Commission weighs restaurant tax grants

By Sun Advocate

The Carbon County Commission met Oct. 16 and dealt with a number of issues, including a request from residents on cleaning up washes in the Spring Glen area.
The residents that attended approached the commission about the growth of trees and brush that has taken place in three washes in the area that concerns residents.
“There is a lot of over growth and debris in some of the washes in the area,” explained Lynna Topolovec who represented some of the residents views. “We need a cleanup in the washes so we don’t have a flooding problem in the future.”
The problem of flooding has been a major concern of many residents in the Helper, Spring Glen and Carbonville area since the Spring Glen Canal project began three years ago. That project piped all the irrigation water that used to flow in the canals, but with the covering of the waterways, the drainage that they had supplied for the last 100 years also disappeared.
“All of these washes are part of the flood control for the area and we are concerned that with the debris and the large trees in some of them real problems could result,” stated Topolovec.
She also brought up the fact that some of the trees are blocking the view onto 2000 West creating a traffic hazard.
A discussion then ensued between commissioners and the residents that were attending about the problems and the solutions.
It was brought out that the county could solve some of the problems, just as they had a couple of years ago when some of the growth got out of control. But the commissioners were also cautious about the situation.
“We can take care of what is on county property,” advised Commissioner Mike Milovich. “But on private property we can’t do anything.”
County Attorney Gene Strate also pointed out that in some cases the county would need an easement to cross private land to get to the problems.
Apparently in the past, there were some kinds of problems with getting to some of the areas that needed attention, but no one in the meeting had the details of the situation.
The commission finally decided to have Evan Hansen, the county engineer look at the area and determine what areas fall under the counties ownership.
In another action the commission reviewed the recommendations from the restaurant tax board that met the first part of October on two requests that had been submitted to them.
The first request had come from Carbon High School for money to purchase an electronic timing system for track and field events.
The request had been submitted by the principal, Robert Cox, and he had asked for $3195 for the equipment. The restaurant board recommended that the total amount be funded.
“Can we give money to the school district?” asked Commissioner Tom Mathews.
The county attorney wasn’t sure but said he could do some research to check state statute to see if the award could be funded.
The commission voted to grant the funds, pending a positive out come of Strate’s research.
The other request came from the Rocky Mountain Mine Rescue Association for $18000. The restaurant tax board however had recommended only $3000 for money to run advertising for the organizations annual rescue competition in Carbon County.
Discussion ensued between commissioners concerning the viability of spending such money to whether the county could fund a private organization such as the rescue association at all.
“Things have changed and the tech center is now behind the event, not CEU,” said Milovich. “I’m not sure that this is an appropriate use of RT money.”
Commissioner Mathews felt that the support of this event was important and he suggested that the mine rescue event would probably bring more money into the county than a 30 school track meet would, referring to the money just granted to the high school for equipment.
“The difference in that is that the equipment for the school district is permanent expenditure with the equipment being used year after year, while this money is for advertising for one year,” said Milovich. “Based on some calculations, I recently did the amount of money expended for this advertising will not return in revenue to the local businesses.”
The commission decided to hold up any kind of action until the next meeting so some of the issues discussed could be resolved.
In a delayed restaurant tax board decision, the commission granted the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources $15,000 to build rest rooms at the Gigliotti Pond in Helper. The funds had been recommended by the board this past summer, but because the property DWR wanted to build the structure on was privately owned, the commission had held up the approval until DWR had worked out a property transfer with Ross Gigliotti who is leasing the property for the pond to the state.
In other business the commission did the following.
•Bids were opened for a backhoe for the counties road department. The bids for the machine were submitted from Century Equipment Company for a Case 580 for $63,000; from Wheeler Machinery Company for a Catepillar 420 for $60,505; and from Scott Machinery for a John Deere 310 for $57,500. The commission referred the bids to Ray Hanson, county road supervisor for review and recommendations.
•The commission approved a contract with the state to collect motor vehicle taxes and fees. This had been delayed from the last meeting because some questions had been raised about the increases the state had included.
•The commission approved zone changes and conditional use permits for seven gas wells in the county. Two of the wells are near Hiawatha, three west of Highway 10 near the juvenile detention facility, one near Four Mile Hill and one on the other side of Four Mile Hill.
•The commission delayed action on a resolution regarding the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act study that is being done in the Carbon County area. Commissioners felt some work needed to be done on the language in the resolution as proposed.
•The commission was introduced to the new county water project coordinator; Dean Stacy. Stacy works for the state in preparing and helping with water plans for the local area.