Rich County Commission Meeting

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

RANDOLPH, Utah, April 3, 2013.  Kim Wilson, County Assessor, presented several personal property exemptions for approval by the Commissioners.  She noted that there are several parcels of property in the Bear Lake Area that had been taken out of greenbelt in 2007 and 2008, and taxes had not been paid on them since that time.  They will be placed in the May 22, 2013, tax sale.  The owner thought that at the time of leasing the property to a rancher that it would automatically be placed back in the greenbelt.  However, it is a completely separate procedure and requires alerting the assessor of the status of the parcels.  The owner is currently attempting to take care of the tax matter as well as the greebelt matter.  

Making sure that all businesses are licensed either in the City or County is a difficult matter.  Many individuals assume that because they work out of their homes, no license is required.  There are many short term rentals in the County that should be paying their share of taxes.  The Commissioners noted that they need to get some ordinances in place that will assist in making sure individuals who are renting or working without a license obtain one.  

Taylor Payne, the keeper of the grant monies in the Three Grazing Project (see separate article concerning this project), reported to the Commissioners the current financial situation of the project.  He noted that the amount of the money involved was, $340,000.  He noted that the grazing association put in $150,000 and the NRCS put in $190,000.  Currently, $234,593 has been spent leaving $105,407.   The project will probably require more than this, but they will move forward and see how things work out.  He noted that the legislature should come up with some monies and the state grazing organization may contribute some to the project as well.  He estimated that an additional $500,000 would be needed to complete everything. 

With the progress that has already been made with the writing of Chapters 1 and 2 of the written document, the project will move forward more quickly.  He noted that analysis and completion work is much easier than what has already been done.  The Commissioners thanked Payne for his good work and encouraged him in completing his work on this project.

Ruth Smith, County Treasurer, noted that the tax sale will be May 22 at 10 a.m.  She had some property issues involved in the sale and presented them to the Commissioners.    Some decisions were made, and the sale will be held as planned.  

 

 

Grazing Lands Project

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

RANDOLPH, Utah. April 3, 2013.  County Commission Meeting.  There are nine individuals who are working on the Three Creeks Project.  This is a grazing project where private property, BLM land, and the Forrest Service are attempting to fold these properties into one grazing organization.  Two of the individuals were local; the other seven individuals represented the Forrest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and a consulting firm, CIRRUS.  All of these groups are attempting to follow their procedures and policies and mesh them with the other groups to come up with a single permit and cost that ranchers will be charged.   

The project was started in 2011 and came up with $340,000 to work on this project.  They presented to the Commissioners a projected time line indicating that they want to make the changes in 2014 and begin using the new combined gazing permits by 2015.  The project includes fencing, enhancing watering areas, developing other water areas, and setting up a rotation program that allows resting periods for various sections of the grazing area so that over grazing does not occur.  

The process not only must have a time line, but moves on into the process of identification of all possible issues.  Then, an array of alternatives will be considered.  The public will be allowed input at various times throughout the process. Currently five alternatives to analyze have been identified. Each of these alternatives will be analyzed considering all of the various resources and how the alternative will impact each and every resource. 

The five alternatives that have been identified are:   First, keep everything the same.  Second, build new fences to create more pastures, develop several water areas, and determine grazing rotations.  Third, reduce animal grazing by 20 percent as a protection of the sage grouse.  This reduction could be in either or both the number of animals cut and/or the amount of time grazing would be allowed.  Of course, there would be no reduction on private lands.  Fourth, no grazing on some or the parcels will be allowed.  Fifth, the high country resource alternative would take some allotments out of the forest service that are sheep only.  This means that sheep would not be included in the cattle rotation and would be kept in the higher grazing areas. 

Reference areas will be fenced.  They will be ten acres in size and placed in various locations throughout the entire area.  They will not fence any of the springs or water sources.  It appears that right now they will place in each of the current allotments.  The BLM already have 14 reference areas and would like to expand one area in the upland range area.

All reference areas will be followed closely for the next ten years.  At the end of the ten years, the various government agencies can keep or replace reference areas.  It was noted that the alternative of deferred grazing was not included in the alternatives because it would serve no purpose or need. 

There will be public comment periods, the final report will be written, decisions will be made, the public will again be given time for additional input, there will be a 15-day protest period and a 30-day appeal period.  This project is very complex just because of its size and the number of entities involved. 

