County Council - Regular Meeting

WELCOME, EVERYONE. THANK YOU FOR COMING TONIGHT. IT IS 6 O'CLOCK P.M. ON JUNE 2, 2026. WE ARE LOCATED AT THE COUNTY BUILDING ON THE THIRD FLOOR AT THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS. APPRECIATE YOU ALL COMING HERE. AND THIS MEETING IS CALLED TO ORDER. WE'LL HAVE A PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE LED BY COUNCILMAN TY HOFFMAN. WILL YOU ALL PLEASE RISE.

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.

As far as roll call, we have representing the county attorney's office, Nate Harris. Thank you for being here. Councilman Hoffman, Councilman Strumberg, Councilman Hamner, and Councilman Wardle. Councilman Thomas is excused tonight. From the county manager's office, we have our county manager, Andy Welch, and assistant county manager, Brittany Lopez. From the clerk's office, we have Nikki. Thank you for being here, Nikki. And thank each of you for coming tonight. Before we get to public comment, just want to congratulate a new grandma that's in the room. Thank you. It looked very cute. Allison McCoy, if you didn't know, Grandma. So is she going to call you granny or just grandma? Whatever they decide. Whatever they decide. Wonderful. Well, congratulations again. Public comment? Anybody in the audience by a raise of hand that would like to make a public comment? Seeing none, we'll go down to presentation. We have the 2026 Health Department Annual Report. Grant?

Make sure we're all set here. Pass out the hard copies as well. Great. Good evening.

Again, I'm Grant Sonata, the Health Officer and Executive Director of the Health Department in the county. It's a real honor to represent the Health Department Jamie is here, my deputy director, the whole team that put this together and really an effort to represent the variety of work that happens in the health department as well as recognizing so many community partners and really recognize that and the connections that you all help with as well. So I know we're almost halfway through 2026, but you know how that goes with annual reports, right? So if you do have some questions about current things in the current year, feel free to chime in. And if you have questions about any details that I don't know or Jamie doesn't know, we're definitely happy to follow up with you. To just cover a few key points from my message about this year, The overarching theme is doing hard things together, to lean in together as a team and with our partners. And I have four key stages that have really helped us do that as a health department and as with our partners and the community as a whole. Here it says we belong, but a key word that I've been thinking about a lot with this is dignity. That recognizing that all of us as human beings have value. That's a key thing that's fundamental to all of our work as a health department. And it really makes a difference because we, as you all know, are facing complex things and in public health, right, almost every issue has a lot of complexity to it. You read the news right now as far as hantavirus, Ebola, all of these things are complex. No easy solutions, but at the same time, if we can recognize that fundamental dignity that we all have and find our shared values, right, and we might have different approaches, but get to know each other and lean in together, it just makes a huge difference. And then you can see these other stages coming together too. that we can learn together, learn from each other. As we're teaching things to the community, we're also learning from the people that participate in our classes, our courses, things like that. And that really shifts the tone of what we do. We're not just experts telling everybody what to do. But we're also learning along the way. And we're sharing our best knowledge of the science, things like that, and then recognizing, hey, we're always learning too. And that also makes it exciting. I've been calling it childlike curiosity. You get that spark. That's exciting to learn that new idea, new concept. Instead, acting together. I already mentioned that. Doing hard things together. Recognizing what's our role, what's another agency's role. For example, with human services, there's a lot of overlap. There's a lot of collaboration, and we've found ways to integrate as well, some shared funding. Really appreciate Peter Clegg's willingness to collaborate. And then that taps into this innovation stage, because really what we need is creative ideas, right? If we just maintain the status quo, That's all right, I guess, right? But it's not pushing us to that next level. Help people not only live longer, but live better lives and have more opportunities to be economically or as families, things like that. So in short, that's my basic message. And it helps us fulfill our vision on the next page to have healthy and safe communities where everyone can reach their full potential. And we just been really loving that vision. And just, you know, sometimes it's good to have something like, how do you measure that, right? Reach our full potential. Well, we have other metrics that we measure, right? But at the same time, something that's like, oh, pushing us, right? So overall, you know, enhancing the health and wellbeing of Tooele County is our mission. There's a picture of our all staff, our staff during a training day we had. So overall in the annual report, you'll see these basic themes of preventing, promoting health, and protecting health. And a lot of different programs, but I appreciate the chance to give an overview. Our public health authority is delegated from the state of Utah and then overseen by the Board of Health. And I appreciate Eric Stromberg, council member representing the county council here. We have Brittany Skinner from Grantsville City, council member. Sheldon Burch, as you know, is a ERDA city council member but serves on the coalition of governments and he represents coalition of governments on our board. Dr. Wells, retired dentist representing healthcare professionals. Cheryl Demas, she's a veteran and has had some challenges in terms of disability, things like that, and really is a powerful advocate for many people with those types of challenges. Matt Jackson is our board chair. He's recently retired but worked for a school district for many decades and comes from that youth perspective, youth services. Mayor Manzion from Tooele City. Anthony House represents environmental health professionals. He works for the State Department of Environmental Quality but lives in our county. And then Ray Dean Murphy from Wendover. And so really appreciate the variety of perspectives we have on our board. And they're really engaged together and have really great discussions about our policies, our funding, and how we can move forward. So our financial report, in brief, total revenue was $6,885,175. You can see the different types of funding sources we have. Contracts and grants, these are generally federal grants and state grants. And then local funding from our tax levy. And then fees from things, be it inspecting restaurants, to vaccinations, things like that. And then we have a few other sources as well. So you can see almost half being those state and federal contracts, but about a quarter being tax levy and fees each. You can see how this is then distributed across our different divisions. And noting here, you don't see aging services, transportation. This report does primarily focus on the core functions of public health, which in state code is called public health minimum performance standards. And so aging services has a different reporting channel as does transportation and substance abuse prevention. But we do have our dental clinic in here, which is unique to our county. So you can see just that spread of funding. Community Health has a variety of different grants. WIC, Women, Infants, and Children. Emergency Preparedness, appreciate partnerships with county and various other partners there. Our administration office, including administrative assistant and our business manager and her financial assistant. Environmental health, like I said, with restaurants and other air, water, various spills that we have. And then the expenses related to building and county administration that you're familiar with. Every five years we're required to do a community health assessment. We're coming up on starting a new one next year. You probably heard me talk about gearing up for that. Here are some of the key indicators that were highlighted as priorities five years ago now. You can see compared to the state of Utah, obesity, depression, and smoking were among those that were highlighted. And we have those themes around health lifestyle, improving fruit and vegetable consumption, things like that, mental health, suicide prevention as well. And so hopefully you'll see some ways that our activities tap into and try to improve those indicators. And one way we're gearing up right now, too, is the Utah Well-Being Survey, TWILA. Many of our cities are doing that right now. I encourage you and others in the county to participate in that. The deadline is tomorrow, by the way. So it's on our Facebook page. the Health Department's Facebook page. So digging into our different specific activities here, starting with environmental health, a lot of, you're seeing some growth, just slight increases in a lot of these things because, as you know, right, we have new restaurants, different new facilities, new food trucks, and so our staff main goal is just keep that going. Help work with our business owners to say, hey, we want you to succeed, we want you to do this right according to state code, and to help keep people able to enjoy the food and other services in the area. So that includes school inspections, playground inspections, responding to foodborne illness complaints. You can see an increase there. And daycare, large increase, growth there, as well as public pools, a slight decrease on that. We also inspect body art, respond to houses with methamphetamines to test. though there are many other options for meth testing as well. And you can see us distribute more radon kits, something that causes as much lung cancer as smoking. So, as well as things like septic systems for areas that are not in a city sewer. We are also responsible for birth certificates and death certificates. You can see how things are going there. Just again, those slight increases as our county grows. women, infants, and children, helping give mothers and pregnant women and young children that chance to have a healthy start with hopes that they can build those parental skills and other skills that help them really have a strong foundation. That investment there is really difficult to measure how important that is across their lifetime. Some of my research has related to adverse childhood experiences, traumatic experiences, and how if that happens in our youngest years, it does have long-term consequences down the road. So this is one where we are excited to make such a difference. And we have our nurses, dieticians. We also have lactation consultants, so helping with breastfeeding. And we have those related classes that are open to the public as well, not just tied to WIC, which does have an income requirement. We do have aging services here. We've talked about that recently with budget increases back in December. Those congregate meals happening both at senior centers and then the home-delivered meals, the meals on wheels, and having additional drivers being able to do that. It's not just getting the meals to people, but that warm check-in to say, hey, How are they doing? And we had two instances last year where two lives were saved, people who had fallen and would not have been able to call for help otherwise. So you see the number of volunteer hours increasing. Really, the success we have with the senior centers and agent services is really tied to those volunteers. And they've had that theme of one kind act a day. and that's been a real boost to our volunteers as well as our older adults. Prevention services, which is substance abuse prevention outside of tobacco, so including alcohol. You can see the variety of activities there, the Guiding Good Choices, that's a parenting class, increased to 30. We've had A lot of interest in our gun locks, so to help promote gun safety. The Hope Boxes is a suicide prevention effort, so those can be when someone attempts suicide. The family can receive this, and the person can receive a Hope Box to help remind them that, hey, like I said earlier, that's that topic of dignity, that every life matters. to help them know. And it's something we can all do for each other, not just in a time of crisis. Community nursing covers a variety of topics, from flu clinics to providing those vaccines, other types of immunizations. Be Wise is a cancer program for older women that includes cancer screenings. You can see we have a nurse home visiting program, substantial increase there. They have incorporated some mental health assessments in theirs and they've seen a remarkable increase in people completing those assessments and then being able to refer people to needed help. And that's been one of the more substantial programs that we've added in the last year. You can see also sexually transmitted disease testing that continues to happen, as well as other infectious diseases like tuberculosis. And a quick note that tuberculosis managing active TB is a very time and resource intensive process, and we actually have had a couple active cases that our team has been managing. And we really appreciate our nurses that have expertise in that arena because it is very complex and the risk is very high if we do not manage those actively. So our emergency services team, they received Project Public Health Ready recognition over four years and that speaks to the level of training they have, the capacity we've had. We talked about our community growing and we can't just lean on Salt Lake for those emergency services, emergency preparedness, but we have that in-house. We did see Medicaid make some improvements in terms of dental services that are available. So we had those increases happen, so a bit of revenue coming in and those improved services happening in the community.

