County Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone. Thank you for attending uh Tula County Council meeting. Today is March 24th, 2026. Uh it is 6:00 p.m. We are located at the county building on the third floor and the council chambers. We welcome you. We will start with the pledge of allegiance which will be led by Jed Bell, our road director. Please rise. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Jed. Um, as far as roll call, we have our county attorney, Scott Broadhead, president. Uh, as far as council, we have Councilman Hoffman, Councilman Hamner, Councilman Wardle, Councilman Strumberg, and Councilman Thomas are excused from tonight's proceedings. We have from the county manager's office, our county manager, assistant county manager, uh, Manager Welch and Assistant County Manager Lopez, and our county clerk, Tracy Shaw. Thank you for being here, Tracy. And thank each one of you. I know you have uh great things and spend a great evening with us. So, thank you for coming. With that, we have down here a public comment. By raise of hand, is there anyone that would like to make a public comment uh in this meeting? I see one, two, three, four. So, we'll have a three minute. Uh is that sufficient for each one? Okay, we'll start with you madam. Oh, great.

Yeah, you just need to make sure there's a green button. You need to state your name and and where you're from. Is it turning green? Oh, there we go. Okay.

Amber Anderson, South Rim. Uh, I want to preface this meeting by saying I have my civilian hat on tonight. Um, I don't get to wear it very often, so I appreciate the time. Good evening and thank you for your service, council members and the the attorney. Um, I want to start by saying that I may take a slightly different stance from some of my neighbors, which I heard is a good thing. I come from a family of lifelong truck drivers and I understand the importance of this kind of work and I'm talking about the South Rim Pit that they're trying to get going that's currently in litigation. Um, in fact, my mom worked for Hadco, which is one of their uh very close ties, and I I'm under the impression that those trucks will be the trucks that are primarily used in this pit that they want to put in there. And she worked for them for a very long time. So, I understand that if there is growth and it does come in that there's an importance there. So, um, I personally wanted to hear to speak, not to speak against the industry itself, but I want to make sure that it's done responsibly if it does come in. Um, I'd like to outline a few concerns moving forward, especially since my house is literally looking at the pit. It is my front window that looks directly out over across. Um, I would like to make sure that we're going to be requiring employees, contractors, and truck traffic to only use the Mormon Trail for entry and exit. Those S-curves are already very dangerous with the local traffic. Not to mention that we're adding 300 more homes out there and it's going to make it even worse. Um, I don't know if you guys have ever measured out a truck and pup, which is commonly used in the field of, you know, mining and getting all the dirt to places, but

those truck and pups, the pup itself is 70 ft long, and we're already having normal cars go over the median, so there's no safe way for them to go through the S- curves. um addressing traffic safety, including an update impact study with a growth of 300 more houses to be considered as well. um enforced speed limits I'm hoping will be a point of reference and safety and restricted hall hours. Signage going in and out of the S-curves letting these trucks know very visibly that they are not allowed on it is what I'm hoping for because I know in a previous contract I've been told that it says only the employees of the pit. Well, that's a heavy contract like construction equipment. that's not the trucks that they have contracted to come in and out. So, um I also want to make sure that we're implementing strong dust and air quality controls, including regular watering and silica monitoring. Just last week when they were, I guess, testing the area, there was a big dust cloud and it wasn't very windy that day. So, it's kind of concerning to me that that's already there. Um, I would like to see that there's set noise limits, including reasonable hours and advanced notice of blasting. And then I want to take in account that the risk of continuing operations during ongoing litigation is not a very smart move on behalf of this company. I would press that we ask them to stop until those litigations have gone through.

Thank you so much. Oh man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, and you're the second one. Raise your hand.

Okay. Hi, I'm Carrie uh man with South Rim. That's where I live. So, anyway, thank you uh for letting me come. I am one of those that's completely opposed to this gravel pit coming in. I'm also one of the ones who gets to look straight down at it. Uh I am definitely against the air pollution that will be coming in with it. Um, I understand you're balancing a lot with the growth, the infrastructure, the revenue, and the long-term vision of South Rim, and I respect that and I know these decisions aren't simple, but it I want to bring something into focus that I think gets missed in a project that's that's like this. So, on paper, a gravel pit can look like progress. It can look like revenue. can look like supporting development, but in reality, it creates a ripple effect of costs that don't show up on these proposals. So, the property values in the surrounding areas, they don't hold up when something like this comes in. They drop. And when the property values drops, so do your long-term tax base. Also, the growth of the community. I know that those 300 homes are coming in. That was going to slow the growth immensely. Okay. Um, let's see here. The heavy truck. So, all the stuff she was saying, I was like, "Oh my gosh, there." Yes. Uh, I don't want to see any of that or have to deal with any of that because it's an increasing risk for us to have all those trucks around us. Um, let's see. And the wear and tear on the roads. Uh, you guys are responsible for maintaining that. Uh, that's going to be an added cost for you and that's going to be ongoing. And then there's the enforcement. So, the noise complaints, I'll be one of them. Dust complaints, air quality concerns. I when we go past, you know, down uh going going to Salt Lake and we see that giant pit that Kakott's doing and all the dust that flies off of that, there's no

