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minutes meeting date 2025-12-08 · fetched 2026-09-09 · 25765 characters · read by OCR, check numbers against the source · official file · plain text
COMMISSIONER MEETING OF December 08, 2025 The Caribou County Commissioners met in regular session on December 08, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. Those in attendance were: Mark Mathews, Commissioner Chairman Corey Hopkins Bryce Somsen, Commissioner Andrea Gumm, Simplot Jill Stoor, Clerk Steve Liechty, Rocky Mountain Power Doug Wood, Prosecutor Galen Wilson, Caribou Historic Society Sharlene Simons, Deputy Clerk Bill Horsley, Caribou Historic Society Adam Mabey, Sheriff Coleen Benson, Chesterfield Foundation Kevin McLain, Road & Bridge Stan Christensen Eric Hobson, Public Safety Joe Frank Swensen Kya Simmons, Public Safety Aleta Brown, RMP Via Zoom Rowdy Larkins, Maint. & Bldg Christopher Anderson RMP Via Zoom Dwight Lloyd, Weed Control Logan Cates, RMP Via Zoom Helen Barker, P&Z/Parks & Rec Tami Moody, RMP Via Zoom Aaron Cook, Assessor Brandon Hall, The Idaho Enterprise Paul Gritton, City of Soda The meeting opened with Jill Stoor leading the pledge of allegiance and prayer. Adam Mabey, Sheriff: Sheriff stated that Deputy Hueckstaedt notified Sheriff that the Spillman “Flex” system went down as well as the associated server failures that occurred between December 4" and December 6", 2025 which affected the Caribou County Sheriff's Office and multiple partner agencies. The motherboard was replaced and it is back up and running for now. Recommendations are: 1) A server refresh for Spillman Flex, this system is aging, has experienced multiple issues, and has become increasingly unreliable. 2) Establishment of a redundant backup server at an alternate location. A secondary Spillman server should be deployed in a physically separate location. Sheriff suggested this to be housed in the new Event Center in Grace. 3) Distribution of critical virtual machines across multiple physical hosts. Currently, too many mission-critical services depend on one physical server. Moving key virtual machines, such as the domain controller, DHCP, VPN servers and guardian to other hardware would significantly reduce system- wide impact if a single server fails. Sheriff was informed during a prior Commissioner meeting that there is a server that wasn't being used at the courthouse, but he found that it would not work for his facility. The current server is not big enough. Due to Motorola specifications, they sent a quote totaling $45,972. The Board suggested to have the Sheriff run it past TJ who is the AMA ICE IRI ASAE EEA WD TP SI ASS A ST AEST NY ER PRIEST LITEIR ATTEN BE PEA NEE ESE TET LE EE EE OO IIT TS Po TEP TT TE TE ST TO NSS EL LY SE ALE, ener rere eee Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 1 county IT person. Commissioner Somsen asked what he has in his budget but Sheriff wasn't able to share that at this time. He will look into this and he will email this information to the Board. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the purchase of a primary server for the Sheriff's Office contingent on upcoming emails supplying the hard numbers that the Sheriff provides. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Kevin McLain, Road & Bridge: Kevin shared that most of the snow plows have the Paccar/Cummins motors in them. They can access part of it with the scan tool in the software that they already have but there are some things that they can’t do on the Cummins’ so they are wondering if they could purchase a year subscription for software for that. Josh will get prices on this software subscription and Kevin will let the Board know of the amount on this subscription. Kevin talked to Jim Betty on Friday about the new road grader and it is still in route and it should be here by the end of the week. Commissioner Somsen asked if this if the grader for Dwight and Kevin stated that Dwight’s is the one Adam McCalister had. They are still hauling chips, and they are trying to find jobs that they can put cinders or gravel roads on that are not winter maintained roads. Kevin received an email from Good Fellows, they are offering a free crusher school in Salt Lake, December 19-20, 2025. 2 employees are willing to go and the expense to the county is an overnight stay and meals as the school is no cost. The Board thought that was a good idea. There is a stop ahead sign and a stop sign missing at the bottom of Larsen Road. They have had to replace one on the Lloyd Road multiple times in the last couple of weeks as well. These cost around $500 each. Kevin is working on getting approval signatures for the Eight-Mile bridge that will be affected by the construction. Kevin mentioned the LRHIP (Local Rural Highway Investment Program) Grant Application for FY27 which needs a signature to apply. This was presented earlier to Commissioner Mathews who gave approval and it needs to be formally ratified by motion in this meeting. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to ratify the Caribou County Local Rural Highway Investment Program, Blackfoot River Road Chip Seal Local Highway Technical Assistance Council Grant Application for FY 27. