extra if we had allowed any extra for that. I know they had some contingency and I asked him about that contingency money that he had in there, but that's only $30,000 is is all I think he had around 30,000 5% if I remember right of contingency monies in there for that. But I I expressed my concern to him that we're already a change order and we haven't even begun, you know, and how did we miss that the condensers are sitting where we're going to build the you know, we're walking around the building going, "There's condensers. They got to be moved somewhere, you know, whether they're on the roof or or not." So, that's that was my concern to him is that and so I asked him to go to um I think Mountain Valley Mechanical is who he uses. I asked him to find out if they caught that and if it was included because he hadn't asked them that. So So anyway, he was going to he was going to ask that. But I just

You want to table this one? I think we ought to table it just for one meeting and and work through that a little bit on that because I don't know is we had a whole lot of extra money in there to for a bunch of change orders. So they he I said to him what what else are you know what else are we might be missing and and that was um well we're going to have to abate the flooring in the clerk's office that wasn't included um we're going to 10 2000 I think six

I think it was six six um we're going to have to uh he we don't know about the sewer. Brett Brett says it's he can run it straight out and they can run it under the footing. If that's the case, great. If it runs parallel, then we might have something there. Um there was a third item. I should write stuff down when I when I think you're right. Let's let's hold on it and see what other items potentially too.

I have a question on that. Is with all of these, not just the change orders, but this whole thing, how much of it is is the state giving us for to help mitigate the uh clerk's office? We don't know that yet. We don't know that yet. Okay. All right. Thank you. I know Wesley said that there was a pot of money, but as people are getting it done, that pot's getting smaller and smaller. You have to turn in the receipt. So, it's not like I think it's like a first come first serve. So, that's why we're like go ahead and order the bullet resistant glass now so that I can submit that. Yeah.

And I was with I'm with Matt. It's like that's kind of a big deal when you come and walk around. You're like, "Oh, we're going to build a structure and there's all this equipment sitting there. It's got to go somewhere." How did you not How did you not see it? You know, but I saw that and I was quite frustrated that I mean, I get you got two old units and probably could have changed, but that should have been caught at the beginning. Well, and we can talk I I think we're going to have a close session anyways, but we can talk about um contingency monies in that. So, we just to table to a certain date certain or postpone the next to the next meeting.

Mr. Chair, I move that we postpone item uh 15 E15 to our next meeting. Second. Okay. Okay. I have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? I. Any opposed?

So, we the county commission awarded the county's impact fee plan and analysis along with the fee analysis um or ser charges for service analysis to LRB. Um, one of the thing part of that is they come to us, the county, and say, "Okay, what are your projects? What are your planned projects? What do they cost? When are they slated for completion?" Like, are they six years out, 10 years out, two years out, one years out? Um, the county has never had a transportation master plan, which is a plan completed by engineers that go through travel demand models, connectivity needs, safety needs, multimodal strategies like active ter transportation um to create that um capital improve improvement plan from. So, it was at their recommendation that I go out and um see what that would cost from a certified company. And as you see, we got two back. Here's here's my misunderstanding. $10,500 of our LRB contract was LRB is going to remove that from their contract if we use a third party to actually do a transportation master plan to build a capital facilities plan off of. in what we bid out and ended up awarding in the LRB contract. I was nowhere expecting

the dollar amount um for the cost that came back. So, I have reached out to LRB and I've reached out um to the lowest bidder and just asked a bunch of questions. Um, so I'm not expecting the commission to award this I I would like the opportunity to have a a conversation with LRB and the lowest bidder to see, you know, what they actually need. And I I say this with all love and respect to our public works director that future planning and budgeting is not that person's strong suit. Um I do feel like the county does need a master uh transportation master plan, but for something that's only going to be good for 10 years, is it worth $85,000? So, I explained to the lowest bidder, we already have a trails plan um that we got through grant um completed through grant. So, that portion's done. You'll see a lot of the costs in there are um like for the public hearings and that I asked if we could overlap that with LRB. Um they said some of it yes, some of it no. Um, so I guess my question to the commission is what is your appetite or your your dollar amount of what you would be willing to spend on a transportation master plan for us to know what this community needs and if if not and we go back to just letting LRB do it for 105 understanding that it's going to be Brett Brett Hiner and myself going, "Well, I think we're going to need a

