County Commissioners Meeting - 5.20.22

After the executive session for indigent applications, the first action item was the review of the budget and upcoming events for the American Legion. The Commissioners present were Board President Crystal Rodgers and Bud Corbus. Sandy Castellano handed the commissioners their budget to review and talked about the 4th Annual Golf Tournament on June 17th. Proceeds benefit, Veterans Assistance Programs, American Legion Children & Youth Activities and Mountain Home Junior Golf Program.

Bud Corbus commented that “That Mitra’s group (Elmore County Department of Land Use) has helped the Legion with their meetings” (Planning and Zoning) They are working closely with the County to help with any resources that they can.

In the department head updates - The Elmore County Landfill formerly the Bennett Road Transfer station has recycle bins for cardboard recycle at no cost. Picnic Tables and tires/rims were found by the field employees.

The Land Use (P&Z) update according to Director Mitra Mehta-Cooper said “We have been trending well in our department and when you are doing things right it takes a little longer” They are hiring for building permit reviews, part time to help with schedule conflicts” They are completing 65 building permits a month. Motion for the new employee in Land Use was carried. She further talked about her concern for the employees that need to go on the roof for inspections vs. using video technology to mitigate risk but mainly the safety of the employees was her main concern. “The bonds have been cancelled” said the land use department. The bonds they are referring to are the cash bonds for tire disposal.

According to Corbus and Land Use, there are approximately 10,000 tires at Juniper Farms, LLC and the cancellation of the bond requirement will happen June 12th, 2022. Here is the current law Idaho Code 39-6502 (2) (e) The cash bond was required for liability coverage and to ensure proper disposal. Without this the liability would default the land owner or contracting operator. Improper disposal of tires can cause soil degradation, increase fire risk and groundwater contamination. Internationally there is a rubber shortage mainly due to Covid and international supply chain disruptions.

The Sheriff’s office report - Misdemeanors - there are currently 114 cases and 15 with conditional release. 17 in drug court and the community service program is up and running and is seeing early success with benefit to the community.

Sheriff Hollinshead discussed the request to place a tower on County land and to talk with him personally, because the person that handled that originally is no longer with the Sheriff’s office. ARES stands for “Amateur Radio Emergency Response” and they are volunteer Ham radio operators to assist the Sheriff in case of disaster.

Commissioner Corbus said, “its a tough year for fires”

EMS’s Director Alan Roberts stated their budget is coming up and that they have collected $2,000.00 so far on their accounts receivable issue. Roberts said that there have been vehicle issues and payment is due upon acceptance, he requested $10,102.50 for a complete set of tools in case they get stolen off one of the trucks. Motion was carried.

Recently the EMS department received approval for new hires, A/R Software $6,500.00. IT has completed a video upgrade on the Courtroom unfortunately had only received half of the Malware software which resulted in the network getting hacked, which since has been fixed.

A motion was created for the 2017 Election Canvassing (validating voting results) Motion was carried.

The final presentation of the morning session was McIntyre & Associates. They provide services for local governments to provide priority funding through federal grants. USDA/FEMA/Persa/ARPA. Mr. McIntyre the CEO stated that they are ““Federal grant experts” They identify, write and process federal grants. Commissioner Corbus stated “we have a 40M water project to fund”

Both Commissioners Corbus and Rodgers wanted a list of references for sourcing water funding.