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minutes meeting date 2026-10-13 · fetched 2026-11-01 · 22717 characters · official file · plain text
BOCC Oct 13 2026 Public Hearing FREMONT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEETING MINUTES Tuesday, October 13, 2026 Present for the meeting were: Commissioners Blair Dance, Rick Hill, and Mark Chandler Also attended by: Clerk Meredith Mattingly, Deputy Clerk Kim Fletcher, and Civil Attorney Blake Hall Commissioner Dance called the meeting to order and welcomed those in attendance. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to approve the agenda for October 13, 2026 as presented. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioners RE: Adopt Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision Concerning Caldera Flats Motion for Reconsideration, file #25-060 – action item Commissioner Chandler made a motion to adopt the Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision Concerning Caldera Flats Denying the Motion for Reconsideration file #25-060. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioners RE: Adopt Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision Concerning Last Chance Playground Motion for Reconsideration file #26-012 – action item Commissioner Hill made a motion to Adopt the Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision Concerning Last Chance Playground Denying the Motion for Reconsideration file #26-012. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioners RE: Adopt Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision Concerning Rogers Road Validation Request file #24-103 – action item Commissioner Dance made a motion to adopt the decision to deny the request for this particular piece of road and declare the road not public, and adopt the Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision Concerning Rogers Road Validation Request file #24-103. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Planning and Building Planner Dusty Rigby RE: Miller Acres Short Plat – action item; Reynolds Brothers Short Plat – action item Ms. Rigby presented application #26-023 for Miller Acres along with Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision. Commissioner Hill made a motion to approve application #26-023 for Claudette Miller - Miller Acres Subdivision along with Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Ms. Rigby presented application #26-048 for Reynolds Brothers along with Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to approve application #26-048 for Conant Creek Farms LLC - Reynolds Brothers Subdivision along with Findings of Facts, Conclusions of Law and Decision. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. FREMONT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PUBLIC HEARING Fremont County Budget Opening Fremont County Courthouse/Commissioners Room Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 9:40 AM Present for the meeting were: Commissioners Blair Dance, Rick Hill, and Mark Chandler Also attended by: Clerk Meredith Mattingly, Deputy Clerk Kim Fletcher, and Civil Attorney Blake Hall Commissioner Dance called the hearing to order and welcomed those in attendance. He also introduced county employees in attendance. Commissioner Dance explained the purpose of the hearing and asked Clerk Mattingly if the hearing had been properly noticed. Clerk Mattingly stated that it had. Commissioner Dance asked the Commissioners if any of them had a conflict with this hearing. Commissioners have no conflict. Commissioner Dance turned the time over to Clerk Mattingly to open and complete our Fremont County Budget for FY2026. Clerk Mattingly discussed the budget opening items that have been done over the fiscal year 2025-2026, and explained monies that have been moved from one fund to another and the reasons why, and monies added to funds because of items we had sold, or grants we had received. Commissioner Dance opened the meeting for public comment. PUBLIC COMMENT: Cathy Koon, 43 E 3rd S., St. Anthony, ID. Ms. Koon asked if she could have a copy of the document read by Clerk Mattingly, it would answer a lot of questions. Mr. Hall stated the list was part of the resolution and would be made part of the record once it is adopted. Ms. Koon asked what the overall effect these changes make on the budget. Clerk Mattingly stated she could give Ms. Koon a total on an Excel Sheet. Ms. Koon stated that at a previous meeting, Road and Bridge had mentioned they were receiving a grant for a project they were doing, and we talked about having to open the budget because those funds hadn’t come in yet. Do these adjustments account for that, or would that be separate. Ms. Mattingly stated it would be separate, because it is a different budget year. Ms. Koon expressed her appreciation for what the Commissioners and Clerk Mattingly do for the County with millions of dollars at stake. She understands they had to cut the budget this year and understands how difficult it was for them to do it. She appreciates what they do and knows it isn’t an easy job. She thanked them for the job they do. The Commissioners thanked her for her comments. Commissioner Dance closed at 9:57 a.m. Commissioner Dance made a motion to adopt Resolution 2027-04 Opening the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget for the Purposes of Receiving Unanticipated Monies and to Transfer Funds from the General Reserve and Inopertative Funds. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioners RE: Quarterly Jail Inspection – action item Commissioners performed the quarterly jail inspection. Commissioners RE: Present Mills-Adler Award to Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake Commissioner Dance presented the Mills-Adler Award to our Prosecuting Attorney, Lindsey Blake for the work she did with the Vallow/Daybell cases. This award was given to her by Vick Pearson, the Franklin County Prosecutor, and the Idaho Prosecuting Attorney’s Association, and the Idaho Association of Counties at the IAC Conference last month which she was unable to attend. Ms. Blake thanked the county, her office, and the community for their support for her office and the work that she does. She stated she wouldn’t have been able to work as hard on those cases and have the success that she did if it wasn’t for the support of our staff and community, and she is very grateful for the opportunity to serve Fremont County. Elections RE: L&A Testing Commissioners attended the Elections Logistics and Accuracy Testing of the election equipment in the Clerk’s office. The public was also invited to attend. LHTAC Chainey Rhoades RE: Road Scholars and Road Masters Awards Presentations Mr. Rhoades presented the Road Scholars and Road Masters awards to several members of our Road and Bridge Department. He also discussed the new leadership program. Our Road Scholars for this year are Ralph Hammond, Davon McConnan, Keith Schultz, Billy Birch, Kyle Sweat, and Derek Brown. They received a hat, leatherman, and a plaque. Our Road Master this year is Kyle Sweat. He received a coat and a plaque. FREMONT COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PUBLIC HEARING Planning and Zoning Fee Increases Fremont County Courthouse/Commissioners Room Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 1:20 PM Present for the meeting were: Commissioners Blair Dance, Rick Hill, and Mark Chandler Also attended by: Clerk Meredith Mattingly, Deputy Clerk Kim Fletcher, Civil Attorney Blake Hall, Planning and Zoning Administrator Tom Cluff Commissioner Dance called the hearing to order and welcomed those in attendance. He also introduced county employees in attendance. Commissioner Dance explained the purpose of the hearing is to reset the fees for Planning and Zoning. These fees haven’t been addressed since 2011 and are being adjusted to reflect inflationary pressures that have taken place over the last 15 years. He asked Clerk Meredith Mattingly if the hearing had been properly noticed. Clerk Mattingly stated that it had. Commissioner Dance asked if any of the Commissioners have a conflict on this hearing. Commissioners have no conflict. Commissioner Dance turned the time over to Planning and Zoning Administrator Tom Cluff to discuss the proposed Planning and Zoning Fee Increases. Mr. Cluff stated the Planning and Building Department handles responsibilities for 2 main categories; building permits, and for Planning and Zoning related things. They recoup those costs through fees. Our current fees were established through 2 resolutions. The first was in 2008, which adopted a fee schedule for building permit fees. The non-building fees were adopted in 2011. It has been a while, and the fees need to be updated. Today’s resolution that we are holding the hearing on, is to abolish the fee schedule that was adopted in 2011 and replace it with a new fee schedule to update the functions of the Planning and Zoning Department for non-building permit related things. He will be presenting a resolution for building permit fee updates at a later date. The 2011 resolution referred to these fees as “permits and procedures authorized by the development code.” He refers to them as “Planning and Zoning related fees” because he doesn’t want to swear to it that every one of these fees is authorized by the development code, but they specifically are not building permit related. The memo has 3 attachments. The first one is the resolution. The resolution has an exhibit A, which is the new fee schedule, as well as an exhibit B, which is the old fee schedule and how it was adjusted. The fees were adjusted for inflation, and then they were adjusted further to be simpler. The second attachment is the 2011 resolution. The third attachment is the notice of the public hearing which includes both the old and new fee schedules. Commissioner Chandler asked if fees were adjusted to stay under the 4.99% fee schedule, would these adjustments need to be done every year. Mr. Cluff isn’t sure. When these fees were set in 2011, he had more staff. And it was done before the housing bubble, and then there was a recession. So these fees covered the portion of their office costs that they were needing to cover and he hasn’t really felt the need to worry about them. It’s in recent years as costs continue to go up that he’s had to worry a little more. We’ll adjust these and then watch to see how the revenues come in. If we’re bringing in too much or not bringing in enough, we’ll adjust accordingly. Mr. Hall explained that with fee increases, anything over 5% requires a public hearing. The 4.99% makes it so the Department can present a resolution to the Commissioners for approval without having to hold a public hearing. Mr. Cluff clarified that if we raised the fee 4.99% per year, he doesn’t know that we would have been bringing in more money than their costs. Even though you don’t have to have a public hearing, we