Grand County Commission meeting – July 15, 2025

Commission Meeting: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

Commission Meeting: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Bill Winfield:
Jacques, can you hear us there?

Jacques Hadler:
Yes, I can hear you now, Bill. Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
All right. Thank you for joining joining us there. Alright. I will call this meeting to order the county commission. It is 4PM on Tuesday, July 10. We have commissioner Haddin present, commissioner had to our online commissioner McCurdy, McGann, Martinez, McCandless and myself all in Commission chambers here and we can stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. You can start off with our citizens to be heard here at 4PM. Just a note that if you have things that you want to discuss at one of the citizens to be heard, preferably at the first one or the second one, we prefer to not have twice in one meeting. So make your make your pick and keep the comments and your remarks to three minutes, and I believe Steve usually adds a little sign that he flashes if you come up and introduce yourself and have at it. So I'll start with anybody that wants to hear in the chambers. Alright, Steve. And then Cara, I am I'm sure who went first there.

Steve Evers, Friends of Arches & Canyonlands:
Good afternoon, commissioners. I sent this letter in early yesterday, I'm Steve Evers. I am sitting here with you all today as the Executive Director of the Friends of Arches and Canyonlands Parks. I sent you all an email yesterday morning, not sure if you all said it, I'm just going to read that letter which I sent to you. Just to make sure that everybody saw that or hears it in this case. So Friends of Arches and Canyonlands Parks is an official nonprofit partner of the National Guard Services Southeast Utah Group, supporting Arches And Canyonlands National Parks and Hoven Weave And Natural Bridges National Monuments. We raise private funds and provide vital resources for projects and programs that otherwise go unfunded. Our track record includes providing housing for seasonal rangers, purchasing equipment for search and rescue, supporting volunteer housing and gear, just to name a few things. For the past two and a half years, we've been working closely with the Purchase National Park to address a long standing and critical need. The construction of a modern emergency operations center. The parks, if I say EOC, that's what I mean, emergency operations center. The parks current emergency response facility is outdated and inadequate. It lacks plumbing, HVAC based storage and appropriate meeting space. It does not meet the needs of the modern incident response team. This need is urgent. Last year Arches recorded the highest number of emergency incidents in its history.

Steve Evers, Friends of Arches & Canyonlands:
Although it ranks around twentieth in visitation among U. S. National parks from year to year, Arches consistently ranks in the top 10 for the number of emergency responses that they respond to. And so with each additional visitor, it can increase strain on an already overburdened response system. Friends of Arches and Canyonlands has completed pre design phase and a professional cost estimate for the new Emergency Operations Center. So we've started down this path to get a new building. We also recently commissioned a fundraising feasibility study. Unfortunately, results were clear with that. And while we have strong donor support, a project of this scale exceeds our current fundraising capacity. Furthermore, many of our generous supporters feel that this type of public safety infrastructure should be provided through government channels. The stated goal of the letter is to increase visitation. More visitors will inevitably mean more emergencies. It's essential that any plan to accommodate increased visitation also accounts for the increased burden on emergency response. With that in mind, we respectfully urge you to add the following bullet point to the list of infrastructure improvements supported to the Leonard. That bullet point is construction of an updated emergency operations center to improve incident response and keep visitors safe. Thank you for your time and your continued commitment to the visitor experience and visitor safety. Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Kara, please.

Kara Dorland, public comment:
I'm not going to read all of that, it's just some added information. My name is Kara Dorland, I have been involved in regional work related to land management in our area for twenty years. And I just wanted to give a little history with all of the discussion about. Trail ambassadors and all that I wanted to give just a little bit of history of human waste management in recreation areas in Grant County. It's not exactly a well publicized piece of our local history. And I've just wanted this. This is just an abbreviated history and the photo that I took in 2022 on the Rim Trail before the Trail Investor Program really took off. And there is really a long history of managing human waste in Grand County that actually started in the late 1980s. For those of you who have been here for all that time, probably remember some of what's going on in the corridor, sand flats, etcetera. And I think some really great solutions came out off that that were collaborative and really did a lot of good.

Kara Dorland, public comment:
In the mid two thousand, so 2010, 2013 ish, the human waste issue became a wider spread problem, significantly wider spread problem as visitor numbers increased and also as visitors started getting their information about where to go and how to do things from social media rather than from other sources. And it became much harder to actually get good information out to people. And it became severe enough that Southeast Utah Riparian Partnership, which has been an organization that started meeting in 02/2007, expressing to deal with tamarisk issues along the Colorado River corridor and the release of the tamarisk leaf beetle, pivoted for at least four years onto talking about human waste and how that is actually the more important issue that was facing local land managers at all levels. The travel council actually staff attended quite a few of those meetings. Ensler was a big part of that for a while. And we really, when wag bags were new, there were discussions about should we just make these swag when we had some good funny interactions about that. In 2019,another collaborative effort started, which was Mill Creek Community Collaborative. And that also talked a little bit about human waste, but it also talked about trail ambassadors. As the trail ambassador concept was really beginning. And so, I just wanted to put a plug in there in light of the fact that we need visitors, we need the experience to be good, and we need clean water, that the trail ambassador program has really changed a lot about visitor interactions in high use areas. And this photo that I haven't seen that in years, and I saw it fairly regularly prior to that existing. So, I just would urge all of you to learn more about that long history of human waste management because this is a very small picture piece of it that I'm just presenting here and consider that as you consider the feature of the treatment of faster program. Thank you very much.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Anybody else in the chambers? Please. Thank you.

Colin Topper, public comment:
My name is Colin Topper and I'm here tonight as a member of the committee, and I want to comment on the e bike recommendation that you will be discussing later tonight. And I just want to point out that, you know, something very profound happened recently, and, you know, this I I say this is sort of a synergistic moment where, you know, your two advisory committees, the two main committees who would be advising this commission on a topic like that, have have found a a common ground to stand on. And, you know, I believe that even today you received an email from the chairs of these two, what often, you know, I wouldn't say they're opposed, but often create the sort of the bookends of spectrum of advice for this committee or commission, have have found a a piece of of common ground to share with all of you. And what that is, is that regardless of the decision and the direction that you advise the BLM to take with their e bike decision, they would like that alternative to be rolled out, to be phased out and not to just be executed all at once.

Colin Topper, public comment:
And so whether you choose one of the whatever one of the three alternatives you choose, they're asking you both of your advisory committees are asking you to roll that out in a phased manner so that your trail committee, so that all or your trail crew, so that your public, all of these people can ease into this and can make adaptive management decisions and address these things in a controlled environment rather than just opening the floodgates. And I also want to say that a huge piece of this, whatever we are talking about, when we're talking about expanding use of our existing infrastructure, is mitigating the effects that the Trail Ambassador program has shown time and again. It's an effective way to communicate and educate with our visitors and make sure that not only are they having a great experience in Moab, but their experience is not affecting in a negative way future visitors experience in Moab. And that product that we're trying to protect, and the Trail Ambassador Program has won multiple awards for their work protecting that product, is essential to this, to everything in this. So, thank you very much for your consideration.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you, sir. Mr. Gross?

Pete Gross, public comment:
My name is Pete Gross. First of all, just hearing Colin come forward reminded me, I echo everything Colin mentioned to you. What I find rather interesting is that the commission has already drafted a letter to the park service citing the $60,000 Chem Gardner study, which has yet to occur. Two things, that seems kind of odd. The other question is, why are we spending $60,000 to learn something we already think we know? On a related note, hope you had an opportunity to read my exchange with one of the commission members. I noticed he just smiled a little bit. I happened to find, came across, and I don't remember exactly where I found it, I was reading the Hancock study, which was cited as one of the sources of evidence for how timed entry is supposedly diminishing, causing the economic downturn in the month. I used the word dubious in describing it. I was scolded for presumably judging a study that I'd already read. That was understandable because nobody would have any prior knowledge of that. I was also mildly amused to learn from that exchange with one member of your commission that I'm divisive, that I spread hate and negativity. I take exceptions to that. And for what it's worth, bullying backfires on me. It actually strengthens my resolve. It also reminds me that a member of your commission also raised the issue of feeling bullied by other members of the commission. And I have firsthand experience now, although I already agreed with what that Commissioner had said. Thanks for your time.

Bill Winfield:
Next, Mr. Coombs.

Cliff Koontz, public comment:
I'm Cliff Koontz, chair of the motorized rails committee. Three things. The first is item eight e bikes. Yeah. The MTC supports alternative C that would open the 211 miles that were scoped in this plan to the class one e bikes. But we also support the phasing component of alternative B that when you add all 211 trails, you really ought to do it over a three year period. And so the the reason why alternatives is, we feel that the class ones are similar enough, and so popular in the industry that the focus should really be on making sure that the class twos and all the way up to the electric motorcycles and things that I prefer to ride do not wind up on these trails. And that takes some education to the public and it may take some trail work, widening switchbacks, whatever they feel they need to do. The people that developed the vast majority of these trails in question should be allowed the time to have an orderly implementation. So, that's why we feel both those components are important. On item five, the motorized trail ambassador, just want to reiterate our support that they did a great job first in hiring Kelton and then supervising. And then Maddie were already developing the program well from the non motorized side and applied it well to motorized.

Cliff Koontz, public comment:
And this one for the upcoming years is supposed to expand into more trail work, recruiting volunteers, anything beyond just the regular outings, you know, involve social media to broaden their reach. So it is a good value for the state and especially the county in my opinion. The last thing I'll say is in regard to item seven, and this is just speaking personally, not on behalf of the NDC because it's about your budget, but it pertains to the Trail Ambassador program. So I do hope you'll keep at least a core of that program in place, such as the option three that was laid out in their previous meeting. I understand that budgets are tight, and so maybe the trail ambassadors need to do their part in typing belts with others. Plus, you know, I like to see more, widespread spending from the county side to the motorized and the non motorized components of whether it's education, trail work, anything else. But they have developed this program and deserved their awards recently. It's important to do this not just to sustain the surroundings but to sustain the tourism in the long run. The county should continue funding that kind of education.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Yes, ma'am.

Samantha Derbyshire, public comment:
Hello, I am Samantha Derbyshire. I didn't have time to send this letter, so I will read it. As the owner of Full Enchilada Shuttles and Vice Chair of Grand County Trail Mix, I urge the Commission to support a phased, cautious introduction of e bikes on our local trails. As a business owner invested in our mountain bike economy, I know the future includes e bikes, but we must integrate responsibly. There are many who enjoy Moab because e bikes are not allowed on most of our trails. There are also visitors who have stopped coming due to chaos and overcrowding. Entire towns have built marketing campaigns, avoiding our example, with slogans like Don't Moab Fruta! And just yesterday the Salt Lake Tribune published an article about Richfield where the recurring theme was not becoming Moab. While trail mix is often criticized as too bike centric, it is in fact the county's non motorized trail committee and also represents equestrians, hikers, and runners who also use the trails that we are discussing. A vote for a limited and cautious ski bike introduction came after hours of public meetings and a balanced discussion. Regardless of the outcome, both the non motorized and motorized committees agree phasing is key. This approach would allow GCAT to observe, educate, and adapt as needed. It offers our community time to adjust, ensure our trail users are informed, and mitigates conflicts before they escalate.

Samantha Derbyshire, public comment:
Supporting a letter that does not advocate for a phased approach would undermine the thoughtful work of those entrusted to guide trail planning in Grant County. I urge the Commission to remember that our true product is the land itself. If we fail to take care of it through education, responsible recreation management, and thoughtful policy, then it won't matter whether we allow e bikes or eliminate the Arches reservation system. What will drive visitors away is a degraded and poorly managed MOM. And I will note that the Trail Ambassador Program has been very successful in educating and keeping our trails nice. The other thing I wanted to speak on was the OAO. During the public comment period on May 20, mayoral candidate Curtis Wells stated the affordable housing issue is due to the lack of private land. So creative solutions with the federal government to get some of these public lands is a really great proposal. And yet on this agenda is his request to rezone opposed 24 units, units that could serve as affordable housing into overnight rentals. This contradiction raises serious concerns about the consistency and severity of our approach to addressing the housing crisis in Grand County. Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

Noelle Gignoux, public comment:
Hi, my name is Noelle Gignoux, and I wanted to offer a comment on the Trail Ambassador program, the funding of which I understand is up for discussion tonight. After I started my career in the planning department here three years ago, I work now as a community recreation planner with a company that works with small mountain towns throughout the West, and really helps them grapple with the challenges of tourism and growth while trying to maintain their community character. We work a lot in Utah with the state, as well as in Colorado, With the State of Colorado.

Noelle Gignoux, public comment:
In our work, we reference the Grand County Trail Ambassador Program as a prime case study in how a community is doing things right in the face of high visitation, how the team is practically managing visitation, collecting valuable data, improving visitor experience through education and connection, ensuring greater resource protection, and markedly reducing search and rescue calls. Other communities throughout the state and throughout the West look to Grand County and this program specifically as an example of innovative and responsible recreation management. I understand that balancing the County budget is no small feat, but speaking as a professional in this field, to cut the funding for the program will be shortsighted and a disservice to our local community, our visitors, public land, and the reputation that we have built for ourselves as a community who is doing some things right in recreation. Thank You.

Bill Winfield:
Any others? Yes. My

Caleb Meyer, public comment:
Name is Caleb Meyer. I speak today regarding the draft letter to. Secretary Bergum. I was hired by the National Park Service in 2022 to evaluate the first pilot time entry system in state of 2023. I collected, analyzed, reported thousands of hours of data on traffic flows and other indicators. I speak today as private citizens, several years removed, and no words said should be construed to represent those of the NPS or any other agency or entity. I cite stats today from publicly available reports linked in the letter you received supporting this comment today. There's a lot more nuance in the letter. Okay. A mandatory shuttle would decrease congestion but with severe barriers. It would cost $45,000,000 annually for Arches, not including a park and ride for which there is only one viable location, which is a nuclear waste site not owned by the NPS. It would severely decrease access and increase visitors time in the park, not in town spending money. Voluntary shuttles, on the other hand, do not see enough ridership to reduce congestion at other parks. Paving the secondary roads would cost 50,000,000 or more each for only NPS sections without operational costs or other infrastructure. However, more folks could stay in Green River for cheaper if those get paved. The entrance between two active washes. One inbound lane is currently coned off due to damage from 2024. Arches appropriated budget was just 2,360,000.00 in 2023, plus a couple million in fee revenue and another million in cyclic maintenance. That'll potentially go down as the NPS budget is shrunk in future years. Arches maintenance backlog is 26,000,000. With the federal government, contractors, and inherently long timelines, it may be prudent to assume cost would be higher than projected for any of those projects.

Caleb Meyer, public comment:
Removing the timed entry system in 2026 will result in the same unfair strategy the NPS is forced to use when the park fills, and serious safety concerns occur, swinging the gate and turning visitors away. The NPS was forced to use this strategy 118 times in 2021, just during the time frame timed entry was in effect the following year when there were zero gate closures. Timed entry may not be a permanent solution, but it is the only one right now which recognizes our limited role in changing things as lost in time as the human capacity of the Delegate Archbold. The NPS should absolutely continue to study the other solutions suggested, but no available data suggests they would solve the issues present at this time. I believe we would all benefit from our county commission supporting the protection of this place we all love in a manner which suggests reasonable solutions while recognizing uncontrollable constraints. Nothing is less accessible than extreme congestion, ugly and costly resource damage, and swinging the gate closed as we wait another decade or more for time consuming, expensive, and unfunded infrastructure projects with unknown outcomes beyond their impact on the landscape. Sending this letter to Secretary Bergam is shortsighted and deserves more thought than this commission has yet given it. The NPS mission, which became law one hundred and nine years ago, still calls on the agency to preserve quote, unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations. Thank you. Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
Yes, sir.

Scott Newton, public comment:
Scott Newton, here today to show support for Alternative C Class one e bikes on BLM managed trails in Grand County to express a serious concern about how the news and recommendation was made. We are already behind. Communities are embracing e bikes as a safe, sustainable and inclusive way to access public lands. Meanwhile, here in Grant County, we still do not welcome e bikes and are debating whether to open trails while other regions are expanding them. A slow rollout is not progress, it's exclusion. E bikes allow seniors, people with injuries, and homes with physical limitations to enjoy the same access many or many already take for granted. They reduce car use, support sustainable tourism, and help bring new people into outdoor recreation. We should be leading on this, not lagging. And yet the Trump Advisory Board recently made a decision on e bike policy without including cycling businesses and local e bike riders to the table. They misled our local land managers from the both BLM and US Forest Service into thinking the cycling community believes alternative B is the best alternative. While in fact, the majority of the cycling business and e bikers and and talent support alternative C. That's not just an oversight. It's a breach of good progress process. In fact, the bike representative on the board doesn't agree with the decision according to its correspondence with me and voted for favor and for alternative b.