bridge here, a road here, a sidewalk here, a trail here." Um, and this is our our schedule of 6 to 10 years to get that done. Um, this might be something Wasach Front Regional Council could help us with. Okay. Yeah. Under their TL TLC program. Yeah. Under their what? TLC. transportation improvement program. I don't know if that extends to our county, but I'll reach out to Andrew and ask if you believe. Okay. I had a heart attack when I saw those bids. Yeah. Because they help because we're that's more than we're spending on the feast.

Yeah. I mean, they they should involve us a little bit. 10 grand to 90. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, "Oh, they'll pay for it out of the amount." I know they help with general plans and all that and because they went through a whole um presentation on different counties they've helped rural rural counties. I imagine they do transportation. Yeah, I'll I'll reach out to Andrew and ask him for that. I should do that. I have a meeting with him on Thursday. Oh, if you already have one. So for some, but I'm happy to talk about it. So I guess I'm not in the interim. Can we not deny all bids but just

postpone the conversation until cuz like I said I just trying to be transparent and open the bids at the same time. I was not expecting that dollar amount and then being able to get a hold of LRB and even they were like we were not expecting that and I said well we've never had one. So it's not like they're taking a 10-year-old one and building on to it. So, so we get that to an extent, but um I'm I personally am not supportive of it at the price point that it is. Do I think we need it? Yes. But not at that price point. I agree.

So, Mr. Chair, I move that weo postpone item number 16 till our next meeting. Second. Motion by Commissioner Newton. Be ready by the next meeting. Um, we'll at least have clarification and a direction. Okay. Second by Commissioner Nickerson. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Commissioner Blocker.

Yeah. I was just wondering, do we need a resolution to join the Northern Utah Economic Alliance? Meeting minutes. Um, and will this be a new board position? I'm happy. Nothing. I thought we had approved it last year. We did approve it, but did we approve it a couple meetings ago? We didn't do it by resolution because there's no cost. Um, so we figured eight minutes would be fine. Fine. Um, are you are you saying you um do we need to put it on in a portfolio? Okay.

Which I'm happy to be over it. Um Oh, the next meeting is April 23rd, 12 p.m. Ogden County Building. Anybody all are welcome? I thought you were over that because you're economic development. I can be over it. I mean under the same umbrella. just stays under economic. Yeah, I think that's great. Do you need a copy of the meeting minutes then? The signed meeting minutes for them or I don't. Okay. They don't need anything from No, they don't.

Um and then I was asked by Judy Williamson. Uh she's the president and CEO of Mcki Hospital to join the hospital community relations committee. This is a committee of the board of trustees. It's an advisory committee to help guide the work of the community health needs assessment plan. So basically we're bringing the needs of our area Morgan County um to the board of Mcki hospital. So that's different than our human services or our health services. It is. Yeah.

So I just thought I'd make aware of that. I told her I would be happy to. I know they've talked to me before about maybe finding a spot for an Instacare in Mountain Green area. We'll need it when the Olympics I mean when the offramp gets here. The interchange.

That's all I've got. Okay, Commissioner Nton. Um really don't have anything new. Just um the big boy is coming back through Morgan on the 20th. There will be a little bit of a gathering at the depot again if you'd like to attend that. Otherwise, I don't have anything. How did it go? I know it was bad weather. Cold out of town. There was a lot of people from the pictures I saw though. So, we set up and while we were setting up, it hailed on us, rained on us, and snowed on us. Um, but yeah, probably over 2,000. Wow.

