Cost of Building Permits and Fees Eased
On Monday, June 9th, the Adams County Commissioners met at the Adams County Courthouse. All commissioners were present. First on the agenda was building inspector Kody Williams, who gave an update from his department. He said they were on the 69th permit of the year, which was right on track for normal. He asked about the master key for the Rec Center, which Commissioner Joe Iveson said he would get a copy of, and said fixing the HVAC system has proved to be difficult but they might have some progress by the end of the week. Williams then went over the amendments to the build ordinance resolution. He said after they passed the new ordinance they had received a lot of good feedback and he was thinking they just made it too high. He had two proposed changes, one to change the fee for mobile homes from $1,000 per section (IE single wide, double wide, triple wide) to just a flat $1,000. Second he wanted to change the permit fees from 1.25% to 1.1%. The Commissioners liked the changes and since it had already been advertised they opened a public hearing on the changes. Commissioner Viki Purdy mentioned that she had received some complaints about the building permit fees from longtime residents and told them “We do everyone’s the same. We don’t have a spot in the formula for people who have lived here for a really long time.” Wiliams mentioned that when he explained the formula to people they were usually understanding. Purdy said residents were welcome to make complaints or suggestions for change. There was no public comment during the public hearing so the commissioner passed Resolution 2025-13 which rescinded the previous resolution and adopted the changes.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said they were reviewing documents from Brundage. Mountain Origins would be coming for their final plat application on June 23rd. There would be a Planning and Zoning meeting on June 16th and since there were no applications Fisher was planning on doing a presentation of everything involved in the different projects at Brundage. It would be a Zoom meeting and she invited to commissioners to attend. She said she would also be introducing Prosecuting Attorney Peter Donovan to the board.
Commissioner Daren Ward asked if there was a county ordinance about trash on properties. He said he knew it was a very controversial topic, but he had several citizens come and ask him. He didn’t think there was anything currently and wanted to know if there was an appetite to do anything about that. He said everyone knew there were some properties that were frankly health hazards, but he didn’t want to try and change the county. Prosecutor Donovan said he thought he had come across something that might be applicable. Fisher said to her knowledge there was no junk ordnance and the other commissioners didn’t think so either. Iveson said he would be curious about opinions on the matter and that one problem was how junk was defined, as opinions differed widely on that. Fisher said if it was such a hazard that things might be leaking into the environment one could call the EPA. Ward talked about a complaint where a neighbor had a trailer and took all their household trash to it but never took it to the dump. “I do not think that the county needs to say okay, everybody has to have a landscaped yard,” said Ward, “it’s a tough situation, but I do think we need to have something in place to where if we do have someplace that needs addressed, we have the ability.” Fisher mentioned the neighborly thing to do might be to make them a plate of cookies and offer to help take it to the dump. “We’re flirting with disaster doing junk,” said Commissioner Iveson, who thought there would be extreme pushback. Prosecutor Donovan mentioned it could be set up where a neighbor could sue privately if they really cared that much and had a personal problem. He said there was a solid waste ordinance from 2016 which said that you couldn’t accumulate on the premises anything that harbored pests or attracted flies. Commissioner Purdy thought if there was something they could put together that would allow neighbors to do a civil action she’d be fine with that “because it’s not us that’s bothered by it,” she said. Iveson also liked the idea of giving neighbors more teeth if they really, really wanted to pursue something. “In case your plate of cookies doesn’t work!” Added Fisher. “It’s a sticky, sticky, situation,” said Ward, “I think we need to look at something, but I don’t know that we’re ever going to be able to truly do anything.”
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, said he was feeling much better. A cement chunk had rolled onto a neighboring subdivision property and the owner wanted it gone and was threatening to sue. Shelton said it was barely on the property, but he had it removed and taken care of. He found 3 inch round rock from Meckel’s for $28/yard. They were going to need around 150 yards. Other quotes were coming in at over $30/yard so he thought they should go through Meckel’s. They were still using the rock truck. The fence around the pond would be going in after they finished the pond. The loader was still down, the part came in though and he hoped it would be fixed that day. Shelton said the new hires were doing well.
Next the commissioner discussed changes to various boards, including the Fair Board, the Board of Health, and the WICAP Board.
The commissioners talked about the Idaho Power lawsuit. Idaho Power had sued almost every county in Idaho for over taxing their properties and won, so every taking district involved in the lawsuit had owed Idaho Power the amount they had overpaid. Adams County had, at the beginning of the year, paid the judgement to Idaho Power on behalf of all of the separate taxing districts in the county, but the state was saying that the taxing districts were required to pay into the amount that was owed, so they will have to pay back the county for what the county already paid on their behalf. The commissioners had decided to pay it all off right away on behalf of everyone in the county because it was accruing significant interest the longer they waited and they knew that many of the taxing districts didn’t have enough funds and would have to levy. Now they will have to levy anyway, and there will be a lot more administrative work, but at least they stopped the interest from accruing. Idaho Power narrowed down the portion that belonged to the county and the portion that belonged to the other entities. County Clerk Sherry Ward was drafting a letter to the taxing districts to explain the situation to them. The commissioners were frustrated by the extra steps and work it would mean, and how over complicated the process was becoming. “We had a better plan,” said Commissioner Iveson.
Adam Balderson with Road and Bridge, arrived next. Commissioner Iveson asked about ditches and whether it was better for ranchers to be fixing the drain ditches along roads or the county. Commissioner Ward said he’d rather see the county do it so if the county messed something up they can fix it. Commissioner Viki Purdy thought it sounded like there wasn’t going to be any SRS money this year. Commissioner Joe Iveson asked if the other commissioners were OK with Road and Bridge helping out the rodeo board with some leveling. They all thought that was fine.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman came next to discuss options for leasing new patrol vehicles. He said for five 2025 F150’s it would be $49,000 for the first year, then go up to $62,000 the next year. For Dodge it would be almost 12,000 less per year. Also the Dodges had a better warranty. At some point they were going to need to replace two more vehicles. In the past they have budgeted $50,000 a year to buy one new vehicle. The commissioners were leaning towards getting the Dodge based on the warranty and price difference, although everyone seemed to personally prefer the idea of a Ford. Prosecutor Peter Donovan said he went through the contract and found a few concerns. He agreed to contact the company and try to address the concerns. Zollman said if they don’t do the lease they need to figure out where to get three new vehicles from this year, because he needed at least three more this year. The commissioners agreed to move forward with the Dodge vehicles.
There were 21 state inmates and 4 county.
Zollman briefly talked about the house that was destroyed in a landslide. He said it was really bad, the occupant was asleep and was partially buried, but Zollman heard he was at the grocery store the next day. “Meadows Valley Fire did an amazing job along with Riggins,” said Zollman. He said there were two more houses in the area he was worried about. He told the building department he wouldn’t recommend issuing any more building permits in that area until they figured out how and why the slide had occurred.