Scott Newton, public comment:
Was this to appease the board or for fear of a different opinion? Something is not right here. So now the bike representative is also for alternative c. Local bike shops, guides, outfitters, shuttle companies are on the front lines of user experience and safety. We are stakeholders who interact with hundreds of riders every day who see the changing demographics, and we are invested as anyone to ensuring safe, respectful, and inclusive access. To exclude local businesses who live whose livelihoods and expertise is ignored undermines both the integrity and credibility of this progress. E bikes do not need to be another topic that divides our company, our community. We need to move forward urgently together with a plan that reflects the reality on the ground. E bikes are here. They're growing, and they deserve a place on the trails. Look to amazing resources like Dead Horse State Park and Bentonville that disapprove all hell is going to break loose if we allow e bikes. Our BLM office has already sat on this topic for the last five years while continuing to restrict e bike use. The time is now. Let's lead with inclusion and not restriction. Thanks for your time. Thank you, sir.

Bill Winfield:
Anybody else? I thought I'm online. Online. Harris, would you like to speak if citizens be heard?

Bill Winfield:
Yes. Hello. Can you Hear me? Yes. Please introduce yourself.

Harris Hadziabdic, public comment:
Alright. My name is Harris Hadziabdic. I'm here to talk about the Trail Ambassador program and its importance. And I just wanna start by saying it's not lost on me that the county revenue is down and that we we could benefit from users. However, if we are promoting summer tourism during months where the average temperature is about a 100 degrees, there needs to be someone out there like a trail ambassador who's there to help out in popular areas, you know, distributing water and electrolytes and stuff. This is directly contributing to reducing search and rescue statistics. And like others have stated, plenty of towns are centering their marketing around, quote, we're not like Moab. And I believe that trail ambassadors help educate us out of that image, and we should continue funding funding the trail ambassador program as an investment in our future. Another thing I'd like to draw attention to is to make America beautiful again by investing in our national parks. We should be prioritizing our employees and opposing reduction in force for the National Park Service. And I also don't think we should be opposing time to entry. It's the best resource we have for visitation management at this point. And I also support a slow roll of e bikes on our trails. I support alternative B. And thank you for your time.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Anyone else online?

Mark Tyner:
I think you're gonna have one more call.

Bill Winfield:
Citizen be heard, Lynn. You're on mute.

Lynn Jackson, public comment:
How's that?

Bill Winfield:
Good. Please introduce yourself.

Lynn Jackson, public comment:
Okay. Lynn Jackson. I wanna speak to a a couple of things. I moved here in 1982 working for the Bureau of Land Management. I've been a county commissioner after my time there and I retired. And what I can tell you is we've been dealing with as at the BLM and a federal level with with recreational use since that time. Really started in early nineties. We've dealt with human waste. We've dealt with trails, and and did this stuff fairly effectively in, in in cooperation with with the various partners in the county and with the state. But what I've seen lately is not sustainable for our county. As a county commission, you guys work for the county. You don't work for BLM. You don't work for the park Service, you work for what's best for the county. The BLM and the Park Service have literally hundreds of millions of dollars to spend on trail maintenance, and trash bags and the whole lot that I've heard is so wonderful for our community. And we all agree, we want Moab to be a nice clean place with good clean trails. But from my perspective, of twenty eight years working with the BLM in this area, and being sitting in your seat, the BLM is perfectly capable.

Lynn Jackson, public comment:
We created the Sand Flats Recreation Management Area we created, in fact, I was involved integrally as as an employee and manager in that. We worked on cleaning up the power dam situation, Kens Lake, out to Hurrah Pass. The BLM is fully capable of handling their resources. Now should we cooperate where reasonable? Yes. But not at the expense of county taxpayer funding. And and that goes along, with the Trail Ambassador ambassador program. It it goes along. Thank you, Steven, with with the park service, working with them so that they're not doing things to decrease our visitation. You can argue the data is clear since that time entry system went in, our visitation has been dropping at the park, and our economy has shown a similar drop. So I applaud what you guys are doing, and I'm just here to tell you, you've heard from a lot of folks. Your job is to take care of the citizens of Grand County and not worry about what the Park Service and the BLM is doing. Thank you very much.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Anyone else online?

Mark Tyner:
Not that I know of.

Bill Winfield:
Anybody else in the chambers? Yes, sir.

Tony Mancuso, public comment:
My name is Tony Mancuso. I'm a known quantity when it comes to land management around here. And I just ran some numbers come through the budget and to Mr Jackson's point, I understand and agree that your duty is here first and foremost to the citizens, the resources that we have here in Grand County as County values. But I would like to speak up in support of GCAT and the responsible recreation budget line item as it was originally approved in the 2025 budget. In case I did some quick little ratios, the budget amendment cuts responsible recreation by 84% and that constitutes a 3% budget savings in an already balanced budget for the overall active trails and transportation department. That targeted cut is extremely focused on one individual program. So I think the fact that that budget cut is framed as a fiscal savings is kind of it doesn't look like that way to me. If I have to make budget cuts across a single department, I try to make those budget cuts equitable across things. It doesn't seem like a fiscal decision to pick 84% budget cut to one line item and only get a 3% savings on the department. So, there's the math. Additionally, I am a little late coming here today because I just got off of public lands patrol in my nine to five job, where we removed some tires from the river and found cooler of poop down by where the catfishermen like to hang out on the potash section below Town Bridge, kind of near. I wish I had photos, they're still on camera, but actually the guys are going to pick it up right now. Thank you, Steve. I have a ton of respect for the work that Responsible Recreation does as an award winning and incredibly popular program with our community. People like seeing folks out there doing this. Brody and Jeff and the guys who go out and they look like they're all swatted up and they're going real fast on their dirt bike, I watch the public run away from us in our big white trucks and flashing lights. People, when I was a kid, my father drug me by my ear to go talk to a park ranger and said, shut up kid, listen there. And what I think the responsible recreation and active trails folks are doing is helping return the public's relationship with their land managers into a place where you can go up to them, ask about how to read the map. Remember, did you bring enough water? Those are what park rangers should actually be. And I just don't think that a 3% savings on an already balanced budget to cut one line item program that's incredibly popular and useful and serving to correct relationship need between the public and the employees, it just doesn't feel right. I appreciate it. Thank you, sir.

Bill Winfield:
Anybody else in the chambers? Anybody else online? Nope. Nope. Alright. Seeing none, we will move on then. We can start with Melissa Jeffers. Is she joining us in person? I am. Sorry. I didn't see you come in. Please come on up.

Melissa Jeffers:
Maybe I would share my screen.

Melissa Jeffers:
Yeah. Hi, everyone. This is gonna be the most mercifully short departmental report ever since I've been in the job six days. That's fabulous. So it will be mercifully short. The nice thing is after six days, I can't have done a ton of damage either. So it kind of goes both ways. Some of you I know and I've met, some of you I am really looking forward to meeting you. I wanted to go over, since I don't have anything to report on really, because it's tedious cleanup stuff over the last week. Things are forward and what we're focused on, and then encourage you to reach out and connect and share your thoughts as well.

Bill Winfield:
Can I share for just a minute?

Melissa Jeffers:
Oh, yeah, please.

Bill Winfield:
Sure. We hired Melisa to fill the economic development position as well as a public information officer or is that how we titled her? And so she's recently just been hired by the county to fill a position that went vacant some while back and to help on the economic development side. So I apologize I didn't properly introduce you before you came up.

Melissa Jeffers:
No worries. I am super happy to be introduced, however or not, because I'm just really eager to jump in. So I'm really excited about both of those roles. And I actually think that they're distinct, but they're really complementary. So part of having a really good PR story and a really good narrative and crafting our external and internal image is doing really great things. So authentically, the stuff that we're accomplishing is the stuff that's really exciting and meaningful storytelling. So I kind of like the way that they go together. So as far as the strategy goes, I've got things numbered, but the way that the departments, the two departments that I'm working with are going to work together, is that we can't really take a linear approach because we're in the middle of bailing water season, which is the grant reporting season, and moving on to the next round of grant applications season. So, while I would like for it to be a really nice linear, first we're going to do this and then develop our strategy and then we're going to execute on it, we don't really have that luxury. Because right now we're sort of bailing water really quickly and working on all of them simultaneously. So, I thought I would just give you an overview then of what are the key priorities or what I'm focused on. And those are, right now we need to finalize all of our RCG and RCOG grant reporting, process, because they close on July 31 and they also open, meaning until we do our reporting and until we finalize all of those things, they don't open up those new opportunities for us to be able to apply for, and we don't want to miss those funding windows.

Melissa Jeffers:
So, I had a really great couple of hour meeting today with Deborah McKee at GOIO and establishing that relationship and cultivating that relationship with both she and James Dixon and other people in that department are really top of mind, because they're such a valuable resource and a great partner for us. So we're also getting together in person next week for a few hours to be able to lay that foundation and that groundwork and that relationship. So, finishing up all of that reporting, opening up the new rounds of reporting and applications, and then crafting that economic development strategy to be able to go hand in hand with the Trial to Tomorrow report. So doing all of those things at one time. And as far as the public information key priorities, we have a lot of calling to do. So we don't really have an official platform right now for public relations with the county, and I'm really, really excited to develop that. So between Tess and myself, we've identified about 30 some odd social media accounts that really enthusiastic folks get excited to start because we really have something to say initially.

Melissa Jeffers:
But then when we realize that we're going to have to do that two, three, four times a week for a consistent period of time, we immediately abandon those because it's not super fun to keep going. So calling all of those, same thing goes for when you go to our website, if you want to sign up for a newsletter, we have about 50 of those. I, for fun, signed up for about 20 just to see what would happen, and they didn't really go anywhere and nothing came back to me. So we want to create a really good consistent platform where all of our residents know where to go to get official information and be able to engage in conversation. And clearly they know that it's coming from us, and we do that with consistency. And then we've got a couple of communication initiatives that we're getting ready to push over the next couple of weeks. So I'll be able to test all of that calling and how it works, and then we'll be able to incorporate that feedback into future communications. So with that, it's my very short report about what we're doing, but it is a lot of stuff to do. Does anybody have any questions or comments? Yes.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I was happy to see the trail to tomorrow. So I'm so glad that that's coming back, you know, that that wasn't something we paid for, and then it just sits there static. So thank you for reviving that.

Amy Clayton:
Yeah. I'm excited to work with it so it doesn't become another really expensive shelved decor, and you guys will be hearing more about that strategy, and I'll be reaching out to get a lot of info from all of you.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I just wanted to express how excited I am to have Melissa on board. I remember the first time I met her was when she was applying for to be on the travel council. And after her interview, she realized she didn't qualify. And that her interview was so amazing that when she walked out, I told Ben Alter. I said, you run and grab her. Tell her to try out for the economic opportunity our economic development depart board. And she did. She's been just fabulous on it, and I'm sure in this position, you're gonna do an excellent job. So I'm just really happy to see you. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Anybody? Likewise, we're excited that you're here for sure. So we look forward to whatever we can do to support you in that role and move forward.

Melissa Jeffers:
I told Tess as part of the process, would love to play coy, but I can't because I'm overly eager. I'm just super excited to do it. So pretending won't do me any good. Thanks,Guys..

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Appreciate it. All Right, Bega, you're up. Thank you.

Bega Metzner:
Can we get on? I don't have a Screen. I'm going To introduce again just by saying this is Leanne Emmert and this is Crystal Bowden. I'm going to reintroduce them later. First, I'm just going to say a few things, but good afternoon commissioners and thank you for the opportunity to share what the film commission has been up to. It's been a while since I have seen you. I met briefly with the chair on Friday evening about the Zeus production that's in town, and he invited me to give a full department update. With all that's going on, this is more of a half a year and half of a fall department update. Some of you have seen some of my emails that have come through with numbers and things with film productions that have been in town, but I thought that some of the public might also appreciate hearing that as well. It has been an exceptionally active spring and summer, and with that, I'm calling it a season of strong momentum. Put that in paper. Productions of all shapes and sizes, major studio films, commercials, international series have come to Grand County and to neighboring San Juan County, which I also represent as the Film Commission Director for the Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission. I didn't introduce myself, did I? Bega Metzner, Moab to Monument Valley Film Commission Director. These Projects support our hotels, our restaurants, our creative professionals, and our rental companies, and so many more things. Especially, like right now, during a very slow visitor season and slower visitor months. Today, the Film Commission has received upwards of 29 direct production inquiries via my website. And those calls are not just hours, but potentially days of work facilitating this right and inspire them to want to come and film here. Here's a look at some of the recent productions and their economic impact. Hold my hand if I'm Going to fast. This list. One Of our really exciting, interesting productions was called Wild Horse Nine. It was completed in May. An Oscar winning director, Martin McDonough, came to shoot here. They had scattered it in January as well. They filmed in Moab area in LaSalle at a private residence and also in Monument Valley. This is the only U. S. Location that they filmed in. The rest was all shot in Chile and on the island of Rapa Nui, otherwise known as Easter Island. The Wise And Moab and Monument Valley. They had about seven fifty room nights. They had a local vendor spend of about 3 and $25,000 and a total local impact of about 5 and $60,000 There was an AT and T commercial called I Just Called. Very sweet, if you haven't seen it you can look it up online. They filmed here in March, they had about three sixty room nights, they had a lodging spend of about $90,000 and a total local spend of about $500,000 Their locations included Mineral Bottom and some local hires, Base Junk Moab and some others. They also shot out in Castle Valley at the Red Canyon School Ranch and James Dixon and his team as horse wrangler, so they got a lot of Locals involved. Did he work on that one?

Bega Metzner:
Great. And Crystal also briefly worked on that one. So it was a great use of locations, crews, our local resources for that. We also had Discovery Asia, Exploring the Unknown Season two. This is a smaller scale project, but it provided international visibility and it supported some of our off grid locations: Castleton, not necessarily off grid but harder to access, the Fruit Bowl, Wall Street, and some Indian Creek locations in San Juan County. They filmed in May. They had a lodging spend of about $12.60 dollars and local spend, including food permits and other vendors, of $23,000 to total about $25,000 in local spend. So the updated spring totals from what I had set out before is about 1,100 roommates and a total spend of $1,250,000 for the spring for just those that I've listed, not any of the others. I'm going to move on to a couple of future projects, then I'll circle back and make the introduction again to my guests. Some upcoming projects that I've been helping to facilitate is a road trip travelogue show with a boy band. They'll be filming at the end of this month. It's a smaller budget and smaller crew as well, only 13 people, but estimated 40 room nights and about 12,000 spent. They'll be filming in Moab City, in Arches, in Goblin Valley, and in Monument Valley. I have signed an NDA for this Amazon Prime project that's coming hopefully this fall, so I can't really talk much further about it, but about 50 crew, 150 room nights or so, lodging $45,000 and the Utah budget of about $300,000 and they'll be filtering across Grand And San Juan County.

Bega Metzner:
But these smaller projects create consistent vendor demand and help diversify our field economy. I also just spoke on the phone about an hour ago to another repeat customer who reached out for a commercial project in a month or so. So that's pretty cool. I would now like to introduce Leanne Emmert, who is the supervising location manager, and Crystal Bowden, who is the owner of Moab Phone Services, a local, and who is working with the location department for movie that we are calling at this point Zeus, and is in upcoming major feature film blockbuster production that is on the ground in Moab. I'll say briefly some of you already know Leanne, I mean Crystal, but Leanne is location manager extraordinary, a member of the Location Managers Guild International, where she and I actually met for the first time almost a year ago August at the Location Manager Guild International Awards and started sparking up a small conversation about a very small project that might be interested in coming here that has turned into not so small a project any longer. I was originally going to be a second unit, potentially plate shots where they come and just shoot the background environment and then put things in afterwards in post production, and it's turned into a full fledged first team crew project. She's also newly minted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That's the Oscars, so she's going be a judge for All the other movies that are out, Which is really cool. So I'm really happy to be working with Leanne. And Crystal and I have been working together, gosh, ten years now or And so at it's really great to be able to collaborate with our local crew for projects like this. I'll just say that this is one of the largest productions, Zeus, that our region has seen in a while. They scouted in December when it was kind of cold. Brian had the only boat that he allowed to stay afloat during that off season and was very helpful and is now working with the production moving forward as well. They're in pre production. The crew lands on the ground pretty much tomorrow.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Yep, tomorrow.

Bega Metzner:
Tomorrow. Again, this is the only US location that this film project is shooting at in Moab. It is shot, they just were filming in Australia.