And now the one on the 20th, we're going to have um all the elementary the elementary school kids are going to walk down.

Um, so yeah. Um I I don't just on that um and I've talked to Mike about it. Um I did kind of get on the historical society um about just because you get an idea and send an email to bring a train which is great and we love it for ACTV and tourism and TRT tax. However, there's a lot of work that goes into it. Um and so you can't just throw up your hands and say not it. So um this time unlike last year when it was here over 4th of July um I did make them go through the getting an event permit making sure it's on our insurance huge deal insurance um that we had road closure plan with the city that we had portaotties that we had sheriff's deputies on site. I was unaware um that what is the way that um Sheriff Stark said it? Not all trained viewers are pedophiles, but all pedophiles are trained viewers. So, we had to have extra people on staff

to uh just make sure that our our youth were safe. Um I don't know if you've been down there recently, but the railroad in preparation did put up new fencing and gate the other side. So maybe the Pence's sheep will stay off my tracks for once. And um but yeah, just a a reminder to all of our boards and committees that there's no such thing as a free event. Um we have to pay offduty officers. We have to pay for ambulance on site. Blah blah blah blah. So in that um I'm going to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. I had to pay for $600 in portaotties to include 88 portaotties out of the tourism event tax line. So, and there will be another $600 charge on the 20th. So, and thank you to Brett and his team for bringing up trash cans and blocking the roads for us and being out there in the hail. Well, I don't think you're going to have bad weather this next time,

but I'll have a whole lot of little kids. Thank goodness. Probably a Mike Newton because I heard you're kind of a nerd. Yeah, they're like Mike Newton's going to be out there and I was like, I didn't see him the whole time. I wasn't. I was in Florida last time. Yeah. Well, I don't know if I will admit it after what she just said. Yeah. What does that say about you? Anything else? The question. That's all I had. Yeah, I'm the viewer. Facel.

Sure. Um, I did attend the meeting with the director of uh state parks director, DWR director for our East Canyon property. And I call it ours is because it is ours. Um, it's the public's and they have finalized their boundaries. They were trying to get a boundary set up or I mean actually delineated on the map. Um let's see that would have been last week or this week is when they're trying to do it and then they'll have a complete survey of the whole area within a month. But this part for the parks is coming out. They did say that they would talk to the outdoor recreation to make sure that we can get the grant. They can't do it until the thing's finalized. uh but for the Nika course to get the um be for us to be able to use our grant that we received so they can begin on the Nika course that's the first priority for in the within the state parks is to do the Nika course within their whole plans and some of the plans that they have is they have some rock climbing area up there that they're planning on going or building um to a uh dirt road. There's some primitive camping areas up there that they're going to have. They're going to have a uh overlook for the sage grass um like you know things and their breeding grounds basically. They are going to have um Mormon Trail, the California Trail, Pony Express Trail. They're going to have actually that improved so that way people can either I mean stay off to the side of it but be able to go on it. They're actually going to have an OV motorized area up there, not for racing, but for travel, basically for an old day. Um, for you guys, too, unless you're going to race. Um, so they're going to have a lot of things up there

and they've got a lot planned and yes, it's going to be a fee area, but it's a state parks fee area. And they said, you know, it's recommended that everybody just get a season pass for the state parks. And whether it be up there, I mean, you get a season's pass for any state park for anywhere, all state parks. I think it's 150 bucks or 145 bucks for the year. And it allows you to go in and out of the state parks at any time. You don't have to pay the day fee. You can park off the side of the road and it's all, you know, it's all part of that fee that you pay instead of paying 20 bucks or 25 bucks every time you go there. So, and then for senior citizens, like I think Matt's almost there.

It's kind of nice. I've got a few a little bit off dinner here. Yeah. So, those uh those, you know, for the rest of for us that are older, I think it's about almost half off. Uh so, we can go for 75 or something like that. 70 bucks. Um, so for any of the public that is listening, you ought to get a season's pass. If you're over 65, of course, you can't transfer it to younger people, but over 65, you can get a good deal. And the rest of you, you get to pay the 145 bucks. Veterans are 30. Oh, is it 130 now? Just 30 for veterans.