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. The 2026 Bonneville Snow Removal Agreement was then presented to the Board for approval. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to enter into a snow removal agreement between Bonneville County and Caribou County for 2025-2026 for 17.3 miles and the total amount of $36,741.05. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Corey Hopkins talked about no winter access at the Dike for the ice fisherman and asked if the county could do snow removal there. He shared that there is no good place to park their snow machine trailers. He stated that this is the only access. Kevin said he drove out there this morning and said that there are electrical power boxes around some of the camping spots that could be a logistical problem. It was then noted that this is not all county road as part of it Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 2 is owned by the BLM. The Board suggested for Corey to get written permission from the BLM for the county to plow this before there would be any more discussion on the matter. Eric Hobson, Public Safety: Eric mentioned that he got a call from the cleaning people there was water in the fire station in Soda. He called Idaho Flood and Fire and Eric signed the contract on Friday because they wouldn't start working until the contract was signed. There were a couple of inches of water on the floor and damages to the walls as well. This was turned into ICRMP the same day. The leak was due to a flex line that was corroded under the sink in the hallway. It was determined that a bottle of muriatic acid stored there and the fumes from that over the years ate away at the pipe. Rowdy shared that the carpet may be okay, base board may be ok, there are blowers by the bathroom for air movement and he mentioned that the tile may start popping loose in the hallway. Eric wanted the Board to be aware of the issue. Eric made a purchase on a radio last month on a really good deal, saving the county a lot of money. During Black Friday sales, cameras were half off. He bought them for each building costing between $600-$800 each and he said they have 11 buildings. This billing will be coming through soon. They attended an ambulance billing class last month. He mentioned that our county is currently billing very low. The average is $770.00 and currently we bill $350.00. He shared some reimbursement rates as well. Medicare rate was $340.00 and BlueCross was $410.00. Medicaid just upped their rates to $410.00, Medicare will probably follow suit shortly. Eric stated that they are looking at increasing their rate. He shared insurance options and he will look at the reimbursement rate and report back with a fee schedule. Commissioner Somsen mentioned that he wasn’t able to log in to the repeater cameras on Sedgewick and Eric was able to log in so they will look into this. Jill shared that Eric had contacted her and said he needed more Naloxone, she told him to go ahead and pull it from the Opioid funds but she needs approval by motion. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the purchase of Naloxone from the Opioid Settlement Fund for a total amount of $969.73. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Rowdy Larkins, Building/Maintenance: Rowdy shared pictures of the fire station water damage. He called Idaho Fire and Flood and they were quick to respond and start working. He shared a bid from Perk’s Electric for overhead doors for the Event Center. This is just to provide power to the motors. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to accept the bid from Perk’s Electric for $8768.00 to come from P.I.L.T. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Rowdy talked to Mendenhall Cleaners and they have cleaned at the Event Center twice. She quoted $85 a day for 2 months and then she will reassess. He thought they could clean 3 times a week and this will be for the cleaning the office area. He is meeting with Gem State Paper for vacuums and a floor scrubber. Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 3 There was a discussion on where to put the janitor closet and what to put on the walls in the closets that stores the table and chairs to reduce damage from the carts hitting the walls. Dwight Lloyd, Weed Control: Dwight mentioned the signs at Layne’s Grave are installed. He would like to start a list for Caribou County concerning weeds he is worried about. He then shared a list of those weeds. He thought about sharing this in the paper as a list of extremely invasive weeds. He is concerned about our county and he will get more information from other counties and possibly invite someone to come and talk to the Board about how they have implemented this. He would like to scrap the no spray zone. Doug mentioned that the county can't abolish this but the land owner needs to abide by the state policy. (Idaho Code 22-2407) He asked about the rocks on Bridge Creek road that have not been removed so he can do snow removal. Commissioner Somsen asked Dwight to push them out of the way on both sides. Dillon Liechty / Kent Loosle, Caribou Medical Center: Not in attendance today. Andrea Gumm, Simplot: Andrea wanted to give a couple of updates on the Smoky Canyon Mine. The slurring line replacement portion will begin at the mill and end at the summit of Timber Creek where new pipe was installed in 2024. Snow removal along the ROW is scheduled to begin April 1, 2026. The portion of pipeline being replaced along Timber Creek Road is expected to be completed by May 10. 