Leann Emmert:
Yeah, we'll be filming in Mexico City, London, Mumbai, and yeah, this is the only US location that we're filming at. And it was selected, Moab was selected not only for its beautiful landscapes, it was supposed to be a Grand Canyon scene. But they loved the town, they the look of the town. So we're planning on filming on Main Street. Also out of Fossil Point, we're going to be filming on the river with Brian as our guide. And we will be filming at a gas station, this an outdoors gas station that's just north of town. So, you know, besides the phenomenal landscapes, Moab offers just, you know, enough accommodation for a big crew like this, you know, an established film crew, film professionals who live here and know what they're doing, and as well as great restaurants and bars. So I think we're all very thrilled. They just got back from Australia on Saturday. They fly in tomorrow. We have a lot of people on the ground. We're gonna have about 150 crew here traveling both from all over from Salt Lake City, some from LA, some from London But directors from also we have about 70 extras that our producer who actually did live in Moab for quite a junior or like grade school, junior high, high school, so for quite a long time, he has insisted that we just hire local Moab extras. So we've been working really hard to try to just hire locally. We also have about twenty, seventeen to 20 local crew just from the Moab area. So we're we're just thrilled to be able to be, you know, allowed to film here and to showcase your your really great Main Street and Fossil Point River and just this great land that you guys have.

Bega Metzner:
Thank you. It is really exciting. Yeah. Also, just in relation to the impact of that so far, not talking, this is only speaking about two hotels that I'm aware of the numbers for. We have about 2,060 rooms on hold at this point, 5 and 34,000 in lodging and production office spend, like I said, reflecting only two out of five or possibly six hotels involved. Estimated total local spend, which we won't know about until after it goes through the audits of being part of early Utah Motion Picture Incentive Program, the estimated local spend is anywhere from 2,500,000.0 to $3,500,000 Filming, as Leon said, in Moab City, Grand County, and portions of San Juan had a great open passing call for Moab locals in the eighty four thousand five thirty two. We had about 180 total locals who came in to bid, but about 71 end up being used for that. And like Leanne also said, 17 local hires including Crystal and then a fair amount out of Salt Lake City as well. And now we're going go into the fun part, which is really why I went to talk to Bill on Friday. Moab Main Street Highway 109 will be closed down for a number of hours on July 30 to traffic. It's going to be closed from five a. M. Until twelve p. M. Noon or so. So 191 from 100 North to 100 South, that is a full closure. Center Street will have a partial closure because of Wells Fargo being on the corner needs to have access, but from Main Street to 200 East, there will be a partial closure. Traffic detours will start north and south of town with traffic being rerouted under 500 West King Creek Boulevard for both sides, and if needed for 400 East as a secondary option. There will be no parking signs posted the night before anywhere that is necessary so that cars do not park there. Any traffic that is any cars that are needed and any people that are needed in that street scene are going to be hired professionals, the cars as well as the extras in it. UDOT has been completely involved with this and they're putting out a CBB, that's what I'm calling it, a CB Bulletin informing truckers in advance that they will be running into a potential traffic detour up ahead. And all of this has been managed in collaboration with the ZEUS locations department, me at the Film Commission, the Moab Police Department, Utah Highway Patrol and Grand County Sheriff and everyone will be on the ground coordinating that. Planning began over seven months ago with the city manager, the mayor and other city of Moab staff and again, UDOT law enforcement and City Streets Department. So all the permits are in place. This is a go. This is not something that you can say you don't want to do because it's happening. Public notifications have gone out this past week and will go out again to all the local papers on social media, but all the residents and businesses, those being used for filming on Main Street or not, and on Main And Center have been notified like with flyers and will be given further information as things move forward to what they might need to do. So that's about the closures because I did, city council mentioned it, the papers wanted to know, so we just wanted to make sure that the community at large is aware of July 30, the street being closed. We don't get the helicopter I really want it to make it that much more exciting, but there will be drone shots and people running, you know, people on the streets doing that. So, what's my timing like? Because I have a couple more things. I have a minute? Okay. I'm on the edge.

Bega Metzner:
Never mind. It's all just numbers, but I'll just basically, I wanted to just point out outside of this incredible zoos project that's in town and it's very exciting. The Utah Film Trail markers are up. There's one been installed at Dead Horse Point and one at LaSalle Junction, Highway 46 and 191, one installed at Goldings Lodge. There's one coming soon to Arches National Park, Red Cliffs Lodge, Forest Gump Point, and it encourages self guided tourism and film tourism, and they're really cool. And if you haven't got a chance to see those trail markers, please do. Then I just have to briefly mention that some media recognition and global exposure, Marvel Thunderbolts came out in May, it was a massive box office success, you worked on that, that was filmed in Grand County outside of Moab also a little bit in Green River. The Electric State also came out, didn't do as great, but they spent a lot of money here. Moab, the film commission was awarded through the Screen International Global Production Awards, a Highly Commended Location of the year award at the Cannes Film Festival in France in May. So Moab is a highly commended location of the year, which is pretty cool. And just final thoughts, thank you for your support. I'm happy to continue attracting top tier productions to this area. It drives real spending and local hiring. It builds lasting industry relationships and I love promoting Moab and Marin County on a global stage and I hope that can continue. All in all, this work supports tourism, hospitality, local vendors and creative professionals. We're keeping the cameras rolling and the results speak for themselves, and I look forward to continued open lines of communication between us. My door is always open and my phone is always on. Thank you. Any questions?

Bega Metzner:
Very good. Anybody?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
I'd like to thank Leanne, especially for bringing your crew and your people here. That's a big deal. And I know that has worked hard to make that happen with different groups, but we're appreciative of you being here. And I guess mostly I'm appreciative on the economic side for the businesses and the employees that you hire while you're here. They all benefit from this. Crystal, also for all your hard work. I know that you're behind the scenes, but it still makes some of it all happen. So we're very appreciative of all of you. And Iga was somewhat skeptical about coming here and speaking to us because she didn't have more than three or four minutes worth of material. Yeah, appreciative of all of you. Thank you very much.

Leann Emmert:
Thank you. We really appreciate it and you'll see us out there next Thursday the thirtieth. So, on Main Street.

Bega Metzner:
Yes, don't don't don't don't come in to see. I just have to say, wait to see it in the movies because we just want to keep it. There's another location that they have to move to at noon or prior if they get done and so the faster they can get the work done. So I know it's a really fun and exciting thing to see Main Street closed but I'm talking to the public now. You know, if you can hold off and wait to see the movies would be better than showing up, unless you have been hired as an extra or as a PA or as part of the crew, which we have a number of locals who have been.

Leann Emmert:
But if any film commissioners or, I mean, not film commissioners, but county commissioners, if if you want to come find me on Thursday.

Bega Metzner:
We have an invitation coming out to speak to the to the commissioners. Wednesday

Bill Winfield:
All right. With that, we can move into. We don't have any other reports. Do we agency reports or anything? All right. Commission disclosures. Do we have anything that anybody wants to bring forward? Yeah.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
I'd just like to disclose I'm a concessionaire of Canyonlandslands and Arches National Park.

Bill Winfield:
Alright. Thank you. Mike?

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I'm a concessionaire of Canyonlandslands and Arches National Park.

Bill Winfield:
Okay. Thank you as well. All right. We can move into our general commission report. Jacques, if you would like to start us off online, I'd gladly let you do that and then we get it out of the way.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Great. Thank you, Bill. Appreciate it. And I, I turned my camera on for this. My connection isn't great, so I may have to turn it off. But let's see. I've been traveling since the last meeting. I'm happily returning to Moab, tomorrow evening. Can't wait to get home get back to beautiful Grand County. I did attend a number of remote meetings this last couple of weeks. On July 7, I attended an audit committee meeting along with Bill and Brian. We met with the new internal auditor for the first time. We voted for accounting standards, which I think Bill and Brian can speak to a little bit more than I can. We discussed the readiness of our 2024 state audit and since that was due, I believe that was due at the June, and we discussed a potential special meeting of the Audit Committee to approve that and send it on to the Commission for approval. And we also set our next audit committee meeting date for August 4 at 10:30AM. On on July 8, I attended a trail mix meeting. We had planned to have a trail mix bylaws discussion at that meeting, but the chair decided to table that to, commit all the time of the trail mix meeting to discussion of the e bike of the of the, BLM e bike decision. There was a very robust discussion in trail mix, and the result of that was a letter that was sent to the commission. I think everybody saw that. They landed on support for alternative b, but it was kind of a b minus option with and they wanted to send a recommendation to not include the Pipe Dream Trail and Mossaback Trail in those that were allowed to have e bike usage. I also wanted to comment on the process by which trail mix came to that. That was commented on by a citizen today. I just want to point out that this is a volunteer board and that board works hard. Anybody is it's a public meeting, anybody is welcome to come to any Trail Mix meeting and participate, not only by making a citizen to be heard comment, but also to be involved in the discussion. I think that's one of the unique aspects of groups like Trail Mix. And I think it does a major service to everybody. Anyone can come there and weigh in on discussions and participate. People haven't been limited that way. You can also write in to comment. So I think that that, anybody who wants to be involved in that way absolutely can be and is very welcome at that committee meeting. It's it's a it's it's an open meeting, and I would invite anyone to attend. It's the second Tuesday of the month at 11:00 at the Grand Center every single month.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
I also want to remind everyone that Trail Mix is largely responsible for all of the amazing trails that attract visitors from all over the world to our playground in Moab, and that they have done more to ensure the success of the bike business and bike industry in Moab than anyone. So, I would say please come to a trail mix meeting and participate. I also on July 11 attended the selection committee for the tourism rebrand based on the RFP that was sent out. An amazing 36 submissions were reviewed and discussed. It was limited it was it was kind of cut down to the top five that that people had picked, and the result was that three of them will be invited back for an interview. I didn't get to review all 36. I looked at about 10, and they were all very impressive. It's amazing what some of these companies can do. I think we're going be in good hands and have a really cool rebrand eventually. I would also very much like to congratulate Mick and Allie from the Mott department on the work that they did in facilitating that discussion and in going over those proposals. And Brian was also at that meeting. I think Brian was definitely more involved than I was, so I think he could speak better to that process than I can. And that is it for my report today. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Jacques. Trish, do you want to bring us around? Just follow along

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Yeah, you bet. I will go really quickly. I also was on vacation, so I just have a couple of meetings to report on, and they were both from yesterday. So in the morning, I went to the Watershed Council meeting down in Monticello with Brian. And just a couple of things that we touched upon is just the continued efforts to put together our Southeastern Utah's comments on the state water plan, and we are working, and this will be noted with the planning commission also on a water element of our general plan, which is a state mandate and has to be done by the end of the year, so we are running to get that done. Then we had Jay Olson from the Department of Ag come and talk about ag protections. I kind of want to reiterate that we will be holding a meeting on July 29 at 6PM at the Grand Center held by Department of Ag surrounding ag protections, anybody is welcome to come to that. I also had a planning commission meeting yesterday afternoon. Katie Murphy, who worked endlessly on our landscaping ordinance, kind of talked to came to talk about her involvement in that and and continued commitment to try to work through that landscaping ordinance. And then we're gonna talk about this, the METR overlay, which will be talked about tonight, so I won't get into that. And I already spoke about the water element of the general plan and the ag protection ordinance. That's it.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Pretty good. Mike?