Oh, okay. So, you get a better deal than seniors. How nice. So, um, so anyway, they've got they've got some different things as far as the Nika course. There was one put out by the Eden Valley. They're not actually happy with that one at this moment, but they're going to put out an RFP and they wanted to know the process of what we would like to um if we want to or if they're going to just do it. So, they're going to be doing some discussions with you and I and Von on these things. Okay. Are you talking about the the trail from Eden to down to Mountain Green? No, this is the trail the Nika course. Oh, okay.

And they've got approximately I don't know how many miles of trails they've got planned and they've been working with the outdoor recreation and history department uh preservation and the history. I mean, there's a lot going on that we're not aware of, but I'm happy with it. Tiara Oxier was there and she was happy with it. And so I think it's going along and going good and we should see a lot of changes. And also within the state parks, the u uh Lost Creek campground I think is pretty much finished. They were they had one little problem that they're working on and uh if they can find more water up there, which is surprising, but they're thinking of another campground further up and over past the bridge, I mean past the dam going up towards Francis Ridge. So, there's another one up there that they're planning on. Uh it will be a wakeless lake still and uh they would like to put in a trail. I mean, there is a trail, but it's overgrown trail and they want to finish it out to where we can all enjoy walking from the dam basically all the way over to Desireette. So, those are things that are happening within the state parks and jurisdiction there. So,

okay. Oh, I had one more thing, a complaint uh that I think we ought to be aware of whether or not we want to discuss it or not here, but it's basically um a former council person um was under the impression that our setbacks were from when he was there was like 10 ft. Um and he says now the planning department is saying it's 30 ft for a building and and he says in the rural area depends on it depends on the zoning building

it's in a and it's a and R1 I think might be part of a but he's his house is of course on the river I mean on the frontage so anyway he went to the planning department and they says you have to now have a 30foot for a building for the fence fence line where the other side of the fence is actually a PR that is agriculture and so he would like some clarification and maybe we need to look at it. So just so that you're aware we haven't changed the setbacks to my knowledge in as long as I've been around I don't know of that changing at all.

So I don't think that's anything new. It's probably a misunderstanding of the the zoning because the setbacks do change in in larger acreage zoning. So like A20, the setbacks are much greater. They're further than in say your well than R1, but R1 is also large zoning. They're they're further back, but bigger than even R10. Yeah. I mean, the smaller the zoning, the the less the setback because presumably the lots are smaller and so it's talking from like the front setback. No, it's back set back. The back set back. Oh, so you're not talking side setback. So you're talking backyard. Backyard.

Oh, I think rear has always been 30 ft. Cuz front is 30 ft. I say front should be sides 10. Sides are 10. Yep. Okay. But our county code is online. They can go read it. You did. So I I haven't I haven't changed it since I've been here. No, it hasn't been changed. Okay. All right. Anyway, I just thought I'd bring it up as a communication problem.

Okay. Uh last week we had the final kind of meeting with the on the 910 as far as u input and whatnot. They're going to kind of put all that together and kind of show what they're thinking. Um one of the big talk talking points was uh dogs and I brought up that Morgan County doesn't recognize e-collars as a leash and so to try to keep it consistent across whoever's uh patrolling or where it is. Um and it seems like the kind of the consensus was dogs will be required to be on a physical leash at all times. Um so that was one of the big things and this is kind of with the the dogs and that um it'll be they're kind of kind of pilot this thing and if people are abusing it they'll just say you can't you know you know all this is kind of a trial and error that basically you know dogs will be restricted. Um they talked about special events sizes those kind of things. Um there's a big push as far as like really trying to keep group sizes small to kind of preserve the the nature of the property and what its intent was by the land owner when they sold it to be in compliance with the uh conservation easement. So you're talking numbers and that um one of the things that came up is I guess some of these mountain bike teams are already like hey we want to get in there and bicycles are pretty much not going to happen u because of the conservation easement. Um, bicycles are way down the list on they're actually kind of suggested to not allow them on the trails up in that area. Um,

any mountain bike or or is it just ebike? Any bicycles? Ebikes are completely prohibited because they're along the road can they have on the road?