controlling it. Okay? We see the dust all the time. Um, and it's it's massive. Uh so this, you know, this this looks like to me like a short-term gain, but it's going to be a long-term financial drain. Um there's also the risk of um you're not just approving a project. You're I mean, I don't know if you guys are approving it or not, but um let's see, we already covered that. Uh this isn't just about me. There's other people paying attention to this decision. People who live here, invest here, and plan to stay here. and they care deeply about what the kind of environment is that this county is choosing to create. So decisions like this shape trust. They shape whether people feel protected by their county. Okay. Or if we're overlooked. So if this is approved, um what does that open up next? Also, what message does that send? Okay. Um let's see here. Uh yeah, let's let's go ahead with that. I'm completely utterly opposed. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Hi, I'm Roy Peterson. Um I'm also a resident there of South Rim and I also represent my son and his family. He can't be here. He's working. And anyway, I appreciate everybody's service here. You know, it's commendable for anybody to do public service. I did it for 35 years. Our number one job is safety and health. Okay? And this pit is going to create some unbelievable safety and health problems. I live two blocks away right across the street from the community park and there's kids out there playing all the time. We have a southernly wind that comes up through there and it's usually pretty strong. Once that dust starts blowing up that way it's just going to be horrendous on the kids playing ball riding their horses. They got a real nice horse rink and I sit out there and I watch the kids, you know, riding their horses and everything. It's just wonderful. You know, I call this place a diamond in the rough, okay? It's beautiful out there. The mountains, the valley, and everything else. It's just fabulous. The sunsets, and everything else. It's everything you want in life, but it could be ruined in just a moment. Okay? With just a simple vote of affirmative, you're going to go for the go for the pit and it's going to devastate that area. It's going to de devastate our health. Um, I'm 72 years old. I don't need that. I got enough health problems as it is. And I just want to survive long enough to hang out with my grandchildren. Anyway, I appreciate your time and thank you very much.

Thank you, Roy. Sir.

Yeah. My name is Jim Johnson. I also live out South Rim. um my house. Uh first of all, I'll don't do public speaking very good and I usually speak before I think. So I apologize ahead of time if I offend anybody. Um so my house sits directly behind I mean when I say directly behind the pit, it is 100 yards right directly out my back door. Okay. Um and this pit isn't a pit. So I don't know how many you people have actually gotten in a car and driven out there and looked at this thing. It's not a pit. It is a small little hole in the ground. It's nothing like what's up there. Nothing like what's out here on the west side. Nothing. You drive past it and never even know it's there if you didn't know it was there. Okay. No signs, no nothing. I do have one question. It's a yes or no question. I want to know anybody on this board because you guys represent the county. Did you guys know that they were going out there last Thursday and setting equipment up to start testing crops? So that's a no from everybody. Didn't know. But so I again I I say things sometimes you guys were doing the right thing back in 2016. I moved out there in 18 found we own the property since 2009. Everything I heard from 16 to 18. Everybody was on board. Everybody was saying no no no. Unfortunately somebody in the county gave the guy permission to start mining and writing. That's when I feel when I say you, I'm talking the county started doing the wrong thing. Okay, I'm just saying I started doing the wrong thing. You I look at you because you are the attorney. You guys need to step up and do the right thing and put a stop order on this and let the courts litigate this out.

I didn't hear you, so I'm sorry. Okay. This is your mine. Okay. Well, if you say something, let everybody hear you. So, but I'm just saying do the right thing. Step up. Put a stop on this thing so that the courts litigated out so we can get it finally resolved. So, thank you. Thank you. I miss I don't I think that was just the four, right? Okay. Move on. Uh we'll go to presentations. So, Um, America 250, Tilla County update. Our assistant county manager, Britney Lopez.

Oh, shoot. It's hard when I can do all the things. Hold on. Sorry. Tracy, will you just come hit laptop, please? I'm sorry. I forget that I do that. All right, council. Um, I wanted to come before you tonight because first off, I wanted to say thank you um for giving us a little bit of funds to be able to support this national um this national celebration

and um so I'm just want to give you an update on what our committee has been doing and who we've been working with and some great events that we have going within our community. So, um, we knew that there was a need to bring all of the communities together for America 250. So, um, during the COG sessions, I talked to all the mayors and said, "Hey, we need participation from everyone." And we've had just that. So, we've had everyone from Vernon, Rush Valley, um, we've had the school district, smaller municipalities, big big municipalities. We have great participation. Um, a lot of us have been uh also on the state calls where we've been provided with some toolkits and guidelines of how we should utilize this in our in our communities to make sure we get the biggest bang for the buck for the funding that the state gave us. Um, and also that we keep the branding and the celebrations focused on what we're really trying to focus and that is celebrating America 250. Um, so these are kind of the overarching guidelines that we kind of came up with in our group that we wanted to make sure that we were bringing all of the communities together. This was a a time for us to make sure that if you lived in Grants or Twilla or Vernon or Lake Point, we were all coming together to celebrate America and also what we have within our county because we decided that we have a lot of great assets within our county that we don't celebrate enough. Um there's a few parts of this that kind of walk through um learning about history, getting kids involved in history, um getting people out doing activities, civic activities, um community projects, and so we wanted to make sure that we encompassed all of that, but kind of still kept it simple. So here's what our group came up with. So, um, our local strategies were to focus on the walk walk 250 community wellness connection, the serve 250 volunteer programs, the America's field trip, um, and promoting branding and events countywide. So, we would we we said all together we're going to come

together and these are the things we're going to do. Um, so the first thing is America's field trip. Um, this was really great to have the school district as a partner in our meetings. Um, because we were able to push this information out to all schools. Um, so what it is is it was a contest nationwide for third to 12th graders where they could write an essay on what does America mean to them? Um, and what it did is it brought them to a a national historic field trip where they would be able to get flown back to DC and be able to um, go through all of the amazing things. I I don't I I don't have much time, so I don't want to go too far into this, but the school district did a great job at blasting this out, and we did have people within our community working on trying to achieve this. We don't know if anyone it's it's ended now. We don't know who the winners are yet. So, if we find out that anyone from our community did this, I will let you know. Um, this is our overarching thing that we decided to do. And I'm really glad there's people here because we don't usually have people. And this is something you guys should take back to your communities because it's super cool. Um, so what it is is it's a countywide goose chase scavenger hunt. So this isn't just something that the county came up with. This is all-encompassing events, outdoor recreation service projects that you can do by joining this scavenger hunt. Uh, the scavenger hunt started March 5th and it runs through October 31st. Um, and I'll get to why October 31st in just a minute, but what it is is you you create a team, you download this app, you create your team, and it's fun adventures that you can do around the county. There are prizes once your team reaches um its goal of 15,000 points, which it's pretty easy to get um and or does three community events and every community has an America 250 pin. Our goal would be is that the team would get the whole collection. And so kind of like you trade pins at the Olympics, this is kind of like our County America

