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Garfield County Commission October 28


Garfield County Court HouseGARFIELD COUNTY –
At the beginning of the meeting, County Clerk Camille Moore reported on the county’s election problems, specifically that two of the five municipalities in Garfield County that are holding elections—Escalante and Panguitch—have not received their ballots. (As of November 1st, none had been received.)

She said the Oregon vendor had first assured her that all ballots had been shipped at the same time, mailed to Provo. Provo USPS verified Garfield ballots had been scanned on October 21. However, with both Escalante and Panguitch still not receiving any ballots, Moore talked to the vendor again, and found out the Garfield file had quit processing after 330 ballots, marking the job as “finished.” She said the vendor is reprocessing those ballots “today” (Monday. October 28) and will FedEx them overnight to the two local post offices, “guaranteeing they’ll have them on Tuesday,” although it would be Wednesday before ballots would be in individuals’ boxes.

Moore said her preliminary plan to address the election is to have a voting machine available in both Escalante and Panguitch on Election Day (November 5), and she has arranged with the sheriff to transport the ballots. If someone has voted in person, but also had mailed a ballot, the scanning software will detect a duplicate voter record and nullify that mail ballot, she said. (All mail ballots in the county are scanned and counted at the same time, in bulk, after polls close on election day.) Moore said arrangements will be worked out between her office and the two affected town clerks.

Board reports: Commissioner David Tebbs said he, Clerk Moore, and Travel Council head Falyn Owens attended the legislature’s Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee meeting (October 16). His presentation to the committee made note of the difficulties of accurately tracking Transient Room Tax (TRT) and communicating with the Utah State Tax Commission for full accounting. He said this not only ties our auditor’s hands in obtaining accurate information, but it leads to businesses not fulfilling their fudiciary duty in properly remitting TRT money to the state. He requested an audit of all rural Utah and wanted counties to be granted authority to force businesses to either remit or not operate at all. Tebbs said, “All our budgets are tied to that sales tax. We all benefit from taxes that are fair.” He said he was hopeful the legislature would take action next session, noting a bill being sponsored by Rep. Albrecht, dealing with TRT. Tebbs thought it would be proper to see a public listing of businesses that haven’t remitted sales tax, similar to public listings of property tax delinquencies.

Commissioner Jerry Taylor met with mayor and community leaders on the 2020 Census. He said they need to hire about 100 people in Garfield County to assist with the count next spring. He attended a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) board meeting in Salt Lake. Taylor said CDBG awards $800K per year throughout the Five Counties area. Taylor attended a mandatory CDBG training workshop in Bryce on behalf of Garfield County applicants. Also in SLC, he met with State Forester, Brian Cottam, and talked about a project involving Garfield, Wayne, and Fish Lake National Forest, somewhere on Boulder Mountain. Two cities, Escalante and Tropic, will be moving forward with CDBG grants for low-moderate-income housing projects, with the county acting as grant sponsor. He said these would be pass-through grants for the projects and will be on the agenda for next month. Finally, he met with Governor’s Office of Econ. Development (GOED) and the Division of Arts and Museums on Escalante’s Science Center status.

Commissioner Leland Pollock has received complaints from Cannonville residents regarding cell service. Pollock later directed County Planning Kaden Figgins to contact municipalities across the county regarding cell coverage. Dust abatement problem: Pray for rain. In some residential areas, maybe there’s something the roads department can do. Pollock announced the official end of the Forest Service EIS Powell Motorized Travel Plan that called for closing some forest roads. He also announced a “no prescribed burn zone” in the Bryce Canyon area that the Commission would like to negotiate with the Forest Service, limiting those burns to non-high tourist season dates. Pollock acknowledged the need for prescribed burns in many areas, including this one, but was concerned about the volume of smoke, the affected businesses, and individuals’ respiratory difficulties that he heard about last summer.

Public Works, Brian Bremner, County Engineer: The Commission approved Bremner’s recommendation to dedicate Panguitch area’s new county maintenance shed as the Arlen Sawyer Maintenance Facility of Garfield County. The Commission approved Bremner’s request to extend the Clear Creek NRCS fire rehab project beyond its November 8 deadline and also to allow signature authority on potential change orders on that project as needed. Any changes would be ratified by the Commission. Bremner recommended rejecting a road abandonment request near Mammouth Creek bridge. He said another road just beyond had recently been abandoned. Approving this request would enclose a property between two abandoned roads. The Commission rejected the request. Finally, Commissioner Pollock directed Bremner to run a water truck out on a Panguitch-area road to help with dust abatement in that area.

Planning department, Kaden Figgins, County Planner: Figgins reported on the Outdoor Recreation Summit in St. George. As a result of ideas he picked up, he is working with Brian Bremner on a dark sky ordinance. Also, he was interested in economics studies and data modeling presented by Headwaters Economics and saw ways that he could utilize his own finance background in studies. Finally, Figgins noted a presentation on outdoor recreation funding structure that “got his head spinning.” Four Conditional Use Permits (CUPs) needed Commission approval, each of which Figgins said had been in process before the county’s Short Term Rental Ordinance had been passed. Two are in the Panguitch area, one in Hatch, and one in Ticaboo. The Commissioners approved the CUPs.

Horseshoe pits: Panguitch residents Benj Rains and Dave Harris appealed for another $10K to finish work on the Panguitch horseshoe pits. Remaining work includes the lights, trenching for wiring, water fountains, a marquis sign, AstroTurf, and paying off the concrete. He said he swapped out money allocated for concrete to instead acquire AstroTurf from the BYU-Idaho baseball field—a $25K estimated cost dropped to $6K. Over the long term, he said Panguitch City will take care of the pits. Actually, said Harris, “they shouldn’t need maintenance for 20 or 30 years.” The Commission approved $10K additional funding, to be allocated from the county recreation budget.

In final department business, the Commission approved UTM Rentals STR business license; they tabled their OHV resolution due to the Interior Department’s reversal of its OHV edict; they approved Mammouth Creek Fire District board’s request to change to a seven-member board; and they approved sale of a surplus, ¼ – acre parcel, which no one has bid on in two years, to an adjacent landowner.

The Garfield County Commission meets the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month at 10 a.m. at the Garfield County Courthouse.

—Insider

 

Published in the November 7th, 2019 issue of the Insider.

 

 

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