On the road. It's a ride of way. They can't stop bicycles on the road. Um, so I use that as an as an opportunity to really push the Nika course that East Canyon. Say, "Hey, push those people over there. Have them come to East Canyon. enjoy Morton County. We'll have a Nike course. Everybody over there was really excited about that news. Um, businesses came up. Uh, we were talking about businesses using it for bringing bicyclists up there or snowshoeing, cross country skiing, those kind of things. I use that as an opportunity to talk about the Hener put in and the problems that that arise in Morgan County from Summit County getting all the money and we get all the drunks and the garbage. And so I brought that up as far as, you know, if you've got people snowshoeing and that, we need to have a a good conversation with our sheriff and the locals how we want to run that because we we have a major problem with the river and we don't want to have it with 910. Um, they were very open with getting the sheriff involved as far as what are issues, how do we how do we approach this um to make that work. Uh, one another thing was the fire mitigation because um and I did get a picture Kate and I apologize I didn't send that to you. Um, as far as the the three different zones of basically the high use area, the limited use area, and then kind of the offlimits area that they want to keep for the the wildlife to be able to get away and and do their thing where kind of they call it the exclusion zone.

Is that in the slide deck they sent? It is in the slide deck and I grabbed a picture of it too because I didn't that was before she said and I and I should have got that to you. Um the majority of the exclusion zone is on the Morgan County side and so that brought up the issue as far as fire mitigation because how do we get that fire that all that fuel out of there if people aren't allowed to go in there? What do we do? Uh they did say the state forestry and fire um they actually hold the the land and so they will be in charge of that. I met with Brad yesterday morning and he's going to get in touch with them to kind of get our fire in touch with them to make sure that they're part of the conversation as far as helping to mitigate um any of the fire that might how do we get those fuels out of there so that we can mitigate any sort of large fires. Um, I mentioned the the mitigation that was done with Forest Service last year between Line Creek and Deep Creek and how can we kind of take that model. So, Brad was going to take that and reach out to Summit County and the state lands and forestry and what can we do to kind of get people in there to get that cleaned up. Um, there will be another meeting coming up in April kind of a here's where we're at, what we're doing. One thing that they did want to um that they did say is that this as they're rolling this out moving forward, it's a a living document. If there are problems, please bring them up. We can we can adjust. It's not a set in stone. This is what it is forever type thing. Um but they are constricted by the uh conservation easement. They must fall with within those. What do they need to do when they have too much wildlife on it? Can't take

that is going to be a challenge because there is no hunting and so that I I know that DWRD DNR has been in all these meetings been discussing that with them and how do they do it? Um I did get to meet with and I have the contact for the gentleman who is running his cattle up on there. um they're planning on continuing to graze and to farm the property and and do that to keep it in green belt. Um and so he says if there's any issues or questions or problems, please reach out to him immediately, but he will be actively grazing the properties. So are you going to be able to go up there with horses?

Yes. Um equestrian is high on the list. So like bicycles are down here and equestrian and people walking that is very high on the list. So, uh, there will be limited parking along there. They're trying to break it up. Um, but there will be areas we brought up as far as trails as well. They're not worried about horsemen, but they're worried about dog manure. Horse manure is a good thing. I'm more of horse than that. Me, too. You can always tell the They have to jump down and pick it up and put it in a bag.