Yes. The test kits distributed dropped significantly. Any ideas why? It's a 70% increase.

Do you recall that one, Jamie? That's so.

The test kits? Yeah. Mainly because we just didn't have the product.

That's post-COVID? Yeah, I thought so. So as COVID resources tapered off, that's a key part there. Thanks for noting that. Let's see, great question, thank you for that. So health promotion I mentioned earlier covers a lot of different topics. Car seats is a substantial one. To have a child fitted in the right size car seat is really important for that to be safe. I know I had a family member who had the car seat handle up, was trying to help the kid while traveling on a freeway, tragically had an accident. Her head hit that handle and caused traumatic brain injury. She's spent about two years trying to recover from that. And so, not to, you know, I'm not trying to scare people with this, but just say, hey, some simple changes can help make a big difference so that these devices can do what they're supposed to do and keep the kids and everyone safe in the car. You can see that this ranges across the lifespan to healthy aging classes. Naloxone kits to help when there's an overdose so that someone can survive that overdose and then get connected with substance abuse addiction recovery services. We are also responsible for tobacco retailers since that's a state regulated industry. We do compliance checks. That includes working with our youth volunteers who go and then have a deputy from the sheriff's department go along to make sure things go well, and then they try to buy something that should only be sold to someone over 21. And you can see we've had a longstanding track record with our retailers of them not selling to youth. And so that's the continued zeros that you see there. There's one. Yes.

Councilman Wardle has a question.

Grant, these numbers are really good, and I love the dashboard that you've given us for this to be able to look at it. One of the questions I have, though, in looking at health promotion and prevention services is there looks like there's a drop in prevention services, and it looks like it's perceptually it could be because people are not volunteering to attend events or trainings. You know, mental health trainings are up, but when we look at people trained in mental health trainings, they're down. Gun locks distributed. Either we're doing a really good job at the point of sale, or people aren't buying as many guns. I don't know what the anecdotal data or what data says.

So my understanding with the gun locks is that it does depend on how much funding we have to provide those. And that's one where we did see a decrease in what's available to us. And we don't always have something free to provide, but that one is an important one. So when we do have it, we try to just get those to as many people as we can.

So some of this is funding dependent. The prevention services and the promotion, I really commend you on the promotion side. We're seeing increases and in some of these areas, there are five to 10% increases which are really good. I am concerned about the mental health side though. I serve on HSAC and what has been our correlation or can we find a correlation have we seen suicide ideation increase as we've seen less participants attend? And I know that that's going to be hard to correlate. It could be very anecdotal. Do you have any sense of what's going on in those areas?

I invite Jamie to come up if you have anything while she's coming up. We have had some turnover with our substance abuse prevention team, but we've got a solid team now. So they've been going through a lot of trainings themselves, and I'm excited for where they're going. So slight decrease in the number of people trained in these mental health trainings. but now getting really organized and having this role.

So it was more of a fluctuation because of personnel versus? A little bit. Okay. That's all I was looking for.

No, great question though. I will say I was just looking at suicide attempts data and it was 2022 where we had quite the increase tragically that year. And then it did taper off and it's plateaued the last few years. So any number there is more than we want. But I'd like to see at least a decrease from that spike. And then we want to dig into the data more to see if we can find via correlations or at least some things that might be correlated in terms, like you said, ideation, right?

Jamie, I commend you and your employees and grant you and your employees in both these areas. Prevention and promotion have outcomes, and they're very measurable outcomes, and so we appreciate what's going on. I just was looking at if there's correlations.

Well, and I think for the future, it's been great to be able to collaborate with Peter Clake. He's been fantastic to work with our prevention group but also with aging services because there is... a higher increase of older adults who are also attempting suicide. So we're looking forward to seeing how we can continue to work together to see how we can even have more of an impact and do more training so we can get out into the communities. A big part of that is our prevention funding also was very questionable. So when we had people who had to, they ended up leaving for personal reasons, we froze those positions because we weren't sure what the funding was going to be like. And then when we got word that there was as secure as you can get with funding, that we felt more confident that we could hire. So we went for several months, probably about four to six, but we had two prevention specialists not in those positions.

Thank you so much for that explanation.

And just while Jamie's here, I need to give a shout out to her. I consider her the glue that helps keep the health department together. You can see this. We have 70 people employed in our core health department. Then you add on transportation, and she is tapped into each individual as well as those teams and how cohesive they are. And so it's one of the most exciting things I have to do is to work with Jamie in that regard. So thank you, Jamie.

Well, thank you. We have a great team, so it's been fun. fun to move ahead and see where we're going to go in the next couple of years.

Thanks, Jamie. So I'll skip over some of these highlights for the sake of time, but I do appreciate the participants' quotes that are here so that you can take a look at those. And then shifting to just highlighting, like I mentioned, the community health assessment and the community health improvement plan. We mentioned Peter Clegg. He tied some

His ears were burning.

Wow. He announced a request for proposals, some funding that he has available. and ask that organizations that are applying for that funding connect it with the community health assessment findings. And so we appreciate that type of collaboration, too. We also hired a data scientist, a physician we weren't totally sure if we could fund, but we continued that. A portion of that person's time is funded by Peter Clegg's office, actually. So that's, again, I mentioned earlier. not just collaboration, but integration. And so all these things are linked together, right? Mental health, physical health, and on to economic health. These are all linked together, so we really need to work together on these things. I don't have anything too noteworthy to mention on changes in leading causes of death. I'm happy to field any questions that you might have here. Just some, yeah, there isn't a lot to really You see the slight, this is from 2023 to 2024. It does take a while to have current data in terms of the causes of death. We do see that slight increase in terms of intentional self-harm and suicide from those years. And this is the end of the road, right? These are causes of death. Earlier I talked about attempts. And so we're trying to go as upstream as possible we can, but also have those services at every stage So speaking of, kind of midstream is emergency department visits. You can see that we had an increase from 2024 to 2025 in terms of influenza. So these are more severe cases of influenza. Sometimes we say, oh, I just have the flu. We want to recognize that influenza, when someone has, is older. has diabetes, other types of conditions, asthma, for example. We especially want them to vaccinate and people around them. And this is one reason. We want to reduce the number of these complex or more severe cases. COVID-19 is still around. We have more treatments available and the vaccination. You can see the emergency department's visits going down as it really tied to that. And we also have vaccination for some people for respiratory centelial virus, RSV. But that one, that is actually very new, the vaccination and some treatment for that. So we're still wanting that to get rolled out more. Something where the smallest children or infants are at risk. You can see towards the end here, community snapshot in terms of other indicators. We actually have fewer children in poverty compared to the state. You can see the ones on the left is when we're doing better compared to the state. Air pollution is something that's on my radar, even though it says better here, right? Because we're still in the same bowl as Salt Lake Valley. So working with our team to just see what we can do and be proactive with the community on that topic. Things that are Similar to the state, flu vaccinations, alcohol impaired driving deaths, premature death. But then on the right, the number of dentists, for example, the number of women having mammography screenings, as well as sexually transmitted diseases, and then, as you know, the number of primary care physicians. So to have Sacred Circle break ground in Wendover on the Utah side, any of these types of efforts are really Small improvements go a long ways, as you know, in this regard. We appreciate the county's commitment to our county dental program for the time being. We recognize we're going to assess that year to year. Right now, we need it, right? And just want to keep that available for the community while we need it. so that is wraps up the our formal presentation and just want to pause thank you for your support such a variety of things we try to keep our tabs on right i told you before you know calls about bats in an elementary school right and to now be shifting to public information officer who's has dedicated time to that We have health promotion covering so many different grants, and they were also trying to be PIO. So we really appreciate that investment as the county is growing. I think we're ready for it, and it becomes a very exciting thing. We love being able to work together to face these challenges. We don't like the challenges. We wish we didn't have these issues, right? But when we can do it together, it becomes exciting. So thank you for that.

