Painting The Lake

Painting by Lauriann Wakefield, Little Starling Photography, Garden City

BRLC Request Funding Increase

Bobbie Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah. April 4, 2018.  Mitch Poulsen, Bear Lake Regional Commision, told County Commissioners that salaries and benefits increase every year with cost of living increases and there has been no increase in budget since 1985 from the two states who benefit from the two-state partnership in the area around Bear Lake.  In 2005 there were three staff people, now there are two.

This year BLRC worked on water quality projects in Idaho.  They built a quagga mussel program in Idaho and Utah and worked with Wyoming so that there is only one inspection in the three-state area while having better coverage.  They closed one station and added to the hours in the Laketown and Logan Canyon road. They act as an intermediary between the states.  BLRC was awarded $1.5 million in grant money to do best practices for fisheries and land use and $800,000 for the bike path around the lake.  They worked with BRAG to plan for the development of trails and wrote a resource management plan.  BRLC coordinates efforts of two state agencies.

The commissioner teleconferenced with  Mike Styler, Department of Natural Resources, to ask him to increase the Utah portion by $25,000.  Bill Cox said Rich County would increase their portion by $10,000 and they would try to get Idaho to match.

Styler advised the commissioners to call Senator Lyle Hillyard and ask him to make a formal request to the committee on Natural Resources.  He said that there were a lot of legislators who have boat slips in the lake and so are helpful to the area.   Styler said he would put it in the budget if the legislature agrees.  He also praised BLRC for looking at grants because they are more than willing to help people who help themselves.  

Division of Wildlife Resources Report

RANDOLPH,  Utah.  April 4, 2018. Justin Dolling, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, presented the  PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) check of $1056 generated by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses to the County Commission. He said that fishing license purchase is down, but both hunting and big game licenses are going up.  There is more demand than supply for the big game "once in a lifetime" hunts. 

There is a new conservation officer in the county, he is Phil McRay.  He will live in Randolph and has bought a house there. 

 Asked about wolves in the area, Dolling said that he had not heard much on the wolf front.  Tom Weston said there was a pair in Laketown Canyon. 

Pronghorn deer populations are down.  There was a special hunt to cull the herds last year.  Deer numbers are up.  Last year 90% of fawns died but this was a good year.  Rich County is doing better than most counties for moisture levels which will provide feed for wildlife.  The State is also doing a sage grouse count.  

Garbage Rates Need To Go Up

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter

Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  April 4, 2018. Lyn Weston, Sanitation Supervisor, told County Commissioners that he was working on a lot of delayed maintenance.    Because of the state of the county equipment he has had to make a lot of repairs on a lot of old equipment and trucks.   He also anticipates dealing with growth and feels that the garbage pickup is losing money; with more growth, it will be financially impossible to provide sanitation services to the county.

With the growth of short-term rentals and tourism Weston provided data for the last five years.  There are now over 400 short-term rentals in the county.  He used the example of the Berry Patch subdivision, it has 64 homes with only 2 full-time residents.  The rest are rentals. The homes create $5,000 in income but it costs $10,000 to service them a year.  Ideal Beach pays $6,720 for their sanitation services but it costs the county $10,526. 

Commissioner Bill Cox questioned whether or not all the garbage is the Berry Patch or from other people dumping into its dumpsters.  Weston said that Garden City is subsidizing city dumpsters that people use to dump recreational waste. 

A sample of some of the areas where there are many garbage dumpsters and the number of dumps that are needed during the summer months

Location	May	June	July	August	Sept.	Total	#Dumpster	CubicYds
Bridgerland	34	22	68	49	39	212	8	1,696
Raspberry Patch	29	62	101	58	25	276	6-8	2,200
Buttercup	28	40	50	34	32	184	5	1,104
Ideal Beach	45	72	133	76	37	363	9	2,178
Sweetwater	67	81	138	82	57	425	12	2,550
Trailer Park	52	83	113	71	61	380	8	2,280

Most of the dumpsters in Shundahai and Bridgerland this last week were filled with illegal construction materials. 

