Jerome County | minutes | meeting 2025-11-03 | Commissioners Meeting source: https://www.jeromecountyid.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_11032025-1570 Monday, November 3, 2025 Page 1 of 6 JEROME COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Monday, November 3, 2025 PRESENT: Ben Crouch, Chairman Art Watkins, Commissioner Ryan Treanor, Deputy Clerk Commissioner Howell was absent. Meeting convened at 9:01 am. Commissioner Watkins – Commissioner Watkins stated that he attended the rotary meeting. He attended the appeal hearing to help with the decision of the hearing. Then he attended the Tri- County Weed board meeting. Commissioner Crouch – Commissioner Crouch stated that he attended a legislative meeting for the Idaho Association of Counties. During the meeting they went over all of the topics that they are looking to focus on during the upcoming legislature. He also attended the appeal hearing regarding the SWIP North power lines. Then he attended the rotary meeting. There was a discussion there about the attendance from the principal at the school. Later he met with HR regarding the employee handbook and some personnel matters. Dishwasher Installation for Jail Kitchen Brent Culbertson was present. Brent stated that a dishwasher and two garbage disposals need replaced at the jail. The county has all of the equipment but needs to pay for someone to install it. Brent stated that the dishwasher keeps breaking and it is now obsolete. He can no longer buy the parts to replace what breaks. The two garbage disposals are not functioning correctly, and the cost quoted to replace them is equal to what the county would be paying in employee wages to replace it, so having a company replace both is the best option. He stated the total cost for all labor and parts to replace the equipment is $3129. Commissioner Crouch made a motion to approve expenditures of $3129 for the cost to install a new dishwasher and two disposals to replace old, outdated equipment. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. GIS Monthly Report Mark Reyes was present. Mark presented his monthly report to commissioners. He stated that he recently attended a GIS conference in Boise. He also flew over the equestrian site to take images of the area to be developed. He also visited the offroad trail site at the canyon park and took pictures of that area Monday, November 3, 2025 Page 2 of 6 as well. In the last month he worked on many in office projects, including updating maps and surveys. Personal Property Taxes Discussion Abelardo Coronado, Mark Swenson, Nina Lagle, and Natalie Leon were present. Abelardo attended the meeting via zoom. He stated that he purchased a home and forgot to file for the homeowners’ tax exemption. He is asking the commissioners to allow him to be placed on the homeowner’s exemption backdated to when he first purchased the home over a year ago. Nina Lagle with the Treasurer’s office stated that the amount could be added onto his property as a discount for next year’s taxes, and the total missed from not filing was $2171.15. Commissioner Crouch made a motion to approve the homeowner’s exemption with a credit of $2171.15 on taxes. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Energy Ordinance Discussion Kacie Buhler, Ryan Christensen, Julie Arroyo, Jerry Holton, Aaron Menenberg, and Lyle Johnstone were present. Kacie presented a list of definitions for the commissioners review and discussion. They are definitions used by other counties in their energy ordinances. After review and confirmation from commissioners they can be added to Jerome Counties’ energy ordinance as well if approved. She gave examples from Gooding, Lincoln, and Twin Falls Counties. Jerome County could use these existing definitions or create their own. Definitions included terms like solar and BESS systems. As well as the definitions of electric vehicles and prime farm ground. Commissioner Crouch asked if the planning and zoning staff had recommendations on the presented definitions, and Kacie stated that they would leave the recommending up to the commissioners to provide. Commissioner Watkins stated that he would like more time to review the presented definitions in order to make recommendations. Commissioner Watkins also asked if there should be other terms defined that were not provided in the list. Including the definitions of types of energy production like geothermal and wind. Kacie agreed there could be additional definitions added. Next Commissioner Crouch read aloud a draft of the proposed amendment to the County COMP plan in regard to large scale energy plants. The plan was further discussed later in the afternoon. Finally, Kacie asked the commissioners to provide her with the next directive her office should pursue to continue working on the policy. Continued work on the definitions of terms was discussed. Meeting recessed at 11:49 am. Meeting reconvened at 1:15 pm. Monday, November 3, 2025 Page 3 of 6 Employee Work Hours Discussion Kirsten Hartley was present. The Board stated that they wanted to revisit Kirsten’s work week. The Board