Jerome County | minutes | meeting 2026-02-09 | Commissioners Meeting source: https://www.jeromecountyid.us/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_02092026-1604 Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 1 of 8 JEROME COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS Monday, February 9, 2026 PRESENT: Ben Crouch, Chairman Art Watkins, Commissioner Ryan Treanor, Deputy Clerk Meeting convened at 9:00 am. Commissioner Howell was absent. Commissioner Reports Commissioner Watkins – Commissioner Watkins stated that he attended the rotary meeting. There was a presentation from the company Hempitecture. He attended the Tri County Weed board meeting. Then he attended the county luncheon for the super bowl. He also attended a meeting at Valley school district. Commissioner Crouch – Commissioner Crouch stated that he attended the rotary meeting. He was sergeant in arms for the rotary meeting. The presentation from Hempitecture was really good. He attended the job fair at the high school. Then he attended the county luncheon for the super bowl. Later he met with Mike Yurak regarding an individuals property near the Hazelton airport, and the future growth of the airport and potential hazards. He also took some calls regarding the workshop session that will take place in the afternoon. Maintenance Monthly Report Brent Culbertson was present. Brent gave a report on the maintenance department. He stated that he is working on helping the clerks office with mounting a screen to do passport photos. The security station is now complete. He is just waiting for IT to set up a computer out there. He stated that elections has reached out to have some of the counter being updated to make sure that wheelchairs could be accessible to the voting area. IT reached out to him about having their lighting updated from a motion sensor to a normal switch. The DMV would also like to have a pamphlet display hung out near the windows. Then he is going to be out at the airport to work on having the threshold of the door will be more friendly to anyone who needs to go in and out of the building in a wheelchair. IT Internship and IT Purchases Matthew McGregor and Eli Bair were present. Matthew stated that he had some quotes of items that they are looking to purchase. He stated that the switch gear that is at the sheriff’s office is from 2018. He worries that when IT changes these that the switches may burn out. He is looking to purchase new switches to replace some of the older switches. He would also like to have some extras on hand in case some of the other switches do burn out. There will be some down time with the change over, and so the changes will be made either after hours or on a weekend to try and limit downtime of crucial services. Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 2 of 8 Commissioner Crouch moved to approve the expenditure of $7,284 for the switch gear buildout for the sheriff’s office. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Matthew stated that the state of Idaho has been pleased with the intern that IT currently has. The state has offered to have another intern given to the county. The Board stated that they would be approving of the offer if IT feels like there is enough work to continue to guide two interns. Matthew stated that he feels like they would have plenty of work to help keep them busy. The other concern that he has is where the other intern would have space for a desk to work from. He has considered having a desk put in the old IT office or to have the new interns hours offset to allow for the interns to share a desk. Matthew stated that there is another series of classes that he is interested in attending. The classes themselves are free, but there would still need to be funds used for hotel stays for the conference. Eli stated that the new firewalls have been deployed in the Administration Offices building. It has led to some issues being brought forward that they will be more aware of as they work on replacing the rest of the firewalls. Special Use Permit Fee Discussion Janice Yardley, Kacie Buhler, and Ryan Christensen were present. Janice stated that she is looking to have the special use permit fee waived for the hardship that she is looking to apply for. Kacie stated that she is applying for a hardship fee as her home is being renovated. She has several hardships that are making other options available. If she was approved for the hardship fee application that Janice would still be responsible for the publication in the Times News paper. Commissioner Watkins moved to waive the hardship special use permit fee for Janice Yardley for up to two years. Seconded by Commissioner Crouch. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Discussion: The hardship is due to some medical issues. Planning and Zoning Monthly Report Kacie Buhler was present. Kacie gave a report on the planning and zoning department. She stated that there were 61 inspections done during the last month. There were 26 permits received. Her office received a total of 27 records requests during the previous month. This last month there were several cases that were closed for people who are living in an RV. There have also been some good strides made for violations regarding animal units on a property. Meeting recessed at 12:03 pm. Meeting reconvened at 1:19 pm. Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 3 of 8 Tax Cancelation Nina Lagle was present. Nina stated that the tax cancelation that she has is just a follow up from the previous week. She was advised by legal counsel to just use the parcel number in approving the tax cancelation. The Board wanted to review the reasoning for the cancelation. Nina stated that this individual found out that they are 100% disabled after the deadline to file for the disability savings on property tax, so she was brining this forward to see if the Board would approve the tax break for this individual. Commissioner Crouch moved to approve the tax cancelation, in the amount of $1,914.48, for the confidential disabled veteran after learning he is 100% legally disabled past the deadline, for parcel number RP007580010150. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Commissioner Howell joined the virtual meeting for the workshop. Workshop on proposed amendments: Chapter 10 of the Comprehensive Plan to add language on large-scale energy projects; Add Chapter 11, Energy Facilities, to the Zoning Ordinance Lynda Bruns, Connie Kincheloe, Katie Yeatts, Chad Biggs, Ufuoma Ojumah, Jeffrey Collins, Adrienne Dunham, Lyle Johnstone, Aaron Menenberg, Elizabeth Koeckertz, Zairyk Schilousky, Brett Thompson, Jerry Holton, Katy Riker, Leon Letson, Ivy Lyn, Kacie Buhler, and Ryan Christensen were present. The Board stated that they have gathered this workshop to be able to hear from the Planning and Zoning Commission regarding the reasons they felt that there should be some changes made to the proposed amendments of zoning ordinance. It is not to make any decisions today or to receive public input. This will take place in the future with the option for public and written input. The future meeting is going to be planned in the evening and the Board is planning to have that meeting scheduled before the end of the workshop meeting today. The Board stated that they wanted to hear from Brett Thompson as well as staff regarding their suggested changes to the energy ordinance. Brett stated that the board is grateful for the information that was presented to them on behalf of the Commissioners. They wanted to be able to discuss the information that they felt should be updated. One of the changes that they suggested is regarding the use of farming zones currently to be used for energy facilities. This way the owners of the property can have greater control of their land and what they can use that for. If the owners don’t want to update their property to heavy industrial to create a energy site that it should not have to go in that way, but that it can stay as ag ground. He stated that the board also felt that the nonconforming use that could create would be an issue. There was another issue in regards to the use of personal property and the feelings of neighboring properties use. Another concern was the verbiage that these types of facilities are not warranted in our county. It seems incongruent with the feelings of other companies coming into the county and then not feeling as excited about a large utility company Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 4 of 8 coming into the county. The planning and zoning board felt that there needs to be something added into the county to help with power, there are certain things that the county has not felt as good about adding, but that there does need to be something to help with the growth of demand. Commissioner Watkins wanted to cover the issue of use of personal property and how the current wording could prohibit that. Brett stated that the issue is regarding the verbiage that is currently in the ordinance would feel like those facilities should not be allowed as to protect farming ground. Kacie stated further that another part of the issue would be rezoning the ag ground to heavy industrial first before being able to go through the process of adding a facility of some sort to that property. Brett stated further that the verbiage really states that there shouldn’t be something like those facilities approved on farm ground, even if it is what the owner would prefer. Commissioner Crouch stated that this was a part of the purpose that it should protect ag ground rather than making it easier to remove ag ground for a facility. He also stated that if there were issues created further to the land such as damage to the aquafer that those can’t be undone. The ground itself could be reestablished as ag ground in the future but damage to other parts of the area can’t be reversed. Brett stated that this is an issue still with withholding some of the options for the personal property owners. He asked that if there were any questions from the Commissioners regarding the zoning issue. Commissioner Crouch stated that he understood the concerns but that it was another way to make it a bit harder to bring facilities into the county. That the owners would have to go through more hoops to be able to rezone the property into heavy industrial first before moving forward with the conditional use permit. Commissioner Howell wanted to discuss the zoning of the property for the next owner and how that would work. If the first owner wanted to change the property and then the next owner would like it to be ag ground instead, what would that process look like to help the next property owner to change things if needed. Kacie stated that the conditional use permits would go with the property rather than the property owner. With how things are written right now that it would need to be rezoned with the next owner. Brett stated that the benefit of the conditional use permit that the permit can have lots of things included as part of the process for approval. Things such as fencing, lighting, issues to the aquafer, etc. This way those things can be addressed before the facility would ever go into place. Kacie stated that the notification for this is currently one mile from the facility. Brett wanted to discuss what the Commissioners are looking for in regards to the use of personal property for these facilities. Commissioner Watkins stated that he would like to see something put into place that would allow for the protection of personal property rights while also ensuring that the facilities don’t remove all of the farm ground in the county. Commissioner Howell stated that he agreed with Commissioner Watkins and that there should be a better way to define the process for what is accepted to come into the county. Commissioner Crouch stated that he also agreed with that and stated that one of the things that may need to be redone is the process and clarification for what is accepted in the county and still allow individuals to retain their property rights. Brett stated that one of the other issues is that the county does not have the requisite energy facilities to match the power demand in the area. This is another issue that the planning and zoning felt needed to be changed because of the large ways in the language to prohibit the energy Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 5 of 8 facilities. Commissioner Watkins stated that this is another thing that they feel like needs to be clarified and find a way forward to meet the growing demand. Commissioner Crouch stated that they have reviewed chapter 11 regarding the energy ordinance and that he was interested to