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Pretty easy going. OSTA meeting was actually canceled. They're doing a fine job out there. They are at the fire and emergency operations camp set up right now. Is pretty much shut down to the general public as it stands right now just because of all the emergency services going on. So that's just a public statement there. I have the. HASU board, the Grand County Recreation Specialist Service District and the Mobile Area Housing Task Force meetings coming up towards the end of the month, but that's about it.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right, Mary.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Yes. I attended the home home local homeless committee meeting. It's exciting news. Right now, homelessness is down in the water. It breaks out, which is the first time I we've been able to report on that, isn't it? Yeah. Even when you were you know, so and they don't know exactly why. You know, they've been working really hard on on finding housing and getting people housed and getting people into treatment and such that be that because there's so many organizations that work with our office, the community, and spend lots of time and lots of effort getting them and get providing services. Oh, and the other thing that we discussed was that for that perhaps for next year, future because when we go is is to work with and I've talked to care I've emailed with Perry at the library is to keep in changing the library hours to help with time periods that are homeless and the heat issues in Moab so that the libraries are open a little longer in the time periods that the heat is so intense and some and perhaps more on Saturday and Sunday. So this is something we can look at this fall and and look at and and try to find some partners to work with as well from the city to the partners that I already work with the homeless so that it's not just a financial burden off Brown County, but I think it's a really good review. Know, people can…heat is very dangerous.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Thanks, Bill. So let's see here on the second, I actually missed the chamber meeting. I was out on the river scouting there with Zeus, but I got a couple of things here that came in from them. The Celebrate Moab website has launched, you wanted to check that out. There's a winter shoulder season survey that will be shared late July from folks at the chamber. And then the film commission is providing an update at the next business meeting on July 22 at 5PM. I was at the audit committee on the seventh with both Bill and Joff. Just a couple of things there as well. Know, one of the things we met with Julian Metcalf of GPP. He was great. It's really nice to meet up with you, know, and it was great because he started off with just what the goal of the internal auditor was, which is to mitigate risk before problems arise. And so it was neat talking with him. He's going to be in town in August. Also, we kind of discussed the the external audit, but I did talk with Gabe and I think he's going to be able to provide us where we are on the status of that. Is that still correct, Gabe? Yeah. Okay, perfect. Yeah, so I'll just leave that go right there. That day I also met with Slabins and they're doing some interviews and they asked me a bunch of questions about the community. So that was kind of a nice little thing to do.And then on the eighth, visited the Trail Mix. We discussed e bikes. I think we're going talk about that a little bit later. On the ninth, I met with the Utah Division of Outdoor Recreation and we met to kind of discuss what was going on with the state trail crew. Also on the ninth was the Motorized Trail Committee, and there's a couple of things that happened there. They had a couple of letters of support. One is for Grand County Search and Rescue, that'll be for those two UTVs. The other is for the Motorized Trail Ambassadors OHVR grant, and then also Ride With Respect also has an OHVR grant that's in that packet today under the consent agenda. And then they also discussed e bikes, but we're going be talking about that a little bit later on. On the eleventh, I was at the branding discussion that Jacques was also talking about. Yeah, there was 36 proposals. I want to thank Mick for making them only 30 pages long because I mean that was quite a bit to go through and score all of those. There were so many great proposals but most of us landed on about the same ones. There's three that will be invited for interviews right now. That's Moxy, Camp four and Vladimir. If any of you guys want to see their proposals just send me an email and I'll make sure that those get off to everybody so we can all have a good look. The Moab Office of Tourism is going to be getting together and they're going to be setting the scope of work prior to the interviews so that everybody will be coming in under the same thing. On the thirteenth, I went up to La Sal for their town hall that they had. Saturday, there were some extreme conditions, you know, with the fire tornado, they showed that up on the screen. It was something to behold. I've never seen anything like that before. At that time, were, the big thing they were hoping is to keep everything contained. It's a two mile road and trying to keep everything off that hanging dog that was back in. They were still at 0% containment and just a lot of thanks and kudos to the crews out there working. On the fourteenth, was with Trish out there at the Watershed Council, it was great, there was some talk about the Utah Division of Water Quality, the Lower San Juan Watershed Plan, and also she was talking about the elements in our general plan, kind of that idea of bridging the gap between planning and water is what the state's going to assist us on. It's nice. Also, we heard at that meeting that Arnie Mulhollquist will be replaced by Daniel Lay, so that one of the other things that popped up. Later on in that day I went to the weeds board and there was some lively debate over our bylaws. There's going to be two board seats that are coming available January 1, so I just want to put that out to the community. They'll have interviews November 3, and applicants, all they need to be is Grand County citizens and people who are interested in weeds. It's a really nice board and actually is really interesting.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
It's been one of the boards that I did. I was surprised at how much I've learned and enjoy some of the conversations. A couple of updates from that. They did a purple loose strife trip with the DNR and they found some of the purple loose strife out there on the Moab daily just across from White's Ranch. They have another river trip scheduled up in Rutherford. Go ahead seasons here and they have already traded 21 acres so far so they're out there getting after it. Right now is the time to get ahead the goat heads. Let's see here, oh yeah they also did mention that the Weeds Department does have the use of a goat head roller for private residence over the weekend, So, that's some expensive equipment that you might be able to borrow to go ahead and clear your property. On the fifteenth, or that's today, I went and met with UDOT and we talked about some of the high emphasis crossings. They're also going to be talking about installing some bull bats on Main Street, which might help with some of the pedestrian visibility out there on Main Street, allowing the pedestrians to basically step out a little further and have a little bit more visibility. And they also talked about providing a study on the Dogwood area looking for crossings right there, just right there across from the Moab Valley and over to that little area. We're also trying to plan to meet quarterly. And then later in the day we met with the Indigent Defense Counsel and met Joe Almania and then just talked a little bit about the service that he's providing. That's all I got. Perfect.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Alright, well, have two community renewable resources meetings. They're moving along with the Public Service Commission process for the Utah Renewable Communities Program application. That is just it's it's been a big process. They do have 19 RFPs so far for the program. First, they were only expecting about 10. So, they're really excited about that. They also we also passed a resolution as to what would happen to the program if the commission were to terminate terminate the program, especially with the ever changing climate of clean energy. It just seems that, the discussion is that it's a lot more expensive to do clean energy now than when they started in, I think, that program that was 2018 when they first started this. It's been interesting. We'll keep on seeing what's happening. It's going before the docket is moving along anyways. I had attended agenda review with Mary and Bill. I also attended via Zoom, the USACCC monthly meeting via Zoom. The most exciting thing about that is that there's the twenty twenty five events that are coming up. So September is the UAC Annual Convention in Davis County. And then November is the USAC Fall Convention for Little America in Salt Lake City. If any of you guys are interested in going, I think that some of us want to try to go. I had some housing discussions with Ben at HASU and Kaitlin and Shaylee for Area Community Land Trust. We're discussing affordable housing. I was also learning more about the way the county and these entities work together.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
So, very interesting. I had an EMS special board meeting, as well as meeting with members of the Health Care Special Service District, talking about the need for funding. They're proposing a 0.5 sales tax be put on the ballot this November. Grand Canyon UMass is facing severe funding challenges. Those are driven by rising cost of ambulances, medication, fuel and staffing, decreased insurance reimbursements and revenue from patient transport, hundreds of thousand dollars in unexpected ambulance and facility repairs, and depleted fund balance. They have borrowed operating funds, we also gave them emergency fund just so they can meet payroll for 2025. So, they are looking at a financial cliff. And so, looking at inter agencies that can be included in that funding, I know that will come before the commission, but there's more conversations going on as far as that goes. I also met with Orion and Jonathan and Mike at the health department discussing the impact of the Trail Ambassadors and how they've had such an impact on the removal of the waste and brainstorming on the best way to keep their grant and continue this effort. I think there'll be more discussions to continue on with that. And I also want to express my thankfulness and gratitude to all the firefighters and emergency personnel that have been working hard on the Deer Creek Fire. I think want to solve the think rain, but not too much.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thanks, Mel. I'll comment on the fire a little bit too, such here somewhere in my report. But I think the first thing I want to do is just update the public on where we are as far as rebuilding the county with more employees that we certainly had a shortage in some of our critical positions of late, and there's still a few shortages out there that we're working on. But to date, we have hired mister Gleason as our airport director, Mister Yates, Sean Yates is the engineer is back in the zoning administrator's office. We've also the sheriff hired Kate Finley, and I hope I'm not taking any of his thunder for the emergency manage direct management director. And then also me, Lisa Jeffers, who you some of you were if you were here, got to meet earlier with her presentation. So we're slowly bringing some of that back here to the county to get some of these critical positions filled. I also had a meeting with Contour Airlines regarding the air service that we have here. We discussed them increased flights that will be happening later this fall between Denver and Moab in the hopes of bringing in a little bit more of our tourism base from Denver. And we also discussed some of the challenges that they're facing. And I guess the weather in the Denver area has been fairly hard on them with late afternoons trying to get out of Denver.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
They've been grounded a little bit, but trying to overcome some of those hurdles and they might end up having to change some of their times, I think, to when they leave Denver. Let's see. We also I also met with the EMS and the Moab Valley Fire and the sheriff regarding the tax that Melody just mentioned, and we had some pretty broad discussions on how that would look moving forward and getting that on the ballot. I was also part of the audit committee meeting that Joc and Brian mentioned. And Joc mentioned it a little bit, just coming up with some standards for our internal auditor and evidently to date we haven't had an internal auditor who was operating to a set of standards and it was decided that we would work towards the Gaga or work under the GAGA standards. And I can't tell you what VADA means or stands for, but it's for government entities. And it allows just a little bit more oversight and a little bit higher bar to be met. Also met with Dominion Energy over a franchise agreement. That's moving forward. It's just to keep us and them in basically an MOU with their pipelines through the county. Also met with Slavins, as Brian mentioned, regarding the search for a new zoning administrator, which is one of the key positions that we're still looking to fill.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
We had an airport board meeting with our new airport director. I'm not a whole lot there. We do have an FAA grant and an award to a construction company that will be moving forward fairly soon on taxiways. Don't quote me on them. There's three of them that we're gonna pay in there. I know that Dana gave them to me, and I actually wrote an e, g, and j. There we go. Taxiways that we'll be paving in the near future, and that's about a ninety day project ongoing. It's been awarded to TSJ. I was also at the CJC meeting. That was well attended by the sheriff's department and the police department. Some of the statistics that came out of that were the child visits are up fifty one percent over 2024. And that's not a statistic that we want to be proud of. That means that there's problems for those children. CJC services, the kids that are hit the worst in our community by many kinds of different crimes and perpetrated by family or other friends or members. So the fact that that statistic is up is a bad thing, not a good thing. So they are excited about their eventual move into the new home. They plan on having a grand opening and a ribbon cutting with not a date set yet, but hopefully in September.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
They also received $82,500 grant for mental health support for first responders who are the first ones to help these children and come into whatever scene that it is that causes, you know, the law enforcement to be called. So there's a little bit of help there for the responders to deal with that because some of these crimes against kids, quite honestly, would make me cry if I had to get into the specifics about it. They're somewhat horrendous sometimes. And then they also have an upcoming domestic violence training, and I didn't get a date off of that one either. And then I have been involved with the Deer Creek Fire, attending the meetings and the updates out at well, at the Osta Center ever since the Complex Incident Management Team took over and that team is a great basin team four and they're out of Nevada. And then as well as the community meeting that was held out in LaSalle at the community center and then the regular updates and there'll be another one tomorrow, I believe at 11:00. Currently, I think as of this morning, we were at 12,900 acres and I think the number was three forty some firefighters and personnel on the ground fighting that fire with a 7% containment.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
So considering the size of they are making some headway, but it's so is it. It has not reached Grand County yet. It's basically growing towards Grand County on the East Side Of the LaSalle Mountains. And so at some point, if it continues as it is going in and it'll cross the line into Grand County. And there's a pretty amazing team out there that's been fighting that air to ground crews. I know it was a fairly emotional meeting for the community members out there because a lot of them would just like to know where or what happened to their house. A lot of them have no idea yet. And so there was an assessment done yesterday, and the San Juan County Sheriff was gonna update those people about their homes. And a lot of them are homes that are owned second homes by Grand County residents. And then there are a lot of them that are families that actually live out there full time. So it's it's got a lot of people up in the air wondering when and what what happened. So that's still ongoing. And then we do also have a fire that started this afternoon with a lightning strike up in the Book Cliffs. And that's a fairly small one. They had hoped that it would be extinguished or put down by the end of today. And then I also attended the UDOT meeting with Brian earlier, and then I was also part of the meeting with the IDC and the prosecuting attorney there, Mr. Alamilla, and staff earlier today. And that is the end of my report. We can move on to elected officials, mister Fox, if you want to Take us away. Sure.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
And and just to correction, Mr. Alamilla is one of our public defenders.

Bill Winfield:
Public defendant. Not prosecutors. My bad. That's okay. One of

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
The trainings that happened last week was put on by the ICCR, which is the Institute for Coordinated Community Response for the Domestic Violence. This is the program that the detective from the Moab Police Department applied for. We were one of the four counties throughout The US that received this program in conjunction with their cohort here. They give us quarterly trainings. So they fly somebody out here. They give trainings to law enforcement, to prosecution. It's a wonderful service. They brought down law enforcement officer investigation specialist involving domestic violence, specifically how you go on scene, take photographs, all of that. They did it for Wednesday and Thursday. It was highly attended by MOG PG, the Grand County Sheriff's Department, EMS, other entities attended as well. It's really, really helpful. They hosted it on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, and we even had folks from Carbon County come down to be able to receive the additional training. Additionally, don't know that anyone's mentioned it yet, but I believe witness cycle was the July 4. I think everything went well based on everything that I've heard. It was well attended. I don't know of any incidents that occurred, but I think that was something that was done very well and done in a safe manner. Attended the CJC Advisory Board. As Commissioner Winfield notes, we are seeing an uptick in domestic violence issues. This could be for a myriad of reasons. It's something that happens in this community. It's a weird thing to say that it's a good thing, but generally in the summer months, lot of the reporting is down because a lot of the mandatory reporters, like teachers for example, they usually get to see a child and they can kind of notice things, and so then that gets sent up the chain. So, having good reporting numbers is a good thing. It's a bad circumstance generally, but having involved community members that can see the signs of a child being off is a really good thing. In the community are always encouraged to see Something, to say Something. Oftentimes, kids are the ones that don't have the requisite toolkit to fend for themselves. So, we're really excited when we're able to do those interviews, make sure that they're able to have their cases processed. Apart from that, we're here to help. I know there have been entities that reach out for questions. You can come chat with my office and reach out to us. We're happy to cure additional questions and look forward to any folks that reach out. Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
Right, Gabe.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Thanks. So, I rolled out a new Board of Equalization appeal application platform that's available online now, and just generally preparing with my staff for processing appeal applications, because the Clerk of Honor's Office is kind of taking more ownership of the BOE appeal process, as is sort of statutorily required. Thankful to assessor Swayze for collaborating and being open to adjusting that, I think, for the better process and for the better of the public engaging in that way. And so, that's sort of all being prepared in response to tax valuation notices, which I've been spending a lot of time making sure are, you know, they have to be right and we're sending them out across the county and there's a lot of information and detail in that. It's quite a long process going back and forth and creating drafts, working in concert with the recorder's office, treasurer's office, the assessor's office, making sure that all and the state tax commission and making sure that that information is correct. And it looks like those are due to go out in the mail Friday, this Friday, July 18. So folks can expect to receive those valuation notices this weekend or early next week. I've been fielding pretty consistent grammar requests, some large, some small. Last week, I attended the Clerks Conference from Wednesday to Friday in Brigham City. A lot of very stimulating conversation with the other clerks and auditors around the state. So it's really well attended.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Pretty much every elected from every county comes to that summer conference and we really get down to brass tacks. I was looking forward to it. I was involved in the branding agency scoring committee. I wasn't able to attend the discussion, but I was able to review all 36 applications and score them. And right now, I'm working on a draft resolution, as has been referenced regarding the rural health care sales tax. I'm working on a draft resolution that this commission would need to pass for that measure of that increase from one half to one full percent to be placed on a ballot for this November's general election. So I'm trying to crank that out and get it to legal so we can hopefully have that considered sooner than later. Finance officer Steven Valves will be presenting a fiscal update as well as a 2026 budget action plan at the next commission meeting on August 5. So we can look forward to that. And it's really just there's a lot going on as far as this budget amendment and moving forward and just the planning and strategizing that we're working on and preparing for the 2026 budget season. So I think I'm that we'll be able to do it in a more thoughtful and comprehensive way than we ever have and just continue to improve year over year. That's always the goal. In regards to the external audit and draft financial statements, so as it stands right now, finance director Viles and I are going through the process of a detailed review of the statements and verifying and cross checking figures to see request requesting grouping tables and mapping tables so that we can make sure that we know the representations in the financial statements.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
We can verify them. We want to feel really confident the details presented in those statements and as well as just all the information that's presented by a narrative in the statements. It's not a situation it's not a it's an effort that I know has urgency. It's also an effort that I'm not willing to rush through. Think accuracy and to ensure I know it's important in this case, as always. And I want to make sure that the content is complete to the right of our abilities. I did hear Commissioner Hadler state that there might be a special meeting of the internal audit committee on August 4. And I do think that Finance Director Valzenai's review, it's reasonable to say that our review will be complete such that a draft can be shared with that committee in anticipation of their meeting, not the day before, but potentially a week before, such that that committee can complete their review and potentially approve and forward to the to the kind of commission. So I think we're on track to. Have a complete actual statement picture. Is that for me? Am I going too long?

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Within a time frame that reflects my office's intention to really do it the right way. And I think that in my understanding with the state auditor's office and expectations are with regards to the completion and suspension of those financial statements, it will be well within the confines of what would consider not resulting in any penalties to Grant County. So just wanted to say that.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Very good. Thank you. Sheriff Wiggins.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Oh, here he is. Oh. Great. Come on in. And Kate.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Thank you. Our new emergency manager. Kate Finley.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Glad to have you back. Sure.

Kate Finley:
Started last night. Happy To be back at The county and excited to Start building on the work that Cora did and work for us even greater community resources.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Pretty good. Being tested somewhat right now with the fire and everything else that's going on,So starting with the full workload.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Thanks. Go ahead, Sheriff. She doesn't like to brag, but she's emergency manager with the Air Force currently. Emergency manager of the year last year with the Air Force. The county, I think is in good hands. So, yeah. So I just figured it'd be easier to just talk about new sets. So for month of May, obviously,

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
We're in our busy season right now on top of the qualifiers. So in May 2,252 calls into our dispatch, our Search and Rescue calls were at fifteen, quite a few traffic stops, five sixty six traffic stops, our arrests were at 43. And Then

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
When you compare that to the month of June, 2,177 calls from our dispatch center, 12 search and rescue calls, 54 arrests, traffic stops went down a little bit at three eighty three. The next thing that I wanted to talk about was A new funding revenue for public safety, it's house bill four eighty eight, sent it to your random emails. Some important updates, it's an existing law, I think Gabe may have talked about it a little bit, won't keep saying outside. It's a real game changer for counties from the third to the sixth class. It imposes a point 3% on sales tax and that revenue would go to public safety. In that, could put that generated revenue, you could put it towards facilities, personnel, equipment. It's a small tax with a potential big impact. Good funds at public safety building, which we're in desperate need of. Provides a dedicated funding stream, we'd be less reliant on general funds with certain grants. Other sheriffs in the state are already taking advantage of this, other sheriffs are exploring the option of using it. So what's next, is this something that the Commission wants to pursue? I think that pursuing it. Public transparency and outreach will be crucial. The next steps could include feasible studies, cost projections, timeline planning, whether the county wants to build it back to public safety and create a public safety or want to go out to the county and put another facility and build something, but ideally you want all of your county attorney, your sheriff, your court system, the jail all in one building because right now we're separated where my law enforcement officers are across the street and the backup for the jail is across the street so if we had an emergency they'll have to come over and come into the jail. It's better facility. I don't know if you guys have any questions on that.

Bill Winfield:
I'll add just a little bit. I believe the Cruz is going to present at our next meeting on this, correct? And they'll give us a little bit more broader view to the community here as to where that tax will really come from. I've heard different numbers. It'd be great to hear it actually from him, but some people say it's about 80% of this tax would be a tax raised on tourism. The other 20% is going to hit locals and that's in the form of everything other than gas and your groceries gets a sales tax put on it and this would increase on that. So the bulk of it will be carried by the tourism industry that comes here to bring this money in. I will say just like Jameson did that I think it's important that we get this out and the people get a chance to know about it and weigh in on it. I certainly do not want to do anything here that the public hasn't weighed in on and been able to voice their opinions on another tax that, although it is a larger size of it on the tourism industry, it's still gonna impact every one of us. And some of the largest impacts to the locals will be contractors because a sales tax is going to on a $10,000 load of lumber is going to increase that load of lumber, which then gets passed into the housing to everything else down the line. So it wouldn't be felt by locals to some degree, but I believe that there's some support out there for this. And I think we just want to find out, you know, where the public weighs in on it, at least certainly I do. So anybody else on the commission want to comment or weigh in?

