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minutes meeting date 2026-09-14 · fetched 2026-10-13 · 14521 characters · official file · plain text
BOCC Sept 14 2026 Regular Meeting FREMONT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING MINUTES September 14, 2026 Present for the meeting were: Commissioners Blair Dance, Rick Hill, and Mark Chandler Also attended by: Clerk Meredith Mattingly, and Deputy Clerk Kim Fletcher Commissioner Dance called the meeting to order and welcomed those in attendance. Commissioner Hill made a motion to approve the agenda for September 14, 2026 as presented. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Treasurer Lori Beard RE: Tax Cancellations – action item Ms. Beard presented the tax cancellations for the month of August 2026 in the amount of $598.95, which were 3 mobile homes that were warrant of distraints that were moved from personal property to real property. Commissioner Hill made a motion to approve the tax cancellations for the month of August 2026 in the amount of $598.95. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. The tentative date for the Warrant of Distraint sale will be October 15, 2026 at 10:30am. Public Works Director Brandon Harris RE: Resolution for Sewer Operation and Maintenance Fee – action item; Resolution for Landfill Fee – action item This item was postponed for another meeting. Clerk Mattingly RE: Presentation of Levies – action item Clerk Mattingly presented the District Levies for FY2026. These have not been certified yet by the state. This won’t be done until about the middle of October, but it is required by statute to present them to the Commissioners. North Fremont Fire did have a meeting, but it wasn’t published, so their levy rate is contingent upon a new meeting being published and they have that scheduled for September 28th. They had a new person handling things this year that didn’t know. Everyone else had theirs in on time. Commissioner Dance asked if these need to be approved today. Clerk Mattingly stated they just needed to be presented today. They can be approved after the State certifies them in October. Emergency Management Coordinator Keith Richey RE: Grant Acceptance – action item Mr. Richey discussed a grant we have received the 2025 Homeland Security Grant in the amount of $26,705.63. This is a reoccurring grant he uses to purchase equipment and for training for our different agencies. We didn’t know if FEMA was going to open this one up, but they finally did. The Trump administration has narrowed down what we can use this grant for. Commissioner Dance made a motion to accept the 2025 Idaho Office of Emergency Management Homeland Security Grant in the amount of $26,705.63, as outlined by our Emergency Management Coordinator, Keith Richey. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Dance asked about the fire risk status in Island Park. Mr. Richey stated they are still higher risk there than here in the valley, and the reservoirs are low. He hopes the freeze tonight will help. Sewer Manager Jon Simms RE: Vehicle Replacement – action item Mr. Simms discussed replacing one of the 2 Chevy Silverado 1500 work trucks for the sewer. He presented 4 quotes he collected for a new truck; 2 from Taylor Chevrolet in Rexburg in the amounts of $46,225 and 48,286, 1 from Dave Smith Motors in the amount of $57,987.40, and 1 from a dealer in Fruitland in the amount of $49,939.00. He opted not go to St. Anthony Motors after a bad experience with a bid last year and chose to go with other options rather than trying to bid with them this year. We do have funds in the FY2026 budget Capital Line for the vehicle. Commissioner Hill expressed a preference to work with businesses in our county and would like to give St. Anthony Motors an opportunity to bid Commissioners tabled a decision today to allow Mr. Simms time to get a bid from St. Anthony Motors for our meeting on the 28th. There will be another 2 weeks into October that staff will be able to submit bills from their FY2026 budgets, so he will still be able to get the truck from this year’s budget. Ashton City Mayor Tom Mattingly RE: Helipad located by the City Sewer Lagoons – action item Mayor Tom Mattingly discussed the helipad that is located by the Ashton City sewer lagoons. Last year the City put in the helipad, and it has been well used. They have run into a couple of problems; the first is that they need to fence it off from Neilson’s cattle, but they need help to build it and wonder if the County would be able to get them help from the work camp to help with the labor. They have all of the materials already purchased. The second is that they need to blacktop it, but that project can be dealt with at a later date. They have $3000 in grant funds to help with the blacktop project, and are still looking for more ways to fund the cost of materials and labor. Commissioners will check where we are with the work camp, but they aren’t sure if we can ask them for labor. The County was going to ask them for help with a shed, but found out we have to go through the 3 bid process instead. We can check with our legal advisor about our options. Commissioner Hill asked how many feet of fencing they need to put up. Wes Owens stated it would be about 200 yards. Commissioners will talk to Blake Hall first about legalities and options, and if we are able, we can try to contact the work camp to see if we can get some help to build the fence. Commissioner Dance feels our help from the camp has been limited over the last few years and most of the work we’ve needed to have done has been from our own Weed, Road and Bridge, or Park and Rec departments. Commissioner Chandler asked when they would like the fence to be finished. Mayor Mattingly stated they would like it to be done this Fall. Clerk Mattingly asked who she should contact if she is able to reach someone at the work camp and everything is approved. Mayor Mattingly stated she can contact Ashton City Clerk Cathy Stegelmeier. Commissioner Hill stated they could reach out to the Juvenile Corrections Center; the Fair Board has reached out to them for help before and the kids have been able to help with service projects. He’s not sure if they could help with fencing, but it may be an option. Wes Owens will contact the JCC to see if they may be able to help with the project. Election Clerk Bonita Sutton RE: Drop box Ms. Sutton stated that this week, absentee ballots will start being sent out. She currently has a little over 200 ballots requested, so she is expecting a heavy load of them to return. The parking lot is currently blocked off, and most of the ballots are dropped off via the blue drop box. She’s had discussions with the Treasurer’s office as well as the Sheriff’s office, and the Sheriff’s office has agreed the drop box could be moved to their office and placed between the 2 doors. There is already a kiosk there that is on camera, it would be