see if there are any suggestions that were made regarding chapter 10 for the comp plan. Brett stated that there wasn’t really anything specific that was different than the chapter 11 section. The concerns largely remained the same. Kacie stated that another thing was that the verbiage from chapter 10 hindered parts of chapter 11 from being updated to allow for different options. Commissioner Crouch asked if there were any specific suggestions that Brett would suggest changing. Brett stated that one of the things that could be included is a limit on the size of acres that would be used for a facility. Another thought was to go over how to protect the area and the aquafer, while still allowing the facilities to be built. There should also be something that should be included to discuss the allowance of facilities under personal property rights. Commissioner Crouch wanted to discuss another meeting that they would like to schedule at night. This meeting may allow for written comment to be included with suggestions. Commissioner Crouch suggested that the Monday on the 23rd may be a date that they could hold another workshop. It would be at 6:30 pm after the planning and zoning commission. This would not be a hearing but another workshop to allow for the Commissioners to review the sections of zoning ordinance and to try and come up with more solutions regarding these ordinances. Change Orders for the Park Bill Bridges and Larry Hall were present. Larry stated that the change orders are for the overlook project for the Snake River Canyon Parks. He has some change orders for the Commissioners to review. The first one is regarding the parking lot and the road leading into the parking lot. He stated that the next page is regarding the budget for this process of doing the parking lot and the road leading into it. The other page that goes over the remainder of the work is all estimated and may change as those parts of the project are completed. Commissioner Crouch moved to approve the change order #2 in the amount of $89,826.15 for the Shoshone Falls park overlook project. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. Juvenile Probation Monthly Report, Training Mario Umana was present. Mario gave a report on the Juvenile Probation department. He stated that there are 78 juveniles currently on probation. There were a total of 11 new cases in the previous month. Four cases were closed last month. The department received a total of $2,215.83 in fees. There is a training that will be taking place next month that he would like to send two of his employees to. It would Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 6 of 8 cost roughly $700 for the employees to attend. The Board stated that they were ok with them attending. Mario stated that he wanted to discuss the possibility of purchasing a new vehicle with tobacco funds. He wanted to see what the Board thought. The Board asked if there were any vehicles he was looking into specifically. He stated that he has done some preliminary looking and that he will do some more research and return with a quote on a vehicle he’s interested in. He stated that he had between $37,000 and $47,000 for a new vehicle. The Board stated that they would be ok with Mario purchasing a vehicle in that range with it being in the budget. Executive Session Per Idaho Code 74-206(1)(b) for personnel Andrea Gonzalez and Jesse Vallez were present. Commissioner Crouch moved to go into executive session per Idaho Code 74- 206(1)(b) for personnel. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous roll call vote. Executive session began at 3:18 pm and ended at 3:45 pm. Parking Space Agreement Discussion Steve Irwin and Sam Beus were present. The Board wanted to discuss the parking space agreement that Steve Irwin had discussed previously. The Board stated that they do not own all of the parking lot of the Judicial Complex. The Board stated that they want to make sure that they are getting the right spaces up for rent for Steve and his tenants. Steve stated that he is meeting with the city of Jerome tomorrow night. He wants to see what could be agreed upon so he can move further on the process with the city. The Board stated that they are agreeable to rent out four parking spaces, they just want to ensure that they are parking spaces in a part of the lot that they own. Sam stated that there could be something on the GIS map online. After he checked the GIS map it does show that the county owns the parking spots that Steve is looking to rent. The Board asked if Steve would be interested in doing $35 per space per month. Steve stated that he would be interested in that. Legal Counsel Commissioner Crouch moved to go into executive session per Idaho code 74- 206(1)(b) for personnel. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous roll call vote. Executive session started at 4:15 pm and ended at 4:25 pm. Sign and Approve Claims Monday, February 9, 2026 Page 7 of 8 Commissioner Crouch moved to approve the claims as presented by staff. Seconded by Commissioner Watkins. The motion passed with a unanimous vote. To see an image of the report please see page 8 of the minutes. Meeting adjourned at 4:40 pm. ________________________ ______________________________ Ryan Treanor, Deputy Clerk A. Ben Crouch, Chairman ______________________________ Charles M. Howell, Commissioner ______________________________ Art Watkins, Commissioner BUDGET TOTALS DEPARTMENT LERK REASURER 4|/HUMAN RESOURCES PAYROLL ACCT PAY $ GRAND TOTAL 23.47 | $ 23.47 5 6 COMMISSIONERS CORONER 4,742.49 4,742.49 10|BUILDING & GROUNDS MAINT. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT 11 933.66 1,528.55 933.66 1,528.55 13|/EXTENSION AGENT 14|/DATA PROCESSING $ $ $ $ 3,225.28 3,919.93 3,225.28 3,919.93 15|ELECTIONS CHARITY GENERAL PLANNING & ZONING Gis ub Tota eneral Fund SHERIFF $ $ $ $ 14,773.11 14,773.11 Vara 3,229.93 260.00 TLE 3,229.93 260.00 1,072.00 6,178.50 34,767.63 $ DISTRICT COURT 9|CAPITAL FAIR ’ 0,669.9 n 0,659.9 es 3532.5|$ 3,532.50 $ = 11 15 HEALTH DISTRICT $ = 23|/SOLID WASTE ELECTION CONSOLIDATION $ qi 20|/REVALUATION $ - 24 27 TORT WEED $ : $ 1,500.00 | $ 1,500.00 29 38 38 39 41 48 AMBULANCE WATERWAYS BOARD WATERWAYS SHERIFF BOND REDEMPTION AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN Sub Total BROADBAND GRANT FUNDS $ z $ 35,722.43 GRAND TOTAL $ 113,094.15