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COMMISSIONER MEETING OF February 23, 2026 The Caribou County Commissioners met in regular session on February 23, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. Those in attendance were: Bryce Somsen, Commissioner Aaron Cook, Assessor Marty McCullough, Commissioner Galen Wilson, Caribou Historical Society Jill Stoor, Clerk Coleen Benson, Chesterfield Foundation Doug Wood, Prosecutor Bill Horsley, Caribou Historical Society Sharlene Simons, Deputy Clerk Matt Lucia, Greater Yellowstone Coalition Kevin McLain, Road & Bridge Jim McCulloch, GOAL J Adam Mabey, Sheriff Chris Gonzalez, GOAL Eric Hobson, Public Safety Tiffany LaBrouche, P&Z Rowdy Larkins, Maint. & Building Jean LaBrouche Ally Schwulst, GIS Brandon Hall, The Idaho Enterprise The meeting opened with Mark Mathews leading the pledge of allegiance and prayer. Kevin McLain, Road & Bridge: Kevin mentioned they are hauling material off of the Ant Canyon parking lot. Update on the crusher, they are working on where the feeder drops down into the jaw. Perk’s Electric went out last week, and on the stacker belt they kept blowing some breakers so they are taking one motor off of it today and taking it to Soda Rewind to get a bid to see if it would be cheaper to have it rewound over getting a new one. Next week Goodfellow’s will be coming to do training on the crusher. He has had a lot of questions on when they will be opening up the back roads. He mentioned that it is still early. There was someone stuck on the Skinny Dip Road out by the Government Dam Road. He had a request on the South Gunnell Road from someone who works for Arnolds to get a truck out, this was a one- time deal. The board agreed that it is still to early to open up the back roads at this time. They are still doing a lot of preventative maintenance work on all of the equipment. Culverts are loaded and ready to go on the install on the Mountain Road irrigation canal system. He said they are trying to find little jobs to keep busy. He spoke with Tonya Gilbert regarding the silica sand. Right now, would be a perfect time to help with that and they will stage it by the gun range. Commissioner Somsen showed a video of the Ant Canyon work on the parking lot. Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 1 e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to convene an executive session pursuant to I.C. 74-206 (b) at 9:14 a.m. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Commissioner Somsen voted aye; Commissioner McCullough voted aye; Commissioner Mathews voted aye. The motion passed and the executive session began. e Commissioner Somsen suggested ending the executive session at 9:34 a.m. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to terminate a Road and Bridge employee effective today 02/23/2026. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. J. Adam Mabey, Sheriff: e Sheriff shared the Sheriff's office is up to staff. He shared an organizational chart with the Board. e The jail has finished up the paperwork in preparation for this year’s jail inspection by the Idaho Sheriff's Association. They do not anticipate any problems. e Jail numbers stay consistent staying around the 40-inmate mark. e Sheriff shared that there was a major incident that occurred out at Lanes Creek this last week. e Update on the continual problem in Freedom. There are no animals out this winter. They haven't had many problems with this individual due to his health problems. He continues to get complaints from Lincoln County. e They are continuing to build up instructors for trainings. e |CRMP came and did their jail inspection with their risk management. This determines the discount the jail gets each year. ICRMP brought on a new individual who is helping Chad Sarmento to learn and be able to do trainings. e The Sheriff's Association has been actively watching legislation. There a few things that will impact his office. One is a bill on boating safety, a bill for county jail per diem which is at the $80 mark. Each year he is asked about his extradition fund that he has and he found out the state is to be paying that. Conceal carry in the courthouse is also in the legislation. This would require personnel to stand by each entrance of the courtroom with a machine. He mentioned that he is against this due to the financial and other costs associated with this. Jill shared that she will bring this up more during her time today. It is proposed that Juvenile probation officers can arrest for activity in front of them where before they could not. Legislators have proposed doing away with the Patrol Academy and they want the Universities to do the trainings there. Sheriff is against this as it will be significantly more financially. e He is in the process of reviewing the 287(g) program. This is the program that the Sheriff's Office makes an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security for the purpose of assisting with some immigration activity. There are 3 different levels of activity. 1) Jail Enforcement Model which allows officers to identify and process removable aliens who have pending or active criminal charges. 2) Task Force Model which allows officers to enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties or as an active participant in an ICE-led task force. 