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Those of you that haven't been on a tour, highly encourage you to tour the Sheriff's facilities. We're in desperate need of a medical center for the jail. Currently we have a closet.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Evidence rooms spread throughout the county, lack of training rooms, interview rooms, like the new emergency manager I had to create a new in the old library we're in, I had no space. Future growth, we're just as busy even though TRT numbers are down, people still come to the county and camp out the desert, we still have to respond to those calls. Yeah, I think it would be a great source of revenue from the county for public safety.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes, sir. And then one other thing

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
That I think the jail needs is beds. I mean, we have a lot of folks that come in and are on substances and are detoxing. And I think that's another area that it's going to need additional funding and money for because a lot of people unfortunately put themselves in a circumstance where they're not in the ability to take care of themselves and then they end up getting law enforcement intervention and they have to pick them up and we have to care for them and we're not equipped to be a mental health facility. But that is something that happens frequently. Jail staff does a phenomenal job caring for folks and keeping folks in because they can't, unfortunately, they're in a circumstance that they're a danger to the community and you're making the sheriff's office or not you guys, the community makes the sheriff's office have to care for these folks because we don't have a facility that has beds locally. That's probably another thing that eventually I think the jail and probably the community has to be real about is setting aside some funding for that because we have a number of frequent flyers that end up there and it puts a lot of stress on jail staff, mental health, everything. It's very, very difficult.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
And it's something just to know. I mean, the county did remodel the jail 2016, but that didn't get us really any more beds. We're busier, a lot busier right now than we were in 2016. We do house some state inmates, we get paid for those state inmates per day. Don't quote me, I don't want to say it's like $80 a day per state inmate, that pays for all the county jail inmates, so it is a fifth thing to have state inmates. Iron County Sheriff's Office just did this public safety tax, they built a new jail facility. And then also with that new jail facility is they started housing more state to also help offset the cost of their. So it's good push to income.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yeah, and I would hope that our local paper would pick up on this a little bit and maybe get some information out to the public that we're considering this and that there will be a presentation on it at the next commission meeting. Then maybe our new public information officer could do some kind of a press release or something. We have the public involved in this as much as possible before we make a decision and listen to their concerns for sure.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Just one other quick note.I also don't want to make it sound like we're trying to incarcerate everybody. We're not. The sheriff's done an excellent job to get pretrial release services. That's been a huge asset. We put people on pretrial release. Unfortunately, there's been a number of folks that they have that additional level of supervision and they choose to make poor, unfortunately poor decisions and they get picked back up. So it's not without trying from The sheriff's office to try to find some alternatives as well. That's been position was grant funded, I think, for this year, but that's currently doing tracking, which is a critical and necessary piece of alternatives to incarceration.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes, Mary.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
When we remodeled the jail in 2016, we had a CIB grant that helped with that as well. Could we do that, go back in that direction as well as the sales tax or something like a limit?

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Just depends on what the county wants to do obviously. If we go back to this facility, think it might be cheaper to remodel this back to a public safety building. If we go out to the county and build a whole new facility, it's going cost a lot more money. And then you'd probably have to dip into the CIB and ask for some more revenue to come in

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Okay. So it could be a it would probably have to be a combination.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Yep. Well, we were talking a Little bit. I mean, even if you guys were to enact this public safety tax right now, I mean, and while we're waiting that decision, you still have that revenue that comes in, you could pay off the loan that currently is on the jail. We still owe some money On that, going to remodel.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And then just bank that as that money comes in until we made the final decision on the public safety where they Would go, there's definitely some value there.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
You also got a lot of key players at the table right now, I would hate to speak for them, but highway patrol down the basement, I think they want to leave and go to liquor store. They've asked, hey are we doing a public safety building? We would like to stay here and stay at the Public Safety Building. Ideally, again, want everybody in the same facility. We're like one of the last few remaining counties that doesn't have a public safety building. So at UP and P, the courts were asking for a remodel of the courts, and we do it as that's the direction that we guys want to build. So you got a lot of good key players at the table that are wanting to do something, so I think that if you explore this, it would be great to go down.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I also think there's a chance for those players to participate in some of the costs of this. Clearly, the Highway Patrol participated in the UtahRaptor State Park funding because they put housing out there. So an opportunity to multiple agencies to help with this new public safety building or remodel this one, which would then displace staff here and have to be put into a new building on-site or somewhere else. So all things to think about and to get our public involved in. I appreciate you bringing it forward. Again, I think it's pretty important that people want know more about it, that they end that presentation at the next commission meeting.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
And then also, just so everybody knows, we're sending resources from Grand County Sheriff's Office in the San Juan County closing roads down for them, they're utilizing our Starlink equipment for the internet, there's no radio service or internet out there, we left our Starlink account for San Juan so they'll have some kind of communication. We've had very good donations from the community here in regards to food and water, so San Juan's very appreciative of it and it's good to be a good neighbor. Do I have any other questions on? Water and Gatorades can never have enough of that. You know,

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I've seen people delivering it by The trailer boats out there, so it's from the community.

Sheriff Jamison Wiggins:
Osta is shut down just for the fire there, so.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright, thanks. Thanks.

Mark Tyner:
Commission administrator. Mr. I don't have anything to add at this point. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Lucky you. Alright. So then we are too early for 06:00 citizens to be heard or the public hearing, so we could move into the approval of the consent agenda. That's alright with everyone. I will recommend a motion that we approve the meeting minutes for the meetings of June 17 and 07/01/2025, Ratification of payment of bills. Total bills, $2,879,277.35 with a total payroll of $577000.367.37. Total bills and payroll, $3,456,644.72. Also, the ratifications ratification of the Mud Springs contract, ratification of contractor agreement with TSJ construction for the airport taxi lane project, ratification of local consent for various event locations of the Moab Music Festival, letter of support for Ride With Respect OHPR grant application to do maintenance on motorized singletrack, award bid for hydro excavator trailer for county roads, and the ICA Real Creative Who is Moab Media Production project. Michael?

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I move to approve the consent agenda as read.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by Commissioner McCurdy, second by Commissioner Martinez. All those in favor? Jacques?

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Aye. Yeah. I'm in favor.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. That passes unanimously. Thank you. And we will move on. Keep an eye on our time here. Following is an item, an approval of a thank you letter to the CIB for funding the PAR fire truck, and that is my Multiple people worked on this, mostly Quinn and putting the wording together, I believe. Thank you. And that's just a letter that we will be sending to the community impact board and thanking them for what was, I think on our part considered an emergency, which they consider it a special loan for the purchase of a new fire engine. We've had a lot of problems with ours out there and I haven't heard an update yet. I don't believe that it's even up and running yet. We're still relying on the generosity of the Provo Airport for the use of one of their backup fire engines. And so this this is just a thank you to the CIB board. It was a unanimous decision to give Grant County that special loan as they called it. I abstain being from Grand County. I sit on that board but it was very nice to see that they approved that and we could move forward with getting that on order. It's about a two year lag to order a fire engine before you receive it. And so with the RFP process and moving that timeline all along, it's just allows us to get in the queue for a fire engine much quicker than we normally would have been. We would have had to wait on the possibility of another grant from FAA. So again, really, is just a thank you to that board and the staff there at the CIB. That's all what that is. Yes, Mary.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I'd like to make a motion to approve the letter of appreciation to the government community for the funding and the purchase of the new aircraft rescue and firetrap, firefighting truck.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Motion by Commissioner McGann, second by Commissioner McCurdy. Discussion?

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Aye. Second. And I really do appreciate the CIB, there's pretty much nowhere we can get loans of that caliber for the interest rate that is available to the entities, doesn't exist, but CIP took care of us really.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yeah, and for the public, believe that, well I know that that interest rate was one percent on that money, and at a future date, when we are funded by the FAA for a new fire engine, we will be able to pay that loan off in full. I'm sure the CIB board will be glad to use that money for then another project somewhere around the state. So, any further discussion? Seeing none, I'll call for a vote. All in favor?

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Aye.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Aye. Thank you, Jacques. And so that passes unanimously and we can move on to number four. Looks like it's gonna be lengthy or do you think it'll be quick? Jenny Beth?

Jenny Beth Jones, special events:
It should be fairly quick.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right. Let's do it. We will do the consideration of the twenty twenty six quarter iMPACT special event intent to apply submissions with Jennabeth. Thank you for helping us through that.

Jenny Beth Jones, special events:
Alright. Jennie Beth Jones, special events coordinator. Looks like we do have a fairly busy first quarter of twenty twenty six, and there are some notable events on there, which include the Half Marathon and Easter Jeep Safari. Those are both on the pre approved list. For January, we have the Arches Ultra which is a Mad Moose event. They also do the marathon, so very good company there. That is recurring for eight years. Arches Ultra travels around Arches National Park, etcetera. In February, there's another Mad Moose event for the Red Hawk Ultra. That one's recurring for nineteen years. Pretty big event there. In March we have Run the Rocks, that is also a runwalk event, but that is by the Trans Rockies. That one is recurring for two years, it's a three day running event For participants, and then we have the skinny tire spring festival. That one's a cycling event recurring for around twenty four years. And then we have a couple of early submission requests One being the Grenadier Gathering will take place at OSTA, April 30 through May 3. And the Raptors on the Rocks is for May, also motorized at OSTA. And then we have the RedRok Rally, which I presented to you last quarter. They have requested a date change from June 11 through the thirteenth to April 23 through the twenty fifth. And I apologize, I didn't give any dates, just the months. Do you need me to go back and read dates?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I don't think so. We can all read through. Yes, Melody starts.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
I have a couple of questions for you. I'm just curious why is the RedRok rally wanting to change? I was so excited for it to be because we don't have a lot of June events and can't take April when it's super crazy busy. It's just hard to do they give her a reason why?

Jenny Beth Jones, special events:
Ken, would you like to answer that?

Kent Green?:
Do you want me to come up?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Come on up, please. Thank you, Ken. I'll get to you in just a minute, Jacques, after Kent.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Thank you. Of course, no problem.

Kent Green?:
The question that you had is why we want to change the dates of extremely, extremely hot. And our biggest concern is for participants even though that we stress lots of water and things like that. It's just we did have a couple of incidents where we had issues with vehicles but that is the reason.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright, Jacques.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Yeah. I actually, I I was gonna ask the same question as Melodie. I I approved I voted to approve for this event the last two years, and I I I I didn't have any issues with the events whatsoever. I found that they were very well run. And like her, I I thought the June date was fantastic. There's less people in town. In the past, some of the, UTV events have been loud and have, elicited complaint from local citizens. This one didn't elicit any of that. I didn't hear a peep from anybody. But there are a lot more people and a lot of events going on in April. June also is a time when we need more people in town, we need more tourists. There's a lot of tourists around in April, and having an event that brings people in in April in June, I think is, is a fantastic addition to the special events programs here in Grand County. So I was very supportive of the June date, but I'm less excited about the April date. Although I do recognize what Ken said about the heat, it certainly gets hot. So there's that. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Jacques. Trish, and then Mike.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Yeah. I I I'm a little discouraged to see that you guys are asking for the date change. When you look at and one thing, Jenny, that's and I'm not giving you a directive. But one thing we've done in the past is kind of at least had a calendar so we can kind of see all of the events, and I'm just throwing that out. It might help us get a visual. But it does look like we have a number, and maybe you can help me here. The Granadier, that's a motorized event. Correct? Correct. Also in April, have Jeep Safari. Correct? And then right after, in theory, if we move that Red Rock right after Raptors on the Rocks, it's another motorized event. So we just have them lined up. And I, you know, one of the things that we try to do when we're reworking special events is being a little more holistic, trying to integrate up, you know, a variety of events that were kind of, you know, not just having, you know, one type of event, maybe having a cultural event and etcetera and so on, and trying to meld that. And so, I'm not super supportive of the state change, and I realize it's really hot. You know, maybe we could look at, and I don't know what the May is looking like as far as motorized events, but this is like right in the mix. And I'm not supportive of an April. I really like what Mel said as far as having that June. It kind of that was a time where we needed that influx of visitors. So I'm I'm gonna push back on that that date change a bit.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Well, and there is a calendar in your packet.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Oh, sorry. I didn't see that. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
My question the calendar does answer was whether or not it was conflicting with something else. So, Mike, I'll move on to you then. Thank you.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Yep. I Understand that the reason for the date change, it's hot, they had incidents. I mean, I would I would bring safety above all. No question with me. So all the other events, really, there wasn't a peak from pretty much any event last year, including the Red Rock, the Grenadier. I did hear back personally from the Grenadier team. They love Moab, they want to keep coming back, and they want to expand. I've also heard in future events coming up, the C clinical will want to partake in Moeb and in Grant County and I expect there expect there's to come in early to you, just so you know, but they they love what you're doing.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Melody?

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Yeah. So I just had a couple more comments after that was just that after our last quarterly meeting, like, have, like, this good comments from other event people, and they were upset because we jumped ahead. And so my my concern with moving Red Rock Valley from June to April is we're in the right now in the first quarter. So the majority of people that want to do an event in the first quarter, which is January, February, March, have been their applications. And we approved the June 1. And then so the second quarter applications would be coming up. And so that would be March then April, May, and June. And that would fit that one in there. And if we take an event time that somebody else had kinda already had planned, I mean, there's I do I'm just like, some feedback I got from community members and other people that were doing it. So I mean that I still have that, you know, we're gonna get letters of, that was our weekend, but we didn't put it in yet because we don't we are taking application submissions. So maybe I would like to table it and put it on next next ones just for that fact. You know, I don't think it's really fair to just move June into April and those those other events. You know, when it's as far out as June, it was like it kinda lets everybody know. But when we're, like, asking people another another recommendation that I have is putting those mad moves events on that pre authorized list. I mean, they've been doing these forever, maybe even that skinny tire twenty four years. And then we have to wait and come before us. And, you know, just say same as when Red Rock came before us last time, we wanted to give you more time to plan your event instead of just coming in those quarters. So those are all the things I'm looking at in these big I'm not against the Red Rock rally or any of the events. I love them all. I think they're all great. Spreading them out is great. It's just I know that we're gonna have pushback from community members and not. I just want you to understand that. I mean, I'm giving me the evil eye, but it's just like No.

Kent Green?:
It's not an Evil eye. We looked at this in May or June. I mean in June? No. The reason we looked at this because there wasn't anything else during that week. And we're really concerned about people's safety. And so this is why we chose this day to try and work it out to see who can possibly give those things. Quite frankly, know, are wanting to come at a cooler time. Absolutely.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
That's the best time you know.

Kent Green?:
One of the biggest complaints we had for the participants was the heat was very extreme. And by the way, the ultra, they were just fantastic with us, you know, everything accommodating it and just everybody get on our backwards course. But that's one of the reasons we want to change the dates.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay, and I will let Trish question or speak here and then I want to go to Mark Pettt, he's got his hand up He's part of this online.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I think I would support your idea, Mel, of delaying their application until until it's their at their time. And then that way, we can see we can make sure that there's not other applicants that are overlapping in that weekend. And And then maybe we can also look at May because I right now, currently, kind of the May is pretty blank. Thank sorry. Sorry that I didn't look at this calendar. Sorry about that. And so if you're down with waiting, I think that would be great so we can get a holistic view of the applicants and and what the calendar looks like. That that I would I would like that.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Mark, you've got your hand up, please.

Marc Pett:
Yeah. Can you hear me okay?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes, sir. Yeah,

Marc Pett:
I just wanted to reiterate, this is a safety factor. We had three medical heat related incidents. In one case, we actually had an individual go to the emergency room. That individual had to be put on IVs and had to be shocked twice to bring their heart rhythm back in. I understand about pushing to the end of the year. We've had a couple of beautiful dates in June. We also would prefer a date in May. We do have Angie Book on. I think she could speak to the schedule. We have had several meetings with Angie to try and accommodate a May change, and there just wasn't a date available. The only date that did not have an event on it was this April date. I don't want to put our June date in jeopardy in any way. However, I do feel for a safety factor, our average age of attendee out on the trails is 53 years old. So understanding it'd be great to have this later in the year. I think it is a major safety factor to hold it when it can possibly be that hot. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Mark. And who else? I think there was another hand up here. No? All right Brian.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Just a quick question on the last rally that you guys had, how many people did you guys bring into town?

Kent Green?:
We had 400 machines. 400 machines? Yes. You can usually pick around. Had numerous vendors. So I don't have the numbers in front of me, but we have numerous vendors that are here too. Again, when the rally was being advertised, there were a lot of folks here in town, businesses that offered discount codes. And as soon as we announced the dates and stuff, some of those hotels filled up within forty eight hours.

Marc Pett:
I can answer those specific numbers, if that would help.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Sure. Go ahead, Mark.

Marc Pett:
Yeah, we had in the town altogether, we had over 4,000 people. When we take into account the hotel rooms that were taken for this time, the people that used the codes for the hotel rooms and that were in there, We had four ten machines, an average of three forty out on the trails per day, and at any given moment, we had upwards of 1,500 to 2,000 people inside the host itself. Yeah, those are the numbers.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Mike.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Just to reiterate what Kent Green said, Mark said, thank you to Angie and host the team. And that goes from many special event holders, not just you guys, but I am thankful you guys said that and she's online with us as we speak.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
How do we want to proceed?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
This is a hard one, isn't it?