Wonderful. Any other questions or comments from the council or manager's office?

Thank you. So I'll just add, Grant, again, thank you. I mean, I saw this, you know, month or so ago as we went to the Board of Health. And I'll just add to your point, you know, with the PIO and thank the council. Unfortunately, I wasn't here the last time, but when you approved that, I think we have a number of things that are happening within the county. And I think being able to have the dedicated PIO from, you know, that's part of the Department of Health but can know speak to some of the things that we know are coming as well um and be that expert from you know the health side of those conversations so thanks for bringing this to the council and letting them see it all you're welcome

i'll mention one highlight if you will pardon the terminology for 2026 right we've been trying to manage the measles outbreak and part of that is communicating with the public well listening to the public both directions right working with our partners and you know we've given shout outs to our schools right health care partners and really we've been able to keep that relatively under control we're at we've had 19 cases total in the county that we know of so

been trying to been managing that relatively well wonderful well thank you very much you're very welcome and if uh if there's any questions that come up later on council uh please reach out to them and yeah i appreciate it and come on by too we happy to schedule a tour or anything like that he won't give you a shot but you can come by and take it hey i roll up my sleeve too thanks again Okay, that will bring us down to minutes for the April 7th, 2026 and May 19th, 2026 meetings. Is there any corrections or additions to the minutes? If not, Chair, entertain a motion.

Make the motion that we approve the minutes from May 19th and April 7th.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg, is there a second? I'll second that. All those in favor? Say aye. Aye. All those that may oppose, say nay.

Nay. Just kidding. It never happens in our, well, it does happen sometimes in our meetings, but never there. Sorry, just messing with you.

Sounds unanimous with those that are here. That will bring us down to contracts, plans, services, agreement with Johnson Controls. Jason.

Good evening, Council. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. This is a contract with Johnson Controls at the Health Department. It's a three-year contract, renewed every year. The price for the first year is $8,880. And it automatically renews every July 1st. What it is is just a contract with them to come out quarterly, go through equipment, make sure the computer's talking to the equipment, everything's operating correctly, the actuators are opening and closing. So it's just a general preventative maintenance agreement with Johnson Control. We've had it the last six years that I know of. And knock on wood, we've run pretty smoothly at the health department in the last six years. So I think it's a good contract.

And this contract, it renews automatically for how long?

Three years.

Three years.

Yeah. So it will end in 2029, I believe. Wonderful.

Is there any questions or comments on the contract? If not, chair, entertain a motion. So moved. Hear a motion from Councilman Hoffman. Is there a second?

Second.

Hear a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All those who may oppose say nay. It's worth noting on public record that Councilman Thomas is present now. Thank you. That will bring us down to Resolution 2026-14, amending and increasing the 2026 Tooele County budget. Our auditor, Alice McCoy.

All right, Council. We just have one budget adjustment for you tonight. This is from our Human Services Group. This will be to adjust the budget by $8,500 for a property that we have over here on Vine Street. They do have additional revenue that's come in for the year to cover this, but we do need to replace some furnaces over there. So any questions or anything on this one?

Any questions or comment? Okay. Chair, may I entertain a motion to open up public hearing? So moved. Second. I'm sorry, who's seconded it? Hoffman? Hoffman. Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg, second from Councilman Hoffman to open up public hearing. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. Public hearing is now open. Is there anyone in the audience by a raise of hand that would like to speak to resolution 2026-14, amending increasing the 2026 county budget? Seeing none, chair to entertain a motion to close public hearing.

So moved.

Hear a motion from Councilman Stromberg to close public hearing. Is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Wardle. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All those may oppose, say nay. Public hearing is now closed. If there's any additional information, we'll hear it now. If not, chair, entertain a motion for Resolution 2026-14. Salute. Salute. Move for approval. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman for Resolution 2026-14. Is there a second? Second. Second from Councilman Strumberg. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those may oppose, say nay. That is adopted. That will bring us down to action items. Approval of the 2026 tax sale parcels. Allison.

All right, Council, we have completed the property tax cell for this year. And this tax cell was our largest tax cell and a very interesting tax cell. I'll kind of run through the numbers with you, and you'll see why when we get to the end of it. So this year, we started the year with 69 parcels, if you remember when I came to you a couple of weeks ago. We had 33 of those parcels were paid, 14 of those parcels were sold, nine of those parcels were deferred, 11 of those parcels were pulled for things that we needed to correct as a county, whether they were inactive parcels that had just continued on or things that we needed to correct as a county. And two of those parcels were pulled for other reasons. So for example, we had one individual who filed bankruptcy and things like that. So either so 68% of our parcels were either paid or sold. Interestingly enough, that only amounts to 5% of our delinquent balance as far as what's paid or sold. The deferral balance ends up being the 93 93% of that and that equates to that US magnesium state of Utah deferrals. But when I say it's the largest tax cell, it has nothing to do with our delinquent balance. We had one parcel this year that sold for over $3 million and we've never had that happen before. So this year we'll return over $4.3 million to taxpayers. who own these properties. And I always want to make that very clear that it's never fun for us to sell these parcels. We don't take pride in it. It's not something that we want to do. We never want to be in this position. But one thing that selling these parcels online has allowed us to do is it opens the pool to a wider variety of bidders, which makes a little bit more competition. which then allows the property owners who are in distress to recoup some of their funds. The parcel that I'm talking about is a parcel that's near the new Burt Brothers Motor Campus. It had a rail line on it, and it will actually go to the Romney Group, which is a very valuable piece of property to them. We did end up selling home on the tax cell list, which is again not something that we generally like to, well we never like to do, but again that property owner will be receiving any of the other excess proceeds. We do go to great lengths to make sure that the property owners are notified. We ran the notice in the paper six times. We're only actually required to run it four times, but we do like to go to that extra effort. You'll recall that we came before you, which is not necessarily a requirement, but it is an extra effort that we do like to make. We also sent out notices by first class mail and by certified mail as well. And then the list stays up on our website the entire time. So we try to do everything that we can to get the word out there. but we always have every year people who say that they didn't get noticed. And so I do want to make sure that the public knows that it is their responsibility to make sure that we have the right address on file for them. So any time you move or change the way that you want us to contact us, You'll want, there's a form on the county recorder's website where you can change your address or your contact information. And that's so important that you make sure that you keep that current. But with that, is there any questions or anything that you'd like to go over as far as the tax sale goes?

I have a couple, but Council, if you don't mind if I start out with the ones that said not sold.

Oh, thank you. I missed that part. So we did have two parcels that were struck to the county, and that's the technical term. So struck, struck, struck to the county, which just means those two parcels weren't bid on one of the parcels. This is an extremely small parcel. Actually, the back taxes on it were only about $69 before we started to sell it. More than likely, we'll probably end up working with the owner of the property that's adjacent to it because they're actually already kind of using that property anyway. The second parcel is a property that's near the Army Depot. It's acting more as an easement right now, so that one will probably be beneficial to the Army Depot to take over. There's two different ways. So we'll be coming before you to declare those property surplus parcels, probably in the next, I would think, coming weeks or meetings or whatever. The smaller parcel, because it's a less than significant parcel, again, that's a technical term that we use in our code, will have the ability to use the assessed value of the property to sell that to adjoining property owners. The property that's over by the Army Depot will require some appraisals so that we can make sure that we have the right value on it before we either work with property owners or put it back up for auction.

So they won't go on public surplus anymore?

We probably would use public surplus for that larger piece. For that smaller piece, it wouldn't be worth it to do that.

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Chair, entertain a motion.