3) Warrant Service Office Program which allows officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in your custody. EE FE TE PE FTE SE EL” RS” LESSEE PES cE TPC TS ISIE ON SST SE SE IE ES SRE SES SS OT SD ee reer eee eee eee Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 2 These programs are available only to officers and agencies with signed memorandums of agreement with ICE. He is considering the Warrant Service Officer Program. He asked for the Boards approval to move forward on this and it was agreed. Alexander Reservoir project, as a Sheriff he has no authority on that reservoir because it is a private property. His concern is that is one of the highest recreated areas and without any enforcement action out there under the Idaho Safe Boating Act, “it’s like the wild west’. He is in the process of working with the Idaho Parks and Recreation, Idaho Water Resources, Federal Energy Regulation Commission, and our State Legislators to see what needs to be done to have an MOU in place that would allow Alexander Reservoir to be considered a body of water regulated under the Idaho Safe Boating Safety Act. Rocky Mountain Power would like to see something like this in place. Sheriff then spoke about the leases on his vehicles. He has 5 leases coming up on vehicles, he would like to extend on two of those leases which are on the white Dodge Rams. The two F350’s will be gone as well as the one Yukon. He then talked about getting F150’s which are looking to be a better option. He will look into this further. Eric Hobson, Fire/Ambulance: Eric talked about the old generator at the court house and to repurpose it by putting it on a trailer and making it portable. He had a quote of $2800 for a trailer plus whatever it would cost to rewire the transfer switch into a plug. There were several options discussed such as putting it up for auction, putting it on the trailer and making it portable and see if it gets used and if not, see if there is interest elsewhere. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the purchase of a 16 foot Cargo Trailer for the Gen Set from Work Horse for a total amount of $2795.00 for EMS. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Snowtell did not publish any results this week. Everything is saying we are in 60% range but we are at 100% moisture. They finished the EMT class on Tuesday and everyone is tested but they did lose a few more people. They ended up finishing with twelve. He reported that the Fire Station is being put back together after the flooding and hoping that by the end of the month it will be completed. They decided to do more training with the existing volunteers, so they picked 6 Saturdays and asked volunteers to pick a Saturday and it wasn’t well received. Eric will reach out and see if evenings would work better but this would take two nights and maybe offer dinner as well. MSHA training was discussed for April. Eric will talk to Kevin about this. Jill gave Eric a TORT claim that was received by the commissioners today. Caribou Historical Preservation Committee: Galen Wilson spoke about creating a Caribou Historical Preservation Commission. He asked if the Board had recommendations and mentioned that they need to have at least 5 Board Members. Commissioner Somsen suggested that the 3 Commissioners, Galen Wilson, Bill Horsley, and Coleen Benson be appointed to the Commission and proposed that they hold future meeting in conjunction with the Caribou County Commissioners as an agenda Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 3 item. Galen asked for this in writing, along with the Ordinance 2026-02 so that he could send it to the State for their approval and then they could start working on the grant. Minutes for the meeting for this commission will be included in the Caribou County Commissioners minutes. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to create The Caribou Historical Preservation Committee comprised of the following members Commissioner Bryce Somsen, Commissioner Mark Mathews, Commissioner Marty McCullough, Galen Wilson, Bill Horsley, and Coleen Benson. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Matt Lucia, Greater Yellowstone Coalition: e Matt came to talk about the Greater Yellowstone Coalition as the Idaho Conservation Manager. He wanted to talk about public lands both positive and negative. e Are public lands benefiting Caribou County? If so, how? Commissioner Mathews mentioned that 40% of Caribou County is public lands so the residents of the county have learned to utilize the public lands and recreation. Commissioner Somsen commented that we have the Caribou Forest Initiative and this involves forestry, mining, agriculture, grazing and anything involving the forest. e He asked about PILT and SRS funding and are they working? Payments were the discussion on this topic as they are not always certain if those funds will be available and these funds are a huge amount of the county's budget. This would be so beneficial if we knew this money was coming every year. e Are there any policy changes the county would like to see at the State or Federal level? Commissioner Mathews stated that if the public land was in the private sector, the county would generate more revenue and then mentioned that he was not advocating for it to become private. The federal government should consider that in the PILT funding. e What challenges does the county face related to public lands? Commissioner McCullough mentioned the Alexander Reservoir with concerns about who owns it. Commissioner Somsen commented about Bayer and the Sage Grouse conflict and how the money from this would not be used in Caribou County. Commissioner Mathews said sometimes with public lands we are held hostage. It’s better when we can all sit down and collaborate with each other. e What successes can be attributed to public lands in the county? The initiative seems to be a big success in Caribou