still can’t charge too much. Commissioner Dance asked over a period of 15 years at a 4.99% increase per year what an estimated increase would have been. Mr. Cluff feels it would have been closer to an 80% increase, where with the inflation calculator, it is closer to a 50% increase which is more conservative. Commissioner Hill knows Mr. Cluff had concerns when he started with this adjustment that the fees would be too high. Is he comfortable with how things settled. Mr. Cluff said yes. The building permit fees are more complicated, so his bigger concerns were with those. He feels good with where the fees are, and it may turn out that in a couple of years we may need to increase them, but we’ll watch and see what happens. Commissioner Dance likes the idea of reviewing the revenues over time and readjusting as necessary if we are overcharging or undercharging. Commissioner Dance opened the meeting for public comment. PUBLIC COMMENT: Cathy Koon, 43 E 3rd S., St Anthony. Ms. Koon believes it’s a misnomer to refer to them as “Planning and Zoning related fees.” She feels it implies the Planning and Zoning Commission has some authority over those fees, but those fees have nothing to do with the Commission. She objected to several of the staff service fee increases and feels they are out of line with state code for public information requests, specifically Copies, Meeting Recordings, Transcriptions, Research and other Services/hourly. She doesn’t feel Transcriptions should cost $150+cost is in line with the state. She feels the idea is to make this information available to the general public. Commissioner Dance wondered if she is confusing public records requests to these fees she is concerned about. Ms. Koon stated that as these fees are listed, she assumes they’re for someone who calls into the office and says they need certain information and copies of that information. So these fees would go into effect. But she feels they’re out of line. Mr. Cluff stated those fees for copies and research and other things are to backstop P&Z if they’re providing a service to someone who isn’t covered by a public records request. If they’ve made a public records request, the fees are charged in accordance with the public records request law. Transcripts we don’t have on file. We have recordings and minutes. Transcripts have to be produced, we pay certified court reporters to produce those orders, and the cost of producing them is what we charge. Mr. Hall explained that usually transcripts are only required when a case ends up on appeal, and the court requires those transcripts not to be in a recorded fashion. They require that you hire a certified court reporter to listen to the meeting, transcribe a written document, and certify the transcript. That is what this fee represents. A transcript of a meeting and a recording of the meeting are not the same. Commissioner Dance thanked everyone for the comments and their attendance. Commissioner Hill asked about the public information requests and if there was a charge for those. Mr. Cluff said if there is a charge, it is according to state statute. These fees are for requests for services not covered by public records requests. Commissioner Dance stated he worked with Mr. Cluff through these processes to help find a base to start from to make these adjustments that they could feel comfortable with. They consulted with Council as well. These fees were adjusted based on the Federal Inflation Calculator, so he is aware of the work that was put into this project and where it started and feels good about these adjustments. He’s also aware it is a huge jump from 15 years ago. Commissioner Hill agrees. He knows something needed to be done and feels this is a good first step. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to adopt Resolution 2027-05 Amending Fees for Administering the Fremont County Development Code, Repealing Resolution #2011-16, and establishing an Effective Date of October 13, 2026. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Fair Board Nora Terry RE: Fair Board Grants – action item Ms. Terry stated that next year they are celebrating their 120 year anniversary and they would like to plant 120 trees where the RV’s park during the fair because there is already a water system there. They would like permission to seek grants because the University of Idaho is currently having a sale on trees and shrubs, we can purchase them for $3.98 each. For 120 trees it would cost $385.00. They would also need to get things like compost, stakes and straps, and they’re estimating about $500.00. They would also like to get a plaque to recognize those who donate to the project. They’re anticipating having the 4H and FFA groups help plant the trees, so they’re looking at putting a value for the man-hours at about $2000. Commissioner Hill asked if they were applying for a grant or asking for donations. Ms. Terry stated if the Commissioners would like to buy the trees, she would let them. She wasn’t sure if the Fair Board needed to ask the commissioners for permission to apply for a grant or if they could just apply for them. Commissioner Hill believes they only need to ask if they’re applying for a grant the county would need to match funds, materials, or labor for. Ms. Terry stated one of the grants she’s applied for is from Blackfoot Communications. Commissioner Hill feels if the Fair Board can afford it, they can go ahead and do it. Ms. Terry wasn’t sure if