indoors. This is a decision that would need to be made fairly quickly because the ballot instructions have to include a location where people can drop off their ballots. Commissioners asked if this would be a permanent location and if it would need to be bolted to the floor. Ms. Sutton stated she would be fine with it being permanent, Sheriff’s aren’t opposed, but she isn’t sure it needs to be permanent; only during construction. Ms. Sutton also wondered if we can still plan on access to the elevators to move the equipment for the election. Commissioner Hill stated the elevators will not be out of service and the engineers are aware that we will need access to the elevators and the entrances to be able to move the election equipment. Clerk Mattingly asked about the mailboxes. Commissioner Hill stated the mailboxes shouldn’t have to be moved during construction. Our mail-persons will be able to access the boxes as they have been, it will just be a longer walk through the east side door to get to them. Clerk Mattingly will reach out to the Sheriff and Deputy Kunsaitis about the security and which entrances they would prefer us to use. She will send out another email to solidify which doors we will be using so we can have better signage for the building. Commissioner Dance made a motion to go into executive session pursuant to IC 74-206(1)(b) To consider the evaluation, dismissal or disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual agent, or public school student; at 11:31 a.m. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken with Commissioner Dance voting “Aye”, Commissioner Hill voting “Aye”, and Commissioner Chandler voting “Aye”. Commissioner Dance declared the meeting open at 12:12 a.m. Planning and Building Administrator Tom Cluff RE: Fee Discussion – action item Mr. Cluff discussed the fee updates for the Planning and Building Department. He reviewed the Planning and Zoning fee resolution from 2011. He presented a proposed resolution to update the Planning and Zoning fees, adjusted for inflation. Exhibit A is the actual fee table they are proposing. There are a few things that need to be added to the draft, but adjusting for inflation, it is a 50% increase. Commissioner Dance asked if Blake Hall was comfortable with this increase. Mr. Cluff said yes. Mr. Cluff shared the fee resolution from 2008, as well as an amendment, also from 2008, for the building permit fees and explained how our current permitting fees work according to those resolutions. He presented a draft proposal resolution to update the fee structure for building permits. Exhibit A has a valuation table; he has not finished formatting the valuation table as of yet. This fee table is set up to only increase about 1.5 to 2 times what it was before. The valuation is much higher than it used to be, so he has tried to balance this out by making the fees for the permits lower in comparison. Commissioner Dance asked where this table is from. Mr. Cluff stated it is from the International Code Council. As he was working on these, he noted there are some fees that are included in both resolutions, so he will need to fix this before they can be approved so the resolutions either reference one another, or don’t conflict one another. We’ll watch what happens with these fees to see how they do. If something needs to change, or something isn’t quite right, we’ll revisit it, but he does feel these adjustments are reasonable. Mr. Cluff discussed the inspection situation with Blake Bowman and the possibility that we may need to hire more than one other person to do inspections because of the requirements needed to be able to actually do them. We may need to add another resolution to separate the inspection fees from the rest of the permit fees. He asked if the commissioners have concerns about the fees being too high between the old fees and the proposed new fees. Commissioner Hill doesn’t believe so because it has been so long since they have been adjusted. Commissioner Dance agrees. He feels we may be being too conservative. Commissioner Elect Kent Jeppesen wonders if these fees could be applied to a sampling of permits for a year-long period just to get an idea of what kind of revenue they would generate. Mr. Cluff stated there are 5 samples within these resolutions to show what the revenue differences would be. He doesn’t know that there would be an easy way to apply these calculations to an entire year. Commissioners commended Mr. Cluff on the work he’s done and asked what his next steps would be. Mr. Cluff stated the resolution notice will be prepared and sent to the Clerk’s Office to be sent to the newspaper. He will also continue to get the resolutions finalized. Commissioners would like to hold this hearing on October 5th or 13th. Miscellaneous Commissioner Chandler made a motion to approve the claims for September 14, 2026 as presented. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to approve the minutes from September 8, 2026 as amended. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Hill made a motion to approve the Junior College Application for the College of Eastern Idaho Fall 2026-Spring 2027 academic year for Kyler Kunz. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Hill made a motion to approve the 2026-2027 Retail Alcoholic Beverage License for: #35 Meadow Creek Lodge #36 Boondocks Roadhouse LLC #37 Shotgun Bar Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Hill made a motion to approve Idaho Liquor Catering Permit No. 1098 for Saint Agony Brewing LLC to be used September 19, 2026 for the period of 1 evening from 1pm to 9pm for an event being held by the Idaho Art Lab. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Dance discussed the 2026-2027 Propane Bids. Fall River Propane – $1.25 per gallon for 20,000 gallons. We have 15,033 remaining on last season’s contract that will carry over. This bid is also lower than several previous years. Alpine Propane - $1.57 per gallon for 20,000 gallons LP Propane – $1.59 per gallon for 20,000 gallons For clarity, Commissioner Dance stated that Fremont County does own all of our tanks, and the bid from Fall River includes tank monitors and levels at no charge. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to choose and approve the bid from Fall River for propane for the bid amount of $1.25 per gallon for 20,000 gallons for the 2026-2027 year. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Dance updated everyone about the Simplot property purchase. This purchase was completed on Friday last week. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 1:50 p.m. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. _________________________________ Blair Dance, Chairman Fremont County Commissioner Attest: _____________________________ Meredith Mattingly, Clerk HISTORY Recorded by Min. 614692 Regular Commissioner Meeting 09-14-2026 on 9/28/2026
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