But again, the horses take you have to bring your pack meal to carry it down. Um, but it's going to be kind of like I I liken it to kind of analopee island where even the horses are restricted to the trails. They have to stay on the trails. Um, they are talking about directional trails so that if there are bicycles, whatnot, that everybody's traveling in the same direction. You don't have people coming headto head. So, um, yeah, you don't have to pick up my fuel. I don't have one. So, it'll be easy to pick up.

And somebody did bring up um, oh, the the pack llamas or whatever they are and they're like, that is something we hadn't thought of. So, people walking over with their llamas or alpacas. I'm like, oh, they've got pack goats, too, right? Um, so that's the latest from from 910. I did take that opportunity to kind of, hey, we've got a problem with the put in in the river and yeah, we need to have these conversations. I told him to please don't call Cy and have him ride his horse 247 to patrol the Morgan County side because we will never see our shop again. No. So, and I told Cory he can't go do that. So, once in a while it's okay. Yeah. Um,

thank you for going with those. Oh, sorry. Um, I met with at the 910 meeting with the Mercer's assistant JC and kind of and this was I think before your meeting with him. I was like, we've got to get this moving because our grant is going to we've already extend extended it once and they're going to extend it again. They will do it. They will. Okay. I I just according to the state parks director, he was going to talk to the state. Okay. I I just I push recreation director and Tara the deputy and just get it changed.

Okay. I I just we need to move on this quick. We need to get it moving because of that grandot. And then oh one other thing was with the the gentleman that spoke about the baseball fields and that. Um I've had several phone calls and emails about that and I think we just need to as we discuss these things keep in mind all of our recreation. Absolutely. Um, I know, you know, when my son played baseball, um, I've had my cousin's daughter played softball and there's extremely limited baseball, softball, you know, there's all there's we've got more soccer, football than we have the baseball. So, I hope we can look into those things really best use of as much as little property as we have.

Well, I hope it was more of a conspiracy theory or a rumor that they were going to they're going to tear out the back stop. She she discussed Oh, we're totally tearing. She disgusted. We haven't used it in years. About the back stop of a Ken Smith. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't used that in years. That's cuz it's not even usable. It doesn't even have Yeah, cuz you can't use it for the diamond, right? You can't use it. So, that's where I'm not saying scrap it, but Yeah. See what we can do to try to to to help baseball, softball, soccer. I mean, all

Yeah. And he was texting me because he's the one that wanted to make public comment. And so I'm I have a meeting with him on Thursday to kind of go over I said I have concerns like mainly the trigger word bleachers. I have concerns but just kind of get some insight on what he's thinking on that that northwest corner. Didn't there used to be bleachers there? I remember bleachers there that back stop. Yeah. Some temporary ones. Yeah. We do have a sort of a baseball diamond at the Milton Park. We do. So yeah, in the meantime, they ought at least use that.

And I know the the the younger kids use it. You see them over there quite a bit, but then they're competing with the the football kids are in there and using it up. And I I just as we're moving forward, as we're gaining property, what's you know, what are what are some uses that we can really, you know, encourage all of our And I I'll push back a little that we don't have a bunch of soccer and football. We have a bunch of flat open space for multi-use. Yeah. And maybe we need to consider some scheduling. If if the issue is that football and baseball running into each other and it's a multi-use field, maybe we need to consider, hey, these days or these times are going to be and that's just forward. I think

work with our rec W recck department and just, you know, we want all the kids to, you know, and that's a tough one because, you know, you think about baseball and it's a very specific field, you know, with the dirt and whatnot. And that's the concern. I remember watching the San Francisco 49ers playing Kingst Park on baseball. Doesn't the LDS church have baseball diamonds right there at the Bowery? Oh, the church that are never used. Isn't there baseball? Well, I guess he said there's some memorial. I was like, we've got the one here and then we've got the one on the other side. Just just I'm not anti- baseball. I'm just My trigger word is bleachers. Well,

I mean, they may have to recognize that the baseball field is going to be a grass field and not have dirt sections. That just may be the case if we're going to have a multi-use field. And I don't think we have to put in bleachers to have a No, you can bring your own chair and hang out chairs and sit down. Sit there and watch. I don't know about you guys, a lawn chair is infinitely more comfortable than outdoor metal bleachers. Launchers are cheap. And launch Yeah, lawn chairs are cheap. provide it. You room two a year, you go back to Walmart and you buy another one for 10 bucks. Yeah.