“It all adds up,” said Weston.  “It is a problem.  How can we stay in business if we are hauling 50 dumpsters extra without reimbursement to fund extra people and more equipment.  We cannot keep up our with equipment needs."

Since short-term rentals seem to produce more garbage and are a business,  would the commission allow them to pay an extra fee for their licenses, Weston asked.  

Commissioner Norm Weston said that one short-term rental had 38 people for a week.  “I know there was a lot more garbage that week," he said.  All the counties around Rich County are charging more as a base price.   

Weston praised Mel and Ellen Maynes as an ideal example; they pay extra for their dumpster during the summer. So the county is receiving payment for actual costs.  Cox said that extra garbage used by rentals should be paid for and perhaps the data from the Maynes’ property could give a good a good base price for short-term rentals as their dumpsters are only used by their renters because they are not on a well-traveled road.

Some people complain that they aren’t using garbage pickup in winter but the garbage trucks need to be paid for year round.  Right now the cost of basic yearly service is $126.

The Commissioners told Weston to look at Maynes' data and to come up with a fee schedule to propose.

Red Lake

Photo by Karen Slagowski Matthews, Liberty, Idaho

Garden City Fire District

Randall Knight

Rich Civic Times

GARDEN CITY, Utah. April 4, 2018. The board members in attendance were Randall Knight, Laura Cluff, Jenny England, Howard Pope; Gary Points was absent.

Randall Knight, Board Member, sent a draft of the impact fee resolution for review and comment.  The water connections in the district were estimated to be 2,880 to estimate the number of structures in the district. The number of building permits issued by Garden City for the last 6 years and related square footage was also used to help calculate the impact fee.  The calculation from the data inputs resulted in a new fee of $0.11-0.12/sq ft.  This is only two cents higher than the existing impact fee that has been used for the last 12 years.  The board voted to have a public hearing to review the proposed increase on April 18 at 6PM at the Garden City Fire Station.

The Mayor of Garden City would like to have the fire district assist with a clean-up effort on May 5.  The plan is to burn the dead grass on the frontage road on the south side of hwy 89 from 100 W to 300 W.  This is approximately 30 ft wide.  The fire chief said the main concern is the fire index, wind speed and direction, and burn capability of the grass.  If everything aligns it would be easy to do, but if not, it could take a long time and use a lot of fuel.  If that is the case he recommends the city just mow it. 

The fire boat will be brought to the station for cleaning before being put back in the water.  Ladder truck 40 is still in need of hydraulic repair, but Mike Wahlberg, Fire Chief, is having a hard time finding someone to certify it. The last time it was done was about 4 years ago.  It should be done every 5 years.

There were 4 medical, 1 fire alarm, 1 propane report, 13 burn permits responses last month.   

Kindergarten Registration

If your child turns five on or before September 1, 2018,

North Rich Elementary Kindergarten

registration will be

Thursday, April 12, 2018.

If you did not attend the pre-kindergarten visit

 and need to schedule an appointment,

please call Karla Allen

 at 946-3359 X200 before April 12.

A birth certificate is required to pre-register.

Current immunizations, vision screening and a

physical are required by the end of this school year.

Bryce Huefner Makes Garden City Elementary School Proposal

There was a discussion of two questions at our last school board meeting, March 27, which included:

1. Should we build a gym, a stage and two new classrooms at the middle school? It is estimated to cost $5-6.25 million.
2. Should we discontinue football?

I would like to explain my position on these two issues.

Building: Gymnasium, Classrooms and Stage

A proposal was made several months ago to look at building an additional gym at the middle school in order to relieve pressure on gym time, primarily during basketball season.  Saturday home games are an all-day event as there are typically 4 games played; 7th grade A and B teams, and 8th grade A and B teams.  The gym is heavily used during school hours for P.E. and elementary recess if the weather is bad.  It is scheduled pretty much from 8 am to 8 pm every school day November through February.  The school board, including myself, voted to do a cost analysis of the building.  My original “estimate” for cost was $1-2 million. The district currently has a capital building fund around $1 million that could be applied to the cost.