This current project is on a much larger scale than similar projects.  The Commissioners requested that they be kept informed of the progress being made and asked to be informed if they can help to keep things moving and citizens informed.

 

Bear Lake Regional Commission Report

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. April 3, 2012.  Mitch Poulsen of the Bear Lake Regional Commission reported to the County Commissioners concerning a grant that had been obtained to finance updates and changes to the general plan and land use matters.  The County was requested to pay the match for this grant of $9,000.  The grant was for $21,000, and that money had already been received.  Mitch asked for the Chairman’s signature on the contract that had been drawn up between the County and the Regional Commission.

Mitch then indicated that the annual Bear Lake Shoreline Conference is scheduled for May 18 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.  He requested that the County donate $500 to help pay for the lunch at the end of the conference.  There are several items of interest that will be addressed in the conference such as new legislation concerning Bear Lake, the proposed bike path, boater safety, quagga muscles, and so forth.  He noted that the public is invited, and plan on about 125 people will attend this conference.  Bids for the lunch have been sent out to some local restaurants to cater this affair.  

 

 

Beach Waves, New Beauty Shop Opened in Garden City

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

GARDEN CITY, Utah. April 13, 2013.  The other day this reporter, out of curiosity, stepped into a new business in town.  The business is called Beach Waves and is a Beauty Salon/Barber Shop.  The owner, Whitney Transtrum, noted that the business opened on Saturday, March 16 nothe of KOA at the Third West intersection.  She was busy with a customer at the time of the writer’s visit but answered questions while shampooing the customer’s hair.  

Whitney noted that she can do hair shampoos, coloring, cutting, and nails.  There is a tanning room available.  She also does pedicures and manicures and gives shampoos and any type of cuts for men.  She is open Monday through Friday from 9 to 5.  She takes walk-ins as long as she is not too busy and will also come into the salon on Saturday for appointments.   Her telephone number for appointments is 1-208-540-2581.  In June, she will be changing her work days to Tuesday through Saturday.  The times will remain the same. Whitney also has beauty products available for sale. 

Whitney is a graduate of Evan’s Hair Styling College based in Rexburg, Idaho.  She is certified in both Idaho and Utah.  She currently has two stations in her shop.  She has another cosmetologist, April Lamborn, who will work Fridays.  She is interested in hiring an additional person for the other days of the week.   

Whitney invites everyone to come into her shop to get a new summer hair do and hopes anyone curious about her business will stop by and check it out.

 

 

March Sheriff's Report

Anita Weston, Reporter

Rich Civic Times 

RANDOLPH, Utah, April 3 2013.  There were 70 incidents during the month of March.  There were 27 in Garden City, 7 in Laketown, 2 out of the county, 29 in Randolph, and 5 in Woodruff. 

In Garden City there were 5 civil processes and, three each of the following: alarms, animal problems, and thefts.  There were two each of agency assistance, citizen assists, and traffic accidents with damage; and one each of the following: alcohol offense, burglary, DUI alcohol/drugs, fraud, medical emergency, attempted suicide, and a suspicious person/circumstance. 

There were two suspicion persons/circumstances, and one each of an animal problem, a citizen assist, a citizen dispute, a threat, and welfare check in Laketown. 

The two incidents outside the county were agency assistance, and a transportation of a person/property. 

Randolph had five citizen assists, four agency assists, three civil processes and three medical emergencies, along with two animal problems, two thefts, and two traffic hazards. There was one each of the following: booking a prisoner, citizen dispute, harassment, information report, traffic accident with damage, suspicious person/circumstance, transportation of person/property, and a welfare check. 

Woodruff had one each of the following: an animal problem, an attempt to locate, a citizen assist, a civil process, and a theft. 

There were ten traffic citation/violations during the month.  Five were in Garden City, two in Laketown, and three were in Woodruff.  Nine of the ten were for speeding and one was the unlawful sale/supply of alcohol.   Eight warning/violations were given. One was in Garden City; three were in Randolph and four were in Woodruff.  All eight of these were for speeding.

67 at 67 Run Around the Lake for Library Fundraiser

Let's all support Burke, a great summer friend to the Bear Lake area. And it will help the library too. Ed.

 

I'm soliciting your help!

This summer, I intend to run around Bear Lake in northern Utah. It is 50 miles around the lake. It is also at an elevation of about 6,000 feet (I live in Kentucky at an elevation of about 800 feet).