she should be asking for a donation from the Commissioners or asking for permission to spend her budget now that we are into the new fiscal year. Commissioner Hill feels she should have a discussion with the Board about what they can afford from their budget and then approach the Commissioners again if there is an issue. Commissioner Chandler agrees with Commissioner Hill; she should ask the board if they can agree to purchase the trees with their budget. If they can’t agree, she can reapproach the Commissioners. Mr. Hall feels it is a good project and donated to the cause. He encouraged her to seek other donations and feels others would also be happy to participate. Ms. Terry stated she also needs a letter of support for this project for the grant paperwork. Commissioners asked her to write up the letter and they would be happy to sign it. IT Director Josh Warnke RE: Software Renewal – action item Mr. Warnke presented a contract to renew the security package we did a trial with last year. It watches all of our endpoints and monitors everything 24/7 to protect us against ransomware and other threats. This year he would like to increase the package to monitor everything. This will be an annual renewal going forward, but he did make sure to budget for it. Commissioner Dance made a motion to approve the quote from CDWG in the amount of $68,062.50. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Executive Session IC 74-206(1)(b) 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 2:47 p.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 3:08 p.m. Miscellaneous Commissioner Chandler made a motion to approve the claims for October 13, 2026 as presented. 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 minutes from October 5, 2026 as amended. Commissioner Chandler seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. Commissioner Chandler discussed a Fremont County Land Lease. A gentleman approached him about leasing a 2.5 acre lot that belongs to the County just north of Glacier Bank. It’s currently just a rock pile. He would like to put up a portable office on the property and display some of his trailers. Blake Hall stated that under Idaho Code, general leases would require a unanimous vote from the County Commissioners with a maximum lease term of 5 years. You can do a public auction lease that could last up to 30 years. They are paid annually in advance. He assumes this would be a shorter lease, so they would want the unanimous decision for the 5-year term, and they will need to find out the value of the property for the purposes of leasing it. We would also want to make sure the property belongs to the County. Commissioner Dance asked if the interested party would prepare a lease agreement with their terms for Mr. Hall to review, or if we would prepare the lease agreement. He would prefer the interested party to do the work and allow us to review and agree or disagree to their terms. Mr. Hall stated it could be done either way. Commissioner Hill asked if the county has any other properties we lease. Commissioner Chandler and Commissioner Dance weren’t sure, but didn’t believe so. Mr. Hall stated we would need to get a legal description for that parcel, which would also determine whether or not the County owns the property. Then the Commissioners will need to determine a reasonable value to lease the property for, and it can be leased for a maximum of 5 years. Commissioner Dance would like this gentleman to come in and make a formal proposal with his lease terms. Commissioner Chandler will start looking into things. He is already in discussions with appraisers because of the 5C property, so this parcel could be done at the same time. Commissioners discussed transportation for the Ashton Senior Center. Commissioner Dance stated we currently have a 12-passenger van for them but it isn’t ADA compliant and has a lot of miles on it. Brett Griffel has been looking for a new option for them, he has found 2 options in the amounts of $20,000 and $35,000, but he would like to know if we have a way to fund a new vehicle for them. Ms. Mattingly stated we do have a couple of options in our current budget. Commissioner Hill stated the St. Anthony Senior Citizens have had a meals-on-wheels vehicle replaced within the last couple of years, and their van has also been replaced with the bus, so they should be ok for a while. Commissioner Chandler isn’t opposed to helping them with a new vehicle. Commissioner Hill asked if the new vans are set up the way we need them or if they would need to be modified to be ADA compliant. Commissioner Dance believes they are but will clarify with Brett. The current van could also be put on surplus to help pay for the new one. Commissioners agreed to move forward with the idea of looking into a new vehicle for the Ashton Senior Citizens and Commissioner Dance will bring a proposal forward during a future meeting. Commissioner Chandler made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 3:09 p.m. Commissioner Hill seconded the motion. A full voice vote was heard with all commissioners voting in favor. There being no further business to come before the board the meeting was adjourned. _________________________________ Blair Dance, Chairman Fremont County Commissioner Attest: _____________________________ Meredith Mattingly, Clerk HISTORY Recorded by Min. 615285 Public Hearing 10-13-2026 on 10/26/2026
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