Wentworth Engineering presented plans for the proposed building which now includes two new classrooms and a stage in addition to the gym.  The estimated costs, depending on our final building requests, appear to be between $5.5 million and $6.25 million. 

I have given a lot of thought about new and developing demographics within Rich County and I recommended the board consider building an elementary in Garden City and using the existing elementary as growing room for the middle school. Elementary students from Laketown would be bussed to the new campus in Garden City. About 70% of the elementary students which attend NRE are bused from Garden City.  Garden City will continue to grow, and there is 40 years of census and population data to validate likely growth.  If you haven’t read my study of county demographics which I published 3 years ago, please take another moment and read it (https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Nb3NgdosNtOtw_95v6PgSocXjb9wZoX3).

There are several advantages to building a new elementary in Garden City:

1. If an elementary school is built in Garden City only one bus would be needed to transport middle school students to the middle school and the same bus could bring elementary students from Laketown to the elementary in Garden City, thus eliminating one bus run (buses cost nearly $4/mile to operate) and saving 70% of the NRE students a 10-15 mile bus trip. 
2. Buying land in Garden City for a school is good planning.
3. The middle school could then use all the existing classrooms for middle school classes allowing for plenty of room to grow.
4. An elementary with a gym would allow for recess as needed.
5. Teams in the middle school athletic conference could play in the gym thus cutting the time spent for visiting teams in half.
6. Other:

Disadvantages of building an elementary in Garden City:

1. An additional campus may be more expensive to operate than keeping all expansions on an existing campus.
2. Possible additional cost for another administrator.
3. Increased travel time for Laketown elementary students.
4. Other:

How much would a new elementary cost to build in Garden City?  Alpine school district is building two elementary schools at a cost of $14-$16 million each.  These schools house 850 students each.  Our elementary student population is fairly constant at 130 students.  A small elementary with a gym may be in the range of $7 million. 

In the board meeting, it was questioned why we would build a new elementary in Garden City when the student population has not grown?  That was a good question and can be applied to the need for a new gym and added classrooms at the middle school.  If there is no growth and we insist on building, I think there is a strong argument for building in Garden City.  Garden City has shown steady growth for 40 years.  Garden City holds around 38% of the total student population in the county and around 70% of the NRE student population. 

I appreciate the board hearing my proposal and having a discussion on the alternate idea and I made a motion to have the engineering firm do a feasibility study on building an elementary in Garden City, and Scott Tolentino seconded the motion, but it failed on a 4-2 vote.  Then the board passed a motion to continue the process to build a gym on the existing middle school site which passed 5-1.  The next step is to try to procure land from the Town of Laketown because the proposed building encroaches on the West street by about 20 feet.  If the Town of Laketown agrees to the proposal then a bond cost for property owners will need to be done to give us an idea how much it will cost property owners.   If all moves forward then the board will need to vote, I think sometime in July, to send it to the November ballot.  

I will not support funding a $5.5-6.25 million building project in our school district when no serious effort is considered to look at other options.  We have been able to use existing buildings effectively managing the same problems for many years and since there is no growth we should not spend such a large amount of tax money at this time on building an additional gym, classrooms and stage at the middle school.

There is a lot more information and there was a lot more discussed in the board meeting which helped shed light on our board members perspectives.  Unfortunately, the board meeting was not recorded, which I am disappointed about.

Questions to consider:

1. What do you think of this issue? 
2. Should we consider building a $5-$6 million facility at this time? 
3. Should we consider building a basic metal building? 
4. Should the district plan for the future? 
5. The current bond will expire in 2022 (I think), should we wait until then to build anything?

Discontinue Football

Coach Brown resigned as football coach.  I would like to thank Coach Brown for his years of service.  Though I love to watch football, I have long been concerned about safety.  With the resigning of coach Brown, I thought it was an appropriate time to tender the idea of discontinuing the sport.  There are not many 1A schools playing football and so many schools we play are 2A in every sport except football so they are larger schools.  We have to travel great distances 6-10 trips a year and this often requires overnight stays which is generally something I think we should avoid. 