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Is that the same weekend that the car show is as well? Same weekend at the car show too. RedRok Rally. Yeah. The last week well, usually, I mean, the usually, the April is the last weekend in April, and that would be the last weekend in April, the twenty third, twenty fourth, twenty third, twenty sixth. So, I mean, you're competing for rooms and stuff with that as well. I mean, that's another thing to think about and all the sign offs. I mean, we don't sign off the final. We just put it on there, but I'm just it's just a big thing about, you know, timeframe. They would be in but there's nothing at the arena that would be in May.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Ask Angie.

Bill Winfield:
Go ahead, Angie.

Angie Book, OSTA:
Can You guys hear me okay?

Angie Book, OSTA:
It's a little busy out here and service.. is not very well. But as Mark was saying, as far as 2026 because of the way Easter falls and the events fall, the April date is really the only date that's available for this event. Even when we go into June, there's already other events that have requested those dates and they'll be coming to you in the next quarter asking for those dates. So those dates are not currently available. And it was extremely hot for the Red Rock rally. They were having heat concerns for their events and the events that I have on the calendar for June are a majority of it held inside.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes Commissioner Martinez.

Angie Book, OSTA:
May is is booked solid every weekend.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah. Angie, do you see that if the June dates were to if if we were to make this move, would those June dates do you think fill up?

Angie Book, OSTA:
The the June dates are full currently right now with a private event.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Right. But but the June dates right now, the June 11 through the thirteenth, do you think that if those opened up, those would end up filling up?

Angie Book, OSTA:
They're currently full right now.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Got it. Thanks. Alright. I'm gonna go to Mary, and then I'll come to you, Jacques, online and back to Trish.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Yes. This is thank you, Angie. That was very helpful, that information. My thoughts are that if we choose to support this, that we start planning ahead next year to to see if we could have it late, like, if later in May or something so that we're not pushing so much into April. I understand there is not an option in May. Angie's hands raised again.

Angie Book, OSTA:
I know. I'm sorry. I should have stated the events that are in May are long term repeat events. So the May is the PRCA Rodeo. And then you're looking at events that have been happening for a long time. This is something that I've went over extensively with Mark just trying to figure out where we could possibly move it. And those spring events are all events that have been happening for a long time. There's only really one event that I would put on the table and I feel bad even putting it on the table because he's such a great event holder but he's the only one that doesn't hold the longevity and that would be Raptors on the Rocks as far as May. If you guys were looking at choosing events, that would be the only event and that would be the second week it had May. Both great event holders. And as far as Mark, you know it was my first time working with him. He did a great job, same with Kent, very well organized. I had no issues at all with the event. Know, I know everybody gets scared with UTVs but I didn't even have one person spinning a donut on the property which I expected to have and I didn't. It was a very well run event.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right, Jacques.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
A couple of things. I was just wondering if since since other folks haven't had a chance to apply for q this would fall under q two, and we haven't had that group. Is this potentially taken another slot that someone may be applying for in q2? That'd be one question. And then second, yeah, with this, I did look at the calendar, it does look like this would conflict with car show. That is a lot of competition for hotel rooms. It's already a time of the year when you're going to have full hotel rooms in Moab and lines out the door at the restaurants. Is literally from working my business for years, it's about the busiest weekend of the one of the very busiest weekends of the spring. Unfortunately, again, I do appreciate the good work that this events done in the past. So I would I might almost suggest keeping the June date for this year and then again working on a different date and going through that next year if that's possible. But I think I'd follow in line with Melody's recommendation to table this for now and go ahead and approve the rest of the and then look at Q2 more holistically when that comes up.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Jacques. Trish?

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I was just going to say on the application, and just maybe just for your guys', if you'll make them align a little bit more. You said that you on the application it says it's like two eighty five, vehicles, and and you were saying you had more, like, 400. So if you're seeing, like, that consistency, maybe just make sure on the application it just aligns with what you guys are seeing just so we have a better idea.

Bill Winfield:
Yes, Mike.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I'd like to make a motion to approve the consideration of twenty twenty six quarter one high impact special events intent to apply submissions as presented.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
I'll second that motion.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by Commissioner McCurdy to accept as presented second by Commissioner Martinez. Further discussion might.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
To align with safety, they want to run a cooler. We don't have time to put them in a building other than this one. Both answers are provided, but we can look towards next year. I'd like to continue talks about looking at May next year, but again, some of those other events that it would take precedence over it in May. So, really understand the timing.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Yes, Trish? I'm not going to vote for this just because I do think it should be tabled to allow the second quarter to just all come in in a bulk package, and so I do support your event, but I would just like you to wait until the next quarter.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Just a question, when is the second order proposal coming? October. It would be into October.

Jenny Beth Jones, special events:
Second commission meeting in October.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
And then I guess this next question will be for Mark and for Kent. What would the what would that look like for your event if you did not know until October if you were able to move your dates?

Marc Pett:
Can I answer that,

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah, let's let Mark answer that one,

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah, it's still possible to market and to get everything set and organized if we were to wait until October?

Marc Pett:
It isn't, and that's the reason we came in earlier due to the nature of the industry, they set their budgets prior to October. Most of the vendors that we had come in at the show last year had a special breakout in their budgets to accommodate it, because they heard about it so late, which was the reason why we came in early to try and get that original approval. I understand you have your schedule and what you have. Obviously, we would give up our June date if the April date was not accommodated, but waiting till October, you know, we have to begin registration on this if it's going to be in April by December. So that's pretty late in the year.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes, Mel.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Well, I also feel like, you know, based upon that, you have to go and get all the approvals from law enforcement EMS. And when we're looking at car show weekend, you know, if they're looking at their availability and that's the idea behind this, you know, depends on the commission, but then it still has to go in and get all the check marks through. Ultimately we're not wanting to have, you know, five events in the same weekend. It's not good for our community. It's not good for our restaurants. It's not

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Good for EMS or sheriffs or police. And so it's just really, my number one thing was just the fact the unfairness of of moving you from June, which was already kinda out there, but then I kinda saved your spot, to April where those other people are gonna be putting in. Was just looking at last year's calendar. So Thelma and Louise was that same weekend, which they already have some things. They did it on the right process. They could have put that Thelma and Louise one in for April right now, we'd be seeing that. Then we have the Monster Trail race. Cruise The Moab was the same time they ended up changing their timeframe. And so, I mean, there's a lot of events going on right there. So I just look at our resources that we have and just kind of the fairness of just saying, yes, we're going put you in there when other people haven't had the opportunity to select that April date. I understand the safety concern, but they're all going have that same safety concern. That's things all these events are. And so we just don't have enough April and May weather, but we have fall.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Commissioner Hadler.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Thanks. Good good points on that. I actually had friends who tried to get a hotel room during the car show last year and and didn't end up getting one and not coming just because the the hotels are so expensive at that time. But you're going to have all those events that Mel just referenced competing for for hotel rooms and a piece of the pie in town. I'd I'd like to introduce a substitute motion to approve everything on all of the submissions except for the Red Rock rally. And, and put off the Red Rock rally until the next until the actual q two time period or have them stay at their originally scheduled June time slot and then and then re take a look at this earlier for the twenty twenty seven Red Rock rally. So that's my motion.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by Commissioner Adler, by Commissioner Hadeen. Further discussion? Yes, Mister Martinez.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah, mean, I agree. I mean, I also like that event to be in June as well. You know, just because we are looking for, you know, business in June and that was nice. And I do know that this year's June was exception. You I mean, I've had June's where I mean, like this June right here, it warm. But I've also had June's, know, where I'm out in the bays in the June and it's also pretty pleasant to be out hiking. So I have seen that happen both ways. I've also seen it in May and April. It's been hot and cold. The weather in the spring can be kind of off. The thing that I'm worried about is just in this time right now where we're sitting here, we're crunching our financial numbers and we're looking at things, turning away 4,000 people. I don't know if that's something that I really want to go ahead and risk. That's big number of guests and I know it's at a time when we're already busy, but it's still 4,000 people that are coming to this town, spending money, and really helping provide all the services that we need. That's where I'm just a little bit hesitant on turning them away. Right now, don't. This is the only spot that they can move. It seems like staff did go ahead and try to find a spot that might have fit into another place, but that entire period was already booked through. So I think that if this is something that we want to do, I'd probably still stick with the original motion, but I really understand Ramel saying that option fairness right there of kind of hopping in above somebody else that kind of comes in, I mean that makes sense to me as well. So I'm a little bit torn on this, but I would say that as I've been sitting here going through this budget right now and all the cuts that we have to make, that's kind of where that's where I'm sitting at right now is there's an event that's 4,000 people I don't want to be. I don't want to see them go down the street.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Mary, please.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I would like to say that I don't think we're turning them away. We're not turning them away, we're just saying that right now for fairness that it's better to wait and give everybody the equal opportunity to submit and that, you know, because you're right. We want that. We want that. But to have those people at the weekend that is already so overcrowded and you can't get rooms, are we really are they really going to be able to or will they end up be staying in Green River or will it push more people to Green River to have it at the same time as caution?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
County attorney. So not not to confuse the matter further. One or three minutes past the system we heard, but what you have before you is a three part motion with a variable in it with some undefined terms, which means that it's approving all except for that application, either postponing it or allowing them to keep the original date, and then requiring you guys to move up your next quarterly review date when unknown date. That's the three things that were requested in that motion. Just noting that, you guys can make the motions you'd like. That one's gonna be tough. I don't know if you guys are spot maybe to pause at this conversation or

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
If you

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Guys want to treasure on word.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Hey, Steven. I'm happy to I'm happy to amend my motion to make it simpler. I I'd I'd amend my motion.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Please. There's your

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Thank you. Thank you. I'll amend my motion to approve all except for the relocation of the time period for Red Rock Rally. And I assume so that's my motion. And then further, I'd assume that that means that, their previous time slot stood because I I would definitely be supportive of the ape of the, June time period. And I would be supportive of that because I like like Mary said, think I mean, we could actually be turning away more people, if we move it because people who are coming to things like Thelma and Louise or the, or the car show might not actually be able to get hotel rooms if we have 4,000 extra people in town. There's only so many rooms you can go around, and that's one of the very busiest times of the year. Whereas otherwise, gentlemen, Kent, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I but I think you'd still have this in the June. And I assume if you had 4,000 people come last year that you'd have similar numbers this year. And to Brian's point, I've been out guiding in this area in June many times myself, and it's very unpredictable. And you can have, you can have low 90 degree days, or you can have 105 degree days, you can have 88 degree days. So I would, I would very much hope that you might get one of those better weather periods. And I do remember that heat wave last year that was that was tough. So anyway, I've made my motion and that's all I'll say. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And, Terrence Jearney seconding his amended motion? Amended substitute motion. All right, and I'll go to Mike and Melody, and then I say, let's wrap this up and vote on the substitute.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Great, but I just want everyone to remember, when someone gets a stroke and passes away, we can't hold it against them now.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Melody?

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Well, and I'm just going to make things really a lot harder because if we're going to do that, I don't think we should recommend the Raptors on the Rocks or the Grandiere because they're both asking for that second quarter as well. That's not fair to put his on hold and then approve those others. So, I mean, I think we just support approve if we're gonna approve them, we approve. So I'm gonna make a substitute motion that we approve quarter one, the quarter one calendar events.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I'll second that.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by commissioner McCann who is through the second, second quarter, quarter one. Seconded by commissioner had Dean. Mike

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Worked on special events for years. It's because they cannot promote their event and the right amount of time to actually promote their event.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Well, that's like,

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Okay, events policy needs to change.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Joc, I see you have your hand up and Mark as well, but I think let's postpone this discussion. We've got a large crowd here waiting for citizens to be heard and we've further complicated it.

Madeline Logowitz:
No

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Problem.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
If you guys will just hold for a little bit, Jenabeth, I'm sorry to keep you here longer and Kent as well and Marth, but let's open the 06:00. Citizens will be hers, and then we will open the public hearing on the I forget what it's being called, the Meder property, I believe, after the citizens to be heard. So we will start with our Two online. Just Okay. We will start with our citizens to be heard, and we have two online. Let's start online, please. Sam Hodges. Sam, would you like to speak up?

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Yeah. Can you hear me?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes. We hear you fine. Thank you, Sam. Introduce yourself and then let us have it.

Sam Hodges, Public Comment:
Great. Yeah. My name is Sam Hodges. I'm a resident of Moab, and I've lived here for about nine years. I just wanted to add a comment to voice my support for the trail ambassador program. I feel like there's a lot of towns in Utah that are always saying, we don't wanna become like Moab, and it's kind of like a classic thing. But the trail ambassador program really helps protect the landscape and helps keep people safe from my point of view. And from living here, I've noticed a pretty noticeable difference of less human waste on public land. On our trails close to town, like Corona Arch and Grand Staff Canyon, where they're out often, and in Mill Creek, really helping people stay safe on our land that really is closest to town that a lot of us locals really care about. So to keep Moab continuing to be clean in a open inviting space, I'd really like to voice support for the trail ambassador program.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Audrey Pefferman, please. Audrey, are you hearing us? All right. We will wait on Audrey. I'll go to the Commission Chambers. Would there be anybody that would like to come up and speak? Citizen be heard? Sam, please come up, introduce yourself.

Sam Newman, public comment:
Hello. My name is Sam Newman. I'm also named Sam, I've also lived here for about nine years. I am a pretty frequent trail user here and also a trail user in many other places. And when I go to a new area, I notice that it takes a good amount of time to orient to the subtleties of a particular place, how to get around, what's going on in the environment, how do I navigate. Our landscape here, you know, probably we all live here, at least in part because we have a landscape that's unique. Unique in The US, unique in the world, and so it makes a lot of sense to me that most people visiting here for the first time don't really know a whole lot about what we got going on here. How to be responsible and also how to stay safe. I use the trails close to town and I encounter the Trail Ambassadors pretty frequently. If I was a visitor for the first time, I would be super excited. I'd be thrilled to have somebody to ask all the dumb questions that I would have about an area that I wasn't all that familiar with. And, you know, they're located right at the front of the trailhead. Very convenient location. Trail use, as you know, we've talked about a lot of times is a huge driver of our economy. And I think the Trail Ambassador Program is deserving of County funding in order to continue to represent our local ethic and character to the visitors that we hope to continue to attract. That's all I got.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you very much. Thank you, Sam. Anybody else in the commission chambers?

Zoe Huston, public comment:
Hi, I'm Zoe Huston. I've also lived here for about nine years. And I'm also here to express support for the county continuing to fund the Trail Ambassador Program. Selfishly, I've really enjoyed it as a frequent trail user. I also want to speak on behalf of my parents who are not citizens but who have been visitors here many times and have had a great experience with the Trail Ambassadors as their kid. Felt a lot better sending them out when I have to go to work and they're going to run into someone who's going to make sure they have water, who's going to tell them where they can and can't walk, who's going to give them options as far as what's a safe outing for them. I imagine other people who are parents or who have parents Who visited Moab have probably felt good as well knowing that there's someone looking out for them and and helping them orient in desert, which is kind of a very unfamiliar place. I'd like to see Greg County continue to fund the program. I think it's a good one. I think it makes the VaR visiting experience pretty special. Thank you. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Anyone else?

Kristina Young, public comment:
Hi, everyone. My name is Kristina Young. I've lived in Moab for the last fourteen years, and I'm also here to talk about the Trail Ambassador Program. So as everybody here knows visitor behavior really affects the residents of this county causing soil erosion and dust when visitors walk off trail, leaving human waste inappropriately and taking resources from search and rescue. And the Trail Ambassador Program really corrects these behaviors in service to the residents of our County. And so they're really providing the messaging and information that is directly and indirectly affecting residents and they are really representing the voices of local residents. They are creating the messaging that the county, know, being county employees, they are creating the messaging that visitors are hearing and really representing the voices of people in the county. And so ensuring that that messaging comes from a body that represents the residents is a really important thing. And so maintaining that messaging, not outsourcing it to a nonprofit or to some other type of entity that isn't representative of the residents of the county is actually a really important thing and something that I really encourage the Commission to consider when thinking about the importance of the Trail Ambassador Program. So thank you for thinking about it and for listening.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Anyone else?

Olivia Holmes, public comment:
Hi, my name is Olivia Holmes. I have also been in Moab for about six years and I just wanted to voice my support for the Trailer Ambassador Program and for the county to continue to fund it. I think we can all agree, hopefully without saying, that our economy and quality of life is dependent on the land around us, and not only is the Trailer Ambassador Program an internationally recognized program, but I think it's also an essential program in mitigating user impact and preserving what we have around us for tourists, locals, and businesses to stay connected and interactive.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Anyone else? How about FACVOP? Please come forward.

