Some Carbon County Recreation and Transportation Special Service District board members were surprised when they saw that once again, Carbon County was on the March 6 agenda asking for money to build some service buildings at the new soccer fields near the fairgrounds. They thought the issue had been put to rest for a year during the February meeting of the board. But that was not the case.
Executive Director Linda Ballard explained that while some on the board had talked about waiting at least a year before further consideration on the matter, the actual motion to put aside the request only said it would be reviewed in a future board meeting.
So it turned out the future was Monday, and this time the request got a resounding answer from the board, despite the county’s representatives presenting some plans with substantial cost savings over the plan put forth in the last meeting.
The long path to ‘No’
That answer was once again no, at least for some time
County Commissioner Casey Hopes and County Engineer Curtis Page came into the meeting with four different plans for board members to consider. The first was the plan that was presented last month for $237,401 to build restrooms, a concession area, a storage room and a pavilion. Hopes started to present that and showed the size of the restrooms that would be constructed, one of the sticking points at the last meeting when some citizens came to the meeting and said the facilities in the plan were too small. Hopes said after some study that they found that the ones they had planned were about right for the use.
“We also did some investigating at other facilities around the state and (what was proposed) is pretty common, with some even being smaller,” said Hopes concerning the three fixtures proposed for each of the soccer restrooms. “We are in the right range for the size of the facility and the amount of use. I don’t see that we are underbuilding it.
However, Board President Pace Hansen challenged Hopes about that.
Smallest restrooms
“I disagree with you,” he said. “I went and checked all the restrooms around the fairgrounds and the motocross which is supposedly the same size as this one has two toilets and four urinals in the men’s and six toilets in the ladies.”
He then also described the ones at the softball field and at the arena itself and said they were all larger with more fixtures.
“So this would be the smallest restroom we would have out there,” said Hansen. “I don’t think it’s big enough. Of course that is just my opinion.”
Page said that in his experience with a traveling baseball organization his sons are in that he hasn’t seen anything bigger than what was proposed anywhere in his travels.
“So should we build it bigger or make it the size it should be when it is used most of the time?” he asked.
That discussion kind of stalled at that point and Hopes went on with the possible other moves that could be made that would expend less funds. He talked about the next option that would cost $205, 841 which would eliminate the pavilion and change some of the work time that would be allowed on the project, making it easier for a contractor to complete the buildings.
The board then asked for a diagram of the building because they said they had not seen the original plans. Hopes provided that a few minutes later.
The next plan down the line was to eliminate not only the pavilion but to also change the electrical system from a 600 amp, three phase to a single phase, 200 amp service. The original service was set up for putting in lights on the fields and for future expansion of the fields. But under that third plan the infrastructure for all of that would still be put in, only the amperage and phase would be changed, so that in the future those installations could handle the upgrade. This cost for this plan would be about $7,500 less than plan two.
Remove storage
The fourth option was to take out the storage unit (10’ x 24’) as well. The idea was to provide a stick built storage area instead which Sutherland’s had already committed to donate to the county.
Of the $1.2 million spent to build the fields, the CCRTSSD had put in about $450,000 of that. Hopes pointed out that the county had taken that money, and the $200,000 the county had already put in, to the Permanent Community Impact Board (CIB) at the state and doubled what they had to cover the costs. The CIB money was taken as a grant, with no payments owed on the fields. The $200,000 the county had put in to make the match came from $75,000 in grant money from the Eccles Foundation and $20,000 donated by Castleview Hospital. There is also $100,000 from the Transient Room Tax coffers that has been used.
“With this money from this board we had hoped to go back to the CIB and get another grant so not only the restrooms facilities would be done, but the parking area could be paved,” said Hopes. “With what we have so far everything is paid for.”
But all the plans became moot when the actual money that would come from the district was discussed.
“My reservation is about trying to get a handle on the money that comes into this board and what it can be spent for,” said Board Member Larry Jensen. “If we project out the payments that this board has make, if the coal drops off and the gas drops off and we don’t have a reserve to stretch us out, we could be in trouble. I don’t have a good feel for spending anything.”
Hansen explained if the money didn’t come in in future years the district would have to short the county contract. Jensen said that is his concern because the total revenue has gone from $10 million a year at one time down to $3 million this past year. There was then a discussion about how the coal mines are dropping down and that Skyline, the biggest contributor to the funds that the district gets now will be moving this year over the Sanpete County line to mine, which will cut the money to Carbon drastically.
Board Member Richard Lee brought up that he thought that they had already made the decision in the last board meeting to wait to see how the fields were used before funding. Board Member Mark Morley said that was his understanding as well. However the minutes did not reflect that as a motion.
So after some more discussion Jensen made a motion to work with the county and get some projections put together on what revenues will be and to look at extra money that may come in to be put away to take care of future needs. In addition, the board added a stipulation that the facilities for the soccer fields discussion be put off until next year.