Surprisingly, football is not the most expensive sport in cash outlay in our school as both men’s and women’s basketball cost more but, what are the long term costs of football injuries?  I recently talked to a parent who indicated their son is still experiencing headaches which they attribute to a concussion suffered during a particularly rough football game several years ago. 

I suggest we seriously consider other sports which could replace football such as: cross country, baseball, volleyball and others.  I think it is only a matter of time before a high school or an entity like UHSAA is sued because of an injury a student sustained playing football.  If we begin now to move away from football we can avoid possible lawsuits and establish ourselves in other sports.

We had a 10 minute discussion about the possibility of moving to another sport and some other great points were made supporting my concerns and also other good points supporting maintaining the football program.  I hope we can be wise about the activities we provide for our students.

Questions to consider:

1. Should we continue our football program?
2. Are there other sports programs you would like to see?

Thank you for taking your valuable time to read this.  Please contact me with your thoughts.  These can be sensitive issues.  Let us be kind in our remarks and conversation online, in public and even private.  We can disagree but, let us strive to not be disagreeable. 

Bryce Huefner

Rich County School Board District 4

Cisco's Sonar

By Bryce Nielson

As spring apparently is approaching, folks like me start to think that maybe it will be warm enough to go out fishing on the lake.  The miserable weather of the past two months has made it easy to spend time by the fire.  I always think about what to use but that creates problems.  In the past 50 years, I have seen fishing methods change over time that were successful in catching fish in Bear Lake.

When I was in high school, fishing Bear Lake was simple.  If you were on shore between the fall and the spring, you threw spoons, Spin-a-Lures or Mepps.  There were lots of nice rainbow in the lake then and could be caught readily with a hammered brass and fluorescent stripe (my favorite) slowly retrieved along the east side.  You could also use a spoon that the treble hook replaced with a snelled hook and worm.  If you were lucky enough to have a small boat you invariably trolled with lead core line and a U-20 chrome flatfish, eight to ten colors out.  That was the way it was for years.

Then the Rapala entered the game.  This balsa wood lure from Finland that had many patterns, shallow or deep running, and it was what caught fish.  Shortly after fish finders were introduced by Lowrance.  It was a boon to fish biologists who had to listen to fishermen who said there were no fish, now could see them.   No excuses.  But the bass lure market was slowly invading the West.

Suddenly, there was a mind boggling array of lures advertised in Cabela’s and Bass Pro.  Wild looking lures of all shapes, colors and names.  They promised to catch warm water fish but would they catch trout?  Surprising many did. They included but were not limited to hard baits, soft baits, swim baits, jigs and every other conceivable modification and color pattern imaginable.  This array was successful in catching countless fishermen who saw them and thought they might catch a fish.

The next significant accomplishment was the introduction of the downrigger.   No longer did you need lead core or lead weights to get down deep.  Hook the line next to the downrigger weight and take it to whatever depth you wanted.  The fish finders continued to also evolve and now come equipped with GPS so you know where you are, where you caught fish and what track you were on so you can duplicate it.  There are units that will even steer to boat for you and set your downrigger ball at a specific depth.

On Bear Lake, which has been a traditional trolling fishery, changes have occurred in the last year.  For years, fishermen have used the “Mack attack” which is a lead headed jig with a tube body on it through the ice-tipped with a piece of meat.   Now it is being used all the time successfully.  Perhaps they are targeting individual fish or just specific areas, but trolling seems to less common.

So, as a fisheries biologist, this all intrigues me.  The fish have not changed any of the natural characteristics.  Scientifically they should not change what they eat or bite.  I am convinced it is the fishermen.  Part of being successful is the mindset.  If you think you can catch fish, you do or have a good reason why not.  If you think you don’t know what you are doing, times will be tough.

I don’t know why this is the case.  All I can do is quote W.C. Fields when he said “to catch a fish, one must drink like a one”.  Sage advice.