250 pin and challenge coin. Um, so let me give you an example of how this works. So one of the things we'll say, uh, go attend an event at Desert Peak or the Peak, sorry, Corey. Um, take a picture of your team at the event wearing shirts that show that you're proud to be an American. And what it does is it it will it d it geot tracks it in the app. So you have to take the picture in the app. You have to actually be at the event and then you would get 500 points for that. Um there's other ones that would be participate in the county cleanup. Um sign up for a trail roadside or roadside cleanup and get points for that. It's really really great. Um, it goes all the way till October 31st because there's one really a cool thing that the state of Utah did and it's a traveling u museum and kudos to Grantsville because they jumped on this quick to sign up to get this museum and that museum will actually be in the Grantsville Library in October. So, it it's they put one location per county and Grantsville was uh they jumped on it. So, we're really proud of their uh their participation. We're really proud of what the the other cities that have done. Some of the other events you'll see on here that we've just tried to highlight. We know that our cities do really great Fourth of July celebrations and we didn't want to interfere with that. So, you get points for going to those, participating in those as well. So, um just encouraging people to get out in the community. Here's a few other types of events that uh people are doing. And I and I want to actually highlight this one that Vernon did. So, you got to think about Vernon. And what a small This one already happened. This one is this is what kicked off our our event. So they did uh Boots, Beats, and Poetry. Um they served hot dogs. Um and they had these great uh musicians come out. So they had I text the mayor the next day say, "How did your event turn

out? I'm sorry I couldn't make it." They had over 170 people attend this little event in Vernon, which was super cool. And that's what it's about. It's about getting people gathering and just celebrating our traditions. Um the school district is holding. These are just a few things. Uh school district has the culture fish uh fest on April 15th. Um and then there's car shows, uh music festivals, other types of events that will be coming. So this wasn't to tell you about all the events. It was just to show you the different types of events that we have. Um so now I kind of want to jump into what the county is doing outside of hosting the scavenger hunt. Um we have an amazing parks team and anytime I come up with an idea, Corey makes it happen. So, I just love him for that and he takes it and he makes it go even further. So, um so last year we kicked off the ready to play festival and what it was was supposed to be starting getting people excited to be outside and if you guys remember Corey coming to you guys about what they wanted with parks and rec. They wanted people to get excited about recreation and about going places in our community. So, um our kickoff event in the county will be our Ready to Play festival which is April 12th. And Corey and I actually talked about it this week. It's actually expanded beyond this flyer. So, it's going to be a pretty amazing thing. But this is a America 50 250 themed event and we're encouraging um people to go. There's going to be a lot of fun things going on and most of all there's food trucks. So, if anything, come get some lunch and see what we got going on there. Uh our large event is what we call the sparkle and splash. And like I talked about before, we didn't want to interfere with the uh Fourth of July celebrations in all the other communities. So, we decided that we would lead into the 4th of July with our sparkle splash. So, it will be June 26th and June 27th. So, these are some ideas of some things that will be there, but let me walk you through each day. So, the first day will be June 26th. The pool will be open. The pool, that is not the day it's officially opening. The pool will be open before then. I just

want to clarify that. Don't ask me the day. Um, so we've done some fun things. We're going to do a duck race um two different times that day. So, see these little duckies on the screen? So, uh, parks and recck team has found ducks that look like different presidents. And so, if you've seen the new design of the pool, we have a lazy river. So, the ducks will race through the lazy river and there'll be some prizes for if you have the fastest ducky. So, it can be a really fun thing. Uh, lots of lawn activities. We're working with all the first responders to do a touch a truck. Uh, there's food trucks. There'll be a symphony performance. We're going to have a phone party and then a movie on the field for families. And um besides going into the pool, all of those other events and buying your old food will be free. So that'll be on the 26th. The 27th um it will be the special needs rodeo. So we're kind of like trying to highlight that and get more people down to that because it's such a great event. Touch of truck will continue. Um the pool will open again, more duck races. Uh then you'll have the youth rodeo, more lawn activities. Uh and then we'll sell some the the pool will close at the regular time, which I believe is 7. Is that right, Tori? And we'll clear it out. And then we're going to sell some premium seating to the drone show, which would allow you to be able to swim in the pool from 8 to 8:45. And then 8:45, we'd ask those premium seings um to exit the pool just for safety. But that's where the premium seating will be for our drone show that we'll be having down there. There will be other seating where the public can everyone can watch that doesn't get those. But um I'm really proud of these events and the way that our teams come together on this and not just our team, but I want to say like the whole the whole county. It's been really fun to get together with the other communities and see what they're doing. Um one of the like Tula City's

done some great jobs with Reed 250. They're doing a golf 250 for a Tula Tula city resident. Um, swim 250. So, if you live in Tilla, I recommend you go to the Tula City website. They have a whole thing on there on the Tula County website. We have a link that links you to all the possibilities how you can uh participate as well. Um, but other than this, I think this is I I love that everyone just came together to really highlight what the the county has. So, hiking, biking, all those fun things are part of this, too. So, what questions do you guys have for me?