Jenna Gardiner, public comment :
Hi, I'm Jenna Gardiner. I don't like talking in public, so this is super important for me. I'm also here to talk about the trauma ambassador program. And we've heard a lot about it today, overwhelmingly supported by your citizens. So, if you are truly here to speak for your citizens, I think is an overwhelming support, and I think you should vote once you keep supporting what your citizens want. Thank

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Anyone else?

Speaker37:
Hi, my name is <<Reece Spott?>>. I'm here in support for the Traill Ambassadors. Responsible recreation education efforts at Trail Heads, like the Trail Ambassadors, is not the reason visitation has shifted in Moab. What we are seeing is broader recreational trends. The US Travel Association declared as of May 2025, travel has begun to stabilize post COVID travel wave. This isn't new. After nineeleven, everyone bought travel trailers and traveled domestically. COVID brought a similar wave. We live in a boom and bust town, it will always see impacts by whatever is going on domestically or globally. Whether it's disease or war, please consider the implications of cutting the Trail Ambassador program. They are community members who are in the right place at the right time. They offer guidance, water and other resources to visitors, to people who have been dangerously misled by Google Maps on a hike. What a great investment into our community so that other resources can be allocated to emergencies like a car crash, heart attack, or another family in need. National news loves to share a tragedy, but it's exhausting as a local to keep reading things that could have gone differently and that could have not impacted as many lives, including all of the people in our community. Thank you.

Bill Winfield:
Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Anyone else? How about back to Audrey online? Would you like to speak?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Please come forward.

Joy Dannelly, public comment:
Hi, my name is Joy Dannelly and I actually am a member of GCAT and I'm speaking as a private citizen today. So this doesn't affect the county or represent like the department in any way. I just wanted to speak to the importance and the connection of education and knowing about our landscape and how wonderful this is and how it really improves the visitor experience. When I first came to Moab in 2013, I had no idea about the desert. And I know that the more I learn about it, the more I realize how special this ecosystem is and how unique it is. And I'm really excited to teach people about this. And I see the spark in our visitors and in our volunteers and the people that I teach about biocrust and how to stay safe and about like the junipers and the different wildlife that we have. Like these people come to our trailheads and they don't even know the magic that they get to experience when they come to Moab. And sometimes they do, but we're here to help bridge that educational gap. And like I've seen it firsthand, and my parents and my friends and when I bridge that educational gap, it allows people to care for the community. I really, really truly believe that education equals care because the more that we know about it, the more that we can properly care for it. And I think, I just wanted to support the program that I work for and that the amazing people that I work with and I truly believe it's a wonderful, wonderful part of our County and I'm really, really grateful to be a part of it.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Thanks, Joy.

Quinn Hall:
Audrey sent her comment via chat. I'll email it to everyone.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Thank you. Sorry about that, Audrey. I hope you get that figured out.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
We read it? Because

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Oh, you had somebody

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Have it. Yeah. We should read it. Somebody should read it.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I know goodness.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Self voted, not my inbox.

Quinn Hall:
I hope you can still accept this as a comment. Would also like to voice my support for the Trail Ambassador program. I've been in Moab for about ten years and have seen a huge improvement in the condition of our front country trails with the implementation of the program. The amount of dog poop and human waste has dropped dramatically as well as the incidences of graffiti in some of my favorite places. Going to continue to advertise for people to come and recreate here. It's incumbent upon us to take care of these resources and the program is a well recognized way to do so.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, sir. Thank you, Audrey. Anyone else? Please introduce yourself.

Beth Roberts, public comment:
Hi, my name is Beth Roberts. I've been a resident of Moab for fifteen years. And I just want to make the point that the Trail Ambassador Program does promote recreation, even if it also mitigates. People will come back to Moab because they had a good experience. They will tell their friends about Moab because they had a good experience. It does promote Moab. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes, please. Absolutely. It's a night.

Luke Wojciechowski:
So, yeah, although I'm on the city council, I'm speaking as a resident of Grand County and as a private citizen tonight. Although I do support the trail ambassador program, I will be speaking to another issue tonight. Introduce yourself. Oh, my name is Luke Wojciechowski. Sorry. Thank you. So first of all, I'd like to thank the commission for the opportunity to comment on the draft letter to secretary program, which attributes recent declines in trans our TRT revenue to the timed entry system at Arcis National Park. I understand the concerns behind this effort as I share many of them. TRT revenue was declined, and we're all looking for answers. The evidence we have simply does not support the claim that high country is the primary driver for that decline. Visitation to Arches is stable and actually trending up. According to the National Park Service, Arches hosted 769,454 recreation visits through June, 1.4 increase over the same period last year. Early data also shows that Horse Point and canyon lands are performing steadily. When combined, the three park complex is trending one to 2% ahead of 2024. The combined visitation numbers of those three parks have also showed small and similar increases from 2023 or 2022 to 2023 and '23 to '24. So overall, in the opposition to conventional wisdom, part visitation is actually up. People are coming. So we need to ask if visitation is rising, why is TRT revenue falling? TRT revenue is down, but the causes are likely complex. Grand County's TRT distributions for the 2025 are down about 9% in nominal dollars and 11% when adjusted for inflation when compared to 2024. It's a real concern. But instead of assuming a single cause, we should be exploring a range of potential contributing factors, including shorter average stays, lower hotel rates, or price discounting, potentially due to increased competition, increased use of RVs or dispersed camping, reduced international visitation, particularly from Canada, which is down by a third in 2025, day tripping from nearby regions, heat waves, fuel prices, and broader macroeconomic pressures. These are all trends we've seen before, and they're all measurable. The problem is the, the planned economic study as presented to the community is not designed to examine any of them. Nary narrow narrow narrowly scoped study risked drawing incomplete or misleading conclusions. The county's draft letter and plan study frame the time entry system as a primary driver of economic softening without formally considering other influences. by limiting the scope to a single factor, we risk misdiagnosing the problem, overlooking actionable insights, and missing an opportunity to design better local policy. I don't argue that time entry might have played some sort of role, particularly in its first year. But to understand what's really happening and how to respond, we need a study that looks holistically at our economy, not just through the lens of one park policy. Meanwhile, it's important to note that TimeVentry has improved the visitor experience prior to its implementation. Before the system was implemented, ARGIS had to close its gates a 118 times in 2021 due to overcrowding. TimeVentry ended those closures, reduced congestion, and helped distribute use more evenly across the day. Since its launch, the park sis or the park service has also shown a clear willingness to adapt. They shorten reservation hours, increase same day ticket availability, suspend the system entirely during the 2025 shoulder season. These aren't signs of emergency. They're signs of a willing partner that is trying to be aware of the impact these policies have, taking meaningful action to mitigate those impacts. It's also important to know, letter proposes solutions that may not be realistic. The draft letter includes requests for a new northern entrance, an expanded shuttle system, additional parking and trailhead development. All of these require major planning, environmental review, capital funding, and long term staffing. But the National Park Service is currently facing billion dollar budget reduction based on a letter from the president in May and has already experienced a 24% reduction in permanent staff since January. In that context, large scale asks like these are unlikely to move forward soon, and framing the park service as the obstacle may damage the very partnerships we need to be. Cultivating. In closing, TRT revenue is down, but visitation is not. And that disconnect tells us we need to dig deeper. Limiting our economic analysis to a single factor, a factor that the data show is likely not the root cause does not serve the best interest of this community. If the goal is to understand what's happening to our economy and how to respond effectively, then the study we can Getting close. Yes.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
The time is three minutes. So out of respect. Yeah. Last sentence.

Luke Wojciechowski:
So the study recognition must be broad data driven and capable of testing multiple hypotheses, not just reinforcing one. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Anybody else in the chambers? Commissioner, can I take three more minutes of your time? I won't need it all. And we discussed that at the beginning that we do not wanna speak twice. I'm sorry. And that's and that's why I asked. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Anyone else online? Well,

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Just a question. When we talked about only limited at once, was it My memory was that we were gonna limit them to talk about the same issue.

Quinn Hall:
That's right, Mary. It would have been.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
It would been the same issue. You know, if they were gonna talk about one at one and one at the other.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
So my point has been there.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yeah. Thank you. I'm going to that now. Open the public hearing. Yes. So I'll call an end to the citizen to be heard then and we will start the public hearing to get that started before we resume our scheduling of those events. Let me get to that again.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright. So we will open the public hearing for the Meadow Drive townhomes rezone for overnight accommodations overlay OAO residential receipt.

Andrew Jackson:
I just wanna introduce myself. I'm Andrew Jackson. I am an employee of Engineering. I'm a planner to you right now. I've had thirty five years plus experience in planning and zoning. It's hot for twenty years at BYU. My experience has been in Los Angeles, so it's. So I've spent all my time working for. From there, I can go into the brief introduction of the project. So it's meter drive project. It's at 3981 South Highway 191. That's parcel number 02-0027-0027. The quest is for 24 units on 2.1 acres of land in the end of multifamily residential zone, and it also has overnight accommodations overlay. This item is just for the application of the overlay. In a lot of places when you have an overlay, you know, you have the underlying zoning and then you have the overlay and it just automatically comes down onto the property. But how the Grand County code is written, it have that overlay, you actually have to do a zone change even though it's zoned for the overlay, you still have to do that by your code. So that's why we're talking today. This went to the planning commission yesterday and I don't speak for the planning commission, but they decided that it was a good location and they moved to approve it and recommend that forward to you. However, there were two things that are exceptions. One is on the 80% of the power generated on-site. The other is the assured housing requirements, and the applicant is requesting a waiver of those two. But, again, this tonight's discussion isn't on a waiver, tonight's discussion is just on all the late application.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Just a couple of things that this was noticed, appropriately there was there were signs placed on the property. It has been noticed on the public notice website as well as on county website. Planning Commission that voted unanimously with one abstaining. I don't know if that was mentioned.

Chrissy Hofhine:
This As far as the overlay, was it's adjacent to current Rim Village. So the overlay is already applied there or it's in the overlay zone where it could be applicable. I don't think I was speaking.

Andrew Jackson:
Yeah. So as Chrissy said, that was noticed the property was identified and posted, but, she'd gone out there before and it was post the notes were taken off. She reposted, and some of those have been removed as well. Just so if somebody drove by and said it wasn't posted, it was actually posted.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
And we do have photos of those posted. They were torn down, it looks like, and then, they were placed back up and torn down again.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Double check, this is out in Rim Village?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Yeah, adjacent to Rim Village.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Do we have a Site map?

Chrissy Hofhine:
Yep, it should be in your packet.

Chrissy Hofhine:
23% have to say. Yeah, so. One thing that I do want to say, The development agreement is at this point a draft because of the exception portion. So the development agreement would need to be revised depending on whether an exception is

Andrew Jackson:
It's also a requirement of a capture of rainwater to be used in the rainwater project. And the applicant, which is customary, would like to know that they've got this overlay before they put a lot of time into detailed site plans. But engineers looked at it, but the engineer isn't saying approval, but everything looks consistent right now. But once that happens, then they get the finer details, some look at information. But that's why this is just the overlay district, but all of sudden, but you can look at that just for

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Sure. And this is just a public hearing,Great. So we're not making any decision. Great. Thank you.

Andrew Jackson:
We gave, like, a ten day. Is that what it is?

Bill Winfield:
Alright. And then we'll open up to the public if anybody wants to come forward and speak on this while the public hearing is open.

Chrissy Hofhine:
The applicant would like to say a few words before ou. Future.

Curtis Wells:
My name is Curtis Wells. I'm the applicant, the developer on the parcel. You know, I don't wanna take up too much of your time. I thought the the staff review and the work has been really good. The planning commission discussion was really great. Commissioner Hedin has acknowledged he's the one that's been knocking my signs down.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
But we did it twice.

Curtis Wells:
But, you know, As mentioned, this is one of the parcels that was set set within the over the overnight accommodations overlay when those boundaries were set following the lodging moratorium And having served on the commission during that time and been really involved in that, you know, the idea was to set aside areas that were already predominantly short term rental use. And this parcel, you know, everyone to date, including staff, myself, planning commission concurs that it's perfectly appropriate, used for overnight accommodations. You know, we are we the site plan that we have proposed, although this is just a zoning amendment, is half of the allowable density. The allowable density is 20 units per acre. We're about 10 units per acre. And so I feel like it's a, you know, it's a reasonable proposal. And, I think it's a great development. I encourage you to look at the at the document, the the narrative document that I included. At today's property tax and transit room tax rates, this will add over 300,000 a year in ongoing revenue for the county, 24 units total on just over two acres. It's a great project. So I appreciate your consideration. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. Do we have anybody in the public that would like to speak to this while the meeting is open? Anybody online, possibly Quinn?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Not that I'm aware of.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. So we will hold this public meeting open until Wednesday. Open for written comments until Wednesday the twenty third at 5PM. Wednesday the twenty third at 5PM and then this will be coming before the commission at the next mission meeting. I will vote on. Sure.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I would recommend maybe a trail camera by your You've probably got it.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I was like, did you have something?

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
I was just going to say I've got one of my staff members here tonight and the next item item 11, didn't put it was a short conversation, but that would free her up to be able to leave if there's no one here that's on The public, for the public comment on this item.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Anybody have a problem with moving to eleven and holding up our other one. Okay. We're gonna move then to item number 11. Thank you. Guys, it'll be on the next agenda. Public comment will be allowed until Wednesday as you said, the twenty third 5PM. So thanks for presenting all of that. We want To move you on. Number 11, billboard relocation.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
This is on for the commissioners. It's on for discussion item.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I should have stated that

Chrissy Hofhine:
So this originally was placed as a discussion item when the applicant came to planning and zoning to discuss moving a billboard. They have turned in a complete application and then. We wanted to kind of gauge the planning committee or the county commission's appetite on. What they want us to do. Originally, we didn't see a path to deny, then it came forward that we could potentially deny it and I'm going to let Andrew speak to that. Right now.

Andrew Jackson:
Yeah, and so we went through the application and the applicable section of the county code that refers to state legislative code that deals with counties, specifically the off premise signs, and so there's a section on that but then because this is along Highway 191 which is a federal aid highway that also falls under the, I think it's 73727. Yeah, so 275 which is the off Outdoor app. Outdoor advertising for the highways. So it falls under a different section. I've had discussions with Scenic Utah, Chipping Byway folks. They have a lot of information regarding the billboards. And they say that based off of the zoning, which the county zoning does not permit billboards. So what the state does along with Utah is that then that the first to the county and the underlying zoning for the county. So that's not there no. There's no approvals for billboards. And so on this relocation, even though it's a relocation, it's a new application as far as the county is concerned. The only, guess, caveat would be if UDOT was widening 191 and they had to take the billboard out, there's specific protections for that, but we don't see those on a lost lease. And the applicant has submitted some additional information. I think it was just Monday. Right? It was just yesterday. Yeah. Yeah. So we're still reviewing some of that, but we kinda want to let you know what's going on and get kind of your feeling.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
And that and that contained in the packet. It's the first exhibit, the letterhead on assuming July.

Andrew Jackson:
So I I just they put in the application, and I sent them a letter of denial for the application for the billboard based off of the zoning and the smart industry. That are the requirements.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Sure. And then mister Jackson identified himself if you guys would too just for the public. I mean, before if you're gonna speak. Correct.

Brayden Saunders:
Yeah. Of course. Thank you. So my name's Braden Saunders. I am the director of real estate for YESCO.

Amy Clayton:
I'm Amy Clayton. I'm the Utah rep for the Billboard properties in in the state.

Brayden Saunders:
Thank you. Yep. And so I guess some clarification on the packet that was submitted. In our in our discussion with the planning department, we this was Thursday or I think it was Thursday. Friday. Anyway, end of last week, we had wanted to provide some examples in the applicability of the state law in this instance for relocations. And as was stated, generally, billboards are regulated in the state of Utah along state highways. Wow. Along state highways and interstates pursuant to a specific section in Utah coal code, commonly known as the outdoor advertising act. But there are two separate, portions of code, one of which is in the title for counties, the other is in the title for municipalities that deal with, among a few other things, relocation in general. And the examples we provided so so I guess it's important to note both of those municipal and county languages are identical in their provisions. So we wanted to provide some examples of recent examples of instances where we've used that code, and it it basically, for lack of a better way of explaining it, in in instances, would supersede the local ordinance to allow for that relocation if the the items are are met pursuant to those two codes. So the packet that you have is a demonstration of a few instances of that along with one instance in Saint George where we were gonna use it and and in discussion with the city, found a different location they prefer it to go. Luckily, it worked out perfect for that scenario where it was just better for everybody to put it where they preferred it to go. It still wasn't consistent with their code, but was something that allowed for a path forward. So we're happy to expound on any of that. I I'm not sure because it was sent to you last night. If I don't I'm not sure if anybody's had a chance to review it or

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'd like to just weigh in and then I'll go to you, Mike, but I've driven several times looking at the locations, and the billboard is currently right next to the containers that have the Volkswagens on top of them that are semi memorial to the two young ladies that were killed here a few years back. And so it's somewhat blocked when you're driving south by the vehicles. And so I could see the potential that somebody could want those removed just as the county did. We wanted a container removed that was in front of our sign up here at the end of 400 East. And so moving it to the the next location, which is down by Madbro, it there's nothing there. It's the in front of the flooring company there. So just in my opinion, driven it twice to make sure I understood where it was, I don't have a problem with it. And I just wanted to weigh that in there and kind of explain, you know, some of what I had seen in the process. And so, Mike, please go ahead.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I really think that was answered because you guys were talking here and I wasn't there. Know I know what we were feeling.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
We're moving a billboard.