So moved. Second.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Thomas, a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All those that may oppose, say nay. That was adopted. Thank you for your thoroughness on it, your office and their hard work and your attention to detail on that. And you're right, it's not fun to take somebody's property and sell it. It's heartbreaking. But also it's not fair to our citizens to pay a higher tax because somebody's not doing it.

And I'm sorry, I do want to thank my staff and the other tax rule group offices. This is a collaborative effort. It takes all four of the tax rule offices, the recorder's office, the treasurer's office, the assessor's office, and my office to make sure that we look through this list. And so I really do want to thank everybody that worked on this. It really is a collaborative effort.

Thank you. I have one other question, Allison.

we have to send some kind of report to the state that says hey we had this many properties that went out for a public sale or is there any measurable that is outside of tula county no okay any of the any of the anytime we can't get a hold of an owner we do send their proceeds to the state as unclaimed property but if we can get in touch with the owner we can cut that check directly to them or we do cut that check directly to them but otherwise any proceeds go to unclaimed property okay

Thank you. Okay, that will come down to review the approval of the 2026 tourism grant recommendations. Tyler's here and Chris McCormick's here. Is there, let's take those one at a time. I know that there was a presentation last meeting. Was there any additions that you want to do or can we just start going through it? Okay. If you're okay with that, council, taking them one at a time. So the first one is the first one on my list is the 12.

Hey, Mr. Chairman. I heard them all last night, two weeks ago. I'm okay making the motionless payment. Unless somebody wants to scrub them down a little more. I didn't hear any objections much last week.

There's two that we're going to have a discussion on in the UMC, Rush Valley town. and one with the Ophir Township that's down here. But if you want to...

Okay, let's focus on those instead of going through them all then. I mean, if we're in agreement on that.

Council, are you okay with that? So, Kendall, are you suggesting that we do two different votes then? We take all of them at once that... Don't include UMC, Ophir, and Rush Valley. Approve those now, and then drill down on the others.

I would like to include the Wendover Airport, too.

OK. For discussion?

For discussion? OK, so I have four for discussion.

What? Yeah, are you asking for Wendover Airport or Jim's? Jim's. Okay, so it's the last one. The applicant request.

Historical Windover Airfield? Is that the one you're talking about? Okay. Okay, so let's just go through the Tuila Pioneer Museum, NASA Utah Regional, Tuila Downtown Alliance, Tuila Bitten Spur. Mr. Chairman, can I just make a motion? You can cut me off and make a motion. I'll stop.

Mr. Motion. I make a motion that we adopt the Twilla Tax Tourism Tax Advisory Board's recommendation in the first round of voting by including all but UMC Opco LLC, Rush Valley Town, Historic Windower Airfield, and the Twilla County School District's Ofer Town site, and we approve them as recommended.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Wardle, is there a second to this? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Thomas, and we'll do a roll call vote. Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Thomas, how do you vote? Yes. Councilman Stromberg, how do you vote?

Can I ask a question on this so I know how I want to vote? OK. What's the difference with the NASA versus UMC? I mean, it's the same, just under a different name.

That's true. That's a race that they have at UMC.

Well, I think we can discuss UMC. But NASA, we're approving. We've approved that the last three years. It's been an effective one in our county. But he's asking what the difference is between the two. NASA is an event. UMC is the holding.

Councilman Hammons, aye. Councilman Wardle. Aye. Okay. That is any opposed? Hearing none, then that is adopted. So we'll take these as discussed here. We'll come down to UMC. We'll see. It looks like they asked for 200. The TRT board recommended 100,000. that is just newly sold and newly acquired by a new ownership. Those are the things that came out. Is there any comments or questions to those or do you want me to keep going?

I have questions.

Okay, Councilman Wardle.

And Chris and Kyler, you may be able to answer this for me. Did they include metrics for success in their proposal and how many events will they be holding next year?

But they gave us a list of some of the things that they would be pursuing in terms of advertising and that type of thing.

We've got to have you speak into the microphones, unlike Councilman Hoffman.

Sorry about that. So they didn't give us any metrics that I recall, but there were a list.

This doesn't have it, does it?

No. So they sent another. We had to reach out to them personally and try to get more information from them. Who was it that reached out to them?

I believe it was – I can't remember her name. I can picture her name.

Okay. So one of our team members reached out to them, and basically they had a big list of metrics, but that was on their computer, not ours. So sorry I don't have that information.

Okay. You're asking them, but I'm just saying I didn't see any metrics And then when they talked about the deaf and events that it was we hope to gather these I think all this is post-performance, right?

Yes, and I think that as part of whatever motion we make and I don't think I'm going to make it But I think it would be wise for us to put in that we look at post-performance metrics the number of individuals reached and Absolutely. Ticket sales, because right now I don't think we have a lot of understanding of where they're headed. But I also feel that this is new ownership. We have not been partners with this track for three years for political reasons and geopolitical reasons. And I think that they need to get back on their feet. So... But I would like to see metrics of households reached, households reached outside of our county, what ticket sales may look like.

Wow, it's like... Mood lighting.

Something's going on.

So I think we felt the same way. I think the idea was this is a new company. We did some research on the company, and they're pretty solid. I mean, they make race cars. They make racing bikes. They have health food bars. They're in that space pretty strong. So we felt that it was a good opportunity to show some support and see what they do.

We can do some research and see who actually has all that data that was sent over to us. Was that Holly? Yeah, I think it was Holly. I think it was Holly. Then we can send that over to you if you guys need a little more time to kind of look at some more data or whatever. But what they had laid out was very, very well written.

The data I would be looking for, I'm just gonna throw out the data I would like, okay? I don't know what the rest of the council. How many events are currently on contract? How do we see the metrics for advertising success and what will they look like projected versus actuals? And I think that I would also like to see at the end of the season how many

participants ticket holders came from outside our county versus inside yeah absolutely okay i think that's the big thing those are the three three metrics i would like to see yeah and i know that that's something that we really want to work with with a lot of the events returning events that don't have that in place that we want to reach out to them and see what we can do to help them with their with their tracking

I guess the question, and I think we need to look at it, right? You were talking, Councilman Ward, about the tickets from out of the county. I guess the question I have is just because I bought a ticket, I live in Salt Lake, I drive around the point of the mountain, I go to the event and I go back, other than that event, are they really spending any money?

Well, that's one of the things that in the materials that Brittany's office sent over was that's one of the things that we're trying to track with these grants is that not only are they coming here, but are they staying the night? Are they going to restaurants? So one of the big metrics in there was partnerships. Are you having partnerships with restaurants, with hotels, with other services in the community that support tourism? Yeah.

And I think this is one that I think we've asked, and even when we had some conversations directly with UMC around this, we've asked that, like, show me the hotels, because they're saying partnerships. And I've always had, when you go to an event, they usually provide a code that you can then call those hotels So to me, that's something that the hotels ought to be able to come back and say, here's how many rooms were booked under that. There's other ways, but I think that's some of the things that we've asked for that have always been missing. They're saying, well, we partnered with them, but they can't turn around and tell us that that's how many rooms that was. And hotels, we can't really do that necessarily with restaurants. That's the partnership. I think there could be more done for hotels and stays.

I think you're spot on. When we look at this, we haven't dealt with UMC for three years particularly because of the geopolitical issues. One thing that I am concerned about, I'm gonna state this across the board, when they hold an event, it must say not just explore Tooele County, that may say sponsored by Twilla County. Sponsored by. Sponsored by. It's the citizens who sponsor this. It's the citizens who spend the money at the restaurants by and large. It's the citizens by and large who buy a lot of tickets. Does that make sense? We know we have people coming from outside, and it's very important to us, but it's the citizens. And so we need to have that on everything. And I noticed it on Bitten Spur. I want you to know, I look at all those things, and we were right at the top, and I loved every minute of that.

Well, I think one of the things that we addressed at the last meeting, too, was having an orientation beforehand or a training or something like that to get better applicants, to get better acquainted with the process so they know what their metrics need to be. and what the partnerships need to be. That would really help across the board. At least that's what our committee did.

It'd be easier for them to know what they're up against going into this. Rather than just applying for a grant, we give them the money, then they're like, well, You know, how do I come up with all these numbers? You know, what are you really looking for?

Yeah, completely agree. And I think part of bringing this up is just, you know, so we are making them aware. It is post-performance, but what are we looking for to say that might, you know, so I think it is, we can do more, you know, next year as they're applying, but I think now as we award it, we can say, here's what we're looking for so they can work on being able to provide that. And I think here's the thing, and not to get us two-sided track, but You know, we hear about these events and the number of people. Well, I look at what, you know, we just had, you know, 10, 11,000 people at, you know, the peak for the Lantern Fest, and it had an impact. There have been sharing those same kind of numbers, but we're not seeing the impact, so I think that's where there's been this question. But I think we're, at least I am, I'm in full support of seeing what the new ownership can do. I just want them to know what we're looking for. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah.