No, it sounds I don't have questions other than I'm overwhelmed. There's a lot of things going on and we'd certainly want to get that out on social media. So, anybody when this comes out, feel free to share it. It's been out. Did you see my awesome video? I'm I'm trying to give you a bone here, Britney. Share it on your social media so everybody is aware of it. Any uh questions, Councilman? No, just looks good. I had to help make the other ones because I have a job. I was giving you over time. I know. But I think what you've been doing has been great. Thanks. Yes. And thank you for your energy on that, Councilman.

I think it's wonderful how the communities have come together uh to do this and that it has place in every part of our county. Um, more importantly that we're celebrating an incredible country with in incredible foundations, inspired foundations that now we have the ability to say this grand 250ear experiment is going well. It has its bad parts, but it's going better than anything else we see.

Yeah. Thank you. That will bring up uh minutes from March 3rd, 2026. Is there any corrections, additions to the minutes that you have before you? If not, the chair entertain a motion. Well, I I got Put that mic closer to you. I got eliminated from the roll call somehow. It's because you didn't speak into your microphone. I don't do the roll call. The chairman does. I knew there was going to be some smart a comments about it. That's That's still

I don't care if we fix it or not, but but I did make some motions and stuff like that. So, um if you'd make a motion on that for and then correction with the the correction of the motion because it looks like there was a line that was deleted and I was probably on that line. I will. Okay. Okay. I'll make a motion to accept it with the voted corrections here. A motion. Councilman Hoffman. Is there a second? I will readily accept. Second that. So, Councilman Hoffman can be recognized. Well, I'm recognized in other places. Don't Don't get me wrong. Hearing a second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor say I. I.

I. All those may oppose say nay. That sounds unanimous. Thank you. Now, let's bring us down to the contract for asphalt and siliconing uh services. I'll bring up our director, Jed Bell. Rose, director, I guess I should say. Good evening. Thanks, council. Um, this first contract is for a product uh called AP4. We bid it out uh through the state procurement website and we did only receive uh the one bid uh it was Anderson Asphalt. They currently hold a state contract for this product. Uh we bid it out publicly because we estimated the cost of the project would exceed the $100,000 threshold in the policy. Um they did bid it at their state contract price and um that was at $241,284. We did budget 410,000 for pavement preservation and this bid came within what we uh estimated it would. So my recommendation would be that we award the contract to Anderson Asphalt.

Okay. Is there any questions or comments from the council? You've worked with them in the past? Yes. Okay. Uh do we want to take these individually? We have to, I think. Don't we? Okay. Make a motion that we adopt item 7A. Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle to accept the contract asphalt Anderson. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say I. I. All those may oppose say nay.

As adopted. That will bring us down to contract for road striping services. Jed. So this uh contract is for uh refreshing the existing striping within the county of the unincorporated areas. We uh do about onethird of the line striping each year. So over a three-year period uh will cover the entire county of every road that gets striped. Um, this one we put out to bid on state procurement website for two weeks in February. We did receive four bids and Clear Line was the low bidder. Um, there was a big gap that Ty brought up in between the low bidder and the fourth bidder, but bidder one, two, and three were all very close. There was just a discrepancy in the the fourth. That's why you probably saw the big difference in the price. Um, this contract we did budget 85,000 to refresh a third of the county striping. This contract came in at $45,641 for the first uh for each year because we do a third of it each year. The reason why we're bringing it to you today for approval, it is under that $100,000 threshold, which normally can be signed by the manager's office, but the contract comes with optional two extensions, which would make it a three-year contract.

Um, so you budgeted 80,000 for one year or for three years? 85,000. And the reason why we budget that 85,000 is because we also piggyback on this contractor to restripe roads that we chip seill things like that that we do in house. So we bid we we budget a little extra in there to cover it. They did come in a little bit lower about 10% of what we anticipated it would be but um I believe their price was fair. Okay. Any other comments or questions, council?

So, are we approving for one year or for three years? That's that's the three years, right? That's what I wanted to clarify. No, I think it's a good deal. I think we ought to do it. I'll make a motion to approve it. Hearing a motion from Councilman uh Hoffman. Is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Jed, don't go anywhere. We still got you.

I got one more for you guys. This uh this RFB was a microsurface and crack seal contract uh for Saddleback and South Rim phase 3 subdivision. Um we also put this out on the state procurement website for two weeks in February. We received two bids and Asphalt Preservation LLC was the lowest bidder. Daniel also reviewed the state contract uh current state contract price for this uh microsurface and asphalt preservation's price came in less than what the state contract price was currently posted. Um, we budgeted 168,716 for the pavement preservation and the low bid was 135735 which was uh Asphalt Preservation LLC. Um, so I would also recommend that we award this contract to Asphalt Preservation LLC.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from the council? Not chair to entertain a motion. Make a motion that we adopt the contract. And a motion from Councilman Wardle. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those that may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you. Thank you very much. Have a good night, you guys. And thank you for being cautious of the fundings and and looking at the best deal that would work. Absolutely. Thank you. uh contract with landscaping ADA ramp construction. Uh Britney,

good evening, council. Britney Lopez from the county manager's office. Um I have a contract before you today for uh the reconstruction of our landscaping out front. Um I do need to clarify something. When I came to you during budget and asked for funding for this, um I did not understand that we didn't have the the actual ADA ramp in that bid. So what you see here is uh the the contract includes the launch the landscape rebuild and the ADA ramp. Uh the reason for that is that we clearly have a need for ADA parking in the front of it and it wasn't something that we had planned all along. I just assumed it was part of that. So that is my mistake. Um so tonight I bring this contract for you. Uh we put it out to bid. We received four bids. They ranged from 444,000 to 688,000. Um we feel comfortable with uh the company that we've selected. They have um it's a landscape and construction. They've done uh several projects for Tula City and other um school district projects in the area. Um along with that um so we did have 400,000 budgeted. So next year next week you will see a a line item adjustment come to you um for the project that's below. We had too much budgeted for that and too less for the front because of the AD a ramp. So we're just going to shift some funds from one project to the other. Um if you grant me the approval to move forward with this project this evening.