And I had a baseball team that was we we traveled from Idaho to St. George and we found places to practice here in Morgan and and but I love that he's fighting for it and we will try to find a way to accommodate it. But we think that's just it is just try to find places that we can try to accommodate people. I agree. No, instead of waiting for the plan to be done represented. Why didn't he do this? Sir, and I think you specifically mentioned he'd like to see one in Mountain Green, right? Yes. Yeah. That end of the valley. Yeah. Because we've got a few here, like you say, but you know, the in the interim telling to go to Mil until we can figure something out. Or the church down there. The church. Yeah. The Bach.

That would be great. Um, we do need a close session for land.

Okay. Uh, I just have a couple things. First of all, I think I think I don't know, maybe all of us have met with Brad on the fire sprinkler ordinance. If you haven't, I'd recommend you reach out to him, take a half hour, have him go over it with you. It's awesome. I think what he's proposing, he's working hard on this stuff. I think he's a great great guy. He's I think he's doing lots of good things, common sense stuff. So, um and then I had a the special needs reach out to me. They want us, and I'm happy to do it, reach out to UTA and and uh they feel like the special needs kids could um use some rides to if they would come up here. I know they go out to some rural areas and and so if everybody's okay with that, I'll reach out to them, see if there's a cost or if there's not a cost or

so. We have so they have UTA is a slippery slope. is that um we've explored some of that in the past year and they they would love to have service up here but they want to charge us for it and it's not cheap.

So in the past when we've discussed and this has been years ago we've discuss UTA came to us and wanted us to to do a bus route up here and there was a couple of reasons that we didn't like the idea. Number one, it was really expensive. And number two, if you do now, the the type of service you're talking about is totally different from this. But if you do like public bus service, you're bringing folks into the community that maybe you don't necessarily want to. And I'm not trying to, it's just that happens with with public bus service. Um, but it was to the tune of several hundred,000 a year they promised to do bus service up here. So, I don't know what that would look like. I would just I would just say

be cautious with UTA because you stick your finger or your toe in. Yeah. For special needs. An outcry of what

to well because ultimately the cost is so high that you would have to have the voters approve a new tax levy to right to approve it. Well, I don't think that for special needs. I don't know what that looks like and maybe there's a a service that we could do for just for that cuz that I I mean I would totally support that. I think that's a great idea. So I have to reach out to them anyway for our contract renewal. Our contracts are two years for the ski service and so it should be coming up before the end of the season. So I I will see if I can get some idea on cost for the whole community but the special needs. Yeah,

I was just going to say for the whole transit as we look forward to the Olympics in 2034, we need to be looking at different types of transportation, uh, transit of some sort, whether it be air traffic or whatever it is, we need to be looking at some of those areas and how it can benefit certain areas, especially with the Olympics. So, that's something in the vision I think we need to be looking at whether or not we want it or not. we may have to do a temporary type of a thing for now um not now but you know in the future and that's where Summit County went with their own system and not a UTA and they went with High Valley Transit but they made their own system so that's something to consider

and Davey Ratchford the general manager of Snow Basin reached out to me and said he'd like to come give us an update on the Olympics and where Snow Basin is with the state and all that said he'd reach out to Kate That' be awesome. And I I really like these these days without work sessions. I hate to say that. Don't like me. They keep canceling them. And I'm Okay, I'll look for a motion then to

Mr. Chair, I move that we go into close session of a discussion of character, professional counselor, physical mental health of an individual and for the accent disposition of real property. Second. Have a motion by Commissioner Nickerson and a second by Commissioner Ferrell. All in favor? All right.