Brundage EMS Coverage & Road Responsibility; Sort Your Recyclables
On Monday, June 1st, the Adams County Commissioners met for their first meeting of the month. The Commissioners meetings will be adjusted slightly for this month only and will be held on Monday the 1st, 22nd, and 29th, with no meeting on the 8th or the 15th. Bob Looper, president and CEO of Brundage came for a discussion and to give updates at Brundage Mountain. Looper said that there is a road use agreement with the county for the road heading up to Brundage that says when they paved the road, Brundage will maintain it in the winter but the county does all other maintenance of the road. Currently the agreement stops at the entrance to Brundage, where it switches to dirt and to Forest Service jurisdiction, but the original intention was for it to go all the way through Brundage. Brundage is planning on paving that section too, at which time it will fall under the same agreement, but since there is so much heavy traffic going over it right now they are waiting a few more years to pave it. In the meantime, they would like to turn it over to the county now, but continue to do their own maintenance until they pave it. They would like to eliminate the Forest Service from the equation because it has been complicated working with them. According to Looper, the section in question is about 3000 ft. They would like to have it settled before winter. The commissioners wanted to see the exact proposal written up before making a decision so Looper agreed to get one to them to look over.
After this discussion, the commissioners went into executive session to consult with prosecuting attorney Chris Boyd. They went out with no action taken. The commissioners told Bob Looper it is their consensus that they want to see his project succeed and do have some ideas to move forward. They also brought up the position of de-annexing. The commissioners said they do not want to de-annex Brundage from Meadows Valley EMS district unless they are covered year round. Looper said their whole program was geared to ease the burden of ground transport, which is almost 100% during their operating season, but there will be occasional calls in between the summer and winter season where they will need coverage. They are also entering into mutual aid agreements with McCall, Meadows Valley, and St. Luke’s. He said they need to be in a district for full coverage and do not wish to be de-annexed. “Right now, we are not in a position to not be in a district,” Bob Looper said, “I am very happy to be a part, and a collaborating member of the Meadows Valley Ambulance District.” He did add the caveat that if there was a service agreement for EMS in place they would not need to be in a district, but they need to have some sort of year round coverage in place. They are hopeful that they see the progress on fire and EMS transport so they can eventually expand into mutual aid agreements that will benefit everyone. “This whole situation needs a collaborative solution between McCall, and Meadows Valley, and Brundage and St. Luke’s,” he said.
After this, the commissioners asked Prosecuting attorney, Chris Boyd, what their options were to contract his position if no other prosecutor comes to fill his vacancy. Boyd said that yes, contracting was an option, but he thinks it would be much better to find someone and he is still trying to recruit potential candidates. Boyd promised not to leave Adams County hanging no matter what, and told the commissioners not to give up on recruiting yet!
Steve Shelton with Solid Waste said they’re been moving a lot of material and found a lot of sand. Right now the CAT is down, but other than that everything is going pretty good. Commissioner Daren Ward talked about the recycling contract for plastics, which varies in price from month to month. The price was going down to zero for next month because there was too much contamination from the wrong type of plastics being mixed together in the last load. He wasn’t sure what they should do with the plastic in the meantime, so they discussed a few options, and the commissioners told Shelton to do whatever he thought was most efficient. Commissioner Viki Purdy said if people really want to recycle they are going to have to take the time to sort it, otherwise there is no money in it.
Adam Balderson with Road and Bridge said Missman is paved, they are going to start painting Council Cuprum next. The county surplus auction has been advertised in the paper for the 17th at 6:00.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman said the MOU with Brundage needed to be changed after legal went through it. They should be fixing the issues and will get it back soon. The air conditioner in A and B block is not working. The other one is fixed on one side, and they have the parts ordered to fix the other side. This current one that is broken is the one that hasn’t been updated. They are going to have the new company in New Meadows take a look at it. There are 18 state inmates, 2 county. The bus will be here tomorrow so that number will go up.
Commissioner Daren Ward said for their next meeting he thought they needed to talk about their maintenance guy so they added that to the agenda. There were also some maintenance issues to discuss at Legion Hall and the Extension Office. Legion Hall needs a new stove, the current one is very old and not working right.
At Noon the commissioners went into Board of Equalization to discuss an issue about property taxes and agricultural exemptions with a property owner who wanted to claim an exemption for a lot he grows a large garden on. It was denied due to the exemption requiring gross profits of $1000 or more or 15% of annual income. The basis of the argument was that social security should not be considered income for the purposes of the exemption. However, Prosecutor Chris Boyd explained why it was interpreted in that way and the commissioners ruled on the side of the assessor’s value. They advised the property owner to take his complaints to the state if he felt he needed to take the issue further. “The State has discretion, we do not. Take it to the State,” said Commissioner Viki Purdy.