Any other questions or comments? Let me just start out then. I'm not comfortable giving $100,000 just because they didn't have metrics or the contract there. I'm happy to do half of that if you guys feel to work with this new company and see what their partnership is with them.

That's where I'm at as well. I'm not comfortable with $100,000, but I'm comfortable with $50,000.

So I'll make a motion for $50,000 to UMC. Just make it with conditional that they meet. they meet the criteria stipulations and metrics that wardle pointed out absolutely and it's on post performance how many came from out of uh who's their partnership hopefully it's the hotels and restaurants within tula county not hopefully it has to be that we have uh tula county on their um literature and on their banners that they put out all right i would love to get a list of events as soon as possible though

I think we need that sent over immediately.

So that's a motion. Is there a second? And there's a second from Councilman Hoffman. Is there any further discussions on that? Call for vote?

I'm going to discuss if that's okay. I'm okay going to $75,000 on this. I think we need to show faith in this group. I believe that the economic development plans that have that were supposed to take place under the former Chinese ownership of the racetrack appear to be on track for future development now. We've had meetings with them. I would prefer to go a little bit higher for that reason.

We'll do a roll call vote.

Mr. Chairman, and I agree with the presentation that you made earlier, their paperwork, everything aligned. They missed a couple, an I and a cross and a T. I would go 75. Okay. I think they'll get there.

There's a motion on the table for 50,000 with a second. Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote?

Aye.

Councilman Thomas, how do you vote?

So would I vote no?

It's up to you.

So it's going to be for 50 or 75? 50. The motion is no.

Councilman Stromberg, how do you vote? No. Councilman Hamner votes aye. Councilman Wardle, how do you vote?

No. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I make a motion that we reconsider the following This applicant at an amount of $75,000.

Hearing a motion with stipulations that were previously...

The stipulations that were previously put in with the understanding that we will be looking at the... We want a metrics plan before and after. We want to be able to see people outside the county, their targets for success, how they're defining it so we understand that, and then also that we immediately, within days, and I'm saying days, receive a schedule of events. Okay.

Councilman Wardle, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Hamner votes nay. Councilman Stromberg? Aye. Councilman Thomas? Aye. Councilman Hoffman?

Nay.

Okay. That will reflect a 3-2 vote. That will come down to Rush Valley Town, and we'll kind of take that together with the O for, because there is some question of what makes those differentiate between the two. Any discussion on that, or shall we? Lead out. Lead out. Okay. So I know that the proposal to deny, the way I understand it was Ophir Town is because they didn't have an ADA or because it was brick and mortar that they were paying for, that they had applied for. Is that correct?

Yeah. So on the Ophir, it was more of a... A building that's not being accessed right now. It's not even being utilized. It's locked up. There's no set schedule to go in or do anything. It's just kind of a building sitting there. Okay. They were just looking for some repairs, some upkeep.

So what was the difference between the Rush Valley Church then? That's brick and mortar also.

So they have regular open hours, business hours, so to speak. Okay. so that people can come in, see the church, that type of thing. Whereas in Ophir, there are no set hours. There's nobody there to man it. So even though it's classified as a museum, it's a closed museum, I mean, for all intents and purposes. If you go out there to visit, you can't get in.

So just so I'm clear, there's no business plan on Ophir. There's no plan for a business plan on Ophir. They're looking for O and M so the building doesn't fall apart. Is that a pretty good summary?

Yeah. Yeah, it is more of it in the maintenance upkeep.

Okay. That's disappointing because the records show that Ophir was the second most visited site other than the salt flats. That's right. And we've allowed that. Well, we didn't allow it. It was the disincorporation and all the assets went to school districts.

And they feel like their hands are tied. We met with them last week, as a matter of fact, and they just feel like their hands are tied and they don't have the funds to operate. They don't have the funds to put anything into the property. They have a building out there that's getting mold in it. So it's a challenge. It's a great asset, in my opinion, but it's underutilized.

So the council is clear. They said that they... The funding, they felt like they could not do it because of state code. We encourage them to find out if that is actually correct and get a legal opinion on that.

Hey, Mr. Chairman. I'm not sure if I've seen Scott. Are you still here? Scott here? You know, Scott has some real insight to that. Would it be appropriate to have him share a thought or two on that?

Is the council want to hear?

If the councilman's requesting it, he has the right to do that. OK.

Scott, do you feel comfortable coming up and addressing kind of a little history? Scott grew up there, and he's well-rooted there, even though he's got roots here in Toulon.

My name is Scott Degelbeck, council. Thank you for allowing me a couple of minutes. I'll only speak to the Ophir side and not the Rush Valley side. Yeah, I was on the Ophir Town Council when it was disincorporated, and at that time we had a Ophir Historic Committee as well. We maintained the Ophir Historic District on a volunteer basis. We had a group of people that took weekends showing the sites and scheduled appointments. But when we were disincorporated, the funds that was in that, not only in the council, which was substantial, but also the funds of the historic district had accumulated, which, don't quote me on this, I think was over five, $6,000, all went to the Tolla County School District. Now, they did show those sites until they hired people to show the sites until the money run out, and then they quit showing the sites. So to me, what I'm just saying to you, I don't think the school district showed the responsibility. They want to do it anyway. And I'm not satisfied that if you gave them the money, it would be used for the historic district. I'm more inclined to think they would divert it to the park. So from my perspective as a taxpayer, if I had any say, I would not honor the request. Thank you.

Pretty clear enough. Any other questions or comments? I'm going to make a comment.

You know, just because a school district doesn't want to operate the building doesn't mean they shouldn't operate the building. And that there is a statutory obligation to take care of your assets. And I've been in government long enough to know even during the downturn of 08 through 010, you can always find money if it's a priority. And I would suggest to the school district, and I'm saying this online, and I would be glad to sit down with any of their board members to help them find money to fund one of the most important parts of the community. They continue to put off the responsibilities on the Education Foundation or to other entities. This is their building. It needs to be taken care of by them.

So just to let you know, I When I put a plan together for Tooele, sorry, for Ophir, I included a whole section on different funding sources that were available for them. And when I met with them, I gave them a whole booklet on it, the whole plan. So hopefully they'll take it to heart. My impression of that meeting was they weren't overly excited about doing a lot with Ofer. That was my impression. I could be wrong, but that's how I felt after meeting that meeting.

And I was in that same meeting. We have to remember tax dollars, education tax dollars goes to education, not maintaining a historical park. A historical park... should be operated by the county. My humble opinion, and when I say that, it is the number two visited, most visited tourism place where people come to see. That belongs to the tourism, not to education. That being said, now there is some money, but their focus, their mission is to educate kids, not maintain historical sites.

So I'm going to agree with you to an extent. but they have a statutory obligation because of state law to take care of these buildings. When a town disincorporates, they become the functioning government for that area. However, they've never reached out to us to have a discussion about an MOU. They've never reached out to us to have a discussion about a plan. That is incumbent upon the government. When we sit down and we talk about whether it's a nuclear lifecycle campus, whether it's about transportation, whether it's about health, we have discussions. But they must be led by the entity in charge. They're in charge. And whether or not it has an education focus, they have a statutory obligation to take care of it. That's what this law says. If not, let's work with the legislature to get the law changed. And I think, and I agree, Scott, is,

That is the one big attraction to come to Tooele County. And it's a real precious item. Now, how do we get the law changed? How do we make it work? We should do that. We have an opportunity to do that. And Chris, in your presentation, it was wonderful.

Thank you.

They were open to it. But that's a discussion we need to have moving forward is how do we preserve that as we've talked about the Clover Church. We've talked about Ophir. And Ophir is definitely one. So it's a good discussion moving forward. We're at where we are at. Let's move forward and see how we can preserve that place.

Well, I think it's a tremendous asset and something we need to pursue somehow.

Yeah, let's move forward in that with a good focus.

Okay. We'll leave it on the denial part and move forward. Let's talk about Rush Valley Town. We're talking about the red, I guess we call it the red church.

Yes.

That's out there. And I know, let me just start off that, have you gotten on the historical list yet? Yes. Okay, wonderful. I'm asking John Clough that he's worked on that. They're asking for $60,000. The board approved $50,000. I want to go out on a limb, maybe if you guys are approval of this, this is going to keep coming up. Why don't we... Just make a motion to, I think, $250,000. Why don't we fund half of it over a 10-year period as they continue to do their fundraisers and matching funds for the church?

Can I start to say that again?