Okay. Can I just piggyback on one thing there? Just that the ADA how how important that is. It is really confusing to folks as they come up to our building, they pull up here and then they see they can't get in the front then they have to go all the way around. And so having ADA in the front is really important. Right. There's only one way of entrance into the building. Well, and you should know that we we had this was part of the plan along and so we did actually put 88 doors in when we replace the doors on the front. So, we do have 88 doors on this side of the building where the reample would be installed.

Okay. Any other comments or questions, council? If not, chair to entertain a motion. Do would be I I had issues with the whole front yard being done for this amount of money in the budget discussions last year. Does this have to be approved tonight or can we table it? Well, we've already approved it. We're just looking at the 44,000 for the ADA. Well, why would we table it? What is the purpose of tableabling? Offense to me. Chairman, may I say something? Can I So, just real quick, Ty, you're bringing up why would we table it?

Well, just because I I I don't know. I'm I'm wondering why I was opposed to it before and I'm not sure I want to support it now. So, if we deny it, but you're assuming we're going to vote to deny it. So, are you going to make a motion to table it so the rest of the council is here? That's what I was thinking. Okay. I I'm just trying to figure out why. What is the purpose of tableabling?

You're you're on the right track. Okay, that's off. Okay, Britney. What I what I wanted to say is that um we do have the gel tearown project also um which is going to put the back of the building out of commission. So, this is a timing thing as well for us. I have in order for us to get the gel tore down, I have to provide ADA access to the front of the building because there may be times that we may have the back of the building unavailable for ADA access. So, because I'm all for the ADA ramp. I am not necessarily for spending that much money on landscaping.

So, let let me see if I understand this. The 400,000 has already been voted on. So, that's done. It's budgeted. Yes. So all we're voting on is the ADA which is the 44,000. Correct. So that's the additional to the cost is for the ADA ramp and then coming back in the next meeting to appropriate that money. It's just a line item adjustment. It is not it's not an increase to the overall county budget. It's a line item adjustment is shifting from one other project. Okay. That we know we already know what's under budget because we have that contract mix. Okay. Any other questions or comments? If not, then chair to entertain a motion.

I make a motion we adopt it. Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle to adopt the um contract of landscaping ADA ramp construction at 47 South Maine. Is there a second? I will second that. So, we have a second. Councilman Hamner. Mr. Chairman, I would request a voice vote. Roll call vote. Uh, Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote? I'll vote I. Councilman Hoffman votes I. Councilman Hamner votes I. Councilman Wardo votes. I vote I. I wouldn't have requested that if I knew you were going to vote I.

Well, I wasn't sure what I was going to do when you said that. Okay. For the ramp, I still think we were spending too much on the on the landscaping, but I got outvoted on that. is over. Off we go. Thank you. We'll talk come down to E on architect for the jail uh demolation project.

All right. Good evening, council. Um what you have before you is a contract with SEP archite architects. Um what I'm actually asking for this tonight is for a sole source approval for this contract. Um let me explain to you why we chose to do a sole source on this one. As Andy and Nate have been working with the state of Utah on all of the alignments and the the project for the new Sallyport, this is the architect that the state has proured to do their project. In order to make it seamless because we have a timeline that we're required to have the jail tore down in time, we want to hire this same firm. And what they will do for us is they will um be they will help with project management for this um and the demolition of it. So, they've come to us with a quote of how much they believe it will take to come down. Um, and they will just charge us. Uh, it's $23,000 that they'll charge us for their services to help manage the contract to make sure that we're also aligning with the timeline of the state. Um, one of the things that I should add on this is this is the funds for this project is also funds that we will be receiving back after we do the property sale as well.

PO post performance. Right. Right. Um, but when if you choose to approve this, please make sure you approve this as a sole source. But if you have any questions on a sole source, soul source. So, I have one request on this. I don't know what the other councilman I think we ought to get a souvenir from the jail for the sheriff and absolutely like a toilet or something because I've had the Do you want a toilet or you want a I actually had the film commission ask if they could come get toilets out of there. So, they must be worth something. So, What about the bars? That's what I was saying. You put up a No bars. Thought it was a gel.

How many bars do you have? So, I I spent three years teaching in that jail. It's got a great place in my heart, believe it or not. And lose all your hair.

No. Um, but I I do know that uh when the new jail was built and appreciated the focus on and we've seen this work in not only and and Scott, you and I really go back 25 years on this matter on how we address criminality and the ability to help heal some of the causes of that. And it it's interesting to me that we moved on from this jail, but I don't know. Um I I think we've gotten much better and we've had those things presented to us about how to address some of these issues with recidivism with mental health. And so as much as I don't, you know, I I walked into the there one night and uh because we have a key and went into the place, I taught and thought about so many of the people that went through

and how important they were to me um and left that place and the officers, the deputies that I worked with, uh the people who who now we see at all martyed those other areas who one of them I won't forget anytime I see her she says look how fat I am and that is one of the greatest things she could ever say because she was a meth addict and she was never fat when she was on meth and so that is the outward sign of of what hopefully we do as an outcome so I would make a motion we approve the the SPE as architects for the jail demolition as sole source

second it a motion council Wordle and a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those may oppose say nay. Thank you Britney. And that will bring up Nathan. Is resolution 2026-07 declaring the intent of the Tilla County Council to support the state in an RFI response for the energy life cycle innovations campus. Jake, would you mind coming up? Jake Garfield from the state.