County. Commissioner Somsen commented that recreation and the amount of people that come in and are able to use public lands. Commissioner Mathews then mentioned that our mining industry is dependent upon the public lands. e Matt asked about emergency services and are we seeing an increase. Commissioner Mathews commented that it has increased slightly but not like some other places like Fremont or Bear Lake. Commissioner Somsen talked about the Caribou Loop Trails and how it has become very popular and how it is used by gravel bicycles more than other groups. e Howimportant are public lands for ranchers? Jill mentioned that there are 2 large grazing associations that rely on public grounds. Commissioner Somsen also talked about control burns and how that ruins the grazing for that year. Rowdy talked about single tracks trails and would like to see them not turned into side by side trails. e The hope is to collect all this information, put it all together, and come back to report to the Board hopefully this summer. eee ee eee eee Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 4 Michael Blakey, Michael was not able to attend today and has been added to the next agenda. Jim McCulloch, Jim and Chris came in behalf of GOAL (Get Out and Live) and wanted to talk about the Bailey Creek Bridge River Access. Jim shared that Chris and Tallan were on the Small Town Ruckus Podcast, and Casey Batterton expressed his desire for doing a safer river access out at the Bailey Creek Bridge where the kayakers and boaters put in. He stated that this is something that they wanted to look into. They then shared a illustration showing a kayak dock and launch with a diagram and costs. He then shared a picture showing 3 different options where this launch could be put in. 1. This is where everyone gets in now. There are some good size rocks there creating some existing safety concerns. This is in the right-of-way and owned by Bear River Summit LLC. 2. The person at Caldera that Jim has been talking to thought that #2 on the bend might be the safest place as far as current tends to go to the outside of that corner and flow of the river. The problem is that you still need to get through the bridge. 3, Jim thought this might be the better option but they do not have that land and then said that technically they don’t own any of the land. The South side of the river is Jerry Brown's property. The person that bought Frandsen’s is from Draper with no contact but an address. 4. Is on the other side of the river. Jim thought this might be a smaller project to do rather than trails that could really cost a lot of money. He thought a lot of people would use this. He believed if they could purchase the ground, they could put in a safer parking lot. There was much discussion on the options of where to pursue this project. Chris spoke about how busy the river is during the summer. Jim mentioned that he tried to call Jerry Brown and will try the City of Soda Springs to get access to ground for parking. Jim mentioned that they will look into other avenues of funding as well. Rowdy Larkins, Courthouse Maintenance/Building Dept: Rowdy presented a quote from Scott’s for locks at the Event Center. This is for 5 doors, 3 exterior doors and the two inside, 1 from the classroom to the bathroom and then 1 for the Elections Closet. Commissioner McCullough made a motion to re-key the installation of an Alarm Lock access control system to the Caribou County Event Center for $17,971.89 coming out of PILT from Scott’s Lock and Key. Commissioner Somsen seconded the motion. Motion passed. Dally found a projector and talked to TJ who said this is a good mid-grade projector. This is on sale for $1299.99 from Office Depot. This would be projected on the wall. She will find a cart to keep it on. Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 5 Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the purchase of an Epson Pro EX11000 3-chip 3LCD Full HD 1080p Wireless Laser Projector from Office Depot for up to $1400. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Change Order #31 for 3 remotes for the Fire Station doors at the Event Center. The quote came in at $1432 from Miner Overhead. Rowdy wondered if he could do this cheaper. Commissioner Somsen asked which budget this would come out of. Rowdy will coordinate with Eric on this. Rowdy found another option for the floor scrubber/sweeper. (this is a combo) He can get parts off of the website and they will walk him through how to fix it. If the squeegee is removed it could go through the doorways. The price is $4799.00 including shipping. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the purchase of a Happy Combo A: BTCR26 floor scrubber + Floor Sweeper + 6 month Accessories for $4800 to come from PILT. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Rowdy asked about his old Dodge Dakota truck and what they wanted to do with it. It was suggested to see what other items the county has that could go to auction. Doug Wood, Prosecutor: Doug has a request for a computer. Currently they use Doug's computer to download video’s which ties up his computer. He asked if he could purchase a computer and requested up to $2500 and come out of Capital Outlay. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to allow the Prosecutor’s Office to purchase a new computer for storage and videos for $2500. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Aaron Cook, Assessor: Aaron shared an invitation with the Board for Lincoln Days Fundraiser & Auction that will be this Saturday. This is a breakfast, hear from elected officials & meet candidates running for public office from all levels of government! Admission by donation. Jill Stoor, Clerk: Jill has a new Caribou County Resolution No. 2026-02 to update the mileage to $.725 this follows the IRS rate. Commissioner Somsen motion to approve Resolution No. 2026-02 A RESOLUTION SETTING THE REIMBURSEMENT FOR TRAVEL MILEAGE FOR AUTHORIZED WORK-RELATED DUTIES OF CARIBOU COUNTY to 72.5 cents. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Over a year ago a process was started to have a Caribou County Credit Card Policy. It was suggested to start off with just a few cards being used until she is use to the system and gets familiar with it. Angie asked that someone from the bank come and train us on their online portion. Credit cards will be used by departments which will help the Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 6 clerk's office. Line #6 has a limit of $1000. County Department heads can make an exception. Fuel is only to be put in county vehicles. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the Caribou County Credit Card Policy effective date 02/23/2026 with the addition of limiting the purchase of fuel to county vehicles only. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed Jill received a call from the clerk in Bear Lake County about the Tri-County Snow Mobile By-laws which were last updated in 1999. One concern is that all the money for registrations go through Bear Lake County; another concern was with the amount of people on the Board. Jill thought questions could be added to the agenda and addressed at the 4-County Meeting. It was agreed. House Bill 621 has become a big issue with IAC taking opposition to it. They are wanting to allow guns and weapons in the Courthouse which would require hiring security. The bill states that there is no fiscal impact to counties. Elections cycle for May starts today. State officials have a one week filing period starting today with an online filing system. County filing starts next week and ends March 13. This will be published in the Idaho Enterprise. It will be posted on the website as well. The State is pushing to file online, with the caveat that they can still come into the county for help with this process. County offices available to run for are: Commissioner District 1 is a 4-year term & Commissioner District 2 is a 2-year term, Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Coroner all are 4-year terms and Precinct Committeemen which are a 2-year term. The website to file is IdahoVote.gov and looks like it should be fairly easy. Doug asked if the Board was aware of bill H743 giving the Attorney General digression over whether or not they are going to sue elected officials for dereliction of duties. They could potentially hold revenue sharing from the county if an elected official is being investigated. 4-County Meeting possibly the 25t of March at the Event Center if it is not booked. BOE is March 18tin Franklin County. April 8th is the Spring County Officials Institute in Downey at the Fairgrounds. 1st week in June IACC Conference in Nampa. Jill will not be at the next Commissioner's Meeting but her staff will help with this. Commissioner Somsen mentioned that Sarah Westbrook talked about printing notices and said that if the newspaper that you send your notices to publish to the web, you don’t have to go from printing date to printing date. You just have to have that on 2 weeks. Jill will talk to her to clarify this. Tiffany LaBrouche e Tiffany LaBrouche came to be sworn in for the Caribou County Planning and Zoning Board. Commissioner Mathews swore her in. Ally Schwulst, GIS: Commissioner Somsen made a motion to convene an executive session for 74-206 (b) at 11:53 a.m. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Commissioner Somsen voted aye; Commissioner McCullough voted aye; Commissioner Mathews voted aye. The motion passed and the executive session began. Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 7 Commissioner Somsen suggested ending the executive session at 11:59 a.m. No decisions were made. Ally commented that the 911 is very important and wondered if the county wanted to contract with someone, Ally recommended Wilma Robertson with a consulting company. They currently contract with other counties. Her new position will be Monday — Thursday so if she is needed, she could come in on Fridays to help. Ally will contact Wilma to see if they can come in and visit with the Board. Jill will advertise the position as well as soon as she gets the job description from Ally. Ally was asked to get her job description and list of projects that she has started as well as log-ins. Ally asked if she could donate her sick leave to employees in the court house, but Doug said that is against the county policy. Ally then thanked the Board for giving her the opportunity to work here and the Board expressed their appreciation to her as well. Other: Commissioner Somsen made a motion to accept the agenda as presented for 02-23-2026. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the minutes of 02/09/2026 as presented, the claims approval report in the amount of $337,006.85 for 02/19/2026 and the payroll claims in the amount of $226,823.01 for 02/18/2026. Commissioner McCullough seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 12:10 PM. The Caribou County Board of Commissioners will meet again on March 09, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. for regular meeting. Signed: Mark Mathews, Commissioner Chair Attested: Jill Stoor, Clerk [Apo uSSsteor Commissioner Minutes 02-23-2026 Page 8
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