Fund half of the $250,000. That's $125,000. over a 10-year period as they're going to continue to do their fundraising and matching funds to meet that criteria, the other $125,000.

So that we bind future councils for the next, whatever they've received already, plus this, we bind future councils for the next little while, is what I'm hearing, up to $125,000, and then whatever repairs or anything needs to be above that, then money needs to be raised for that.

Correct.

John, how does that fit into your building plan?

I thought you was pretty well close. Well, it doesn't really because right now we're about a month away from opening up. We have meetings that are going on in there. We have the Daughters of Utah Pioneers are willing to take it on and run the museum.

So you have all the funding?

What?

You have all the funding?

we have the funding to open it up but the problem is the masonry problem of it is it's old and it's old brick and it needs repairs on it and that's why we put in this grant is to repair the brickwork on the on it we'll take care of the rest of it as far as we've already a lot of money and a lot of hours. We right now have, we put in about $150,000 of contract support on it for $60,000. That's how much they charge and that $150,000 is how much work they did. We put in over 4,000 hours of donated labor on it. We have had two major fundraisings, which we've made close to 15,000 on each one of them. And then we've had the grant that you gave us to get us going to begin with, to change the front of it, to take the roll-up door out and put it in for 35,000. Now what we're just trying to do is if we can get the money to preserve the brick on the outside of it. There's some loose brick. There's some places that the brick has worn from water damage. And we've had a contractor in to give us a bid on... on repairing all of the brick on the outside. And that's all we're asking for right now is the $50,000 or $60,000. I put in $50,000 or $60,000 because we hadn't got the bid in yet. And we still don't have it. He's been out there and he's surveyed the whole thing. And I've told him that it's probably going to be Our grant's going to be somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000. He said, well, even if I can't do it for that amount, we'll do it for that amount and then donate the rest of the labor. So I think right now all we're asking for is money for the brick repair. that's and that's all you're going to ask for to have this open and function then yes okay so you won't come back to it okay well we'll come back like all museums do and come back for operating funds like museums need to have but i'm sure that will just be the normal operation and maintenance funds every year and that's up to rush valley town to do that but right now if we can get the 50 or 60 000 whichever you guys decide on We can take care of repairing the brick. We're planning on having a grand opening, a ribbon cutting sometime in June. July. Oh, I'm sorry, in July. And then we'll be keeping running.

So I'm just clarifying because I think one of the long-term concerns is continued funds for repair. Okay. And that some of the numbers that have been thrown around to us by different people in Rush Valley, is that, yeah, the brick needs to be repaired, but it could be up to $250,000 to get this to where it needs to be. And I think the council... I don't know who came up with that number.

That was the number that was given to us when you first came. It said $250,000.

Oh, yeah, that's when we first started the job. Okay. We have probably spent...

Okay, so that was over the time.

Okay, then never mind. My concerns are taken care of. And we've done all of it with your 35,000, all the rest of it. We've done it all except this brick repair.

I thought we were still looking at another infusion of about $100,000 over the next while.

That's my thought.

And that was the discussion that had come to us.

That made sense. I liked your plan, but I can't honestly say we've got to have that money. It would be nice to have it over the years, but if we need to come back for more money, then we'll come back and talk to the council at the time we want that. In the meantime, we're going to have fundraisers and donations and everything that we possibly can

to to make that work okay okay okay uh then i i would make the motion for fifty thousand dollars second good news what did you say and we're good for capital projects here in a motion is second from what's that we're good to do it for capital projects that's the way i understand that's what the board looked at brenny's

I thought that was in violation of the code or whatever. Is it or not?

We may have to have Nate review some of that, but just speaking to your mic.

You got to turn on your mic.

In violation of the code, we can't approve it, but we won't.

Tywin, we put out the tourism applications. It was advertised that historical was for historical improvements for ADA accessibility and or new displays that provided new displays to the facility that capital improvements to buildings would not qualify. So I'm looking to see where I got that one. I researched the code before we put it out there. However.

That may have been a policy by the.

But it's.

All right.

Will this include ADA?

It already is ADA.

You're not improving that. You're not improving that. Well, then, I don't want to break the law. Then maybe we table it. But Nathan, if you give us a quick yea or nay. He's looking.

You can get to the next one if you need to.

Can we move to the next one? I think this capital improvement idea is if someone wants to go and build something new. And we're not doing that. We're doing repairs to an existing structure. That's considered capital improvement. Well, that's your point.

Okay, I know that there's a motion and a second. If you're okay, council, to hold off on that so we can go to the next one, have a discussion. One of the problems I face. Hold on, just a minute.

Mr. Chairman, I make a motion we table the motion until we finish with the next item.

Okay. Hearing a motion on the table from Councilman Wardle, is there a second? Second. Hearing a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor, table this until we are completed with the historic Windover Airfield. Say aye. Aye. All those may oppose.

We've got to get a legal opinion. He's looking at it.

Okay. That is stable. Thank you, John. Historical wind over airfield. Sorry, I'm tying up my words here. Councilman Hoffman, I'll let you start off on that.

Well, I like this project. I think we ought to fund it fully. I like the historical projects as long as we can do them. And I know... Some people are concerned about this and Jim's behavior lately, and potentially stepping out of his lane. But I think that's separate from this issue, so I think we have a full answer.

Why wasn't it? Tyler and Chris, on this, the $24,475, the board approved $15,000. Can you just give us a little history of what the discussions were and why you lowered it to $15,000?

Yeah, so this was, let me find this real quick.

Was his application good?

So this was the one that we recommended the funding of 15,000, correct?

Correct.

Okay. So this is the one that Chris had reached out to and had spoken with him.

Is that at the airfield or is that at the city?

That was the city. I reached out to the city.

Oh, is that the city? Yes, the $24,745.40.

The historical Wendover airfield.

Yeah, that's not the city. That's separate.

So I'm looking at the project description here. So there's a City of Wendover one. This one is James Peterson's application. The use of funds was to promote the airfield and events on electronic billboards, magazines, TikTok, PBS, radio, and through influencers. The notes say they will be tracking traffic via square admissions and tour accounts. Recommended amount was $15,000. They requested $24,475. Okay.

So, yeah, on this one, if I'm not mistaken, so going back through their application, they had received some additional funding as well for this year from the American 250. So they did have some additional funding going along with their projects as well. As we looked into this, we just kind of felt, you know, 15 would be a good thing.

A good number for them.

Yeah.

This is use of funds would be promote the airfield at events, electrical billboards, magazines, TikTok, TV, PBS, radio, and other influencers.

Yeah, they had a really, I mean, their data they sent over was just phenomenal. As far as their records.

I think that's what I heard the board say, that they were over explanatory on everything. Jim was, it was the city that had some questions. That's right. That was different.

But they're also getting additional funding from 250 funding.

You know, with that, I get there's that additional funding, but all of this is post-performance, right? So, if we funded it fully, I mean, they're still going to do the advertising, and maybe that additional funding allows for something else. Yeah, I think that's, you know, I think one thing to keep in mind, right? And if they really only spend $15,000 because they got something else, we only have to give them the $15,000. But I would lean towards approving the full amount, given they're going to have to come back and show that they've spent it.

Yeah, sure. We're good with that. You want to make that motion?

I'll make the motion that we approve the $24,475 for the historic Wendover Airfield.

Hearing a motion from Councilman Stromberg, is there a second?

Friendly question. Would you amend your motion to include that they adhere to all leasing requirements of all the buildings that are Tooele counties? What was that, Scott? We've had problems with Jim trying to lease some of our properties to other people. And that is a concern of mine. I know that they're all historical buildings. However, the historic Wendover Airfield has a particular mission as a 501 . And recently, we've had some issues as they have stepped out of that bounds into some of the airport hangars that have been owned by Tooele County. And it doesn't appear that that issue is being solved very well, not on our front, but on Jim's front. And I am concerned that when we offer them more money, that Jim continues to put this and puts our airport personnel having to continue to spend time and money on non-critical issues that become critical therefore stepping out of his lane i'm wondering if you're familiar if you'd be okay with stipulating that they adhere to all county policies on leasing shouldn't he be doing it he shouldn't be doing it but he's doing it

guess my question would be is that something we can we can easily track to then come back and say this is where you're in violation with the agreement with the county so you don't get the funds well i think that we've had the same concerns with wendover city

is Wendover City wants the funds, but they don't like how we, what the legal side of the administration is.

Yeah, they don't like the rules.

And there's rules here.

I guess here's the thing, to separate them, I think what we've seen from Wendover and the conversations I've even had with them, they're not using the money to advertise as it's supposed to be done. I guess I look at this as, in this case, Jim Kidd advertises he's supposed to be using it, so he used the money as it's intended, but we're not happy with some other aspect of it.