Since I am 67, I thought it would be a good idea to try to run 67 miles all at one time, so I'm going to back up the start line 17 miles and run around part of the lake twice so I can do the entire 67 miles.

My goal is to finish in about 14 hours....that's about 12 minutes per mile; not very fast.

I have run 9 marathons but I have never run any distance longer than a marathon - which is 26.2 miles, or about 39% of the 67. Put another way, on my littel run around the lake, after the first marathon distance (26.2 miles), I will still have 41 miles to go and after I've run the 2nd marathon (an additional 26.2 miles), I will still have about 15 miles to go until I get to the finish line.

The help I am soliciting is not to help Louan talk me out of this stupid idea.

I'm doing this run to raise funds for three worthy institutions.

They are:

 

(1) the Garden City, Utah Public Library, a delightful library with really nice people in the small town where Louan and I spend the summers,

 

(2) The Kentucky RiverKeeper, an environmental group here in Kentucky where Louan and I serve with some really nice people on the board of directors, and (

 

3) the S.J. Quinney College of Law on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah where I went to law school (this year marks 100 years since the law school was founded).

The help I would like is your willingness to spread the word about an old guy like me running 67 miles around a lake.

I would also like your support and the support of anyone you know in terms of sending money to any one of these institutions.

So you will feel comfortable about whether I will live through this, you need to know that I have run over 1,000 miles in training since the beginning of September 2012 and will have completed 1,800 to maybe 2,000 miles by the beginning of August 2013 when I intend to do the run around the lake.

The run will start at 9:00 p.m. on August 2, 2013 at the southern end of the lake and it will end sometime before noon (I hope) in Garden City, Utah at the Garden City Public Library parking lot on August 3, 2013.

If you can help with a financial contribution, choose any of the following and send them your check or your pledge. We'll let you know the results after the run.

The contact information for contributions or pledges is:

The Garden City Utah Public Library
69 North Paradise Parkway, Bldg A
Garden City, UT 84028
Telephone number: 435-946-2950
www.gcutl.org

Kentucky Riverkeeper
300 Summit Street
Richmond, KY 40475
859-622-3965
www.kyriverkeeper.eku.edu

S.J. Quinney College of Law
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
801-581-6833
www.law.utah.edu

Thanks for your help!

Burke

P & Z Meeting, Subway Discussed

Randall Knight, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

 

GARDEN CITY,Utah. April 3, 2013.  The Planning and Zoning public meeting was held as scheduled at 4:45 PM on the first Wednesday of the month prior to the regularly scheduled meeting.   The board members in attendance were: Chair, Lance Bourne, Mike Schiess, Dallas Solum and DeWayne Gifford.  The following members were absent: Jim Wood, Nate Gracey, Chuck Stocking. 

 

There was a conditional use permit request to build another home at the Lazy D Ranch at 69 N. Paradise Parkway.  There were no comments by the board or public. After the public hearing the board granted the request. 

Subway Sandwich mangers provided their drawings to the P&Z two weeks ago for review/approval.  The board voiced concern with the availability of public parking in front of the Texaco.  The board’s main issue was with inadequate parking space in the back of the Texaco/Bear’s Den on the west side.  Chair Lance Bourne said a special meeting should be held as soon as possible to both resolve the board’s concerns and to help Subway owners tp meet their desired Memorial Day Weekend opening date.  The two parties agreed to meeting next Monday at 1:00 PM.  Bourne provided the following check points that need to be resolved: lighting in parking lot, overflow parking, parking space painting, ingress/egress, dumpster location, garbage pickup, leased area square footage, and storage.

The next topic discussed was the Parking and Architectural Standards for Sunrise Resort to be located at 865 N. Harbor Village East Dr.  The board requested better drawings showing square footage of the building and for the parking lot; especially during the summer months when boat and ATV parking increase.  The current plan is to share parking with World Mart plus parking spaces on the east side of the building.  The business is a short term rental with 22 bedrooms but is not a hotel, so it falls under different zoning requirements. George Peart, building inspector, said one parking space is required for every 5 people in an individual unit.  So, if a family of six rents a unit, there would need to be two parking spaces available for them to use.  He said had told the management of Sunrise Resort to come to the P&Z meeting to address the parking concern. 

Peart said that a building permit was submitted for a building at 100 West and 350 South.