2026. Finalization of this entire pipeline replacement is not scheduled until July. They will place a sign near the junction to inform the public that the Timber Creek Road will remain closed until the work along the road is completed. Due to the timing of work, no road closure statement is anticipated for this project. She provided written documentation of the 2026 slurry line replacement plan. She then talked about the Black Rock land exchange in Pocatello. The longevity of the operations at the Don plant are directly connected to the longevity of the mining operation in Smoky Canyon. There was a land exchange with the BLM in 2020 that has since been challenged in the court. They own title to the land but they can’t do anything with the land and they are working through the judicial process at this time. She stated that the real issue with the judicial process in the Federal Land Management Policy Act (FLIPMA). She is here today to ask the Board for a letter of support in regards to the Black Rock land exchange and asking the congressional delegation to take a closer look at FLIPMA to help avoid some of these road blocks that occur and it could potentially continue occurring if this continues not only with Simplot but other land management and land exchanges. Jill will prepare this letter and have it ready for the next Commissioner meeting in January. Helen Barker, P&Z/Parks & Rec: Helen shared that Babe Myers Barley Meadows Subdivision Phase 2 & 3 had a deadline of November 30, 2025 and they were unable to complete those two phases. Phase 2, he was unable to complete the culverts or have the inspections done by that deadline. Phase 3 needed to add some additional junction boxes and they were not aware of that until they were able to pull power from Phase 2. They plan to have power done for Phase 3 by the 31st of Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 4 December. In regard to the road and drainage in the final inspection, they don’t plan on having that completed until September of 2026. This will be 3% extension for Phase 2. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to grant the emergency extension for the Barley Meadows subdivision, Phase 2 until the 31st of December of this year, Resolution No 2025-12. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve Resolution 2025-13 which extends Barley Meadows Phase 3 until September 01, 2026 due to extenuating circumstances. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to enter into a Public Hearing for Ordinance 2025-04 Amending Road Code Section 7.16.630 (G)(9) at 10:46 a.m. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously and the hearing convened. e Helen shared that Ordinance No 2025-04 would be amending Caribou County Code Section 7.16.630 (G)(9). This section would involve any driveways on any un-platted subdivision within the County or area of impact being exempt from standards when the landowner signs an affidavit of understanding that failure to construct a driveway to the aforementioned standards can result in emergency services being unable to access the property, subject to approval by the County Commissioners and Road and Bridge Supervisor. Commissioner Somsen was concerned that the insurance companies need to be aware of this. He would like this recorded with the documents. Doug mentioned that he would help to create the affidavit. She will check with Road and Bridge to see if they have an affidavit for this. e There was no public comment. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to close the public hearing at 10:49 am. Commissioner Matthews seconded the motion. Motion passed. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve Ordinance No. 2025-04 an ordinance of the Board of County Commissioners of Caribou County, Idaho, amending Caribou County Code Section 7.16.630(G)(9) relating to driveway construction standards; providing for approval by the Board of County Commissioners and Road and Bridge Supervisor for exemptions. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. e Helen spoke about the commercial boundaries within the county. She then shared 2 maps showing areas of concern. One area is near the bottom of Fish Creek. The proposal was to keep Neibaur’s lot which was issued as an ordinance in 2019 as well as the school house as commercial and everything else reverted back to Ag. It was suggested to have a public hearing concerning the changes and until then do more research on this area. The next area is near the intersection of US Highway 30, Old Highway 30 and State Highway 34. There is no documentation to support why this is zoned commercial. The proposal is to revert it back to Ag. Helen would like to establish property lines and clean these areas up. She will discuss this further with her planning and zoning committee. a! Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 5 Concerning the RV Park, Helen spoke with Shelley at IDPR in regard to no longer accepting the grant. Shelley's concern about re-applying for the grant is they may not receive the new grant. There is another option which is to keep the grant as in and apply for a phase 2 which would include paving, electrical, watering system, land scaping and anything else that they have found to be an additional cost. Helen thought that the maintenance would be more than the revenue coming in. She feels that we should put money into what is existing by improving the walking path, the beach area and areas that the local residents can enjoy. The due date for the grantis in January. It was suggested to go ahead with the new grant and get a more informed dollar amount of what there is to work with. Eric was concerned about an ordinance concerning the access, he wanted to know if they are good with this where the state designs this. Could there be any future legality issues with this? Doug said he would do some research. Steve Liechty/Rocky Mountain Power: Steve started the discussion and turned the time to Logan Cates Via Zoom for introduction of those presenting. Tami Moody, via zoom, shared the Transmission Maintenance Project Overview map by a presentation. Christopher Anderson then shared the project description. The Trex B Project will consist of upgrading existing high voltage transmission line infrastructure from Idaho to Utah. The project will improve reliability, increase capacity, enhance public safety, better integration of multiple energy sources, and economic and operational efficiency. Project features include 2 phases. The first phase is approximately 60-miles long between Honeyville, Ut and Downey, ID and completion is anticipated by the end of 2028. The second phase is from Treasureton to Grace and each of these lines are about 28 miles long with the completion being anticipated by the end of 2030. Tami shared the next steps which include: Initiate right of entry contact with private landowners, continue working with Bureau of Land Management in Idaho, continue working with County/City Planning Department as needed, and the Construct. She then shared their contact information. They will provide maps on their website as well. Steve shared that there is money available for projects through the Rocky Mountain Power foundation. Galen Wilson, Caribou Historical Society: Galen Wilson said that he talked to Alexis Matrone from the State Historic Preservation Office. She said that there is money available but she needs the commissioners to set up a historic preservation board so they can get funding for historic preservation in our county. He was here to ask the Board for approval and to create an ordinance for this and he asked the Commissioners to help create a board to serve on the commission. Commissioner Somsen suggested having Galen, Bill and Coleen on the Board and then suggested that the three Commissioners also sit on this board. Jill will work on writing up the ordinance to be presented at January's meeting. Stan Christensen, Flood Management: Stan came to talk about the flood management issues as talked about in August. As a recap, Stan shared that they are have flooding issue at 2070 Bench View Drive and above Joe Frank Swensen’s place, 685 Bench Lago Road. They are having drainage issues which is causing rising nitrates in their well water. He asked what the procedures are to put in the culverts at these locations. Kevin stated that he went and took a transit to the 2070 Bench View Drive and wasn't sure how he could get water from the North side of the road to the South side as there wasn't enough grade difference. Stan stated that according to his measurement there is enough | ARN AUG YS BEAL TIT CREA BINT TLE EY LETTE OEE REEVE WEEN TES WENN ELT TG BRM) 7AM SMBS ENGELS NOTA De MPO Et Be me pe a SRI VT aR GS TN SERIE DN SSIORS PEPE ANE CT MONET SE GPRD Pad LENE NDNA ETT Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 6 difference to add the culvert to help with drainage. He also stated that he thought the culverts need to be cleaned regularly. Stan and Joe Frank will meet with Kevin to see if the culvert on Bench View Drive as well as by Swenson’s place are fesible. Kevin shared that they found the culvert to the North of Swensen’s home that was dropped off a year or so ago and it is on the schedule to get that one put in. Stan also requested that in the spring to have the patrol move the snow to the east not to the west above Swensen’s. Doug Wood, Prosecutor: Doug said he has been busy with not the typical prosecutor stuff while helping with Bear Lake County and other Boards he has volunteered to be on. He presented at the IAC County Officials Institute meeting. He is working with surrounding counties and they trade duties with each other to save cost and this prevents them from hiring special prosecutors. They review cases for each other. He said it has been working well and he feels they have a good system going. Jill Stoor, Clerk: Jill talked about Gem Plan nominations and the time period to nominate had passed so Commissioner Somsen was automatically nominated. She presented the Commissioner assignments for approval as well as the calendar for Commissioner's meeting for 2026 year. Commissioner Somsen would like to attend the city council meetings at least quarterly and thought maybe it could be put in the assignments. Treatment Court could also be added to Commissioner Somsen’s assignment. Jill asked if Jayson would like remittance to be paid directly to IDAWY or stay as it is? Commissioner Mathews will talk to him and Jill will check with the auditor. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to accept the Caribou County Commissioner Assignments effective as of January 1, 2026 as amended. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to accept the Caribou County Commissioner Meeting Schedule as of January 1, 2026 as amended. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Ada County pathology agreement came and Doug had one concern. It did not say when they would get back with us on the autopsy reports. He has a case he has been waiting on for a couple of years. He suggested adding a response within a reasonable amount of time. It was then decided to bring this up at IAC meetings. Commissioner Somsen made a motion to enter into Agreement #31236 for Pathological Services between Caribou County and Ada County. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Aaron is three credits short of keeping his appraisal license up and he has a class coming up that has two options to take it, either January 8 or online the week of IAC and asked for permission to just stay and attend the meeting instead of coming home and then turning around and going back up. It was agreed to have him just stay and attend the meeting. LTTE, SSL ETS TTD TEE SE EEE TO AT TENTH TAC LATTE RENT IE BSE BT TOT STD PEE I BE BTS N= TESA YEN 8 AETV ALATEST ET A IN Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 7 e Jill received a letter from the Soil Conservation District asking for a continued donation for the 2027 Fiscal Year. Last year we approved $15,000 for 2026. It was agreed to stay at the $15,000. This will be approved with the budget. e Concerning Lundahl's, Jill still has a bill from them for retention and is assuming she should hold on until everything is complete. The commissioners agreed. e Jill shared a letter from Searle and Hart. This is an engagement letter to start the process of our audit. She needed a signature from Commissioner Mathews. This is for a single audit due to us spending over $750,000 of Federal funds. This gives him the permission to move forward with the audit process. e Tisha received a note from Sheriff Mabey last week and he is looking to add certification pay for a civil deputy. He is asking for $.20 due to being post certified prior to coming to the new position. They need clarification on this from the Sheriff. This will be denied until further clarification. e FYI, Jill hired the position as the court clerk. Kristin Skinner is training for Cindy Bunderson’s job who will be leaving the end of the year. e IAC Meeting is January 26-29. Jill needed clarification for registrations and rooms. e Jill presented the contract for the Event Center. Discussion on rates, open flames, tables, chairs, audio/visual equipment, prices on deposit and rental, cleaning and many other items of concern. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to adopt the Caribou County Event Center Rental Agreement as amended. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. e Jill has ordered a laptop for the new scheduler for the Event Center and she will also add a phone from Rytel. She also has the email ready for the new hire to use as well. It was suggested to add a $25 per month phone stipend. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to convene an executive session for 74-206 (b) for hiring for the Event Center Scheduler at 1:52 p.m. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Commissioner Somsen voted aye; Commissioner Mathews voted aye. The motion passed and the executive session began. e Commissioner Somsen suggested ending the executive session at 2:51 p.m. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to offer the Scheduling/Cleaning (after events) position of the Event Center to Dally Smith. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 8 Other: e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the amended agenda, adding Sheriff Mabey before Kevin McLain. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed. e Commissioner Somsen made a motion to approve the minutes of 11/10/2025 as presented, the claims approval report in the amount of $515,053.77 for 12-05-2025 and the payroll claims in the amount of $656,689.92 for 11/26/2025. Commissioner Mathews seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously. e The meeting adjourned at 2:54 p.m. The Caribou County Board of Commissioners will meet again on January 12, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. for the next regular scheduled meeting. Signed: Mark Mathews, Commissioner Chair Attested: Jill Stoor, Clerk Commissioner Minutes 12-08-2025 Page 9
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