is working with HR regarding everyone’s work week hours. The Board also wanted to discuss the potential of moving to a four-day work week. Kirsten stated that she does a five-day work week currently. When she did a four-day work week it helped her to get some extra things done, but that she doesn’t really prefer one way or the other. Idaho Surface Water Storage Support Letter The Board received information that there is an interest into looking into potential expansions and new project areas for surface water storage. There are no specific projects listed as of yet. The Senators and Representatives for Idaho wanted to see if this is something that would be of interest to groups in the Southern Idaho area. The Board drafted a letter to express the support of expanding surface water storage in the area. Commissioner Watkins moved to accept the letter for the Idaho surface water storage support letter. Seconded by Commissioner Crouch. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Administration Offices Building Security Printer Purchase Matthew McGregor was present. Matthew stated that brought in a quote for printers. He stated that the treasurers printer was replaced with the old court clerks printer. The old printer is being leased through Great America Financial Services. He has also been working with the new building security office regarding a new printer. Commissioner Watkins moved to keep the printer and let the new security use it with the buy out of the machine in the amount of $1,305.33. Seconded by Commissioner Crouch. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Matthew also wanted to discuss the internet outage that took place on Friday. He stated that the main fiber line for sparklight was hit and led to a large outage. This led to some other issues with the internet being moved over. There were issues with the payroll portal and the election software. He stated that they were able to fix the issue with the election software and that it won’t be an issue going forward. Monday, November 3, 2025 Page 4 of 6 Sign and Approve Claims Commissioner Watkins moved to approve claims as presented by staff. Seconded by Commissioner Crouch. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. To see an image of the report please see page 6 of the minutes. Indigent Matters Commissioner Crouch moved to approve the indigent claims as presented by staff. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Comp Plan Amendment Sponsorship to Add Energy Policy and Review Kacie Buhler, Ryan Christensen, Julie DeWolfe Arroyo, Jerry Holton, and Lyle Johnstone were present. Kacie wanted to go over the reason for the section for the sponsorship for the comp plan amendment. Under current ordinance there is a requirement to have at lease one member of the Commissioners board sponsor it to continue forward in the process of updating the comp plan. This will allow staff to continue to work to update any language in this section. Then the language would be taken to public meetings and would start with the planning and zoning board. Commissioner Crouch moved to support the amendment to the comp plan regarding large-scale renewable energy projects. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. The Board wanted to discuss whether there would be room for renewable energy projects to be built in industrial areas. Kacie stated that they can go into this further and decide whether to allow these projects in these regions. She stated that there is not a very large area in the county that is zoned as industrial, but they could look into how to allow projects in those zones. The Board stated that they may also like to see something about building on BLM land so close to other areas, that they can work to prevent projects in those areas too. The Board also mentioned having dairies included as part of ag in the comp plan. Meeting adjourned at 3:06 pm. Monday, November 3, 2025 Page 5 of 6 ________________________ ______________________________ Ryan Treanor, Deputy Clerk A. Ben Crouch, Chairman ______________________________ Charles M. Howell, Commissioner ______________________________ Art Watkins, Commissioner BUDGET TOTALS DEPARTMENT PAYROLL ACCT PAY GRAND TOTAL 1|CLERK aassessoR TREASURER UMAN RESOURCES OMMISSIONERS ORONER 11 m XTENSION AGENT ATA PROCESSING LECTIONS CHARITY $ 70.40 ee ee rs $ 400.00 UILDING & GROUNDS MAINT. $ 870.59 MERGENCY MANAGEMENT $ 460.15 ee eee $7,530.26 79.0] $ 70.40 685.00 400.00 870.59 460.15 7,530.26 350.00 $ 115,500.00 GENERAL PLANNING & ZONING 21 $115,500.00 $ 9,603.95 $ 9,603.95 =] = é- = ~ Al oO > a Oo = $ 207.92 $ 211.63 $ = 10,204.73 211.63 10,204.73 $ $ AIRPOR DISTRICT COURT |_| 5 |_9| |__| |_3| |_6| ee eee 6077.09 Sub Total (Justice Fund) $ - $87,331.25 | $ 87,331.25 $ 6,077.09 £4) 69 7|FAIR - 9/CAPITAL FAIR - 11|HEALTH DISTRICT 15|ELECTION CONSOLIDATION 4 4A) 69) 64) -69 REVALUATION $ 282.25 282.25 SOLID WASTE - 2 27 29| AMBULANCE | 1 38 = >| z|o\5 5 ali re] Sm s|= 3g) M| =<) =< im) =|)” | | 09] oD o|fa/zrlio c/o|M|> m)zi2)a S aL £69 Sub Total $ - $ 6,359.34 | $ 6,359.34 | Tele : : z $ = $ 231,036.68 $ 23 1,036.68