Thank you, council. Uh like you said, chairman, I'm Nathan Harris. I'm with the county attorney's office. Um the resolution that you have before you is is the next piece in the puzzle. Um as we've been working through this year, uh we know that we've passed resolutions to have an energy overlay zone. um we are moving towards trying to be the the leader in energy in the state of Utah. And so this is the next step for us. Um and what we are doing is uh we are essentially signing off on this uh signing off and with the state signing with the state to try to bring new energy sources to Tilla County. And so the feds have asked, you know, they've asked states to interest. Um the governor has supported the council in possibly moving forward as a potential place for these energies to come into and so this is just the resolution that we'll get them the next step so they can keep moving forward. We can keep

good enough summation. Absolutely. Excellent. Jake, any comments?

Uh yeah, if I could take a couple minutes if that's all right. My name is Jake Garfield. I am the deputy director for the state office of energy development. We are a state agency that is the state's uh lead agency for bringing new energy developments to the state. Thank you so much for that uh summation of this process. Um again it's from the US department of energy. It's called their nuclear life cycle innovation campus initiative. Uh just briefly there's a part of the challenge with nuclear power in this country is that the different uh parts the different processes to turn uranium into the fuel for nuclear power plants is dispersed across the country. Um that creates a lot of inefficiencies and it's um kind of inhibited the innovation that we should have been seeing over the last 50 years in nuclear power in this country. The the Department of Energy believes that by bringing different parts of the nuclear fuel cycle to the same location could build efficiencies and drive innovation. And those that include things like uranium conversion, uranium enrichment, uranium fuel fabrication as well as the reprocessing and recycling of previously used nuclear fuel. Um the legislature, well, this initiative was announced at the end of January. the legislature um was very interested. They d passed a bill which was Senate Bill 135 which directed our agency to uh prepare response to the department department of energy. Uh the governor as well was very supportive. He also directed us to prepare this response and start working with other state agencies stakeholders as well as uh local governments and county governments looking at the feasibility of doing of of bringing a campus like this to Utah. This was this is just a a response to a request for information. Uh which is just means that if if Utah uh submits a response and were the DOE to select Utah, that would essentially just that

would just be the first step. It would be a invitation to dance essentially. It would not be an engagement to get married, but it would start a longer conversation with the US Department of Energy about bringing a campus like this to Utah. The reason why the legislature and the governor are interested is they believe this could that having a an innovation campus like this in Utah could be a significant economic driver for the state that it would bring u a major boost of highpaying stable jobs. Uh could bring significant tax revenue to a community and bring outside capital that could drive major infrastructure developments in in places where they're needed. Uh we immediate once we got these direction from the governor and from the legislature we started looking at uh locations all around the state that would make sense. Uh there are a number of criteria that the department of energy wanted us to look at. Twilla county of course already is the home to the energy solutions facility at Cly which process which handles low-level nuclear waste. That facility is there for a reason. It's in a location that is particularly well suited for a nuclear facility. As we were doing this analysis, looking at the feasibility of bringing a campus like this to Utah, a lot of the signals were pointing to that same area, the the vicinity of the Clive location in Twilla County because of the many characteristics that made that site so suitable for a nuclear facility. Uh, and we could talk about those reasons all day, but just the some of the highlights are the the uh the extreme dryness of the climate there, the lack of rainfall, the lack of a freshwater aquifer, as well as the fact that that area is um has zero residents that live in the vicinity, but is also within a a reasonable commute for population centers like the Tilla Valley, where

Clive where Energy Solutions employees are currently commuting Um uh we uh have again we are uh under the direction from the legislature and the governor. We are planning to uh submit a a response to the department of energy by April 1st. And uh we would love support from the Twilla County Council for bringing a campus like this to Utah and potentially tw to Tilla County if that is something that the council would be interested in. And this is the to take away the hurdles or the stopping to let you know that we are friendly to this and warm to the idea of working with the state and federal government. With that, is there any questions or did you have a comment? Uh Andy?

No, just that the state's been really great to work with on this. We've we've probably exchanged hundreds of emails between us and texts and everything else through this just trying to work through the logistics of this and we've been receiving letters of support from other community partners as well which we've been very appreciative of. Yeah. And let me just say publicly every time I've called Jake he picks up the phone. So I appreciate that. Um you get an extra point. Britney, will you give him an extra point on the 250 answer? I could use all the extra points I can get. So that'd be great. Any other questions or comments from the council? If not, uh, entertain a motion. Chair to entertain a motion. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman for approval. Is there a second? I'll second it. Hearing a second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor say I. I.

I. All those that may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you, Jake. Thank you, Nathan, for that. Um, now that'll bring us down. Nathan, you can't go anywhere. We have resolution 2026-08 uh amending the Tula County fee structure or schedule.

Thank you chairman. So with the fee schedule parks obviously having some good changes being made out at the peak. Not going to fall for it to lunch. Um but at peak uh we needed to get some of our fees readjusted because the pool and other things that are associated with just the changes that have been happening out there. Uh so they have submitted this list some of the things they are changing the swim lessons price the rental of the entire pool all that that need to be outlined so we could be clear in our fees that we charge to the facility. Any uh questions or comments for Nathan on this resolution? Hearing none, uh chair to entertain a motion.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we adopt the fee schedule. Hearing a motion from Council Councilman Wardle on adopting the fee schedule. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second from Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor of resolution 2026-08 adopting the new fee schedule say I. I. I. All those may oppose say nay. Is adopted. That will bring us down to resolution 2026-09 renaming amending the section 6.7 annual performance evaluation dual county personal uh personnel policy manual.

