Voting Location Change for North Council
The Adams County Commissioners met for their first meeting of the month on Tuesday, October 15th, due to a holiday on Monday. All commissioners were present. First on the agenda, building inspector, Kody Williams, presented a draft ordinance revising mobile home codes and detailing some of the processes with the building codes. It adjusted the fees and detailed the process for violations, as well as eliminated redundancies and redundant fees in the code. It also detailed a process where non compliance with permitting would show up under a title search so potential future owners could find out.
Commissioner Daren Ward had concerns about definitions from the state code that didn’t make sense to him and thought that it should be written so that it was easy to understand by the general public. He was also worried about making things more stringent in general and having too many hoops for people to jump through, a sentiment that Commissioner Viki Purdy agreed with. “We all would like to see people do with their property what they can do with their property, without impacting everyone else around them too harshly,” said Ward. Ward also said he was not a huge proponent of building permits in general. The commissioners agreed to read through it this week and discuss it again at the next meeting.
Next, Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, said P&Z has been in contact with Brundage to get affirming documents from their fire chief to find out where they are with updates. There are two hearings coming up next week, one for a property owner who wants to build a quonset hut within ten feet of the property line, and another whom they need more information about a variance from. She then addressed the Yantis Rock pit variance and said that P&Z recommends denial. Heather Kestner and Dan Yantis, were in attendance. Yantis said the rockpit will use very little water, the majority of it will be needed on the road. He said his family was the first family in Indian Valley and they have the support of their neighbors because they have been good neighbors. They had reduced the size of their operation but there will still be crushing and storage at the second location. Their closest neighbor has offered a letter of support. The commissioners wanted to confirm with Fisher about the neighbors. She told them some letters of support were submitted but are not legally binding.
Commissioner Joe Iveson said if they had letters of support from everyone he would consider a variance with strict conditions. He said we need more gravel pits in the county, but there are a lot of problems with them. Blasting is always an issue, so is dust, and hours of operation. Commissioner Viki Purdy said she agreed, and considered it a natural resource like Ag but thought they should get those letters of support notarized. Iveson thought they should not make a decision that day. Fisher advised them to see what legal implications there might be. Ward agreed that it might be a good idea to issue a variance with conditions, but he thought the commissioners should look at the ordinance as well, since there were fewer and fewer places in the county that you could even put a rock pit that was a mile from every resident. Kestner agreed, and said of all the commercial rockpits in the county there was only one that complied with the one mile distance. Yantis also offered to crush rock for the county, to which the commissioners offered no response. Another county resident who was present weighed in. He said that a rockpit a half mile from his property has changed wells on his land. He asked who was responsible for compliance once a rockpit was granted, and said he strongly recommends granting a variance as opposed to changing the ordinance. Blasting is regulated by MSHA, Mine Safety and Health Administration, but there is no limit to how big a blast can be once you have a blasting license through MSHA. Commissioner Iveson told Yantis and Kestner he recommends coming back with self imposed blasting restrictions, their notarized letters of support, and more info about hours.
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, said he needs a telehandler for a couple of weeks. He priced one through CAT and it would be about $3,700. Shelton also gave them a bid for fencing around the pond, which is needed to keep the deer and elk out so they don’t rip the pond liner. For 8’ no climb fence would be around $40,000. DEQ is coming out on the 4th of November. They also talked about who is taking care of the recycling center on weekends.
Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, said Caleb with the city asked if they can help get the burned building downtown pushed over so they can clear up the street. Sheriff Ryan Zollman said there is no insurance and the owner of the building doesn’t have funds to do anything. Commissioner Ward said if they can limit liability to the county, they should help. The other commissioners agreed, but wanted to make sure the investigation was finalized first. Balderson also said the Council grader is down and CAT is coming to look at it. They think it’s injectors. He’s not sure if it’s covered under warranty.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman brought Troy Black from All Seasons Refrigeration to talk to the commissioners about the HVAC system and maintenance to different county units. He also was excited to tell them that he hired a new Undersheriff, who was retired from Clackamas County in Oregon before moving to the area. There are 25 state inmates and four county.
Next there was a public hearing for the assessor’s administrative fee increase. No one was present to speak at the public hearing and it was closed without comment. After this the commissioner went over some of the values for the ICRMP insurance, which needed to be adjusted. At the end of the morning, Danna Barnhart came in to discuss the Legion Hall. She had a proposal and quote for new floors in the kitchen and refurbishing the wood floor in the hall. While she was going over the proposal, it was also brought up that the Legion Hall often had a strong moldy odor, and that perhaps before spending money on the floor the county should find and fix this issue as it was preventing some residents from wanting to use the hall. The commissioner approved the request for flooring, and also agreed to do a mold test and have the building inspector evaluate the building before installing the new floors.
After Lunch, resident Mark Colafrancheski was on the agenda for complaints about county personnel. However, when he arrived Prosecutor Chris Boyd told the commissioners he had not gone through the proper process for a complaint to be heard yet and better notice had to be given in advance for the other parties involved. Mr. Colafrancheski was very displeased that he had not been told of this in advance and the commissioners apologized for the miscommunication. After this, the commissioners consulted with Prosecutor Boyd regarding Brundage, contracts, and the upcoming elections. The North Council Precinct will be moving to the Rec Center for the November 5th election because the EMS building is not wheelchair accessible and the Ambulance Advisory Board said they cannot hold it there. Boyd told the commissioners that the Advisory Board has no legal power though and they are advisory only. Boyd also mentioned maybe they should put in the personnel manual how to handle complaints. County Clerk, Sherry Ward, thought maybe they should also publish the process on the website so it was clear for the public. Then they started looking at the ambulance board and who was actually appointed by the county. Boyd also said he should start looking over the agenda in advance for legal issues in the future.
