Lots vs. Tax Parcels
On Monday, April 28th, the Adams County Commissioners met at the Adams County Courthouse. All commissioners were present, as was County Clerk, Sherry Ward, and County Prosecutor, Peter Donovan.
Building Inspector, Kody Williams, spoke briefly to the commissioners about the HVAC systems. Next, Commissioner Daren Ward told the other commissioners he spoke with David Herold with the Weed Department who told him the Forest Service had asked Herold to do some roadside spraying with money left over from the Lava Fire. Ward also said he talked to David Tubridy, on the City Council, and he said they would have numbers this week on the parcels for sale. Then the commissioners signed the property tax exemptions for 2025.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said she has started the application for splitting a property the county owns in the city limits. She checked and they do still have to fill out an application. It is zoned industrial currently, so there are no minimum lot requirements. There was a survey conducted when it was split from the clinic originally, and it will probably require another survey to finish. Commissioner Joe Iveson thought she should go ahead and line up a surveyor now as they were all booked out pretty far in advance. They discussed whether they could just make one lot or more than one. Fisher said she had some surveyors in mind and would make some inquiries.
Next, they talked about the difference between separate lots and separate tax parcels. They are not the same thing because one property can be in two separate taxing districts and can be split into separate tax parcels and receive separate tax bills, but the separate tax bills do not indicate that they are separate parcels. They also talked briefly about the road right of ways and setbacks, which Fisher said she was still working on, and the perplexities of zoning and preserving AG and private property rights. “That’s why I hate this job sometimes,” said Commissioner Joe Iveson, “because we get to be the deciding factor of what’s impacting the neighbor and what’s impacting you and where that line is.”
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, had two quotes for a compactor, one where they would own it at the end of the term and one where they would not. They were both double the current payment. The commissioners liked the one where they would own the compactor better, but were troubled overall by the cost increases in equipment. Shelton also said the loader was down. They thought it was the fuel pump but now they think it is the computer. They also talked about renting a rock truck and interviewing new hires.
Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, said there is a culvert on Fruitvale Glendale Rd making a big bump like it might be rotting away. He wanted to have an engineer look at it and give them an estimate for fixing it, and then put it out to bid. He thought they should put in a squash pipe and it would need new asphalt over it. Commissioner Ward thought they should just go straight to bidding it instead of asking the engineer to come out and tell them how much it will be. Commissioner Iveson thought they could bid the asphalt and maybe contract that but do the rest themselves. Balderson thought they could do that, but he was worried about running out of time to finish all the work they needed to get done this summer. They talked about addressing other drainage and culvert issues on Fruitvale Glendale Rd. Commissioner Iveson also mentioned that someone from the Cemetery Board contacted them and said they have a pipe that is plugged and they have no way of doing anything. He thought they should help. They haven’t heard any news on the SRS or PILT money yet.
Tyanne Rowland, from the Extension Office, arrived with updated rental agreements for the Legion Hall and Exhibit Hall. She also had a separate agreement if someone wanted to just rent the equipment and chairs. The Fair Board wanted to ask if they could get a lock with a code for the door in the Exhibit Hall. Rowland said she would like to do one for the Legion Hall as well. The Commissioner all thought that was a very good idea.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman arrived next. He said he had just been at the “Coffee with a Cop” event at Council Mountain Coffee and there was a huge turnout and not enough room for everyone in the coffee shop. He had the new Forest Service agreement to sign, they denied a raise but decreased the number of patrol hours required.
There were 25 state inmates and 3 county.
Zollman said that over the last six weeks there were multiple issues with having to rescue people on the backroads trying to get around the road closures. He said there is a state statute that says counties can make an ordinance prohibiting wheeled vehicles on groomed snowmobile trails, but Adams County doesn’t seem to have one currently, so he has no enforcement ability. Additionally, Owyhee County has an ordinance that if someone does something negligent, such as ignore road closure signs, and that results in needing county rescue services, the county can charge them for the services. Commissioner Iveson asked how it is a county problem if people get stuck. Zollman told him about one person who was stuck recently, and how it used up a lot of man hours and county equipment to rescue them. He said he’s not trying to put people in jail or trying to keep people from enjoying their hobbies, but he would like to “hold them responsible for their actions” and have them pay if they do something stupid that costs the county. The commissioners were open to the idea and said to present what he had in mind.
After lunch, two representatives from Southwest District Health came to give a budget presentation. They gave the commissioners a written presentation and walked through it. Southwest District Health is one of seven health districts in Idaho and has been in existence for over 50 Years. Commissioner Viki Purdy is currently on the Board of Health Executive Council Representative. They said almost 30,000 new people moved into the district last year. The top priorities of residents, based on a survey, included safe affordable housing, behavioral health, and access to affordable health care. They will be conducting a new survey soon. Last year they made it a top priority to reduce youth entering into foster care. Currently there are 329 children in foster care in the district, which is higher than in other health districts. They went over changes in the budget and county contributions. Commissioner Ward wanted to know why the county contribution for some counties, such as Gem, Owyhee, and Payette, went down, while others, like Adams and Canyon, went up. They explained how county contributions were figured based on taxable values and populations. The commissioners thought it odd that Gem County’s taxable values went down. They went over the services that were delivered to Adams County. Two thing that stood out to the commissioners were the number of people utilizing the Fit and Fall proof classes, which was significantly higher than even other counties with over twice the population, and the very low number of people utilizing the WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) program, which provides supplemental nutrition services as well as things like breastfeeding support to pregnant and nursing women and children under five.
