Playground donation

Rachel and Doug Crowther spoke to the commissioners about playground donations.  Lance Tripp had informed them that they were about $10K away from being able to get rubber mulch instead of wood chips.  Rubber mulch is a longer lasting product, and would be a better long term value, according to the information at hand.  

Chairman Lewis noted that when they originally donated $1k to the playground, it wasn’t from a budget line designated for that specific purpose.  At present, there is not a one-time spending account to draw the funds from.  Doug Crowther said that they would need to have a start on it by March 1, and the commissioners agreed that they were supportive of it.  “I think it’s a great project—a good use of community funds,” Commissioner
Jeppsen said.

In order to make sure that the funding was transparent, Chairman Lewis stated, “It would be my recommendation that we set aside one-time spending money for February and then have you come back. I want to support this, but we have to do it the proper way.” 

Excavation will be started on the new playground at the City Park within the next week or two.  The project has come along relatively quickly for one of its size, as the result of high community involvement as well as the generosity of large individual donors.  The playground will replace the equipment that has been removed from the site near the pavilion, and will provide a modern, safer play environment.

Overtime

Overtime hours on Fridays were discussed.  They had talked about picking one Friday a month to pick a project that would use employees for overtime work and help offset things like equipment rentals to maximize its use.  Some heavy equipment is rented by the week, and therefore sits idle during days when it is not in use.  “We’re paying for a 40 hour week, whether we’re using it or not,” Road and Bridge Director Dianna Dredge said.  

Sheriff Doug Williams spoke to the commissioners about comp time.  He was advised that employees should have the choice between overtime hours or comp time.  

A motion to approve the Friday overtime hours passed for a one time trial.  

SHSP funds for
emergency prep fair

Bryan Kerr spoke to the commission about having funds from SHSP go toward the Emergency Prep Fair.  There are $1173 or so dollars which need to be used or the funds will be re-assigned from the county.  The commissioners approved the use of those funds for printing brochures or for going toward the upcoming Emergent Preparedness fair.  The Fair is scheduled for March, and will features speakers and demonstrations on a number of topics related to Emergency Prep.   

LaGrande AquaPlunge

A resolution and Memorandum of Understanding with the pool were discussed.  Commissioners had recently been informed that legislation has passed whereby the state health department doesn’t regulate pools.  Bannock County drafted a contract with SIPH (Southeastern Idaho Public Health), rather than the state Health Dept to conduct the inspections.  Going forward, the inspections will essentially be the same as in the past, though from another source.  There are some questions about how the inspections would affect liability, etc, but the county and the pool administrators felt that having the safety and water quality monitored was essential to the pool being provided as a
public service.  

Water supply concerns 

Dave Colton spoke to the commissioners about the fact that there is no way to shut off the water into the building at the Senior Center.  The shutoff valve is underground near Thomas electric.  He is proposing that they trench the road on Main street to wherever the valve is.  Then they will put one in for the senior center and one for the courthouse.  The potential problem is that if a break in the line occurred, the basement of the senior center would flood before the water could be turned off.

The commissioners will look into the issue further.

Assessor’s Office  

Kathleen Atkinson spoke to the commissioners about tax cancellation.  The office is sending out property tax reduction notices.  The tables that value property are currently 2009 tables, but they are being updated to 2024.  

DMV has slowed down due to online registration, but there is still a lot of title work because people buy cars out of state.  

EMS

There are a number of students who are taking classes, and several EMTs who are now teaching them.  The new ambulance is almost on the way.

Last year, they had 407 calls, which was a bit down.  There wasn’t any particular thing to point to, other than the smaller number of calls possibly being due to the lack of snow.

There is some concern over changes in S Bannock county.  Downey, Lava, and Inkom are being shut down, which might mean the Malad will be making runs to Downey.  EMTs formerly with Bannock County stationed in Downey have reached out to see whether they can ride with Oneida County in order to keep their licensure
current. 

ATC

It was reported that the ATC phone upgrade had been completed.  “Anything you do something new there are wrinkles that need to be ironed out,” Kyle from ATC said.  The buildings in the county that have had their systems upgraded are now completed.  

The internet is capable of 1 gigabit service as well.