Updates, Budget Hearing
The New Meadows City Council held their regular meeting with the 2025-26 Budget Hearing on Monday, August 11.
Mayor Julie Good began by reporting that Ziply has still not finalized needed paperwork for their project.
She said the grand opening event for City Hall & the museum at The Historic Depot was a success and there was a great turnout. She thanked Council Member Traci Foster for her help with the food. About 120 people came out to the event and the Mayor thought the Adams County Historical Society members enjoyed showing the museum and greeting guests.
The mayor extended a thank you to Sheriff Ryan Zollman, who was in attendance, for he and his team’s assistance in making the National Night Out an excellent event. Good said they hope to do this again.
An update was given on City Engineer Grae Harper after his move was announced at the last meeting. The mayor reported that he will continue working with the city remotely after all and will travel back and forth regularly rather than phasing out.
Mayor Good said the city has a $10,000 grant for helping citizens ensure they have working smoke detectors. She said she has been in touch with Mark Peterson of C&M to look into costs and that the Fire Department has a program that could help people also. Mayor Good said the city also has a grant for ensuring homes have reflective house numbers that are visible from the road.
The Youth Center opening for preschool is tracking on time, said Mayor Good. They anticipate the building will be ready for the projected September 8 preschool start date with school access the week before. The Mayor said flooring is in on the childcare side, electrical and doors are in process, and painting is done.
Mayor Good then introduced Sheriff Ryan Zollman to discuss the current contract with the city council. He said the contract has been in place since he started in 2002 and it has relatively remained the same. He said the Sheriff’s provide 40 hours of service to the city of extra patrol. Without the contract, he said, New Meadows would receive the same patrol as any other unincorporated area in the county.
Sheriff Zollman said it has been brought up multiple times how things would be if each city did their own policing. He said the population has gone up significantly noting an increase of 1,000 people in Adams County in the last four years. He said the county granted the Sheriff’s department two additional positions that could start October 1, but there is a high cost for these positions along with equipment and training.
Sheriff Zollman said they do try to be in New Meadows frequently, especially for school patrol. Councilmember Traci Foster asked about the amount of time and what it mostly entailed. Zollman said they do a lot of traffic enforcement as well as community enforcement and community relations, as well as education and school patrol. He said a lot of what they do is enforcement by presence. On that topic, the council also discussed with Zollman what he has seen as helping with issues like speeding. He said one four way stop in Council has helped slow people down on a wider street with continuing speeding issues.
Sheriff Zollman also reported that they plan to have a School Resource Officer split hours between Council and New Meadows through a three year grant program. This will cover two days per week per school. Mayor Good requested the SRO possibly visit the new Youth Center as well and council member Shiloh Ryker requested they work with Ignite Idaho as they are already in the local schools.
Next up, the fiscal year 25/26 city of New Meadows budget hearing was opened. No public comment was offered and the hearing was closed.
The council then approved the annual appropriations ordinance and municipal prosecutions services agreement. The former agreement is an annual renewal and the latter, explained Mayor Good, is an annual contract that includes a compensation fee of $1,500 per month plus $250 per half day for any jury trials.
Approval was unanimous for use of the outside areas of the Depot during and after Labor Day weekend through Thursday, September 4 of the outside space for post Meadows Valley Days yard sale free items and a church service on Sunday.
The council continued on to the lease with the Meadows Valley Early Learning Foundation for use of the Youth Center for the childcare center. The lease agreement sets the rate at $100 per year. They will also cover all of the electrical costs on that side of the building. Mayor Good said this contract would be reviewed annually. She also gave good news to the council that they have received free internet from AirBridge. The lease was approved unanimously.
After quick discussion and a few questions regarding space and access, a short term RV use application for transitional use while building a home was approved unanimously.
Two cleaning contracts were approved unanimously, one for weekly cleaning at The Depot and separately for cleaning after rentals. The contract with High Mountain Cleaning & Property Services noted that they are bonded which the Mayor explained is important since they will be around much confidential information. The second contract with Cordelia Vargas is a transitional contract for cleaning after events at the Depot as the Historical Society had previously held the contract.
Mayor Good introduced the next action item explaining they had to pass a retraction of a zoning ordinance change because there was not a public meeting related to the change. The council will address the change at a later date and set a public meeting date.
The council then went into an executive session. After the session, the consent agenda was approved with changes including removing the financials reports and the July 28 minutes.
Future meeting topics may include employee evaluations, special recognition of Hunter Brown for completing his mentor program, a public meeting regarding dogs in the public park, discussion on zoning amendments for setbacks, review of leases at the Industrial Park, a Brown’s Recycling site visit and review of Roads & Streets committee meeting notes.
The next regular City Council meeting is scheduled for Monday, September 8 and will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a site visit to Brown’s Recycling. The meeting will start at The Depot before traveling and returning from the site visit.
