The Carbon County Board of Commissioners met on Wednesday, Oct. 16, for their regularly scheduled meeting. On the docket for the commissioners was the culmination of several bids for various services needed by the county, as well as the approval of the Carbon County Trails Committee Board.
All three Commissioners were present at the meeting, but Commissioner Tony Martines was in attendance virtually as he traveled back from the Idaho National labs, where he was working in conjunction with the San Rafael Research Center as both Carbon and Emery Counties look at nuclear energy.
The first item on the agenda was the approval of funds for the Neighbor to Neighbor Disaster Response kit project. Commissioner Casey Hopes explained that this project was created by a former Miss Carbon County Participant, who wanted to continue with the project. Commissioner Larry Jensen also spoke on the project explaining it used four different color cards placed in the front window that would alert emergency services during emergencies if those inside require assistance. The Commissioners agreed to fund this project unanimously.
Next, the commissioners opened bids for three different items, the first being a new van for the senior citizens center. No bids were received, so Commissioner Jensen made the motion to allow Rebecca Taylor and Commissioner Hopes to go and find a slightly used or new van for the group, which passed unanimously.
Next were bids for a Ford F-150 truck for the Office of Tourism. Two companies placed bids for the truck, which the Commissioners acknowledged and passed on to the Office of Tourism to decide on.
The last set of bids was for a side-by-side ATV for the trails of the county. Commissioner Hopes explained these would be used to help maintain the trails of the county. Tourism Specialist Tina Grange explained this was funded through the OHV grant received by the county which was approved in a previous meeting. Again these bids were acknowledged and passed on.
The biggest item of the meeting came when it was time to decide who to place on the five-member Trails Committee Board. Eleven applications were put in for the board from all around the county. The Board consists of different groups including hiking and biking, OHV, rock-crawling and other trail activities. Before the discussion, the Commissioners decided one member was certain, with Daniel Holly being someone who had spearheaded the Trails Committee efforts. For OHV it was Dale Maxfield, for Mountain Biking it was David Black, for Rock Crawling it was Jill Allred and for hiking, climbing and bouldering it was Ryan Keele. The Commissioners agreed these were the correct choices and appointed the five to the board.
Next on the agenda was the decision to potentially support a land swap between a private property owner and the Division of Wildlife Resources. Regional Supervisor Chris Wood from the DWR addressed the Commissioners, explaining that this swap would be for the area in which the old DWR office was located, for an area by the current office. Wood explained that this benefited the Private Property Owner as well because the old DWR office was adjacent to his business. The main request to the commissioners was for a letter of approval to be given to the Governor’s Office showing support for the swap. After hearing this, the Commissioners motioned to vote and agreed to support the land swap.
The last item facing the Board of Commissioners was the approval of a contract between the county and TSJ Construction. Commissioner Hopes explained this was for the Carbon County Aviation hangar project, and that a signed contract was needed before construction could begin. The motion was made to ratify the contract and passed 3-0 when put to a vote.
Following this item, the Commissioners adjourned.
The Carbon County Commissioners meet biweekly in the Carbon County Administration Building, with the next scheduled meeting set for Wednesday, Nov. 6 at 4:30 p.m. For those unable to attend in person, a livestream of the meeting is available on YouTube and Facebook.