Yeah, you're trying to use this as a stick to get him under control.

Yeah, I am. I'm not going to lie. Absolutely. I think we have to be transparent on this. And if it's not a good move, I understand that. But I think as a council, we have a policy direction that needs to take place in this matter. And that our staff is spending time on matters of significance in dealing with leases that the historic Wendover Airfield 501c3 is stepping into and severely muddying the water.

I don't think anybody's arguing that.

No, I'm not arguing that.

Is this the process with TRT funding to try to use as a stick to try to get them under control?

Well, as a council, we only have two sticks. We have policymaking and funding. We don't have administrative oversight. We don't have the ability to walk in and dictate how Andy does his job or employees do their job. We have funding, and we have policymaking. This is funding.

That's my point. It's true. And I think you're stepping in a gray area, though. Now you're using tourism. I'm not stepping in gray areas all the time. Let me finish, Scott. You're taking tourism funding now and you're using that as overhead to bop them on the head. It wouldn't be any different from a doctor says you're not eating the way I want you to, I won't see you anymore.

Well, Mr. Chairman, didn't we do that with UMC? They had to show us politically we made a move. We wouldn't fund their events if they were owned by the CCP because they had to obey the rules. And we denied them funding for three years. The principle is the same.

Mr. Chairman, we have a motion on the floor.

There is a motion for 24,475 from Councilman Stromberg. Is there a second?

Are you putting in his stipulation on the motion?

To that point, I don't know that it is something that we can track to know. So I would, I understand the point and the reasoning behind it, but I don't, I would not accept that addition.

Thank you for considering it. I think it's an important discussion that we need to have, that must be had, and must be transparent in.

Yeah. Motion's on the table. Is there a second?

Second.

Hearing a second from Councilman Hoffman, we'll do a roll call. Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote?

Aye.

Councilman Thomas, how do you vote?

Clarification on the motion. The motion on the floor is to go with the grant that was recommended.

It's for $24,475.

To increase what was recommended.

No. Councilman Stromberg, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Hamner votes aye. Councilman Wardle, how do you vote?

I vote no.

Okay, that's three to two. That will bring us back up to the Rush Valley. Nate.

I almost bent this thing and broke it, and I don't want to ruin the new equipment, so I'm sorry. So, in Title 17, Section 78, it says, purposes of transient room tax and expenditure of revenue. So under that, it says a county legislative body may expend revenue generated by the transient room tax imposed under this section only. And B, it says to pay for tourism related facilities in the county, including maintaining museums. And so I think you are okay to allocate those funds.

Wonderful. Okay, then I'll make the motion that we funded, recommended $50,000. Rester Valley Town for the church. I'll second it. Hearing a second from Councilman Wardle. We'll take a roll call vote. Sounds like we need to do that on our own. Councilman Wardle, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Hamner votes aye. Councilman Strongberg? Aye. Councilman Thomas, how do you vote?

Aye.

Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote? Aye. Okay. That is adopted. I think that is done with me. Is there any other that I've missed? Thank you for all the work done on this. Yes, thank you.

Mr. Chairman, if I can be excused, I've got .

Yes. The council needs to excuse Councilman Wardle. OK, that will come down to the review and approval of the 2026 tourism grant recommendations. Chris McCormick and .

It's me too.

Oh, I'm sorry. We just did that. We're down here to request for the co-op grant, Brittany Lopez and Chris McCormick. I apologize. I was trying to bring you back up and talk about these all over again.

You guys love each other. Just joking. Good afternoon, Council. Brittany Lopez from the County Manager Office. And Chris is my partner in crime when it comes to tourism. Actually, I just am his partner in crime. But what we are here for today is to ask you for permission for us to go ahead and apply for the 2027 tourism co-op grant. I want to give a little bit of history on why this grant is important to us and even more important now that we have Chris to help with some of the execution of what we can get out of this grant. So first off, let me start by saying what we are asking for is to move into the 2027 grant cycle. We're asking for the county to supply us a matching required grant of $215,000. What this is, is it's a dollar for dollar grant with the Utah Office of Tourism that we've actually received over the past, since I've worked here, we've utilized this grant. So I can give you some information on what I know about it. So this would be in total, if we received the grant, then we would have $430,000 to be able to invest into tourism, type things throughout 2027. But let me take a step back and tell you where we've been. So in 2022, we got the grant and that's how we created our Explore Tooele website. In 2023, we got the grant and that's when we went to Honey Communications and we got our tourism master plan. and tourism rebranding. 2024, we partnered with redirect and we were able to do our digital marketing campaign. If you guys remember those fun videos and types of be real that we received from that. 2025, we did a need for speeds study that kind of helped us know how to enhance the speed that we have within our community. And Chris is actually utilizing that study right now and some of his plans that he's bringing forward. 2026, WE ACTUALLY ARE MEETING WITH KH MADDEN TOMORROW TO DO OUR KICKOFF FOR OUR NEXT DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN. AND WE'RE HOPING THAT THEY'LL, WE'RE WORKING WITH THEM, THEY'LL TAKE OUR ORIGINAL PLAN, THEY'LL TAKE THE NEED FOR SPEED PLAN, AND THEN WE HAVE A WHOLE PLETHER OF THINGS THAT WE'RE GOING TO HAVE THEM WORK FOR ON A DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN FOR US. WITH THAT CONTRACT THAT WE JUST SIGNED WITH THEM, AND IF WE CAN APPLY FOR THE 2027 GRANT AND WE GET THE FULL AMOUNT, We plan to extend their contract so we can stay with the same branding and have a little bit more leverage. I think we could have been a little bit farther had we had Chris and had someone keep moving this along to now build up on what we want to call recreation revved up 2.0. So tonight, Chris and I are just here to tell you that we're actually really excited about this. It's a good grant to get. The Office of Tourism has actually complimented on how well we've done with our execution. And they've encouraged us to apply again.

Okay. Did you want to add anything?

No, I think we're on the same page.

Just ditto? Ditto works.

This gives Chris money to do what he needs to do.

So let me just speak a little bit. I know that you've been working on it. I've seen the tenacity that you've gone after this. We're going to spend money anyway to advertise and promote Tula County. This gives us an opportunity to match that with the dollar dollar that we're going to be spending. I think it's an opportunity. We leave money on the table if we don't apply for the grant. That's my personal feeling. Grants are good to go after so that we can utilize that to further the messaging that we have.

The only thing I would add is, you know, with the 2034 Olympics coming up, this is a great opportunity for us to really start building our presence because when the Olympics comes to town, they bring armies of people. You get journalists from all over the world that come out, and the state does a good job of putting them on a bus and taking them to different places. When I was in southern Utah, they brought an entire busload of journalists down to our hotel. And so it makes a difference. It has an impact. And I think it helps us to get on a better playing field. So when the Olympics come, we look really good. Maybe they'll go to Oprah.

I'll just add one more thing on that. I'm sure it's important for us to talk about where this, so this does come from the TRT funds that we've actually been discussing tonight. And as I've looked through our past budget and our budget projections, we're actually trending up. And I think with the new restaurants that are coming in, we are starting to collect more tourism tax and now with some new hotels coming online. Wonderful.

Wonderful. Any other comments or?

So I'll just say, and I saw it in here, and I appreciate you mentioning the Olympics. I had someone just a couple weeks ago say, hey, what's TWO going to do for the Olympics? So I think the fact that it's on our radar because you can't wait until 2030, 2031, and figure it out. I think we need to do it now and say, okay, how, not just the media, but how are we going to bring people around? And, you know, I think one thing we've got to think about, it is going to be the winner, right? That is not necessarily our prime, you know, for some of the stuff we do, but I think there is the opportunity if we start thinking about it now, we'll be able to, you know, draw a few folks this way. So I like to see that in there.

I'll just make a comment also just because I've seen it. Chris has put together an exorbitant amount of information for each one of the cities, county included, and areas throughout Tula County for them to be aware of what they can do to showcase their offerings. And so as those people come in, that they can recreate or they can come and eat or stay in hotels. And this will just expand that, continue to expand that and prolificate that throughout the state. So anyway, that's my thoughts. Any other, if there's no other questions, then Chair, do you entertain a motion?

So moved. Second.

A motion from Councilman Thomas, a second from Councilman Stromberg. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All those who may oppose, say nay. Bordeaux's not here, so there's no nay.

That is adopted.

That will bring us down to boards and committees. Councilman Thomas.

Yes, we have an opening on the Human Service Advisory Commission. Heather Castano has made application into that. She works for Tooele County School District, the student service director, and she will replace the vacancy of Christine Nather on that board. So I'm going to present her as named.