Thank you chairman. Um so the changes that are being made with regards to the annual performance evaluations merit increases. Um Abby and I have been working on this for months. Uh we have put this out to all of the directors and elected officials in the county asking for input. And so what we have before you is the final draft um about how annual performance evaluations and merit increases are going to occur moving forward. So before uh what was uh happening was the council would set a merit increase amount to 62% and then based upon the performance evaluation that were done by supervisors there was a sliding scale somebody they got threes which means you're actually a good employee you could get five up to the full 2% let's say the average was 4.3 out of 500 performance. Um what Andy actually found when compressing all the data over the last few years is that we were getting spikes of score clumps. You know, instead of having a standard distribution curve that looks like a a natural bell curve, we were getting spikes at certain numbers. Meaning that really what was happening is that they the system was being essentially manipulated to allocate certain amounts of merit to employees. It was either high there were high numbers where they be awarded the full merit or it was a middle point where others were. So we were having instead of a bell curve we were having two spikes. Um so the question was is how do how do we fix that and how do we give meaningful evaluations because if you are evaluating to meet a number then

you're not giving meaningful to your employees. Um, and so this is the this is the new system and what it's going to do is it's going to allow the council to set the merit amount, but then that amount is going to be given to the departments and it is going to be a pool of money for their employees. And as department heads, what they can do is they can then give their performance evaluations and then allocate that money in the way they see fit. So if they give somebody buys in their department, then perhaps that individual would get up to the max amount under this, which is 5%. For their salary, that would take away from the whole pool. And that may mean that other individuals who maybe didn't scoreify, they might get less than. But it it gives the discretion it gives the discretion to the department head to award their employees the way they they feel that it it matches their performance valuations. So hopefully what we will see is we will see a natural not digression a move back to a more stable bell curve where there are some individuals who are super high performers and they may deserve a higher raise that year. than an individual who might not be performing the best throughout the year. And so this is a the attempt that the manager's office has come up with. And we're we're trying to figure out a way to incentivize employees to do a good job, but then also incentivize managers to be good managers and give good constructive feedback to employees. Also allowance or something to somebody who maybe do something great that year. For example, last year we had a secretary that got legal

assistant for the year, but under our current system, I couldn't award her anything for that. I couldn't give her a bonus. I couldn't do anything because she's stuck with the evaluation system. So, I think this would allow me to do something like that. Is that correct? Yes. Um, as long as you're still within, it allows you to award those high achievers. while still maintain your so you can be like Nathan you're the worst attorney that we have in the office I like all my prosecutor more I'm giving all my money to all your money to Gary

yes yes and you can say Nathan you do not deserve merit this year you only score threes and I'm giving your merit to somebody else who is better achiever yes and so it does allow for the award of a super employee Yeah, one other caveat to this is that we wrote it as well to you we have to exclude out the department heads from their employees pool because that way we'll use the pool for for example for my department heads we'll pull them out of their pool we'll have a pool for them then we allocate that way it doesn't take away from their employees if I were to give you know one person a five that would mean that that department would have to give their other employees left and so we're pulling that out just to be fair and so I'll have a pool for department heads and then the department will have the rest of that pool. And so that's and and the other thing is we did have a couple of comments and and most of them were very favorable. The health department had some questions and Matt and I met with them for about an hour and I we worked through those concerns. I think we've got a good they have a lot of divisions within that. So I think we've worked out something that they're very appreciative of as well. So sorry Matt couldn't be here. He's at a conference today. So or he would have been here to present this.

Okay. Chair recognized Councilman Wardle. I think one of the things that we appreciate this and this has been an evolving process is when the the council form of government was implemented. One of the the things that as a culture we wanted to to build and and we understand we're not the builders. It's those who are on the front line. Our most valuable resource in terms of serving the public is our employees. We wanted them to know that their jobs are important and what they do matters, but that we wanted to grow the county in excellence and in innovation so that we can meet the needs of our citizenry in the best most effective way possible with the use of the tax dollars that we receive. And so we appreciate the employees and all that they've done, the way that we've seen things uh continue to grow in so many different areas and throughout the year. I not if people are paying attention to the the broadcast or whatever it is, you see that as we recognize employees, as we see achievements in publications, as we talk about the efficiency and the effectiveness of government. uh this has been one of the the hallmarks of getting to that state of excellence and that's hard to do in government. Government by nature it that's not its inertia. Its inertia is to be bureaucratic. Its inertia is to be laborious at times. and and I I can't say how much I appreciate the direction that the leaders and the leadership team in all the departments in the elective elected offices uh have made in in doing this. They were doing it before. We're just finding more effective ways to start to meet that that level of excellence at least in

what we can show and that's in in pay. Um so we appreciate that. Thank you. If there's not any more comments or uh questions, the chair to entertain a motion. So moved. A motion. Councilman Hoffman. Is there a second? I'll make the second. Um Councilman Hamner makes a second for resolution 2026-09. All those in favor say I.

I. All those may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Thank you, Nathan. That bring us down to boards and committees. I have one here to present to the unless you want to present it. Andy. Andy had an opportunity to meet with Kathleen Filler. Um and she's been recommended by the HR director and along with the manager director to serve on the board. Um, Career Service Council,

Career Service Council, sorry, Career Service Council Board. Um, I'm trying to read through the information. She is, uh, she's an attorney. Um, and let me just have you

Scott or Nate may be able to respond better to this, but just the nature of that board of the this career service council, you do need somebody who has some legal experience on that because you can actually hold hearings and request witnesses and and so we need to get somebody who's kind of expert at doing some of that. When someone is terminated or suspended, they have a right to appeal their termination or suspension to the career service council. And the career service council is a three member uh council. Um two can be from one party and one from another. So it's supposed to be and and the people that are on the board are supposed to be the term they use is sympathetic to merit principles. I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but anyway, they're supposed to understand how a career service works uh for government employees. Um, and because it's a legal body, it's always good to have an attorney that can kind of help

navigate navigate the fact that these are legal issues that are being presented and whether a termination or suspension was uh proper or improper. When was the last time that we had to use the council? The last time we had to do this um was I mean I can't I can't tell you. You were guessing like 10 to 12 years. I think it was

10 to 12 years ago. See, they seem to come in spurts. We had like three of them in a really short period of time. And I had a wonderful time doing all three of those trials. Um anyway, uh it's been a while, but we haven't had any any terminations that that required an appeal. So, the council kind of fell out of their own spots because nothing was going on. So, but we do have one vacancy that we need to fill that and we and we do need to and this is a three-year term expiring on uh 6:3028. We have one matter that's going to be coming to that council immediately. So, we needed to fill this spot immediately. So, correct. We could get moving on that case.

