Opening the sealed proposals submitted by architects on the design the new county ambulance garage-communications building was one key agenda item addressed during the Carbon commission session on April 21.
The number of proposals submitted were many, with the stack of packages addressed to the commissioners two feet high. The proposals are used to eliminate the field down to the one bidder the county wants to use to design the building.
Altogether there were 16 architects that submitted proposals. Included in the group were R & V Associates, Provo; Summit Engineering Services Incorporated, Salt Lake; Stanley Consultants, Salt Lake; NJRA Architecture, Salt Lake; CRSA/Sahara, Bountiful; Cooper, Roberts, Simonson, Salt Lake; Leslie A. Stoker Architecture, St. George; Eaton Architecture, Salt Lake, HHY Associates, Salt Lake; Babcock Design Group, Salt Lake; SLN and A Architects, Salt Lake; Prior and Associates, Salt Lake; Edwards and Daniels, Salt Lake, Scott P. Evan Architecture, Bountiful; James T. Pressler Architecture, Moab; and Sanstrom Associates, Orem.
The commissioners decided to meet with the local county building officials to get the list pared down, with the ultimate goal of selecting the best firm to design the new facility.
Acting on unrelated business matters, the Carbon commissioners:
•Approved the acceptance of a grant for $30,992 that will go to the local vctims assistance program.
•Approved a memorandum of understanding that will go to the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments that will provide the Carbon County Geographical Information Systems department with $7,000 to conduct a study on housing in the area.
•Voted to approve $500 in county funding for the upcoming graduation spectacular program.
•Renewed property tax exemptions for a number of organizations in the county.
The entities in question included churches, charitable organizations, etc.
•Reviewed the possibility of filing an application to become part of the quality growth community movement that has been promoted by the state.
However, Commissioner Mike Milovich had doubts joining the statewide movement.
“Last year, this agency came to the community impact board, asking us to support them,” stated Milovich. “But they also suggested that we should work with them by withholding funds from communities that don’t want to be part of it. I didn’t like that approach.”
The quality growth movement is sponsored by the state to promote organized and responsible expansion in communities.
But according to county planning director Dave Levanger, the organization is geared to work more with urban and suburban locations than rural areas.
“It looks like there are some advantages to belonging, like safe sidewalk monies that are available through them, but there are also a lot of parameters to meet,” said Levanger. “The devil very well could be in the details.”
Commissioner Steve Burge recommended that the county apply because the deadline was quickly approaching and, if the officials missed it, the local area might not have a chance of being part of the movement.
“This may eventually involve hiring a planner for the county and they don’t come cheap,” pointed out Milovich.
After the discussion, the commission authorized Levanger to proceed with the application process.
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