Here's a motion with Councilman Thomas for Heather Castano. Is there a second? Second. Second. Councilman Hoffman, all those in favor of appointing Heather Costano say aye aye all those who may oppose say nay that will give us updates councilman Hoffman

I'm just going to give a little more update on WIR real quick, some of the main points from that. So there was a lot of talk about fires in Hawaii and California there. And one of the biggest, I think, mistakes or regrets from the people in Lahaina was that they did not use all of their emergency resources. The main thing that they could agree for was They didn't use their tsunami warning system to help evacuate people, and so they took a lot of grief from that. The reason why they didn't is because the fire was in the foothills, and when a tsunami warning goes off, it's to get to higher ground, so they thought some people might go towards the fire, which could create problems. But they took flak for not utilizing that, so it's, you know. So one of the recommendations was is make sure you use all of your resources. Luckily, here in Tooele County, we're one of the counties that does have a PA system throughout the county to warn people. And those messages can be changed to be whatever they need. not just a siren that goes off or something like that. They said make sure you specifically listen to the victims because everybody's needs and wants are different. So not just give general information in that situation. One big issue they're still having is with insurance companies still not paying out and where things were way underinsured. So they're making recommendations to everybody to make sure you're properly covered. Let's see. Oh, this was one of the big things, is make sure you have pre-positioned contracts for recovery efforts. I kind of mentioned this last time, for communication, for toilets, things like that. They didn't have a lot of that in place, and that became an issue, and now they do. Let's see, where's the other ones? Oh, one thing that Homeland Security warned about was just to prepare for more and more cyber attacks. That's becoming bigger and bigger, and the counties and municipalities have to be more prepared for that than ever. I think we get hit over a million times a day for cyber attacks, I think is what Scott told us in one of the updates. That's how big of a problem it is, over a million attempts per day, just here at the county. That's not going to go away. They also recommended setting money aside for disaster relief since the federal government is going to be doing less and have money set aside for short, medium and long-term needs because there are different needs at different stages. of the recovery. So, and I don't know if we've been doing that, if we've been budgeting money, but it's something we may want to think about doing that set aside specifically for disaster relief.

And that's really about it. I'll leave it at that. Thanks. Chair Greg Musil Thank you, Councilman Hoffman. Councilman Thomas. Councilman Stromberg.

Mr. So, just a couple things first, and I sent pictures and video to the council, but do you want to publicly recognize for participating in the Firefighter Challenge. And she was, you know, despite her husband being on Tulsa City, she was saying she was representing the county. So she did it, one of the few women that took it on, and the only non-firefighter, I think even across the board, not just male, female, but the only non-firefighter that did it. So great job, Brittany. So there is proof. Yeah, yeah. Also, two things regarding Lantern Fest that was over this weekend. Again, a great event, 10,000, 11,000 folks walking through that. I think a good portion of those and watching the cars, they are leaving the county. So I think that's an example of an event that does work and brings folks that are not local out here. And I do want to also think, Bucky, if you're around, you know the weather was not great on Friday. So I was not there Friday. We had one of our other firefighters in charge, but Bucky had reached out to me and said, THE WEATHER SERVICE IS REACHING OUT. WE DON'T THINK THE WINDS WERE GOOD. SO JUST TO HAVE THAT COLLABORATION ACROSS THE BOARD TO MAKE SURE WE ARE DOING THINGS RIGHT. AND THEN THE LAST THING I'LL JUST MENTION, WE TALKED ABOUT THE WIND OVER AT AIRPORT. JUST MAKE SURE I HAVE THE TIME RIGHT. BUT ON SATURDAY IS THE LAST So if any of you are free on Saturday, they will be serving lunch at 11 a.m. to 1, so this is the last one for the summer. Hopefully I've heard some good turnout. If I'm planning on going, if one of you wants to go for a flight, you can join me. We'll fly out there and go. But, yeah, I think we're starting to see some good events out there and people recognizing it. So that's all I have.

Wonderful. Thank you, Councilman. I'll pass also, and we'll turn some time over to the manager for updates.

Just a couple of quick items. You mentioned the Lantern Fest. We were just in Hawaii with my wife. It was her birthday. And so they have a better way of doing the Lantern Fest. They do it in the ocean. And so there's no fire issues. And so they just float out there and they just bring it back in. But there were probably 20,000 people there. It was insane how many people were there. So a couple of other things. One, just wanted to mention, I know I said this out to you, that we did receive the Distinguished Budget Award again from the Government Finance Office Association. That's for the third year. And it reflects kind of our commitment to transparency, sound financial planning. and making sure that we provide good information to the public so they know not just that we're spending money, they know what we're doing with the money. It's a document that helps us tell our story of what we're doing as a county. Just thanks to all of the staff that worked on that. Just so that you're aware, there are only three counties that have received that in Utah. Utah County, Wasatch County have received it for three years, And we just hit our third year this year, so it'll be going up to four. So that's the only counties that are receiving that. The state of Utah has received it for decades. There are some districts, about 20 cities, and only one school district, which I wish they had more of those. Then the other thing that I think if Brittany can bring up the website just quickly. One of the thing is, as we've learned from another community and letting some events get out ahead of you, one of the things that we put together, if you look at our economic development website, which is growtowilla.com, We've added two tabs to the top. One is the nuclear campus. And so we just gathered information. As you see there, there's a bunch of tabs at the top that people can go through and learn about that. There's a lot that we don't know, but we want to provide at least what we do know right now. And so as we continue to get more information, As we move forward with the progress of this project, and hopefully you receive it, we'll continue to update this, but we want to make sure the public's aware of what's going on. And if you click on each one of those plus buttons, there's probably three or four questions that are more there that you can get answers to. And so just to bring people up to speed, we want to educate people. As much as we know, we'll learn more and we'll continue to add to this. And there's actually that last one. There's a share input where... residents can submit questions and we'll respond to those questions the best that we can. So that one's on the nuclear lifecycle campus. And then back on the main page, we also have one for data centers. Not, yeah, you have to just go back. There you go. Not that we have any eminent right now, but what has been going on, we want to make sure that we at least provide information. Because there may be one out in Dugway related to the military. There's some of the projects there. It may be in the Nuclear Innovation Campus. It may be there. It may be in the port as well. And so we just want to say this is all we know at the time. But at least we're providing information to allow individuals to understand what they are. And one of the things that we're working on, at least on the data center, is an ordinance that we'll be working together with Nate and Richelle. We have kind of a draft right now. Just so that we would have something if they do come, at least we have some more controls about what they look like and what we require. And so that's something we'll be working on. And we'll bring that to you before we take it to the Planning Commission just to make sure that you're comfortable with that. We don't want to be caught chasing something from behind. We'd rather get out ahead of some of these things. And so that's why we're providing this on the sites right now. It's just information for the public to understand what we know.

In regards to the data center stuff, is there anything in there about MITA and their ordinances and stuff like that? The issues they create for municipalities?

Not necessarily about MITA. It does mention MITA in there. i don't know if you saw with the brigham city or the box elder county one that one thing that surprised me was the property that was going on was unzoned meaning there was no zoning at all in those areas it was nothing which i never thought i would see that happen that's a really bad idea because then they could do whatever they want everything should be zoned whether it's you know 70 acres or 80 acres of farmland or whatever that is 40 000 everything should have something and there was nothing on some of those and that's what caused part of the problem and that's not the case we have zoning everywhere so it wouldn't that part wouldn't happen to us the mita issue is different i know but i think that ought to be described in our website what mita is and their roles and responsibilities and all this Yeah, I mean, we had that discussion today. We didn't know that MITA had approved some project areas, but it's the north and south area is what they approved in December. We didn't know about that. We brought that to their attention today, and we would hope for better communication, but they'd have to work with the military straight on those. But I agree that there's a lot of public education that needs to be done on MITA as well.

Well, they're transparent. MITA is transparent.

He's going to plead the fifth on that one. Is that a question or a statement?

I like what Councilman Hoffman said. If you add an arrow, if they want to hit on MITA, it goes to their site so that they can explain. Same thing with Inland Port. Same thing with other things.

Absolutely. We can do that. That's all I have.

OK. Council, we've come to the point where we go in for personnel closed session. So I'd ask for a motion to adjourn this meeting and go into a closed session for personnel reasons. So moved. Hearing a motion from Councilman Hoffman, is there a second? Hearing a second from Councilman Stromberg, all those in favor, excuse me, we'll take a roll call. Councilman Hoffman, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Thomas, how do you vote? Yes. Councilman Stromberg, how do you vote? Aye. Councilman Hamner votes aye. We are adjourned.