Any other questions or comments from the council? If not, chair to entertain a motion. I make a motion we appoint uh Kathleen Kathleen Filler Filler to the Career Service Council. Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardo. Is there a second? Second. Hear a second. Excuse me. From Councilman Hoffman. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those that may oppose say nay. That is adopted. Uh that will bring us down. If I can get my pages turned here. Council updates. Um, Councilman Wardle, any updates? I have nothing tonight. Okay. Councilman Hoffman,

I have nothing. Okay. I will also suspend any updates. Turn some time over to the manager for some updates.

Let me just do three quick ones. So, on the roads, Jed was um uh letting me know that the status of some of our road projects. And so, I did announce this one at Cog. We're doing a road assessment for the other communities that will be finished by we believe the end of next month in April. Ibab Road. We believe the construction will begin in June and should be finished up midocctober. So they're getting working on that now after four years of getting all of the grants um teed up and ready to go. And then Morvin Trail, we expect the engineering to occur to begin in this year and construction to begin next year. So those kind of the road projects. I do want to show you one thing on our website. This is something just as a as an FYI if you're looking for contracts that the county has. So Britney has up our website here. or she can go to this is the the clerk's page. So, if you can go to the the clerk's page,

government clerk. Government clerk. There you go. And then scroll down, it should have like There she is. I saw

she's right over here. Then we have contracts and agreements on the left there. And then if you scroll down, there's a search bar there. So, this was just just recently actually. We were looking for the contract. So, if you can just type in era, we're hoping it comes through here. So, there are all the contracts with erda that have erdic city. So, if we're looking for things like that, if you want to find contracts, they're all available right there. So, um I think we have back to I can't remember which year it is, 2012 or something like that, I believe. Quite a few years. And so if you're looking for information, you can always ask us, but that's a quick way to find the contracts that we on any contract.

We put them out we put them all in there. Good stuff. So that's that's a one of our changes is we made sure that all of our contracts are now on county agendas so they get filed and they're kept track of by Tracy. No longer have the random contract that's hidden in some department head's drawer. Yeah. This is this is always a good idea. Yes.

As as simple as that seems, that is really hard to do. And so I commend our group for coming together to get those things in there because there's so many more that we getting now than we ever had before. We just missed a bunch. They were in somebody's drawer. They signed them and nobody else knew about it. And then we had a question. We couldn't find it. So this is where we're putting all of that information. It's available to the public to anybody. So All right. Council, I just had Britney, you would like to just just to just talk just a little bit more about um Parks and Recreck. Parks and Rec,

our beloved Parks and Recck Group. Hey council, we just wanted to share with you and the public that Simeon Canyon will be open um starting April 1st. Um so just just so y'all know if you guys are getting excited to get out and recreate because that April fools, it's not even a joke. This is a legit thing. Side note, I'll tell you a story about that. Anyhow, so Middle Canyon, typically we don't open that until uh Memorial Day weekend um because of the lack of snow. Uh we're actually going to be able to do limited hours up there from 12:00 to 7:00 starting April 17th, but it will only be open to White Pine. So, uh there won't be anything past White Pine.

Yeah. And we did find out the Salt Lake side, they're not opening the Salt Lake side until Memorial Day. So, we are opening our side early just to allow people up in the mountains. When you say up to White Pine, there will be a gate there. There's a gate there. Yes. Right where the pavement ends, there's a gate right there. Correct.

Okay. And then um I just wanted to give a big shout out. So, as you guys know, Cory's been expanding the motocross events out there. So, they opened last weekend, but um through the winter, uh they were able to get the other two tracks open and expand the expert track. So, um we now have our kids 50cc track open. the veterans track open and have expanded um the expert track. Last weekend they opened and they had 190 riders for open ride. So um something we're excited about, we don't have all of our event staff yet because it's still early. Um so uh Corey will try to continue to get this going and open more often, but we we are limited based off of the staff right now, too, because it takes staff to make sure we're grooming the tracks and stuff. But but it's a it's a great thing. Um, it's another thing we could be known for down at the peak. So,

yeah, one of the things down there as well is that was the lowest point. So, all the water flowed down there and flooded it out. So, they've been building drainage ditches so that it doesn't flood out all of the the courses now. So, that's having a little bit of time and the right equipment. We're able to to bring it back up, I guess, to what it maybe it used to be, which we haven't had for quite a while. So, it's good to the other racetrack. Pretty close.

I think that's all. Thank you both of you. Okay, next item that we have is going to require um close session. Um under the Utah Open and Public Meeting Act, uh council will close for specific purposes and in this purpose um is for um closed meeting is for attorney um litigation update and potential litigation. So I would look for a motion from the council to go into a close session along with a 7 minute. So maybe uh go in at 7:15 7:116 to give a u a break there before we start the close session.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we recess this meeting for 7 minutes and then reopen in a close session for the purposes for the purpose purposes that you have stated forthworth. Thank you. Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle to go into a close session uh for uh potential legal um litigation. I will call a roll call vote. Uh Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote? I. Councilman Hamner votes I. Councilman Wardo, how do you vote? I vote I. Um we are in a close session. Thank you. We're done.