Brayden Saunders:
We're moving a billboard in the county to a new location.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Yeah. Sorry. I like I don't know anyting about billboard code.

Brayden Saunders:
My profession requires me to be a billboard nerd, and sometimes I just go for it.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
You're okay.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
You're okay. I'll find you. Yeah. We have a grandfathered structure.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Yep. I drive by all the time. It's covered By the tree. Just

Amy Clayton:
Keep that structure, move it to a new location.

Chrissy Hofhine:
One of the main reasons I wanted to bring it to you guys is so that the public when they saw a new billboard being built, didn't freak out at planning zoning department saying, are you guys doing? I wanted it to be a little more public. And then when some things came to light, we thought that there might be a reason that we were denied. I just wanted to all to happen here instead of in the habitual of planning on those. So you guys understand why it's here as a discussion item and it was it's not just me trying to waste your time.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Thanks. I just didn't quite understand. I'm sorry.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I mean, we can call for a thumbs Up if we want.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
No. I mean, if there's any discussion, if there's any discussion that's negative, then you guys say it now. If not.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thanks, folks. Appreciate you. Thank you. Have a nice day.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Didn't mean to sound dumb.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
So folks, we will move back to consideration of twenty twenty six quarter one, high impact special event to apply submission. And I'm hoping that the county attorney can explain where we were with motion actually has ended. So technically you guys had

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
An amended motion on the floor whenever you guys have an amended motion on the need to vote on the amended motion before you can do a substitute motion. So we're we're rewinding a little bit. You guys are now on your amended motion that cleaned up the original three point issue with one variable within it back to approving with we're proving everything with original state of RRR. That application very well. Red Rock Valley. So that's where you're at. You can't do a substitute motion until you figure out whether you want to amend the previous substitute motion. Then if you guys want to do a substitute motion, do your substitute motion, you can do that back.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Excuse me?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Substitute the amendment to Jacques original motion.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
That's a table to vote on all of them at the table Red Rock Rally. Correct. Until our next quarter. Correct.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
So that's the pending amendment. You have to vote whether to amend your Joc's original motion. We

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Have to vote whether to amend Jacques' about this. Correct.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
That's where you're at. You're in the middle of the amendment process.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And that amendment then would be again.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
No. Jacques.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Sorry, Steven. It that that amendment was just to to simplify my original motion to to make it say that I approve everything on the all the submissions except for the Red Rock rally, which would remain at its original date in June.

Mark Tyner:
Was it then Melodie who had the other one.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
That would have been the third one because original one was Brian's. So he made a substitute.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
So that's the amendment motion. Now you have to vote whether or not to amend that motion. And then once you determine if you amend it, then you can vote on the amended substitute.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Terribly amended amended…

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Jacques, can you restate your amendment to your to your motion?

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Yeah. The amendment the the original the original motion, as Steven pointed out, was a little bit unwieldy and came in three parts. So, all I'm doing is amending my original motion to simplify it to approve all of the special event submissions before us except for the date change of the RedRok rally.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
So that's an amendment. Do we have a second on that amendment? Yes. K. So we got a second by commissioner Hadoop. Now you guys discuss this one and vote on the amendment first, whether to amend the emotion or not.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Any discussion? Mary?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I would like to hear, she has not just stated his emotion, but I'd Like to hear what he said before it broke.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Okay. So, yeah, not as a motion, but just I felt like if we allow the other two that are asking for and now I so I know we did this last order when we voted these. We allowed a couple of them to be and this was one of them to be come outside of the zones. Have you guys done that before? Because I've been calling back to last year. I don't know if you did or not. Anyways and so as as we were thinking about Jacques' motion to table one that was asking for early submission, I thought, well, that's not really fair to not do the others. So, I was just stating that I thought it would be fair to keep with just all of the ones that are for quarter one. You know, it's and it's really hard still because I think back to Brian's thoughts about, you know, income, our revenue, you know, those things. But I also how do we we have to look at our our submissions and say, how are we deciding who gets to have an early submission and who doesn't? You know, and that's where I really am stuck. It's not that I don't want to I don't to prove them all, absolutely, but I'm just stuck on this, like, fair because I I know, for example, that two of them when we're approving right now for quarter one, they were already, like, in the you know, set in there that we could have voted on last quarter, but we didn't. They didn't bring them forward. So, I don't know, there's a flaw in the system, and I don't want to take it out on the applicants really. There you go. Those are my thoughts.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Mike?

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
You Said it best at the tail end there, a flaw in the system, so we'll fix the system again.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'm going to go to Mr. Pett, he's got his hand up online.

Marc Pett:
Thank you. I don't want to continue the conversation as much as possible. Two items. I did talk to Mr. Ben Fredrigil about how many rooms were available on that last weekend in April. There had big concerns surprised to me about that being the car show weekend. According to Mr. Frederigel, there were over 4,000 rooms still available in the town on last car show weekend. So I know there was a mention before of someone not getting a room. I don't know how those two jibe, but there were rooms available on the commercial weekend. Also, our attendees rent VRBOs in greater numbers than hotel rooms. And so I don't even have the VRBO numbers to be able to tell you, I only know what the hotel room sold us. So we're well above the 4,000, but I don't have those numbers and so I did not give those to you. However, most of the folks that came rented VRBOs around the Yosta as well. And then I was also told, Jenny Beth, when I originally spoke to her about this issue, she assured us we could ask for a new date, but our June date would remain approved. And so obviously if we can't get an approval for an earlier date, we'll stick with our June date and we'll have to just take the weather into account. And if we are looking at another hot spell, we may not have the event in its entirety on this next time around. I don't personally feel after what we went through last time, I could put someone out on that trail in the heat that was there. And I know there are other events that are enclosed vehicles. And I don't want to start a enclosed vehicle versus side by side discussion. I just felt like that it was pertinent data to the conversation. So thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. All right. So are we ready to vote on the motion?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
You're voting on whether to amend it or not?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
We're voting whether to amend it.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
You were voting on the amended motion?

Brayden Saunders:
No. No. Voting on the amended or not.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And so what was the original motion that we would be amending?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
The original motion was Jacques' three part motion that had us approving all except for Rally on the Rocks, and then the caveat was either postponing the current application or permitting it staying at the June date without any variable as to what decides that or not. Then finally moving up your next review date, that's your original motion, whether you're amended or not. And the issue with that is it's three part and vague and ambiguous.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Call for a vote those in favor of amend allowing the motion to be amended. Aye. And so those against amending the motion. So that passes with two against commissioner McCurdy, commissioner Martinez. So then that now takes us back to the original motion.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
That's now been amended and you can vote on that as the original motion.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
You can vote on that.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
We can vote on that or we can submit the two as commissioner McCandless.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
So once again, then we would be voting on read the three.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
No, no, you've amended it now. Okay. So it's now been amended to approve how Jacques just stated a moment ago, which is approving approving all of them with the exception of RedRok rally.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Date change.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Yeah. Yeah. Just the date. Just the date change, not the actual event.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright. Are we ready to vote on that? Or is there any discussion? Yes, sir.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Just heard the event promoter. Just heard it. Probably not gonna do the event. Those people won't be back. Two times they haven't caused. There's been no comment against them.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Can I make a comment, Bill?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Sure. Please, Jacques. I didn't see your hand there.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Oh, yeah, that's alright. I would say I mean, it sounds like the first year there wasn't a heat issue if they continued to ask for the event to be in June after that again, it can be a bit of a crapshoot with the weather. Didn't hear him say he probably wouldn't hold the event if the if it was hot, I just heard him say he might modify it a little bit, which is reasonable. Also, I just wanted to correct something I didn't say that my friend couldn't find the hotel room. They did find a room, but it was so expensive because there was three events in town that week that they decided not to come. So, think that's a reasonable conclusion that a lot of people might draw at that time. Anyway, that's all.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Alright. So we are going to call for a vote on the amended motion. Yes. Amended substitute motion. Amended substitute motion to approve everything except the Red Rock rally leaving them with their request to change the date and leaving it at their original date is what we're voting for. Correct. Okay. Those in favor has stated I'm sure, Mary,

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I just have a quick question. But then if they want to apply for the that date in October, they still can. Right?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
They you're saying if they pulled their app if they pulled their June application and then applied for quarter three then, they'd have to do it by the quarter three deadline cut off. I don't know what that is by heart.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
It's October.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright. Those in favor of the amended substitute motion leaving Red Rock Rally with their June date and approving everything else as stated. Those in favor? Aye. And those opposed? And so that passes four to three with three opposed commissioner McCurdy commissioner. And commissioner myself. So that passes and gentlemen with your original date of June 30? Eleventh. June 11. My apologies. June 11.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
But you're too far in the summer. Yeah.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I don't know if there are options to go back and look at dates and still get in by the other deadline to see if there's some way to make that change. But as it stands right now, you do have at least your June date to hold that event.

Jenny Beth Jones, special events:
Can you clarify something for me? Sure. If they want to come back in October with another amendment request, is that something they can do?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I don't see why not.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
I would rely on our attorney to say yes or no. Are they, I mean, we can have that discussion offline, but essentially it's going to be, are they moving it up? Are they moving it back? Are they decreasing the numbers? There's a lot of variables with it. It's probably best to just have a conversation offline.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Ken, if you want to say anything come up here where the cameras are.

Kent Green?:
Just have a question. Since we've done this to try and get our day changes. Are dates still available or is there another event during that day?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
What? In June. June. June is good to

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Go. Yep.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
That's the one that's showing up. Don't know. That hasn't been changed.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Lynn and Angie. Angie.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah.

Angie Book, OSTA:
So like this whole event permitting process is getting kind of messy. I'm sorry that I have to say that because the calendar like Ginny Beth doesn't have access to the OSTA calendar and now that this has been voted out of out of sequence, the events that are coming up for June haven't had their ITA looked at and they have those dates on hold. So I have like tentative dates on hold on my calendar and those dates have been spoken for. So I have those on hold for somebody else currently because Red Rock Rally was looking at dates in April. So you're going to be seeing an ITA coming forward for those dates for the next quarter. So it's getting messy. So I don't know how I'm going to be able to keep my calendar clear here and keep those events straight when I need to be able to flip the arena and mitigate that and I'm the only one that knows what needs to happen for that process.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Well, I still think the vote stands and this again, I think the county attorney is correct that there needs to be some discussion offline and try and come to a conclusion here on how to move forward with the event and scheduling. As Commissioner McCurdy stated and others, I do see room for some improvement in our process here. Sounds like we need some fixes. So at at this point that we are where we are.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
So at this point, he doesn't have a date because we approved it, but then it wasn't approved through the arena?

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Isn't that the reservation at the arena? So Well

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
But but let's move this offline, see what we need to do to fix it, whether it means coming back at the next commission meeting, but let's let's work this out.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And it looks good.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. We are on to number five, which is the OHVR grant application for OHV Trail coordinator. And this is Maddie. Please.

Madeline Logowitz:
Hello, I'm Maddie Logowitz. I'm the director of Grand County Active Transportation and Trails. And I'm going to talk about the OHVR grant application. I do want to say that we caught an error in the budget spreadsheet today, CommAdmin didn't help us change that out, but if you downloaded the packet earlier there might be different numbers, so I just wanted to address that. The error was in the salary benefits, which is one of the larger line items, unfortunately, so it does impact things. So some background on this, we're actually reapplying to this grant program, which is the OHVR grant, the OHVR recreation grant program. We applied in 2023, and during that application process, we were awarded a quarter million dollars, and what that went towards was a full time trail ambassador position for two years, a part time Trail Ambassador position for two years, and then also some large equipment expenses, so two UTVs and two enclosed trailers, as well as some other kind of associated equipment. And those Trail Ambassador positions were specifically OHV ambassadors, so specifically working in voter ice areas. So, this application is the way the timeline works is we have to apply now to look ahead to fiscal year 2026 and 2027. And so we're looking at a similar application, but we did adapt it a little bit based on working with the Motorized Trail Committee to kind of respond to some of the things they brought up over the last two years.

Madeline Logowitz:
So, one is looking at that full time position and expanding the scope. So, previously, the primary goal was education and that included for that full time staff a lot of field time. So, we want to adjust that to allow that position to have more responsibilities for coordinating projects, because we've heard that there's a need for more routine maintenance and more coordination between all of these different nonprofits and agencies to help with larger maintenance projects on motorized trails. We also are requesting three part time positions instead of one. And again, this came from a request to the Motorized Trail Committee to kind of give recommendation on what they thought a good number would be for part time staff to keep it at one or increase it. And then, the plan for this project would be to continue to use those UTVs, both for the educational purposes and then also specifically the Can Am Defender that we have has a bed. And we kind of bought it specifically knowing that in the future there might be some trail work component and so it's a suitable vehicle for that. Looking at the fiscal impact, so for this grant program, expenses are not allowable. Benefits, most notably, are not a permitted request from the program. And then a few minor things like shipping expenses. And so, if you

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Look at

Madeline Logowitz:
This budget spreadsheet, these are what we put down as the cash match. So, the benefits line item, and then a few smaller shipping expenses. And then we also put in an in kind match. So, this doesn't really impact the county financially, but it helps show our community wide buy in. And so, for in kind match, some of those are donations, donated materials from the BLM. They've offered a commitment to it. And then also volunteers. And with this OHV coordinator position, we're also hoping that we can work on really building up the volunteer base on the override side so that we can get more volunteer hours and then show a bigger match and that could allow us to apply to other grants in the future as well. So that's the overview. Do you guys have any questions?

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Please. I move to approve the letter of support and OHVR application for funding to ongoing educational programming and maintenance on motorized trail system.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I'll second that

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by commissioner Martinez second by commissioner.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I'm not exactly sure. What's the cost of accounting? Two? So the oh.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
The

Madeline Logowitz:
Cost would be there's a budget spreadsheet in there, so if you want all of the the details.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Total. Total is

Madeline Logowitz:
In kind cash match is gonna be $55,000 over two years, so half of that per year. And then the in kind match, includes kind of all the other stuff that isn't cash, right, like volunteer hours, which have I think the value, it's around $34 per volunteer hour. That is about $36,000 and then the partner match is $29,000

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And so could you clarify where the problem or the mistake was in this document? Yeah. We or the public who's trying to follow along with this?

Madeline Logowitz:
Yeah, so if anyone's looking online, it's all corrected now, but if you had downloaded it earlier, the difference is going to be at the very top, the first section, number one, where it's full time OHV Trail Coordinator, salary and benefits. So, you'll see it has intended vendor, Grain County, quantity two for two years, price per item would be the annual salary and the annual benefits, and those are in two different rows because one, we can ask the grant to pay for and one, we can't. And then if you look over to the right, it it has it broken out, so that's where it's requested OHVR funds, applicant cash, applicant in kind, partner cash, and in kind. So, previously that amount was half, and it was just a formula error. There weren't the formula we got from HR, which helps us calculate the benefits, it just didn't have the correct number of hours in it for the year, So, it was showing like six months times two instead of twelve months times two, essentially.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
So, the number $50,600 is the number that you're talking was previously showing half? Correct. Okay. And the $50,600 is correct?

Madeline Logowitz:
Correct. And then the total applicant cash match includes that $50,000 which is the largest portion of the cash match. Then if you scroll down, there's just a few other scattered items there, like shipping, which is not included, a sticker for the OHV waste kit, and just a few smaller line items. And that comes up with that total of the 55,000.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right, any further discussion? Those in favor of supporting this grant? Letter, patient, application? Aye, that passes unanimously.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Thank you, Matt. Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Matt. And we will move on to number six. SEUHD MOU for healthy trails coordinator.

Madeline Logowitz:
I'm going to turn over the floor to these guys, but I'll just be in the audience in case there's any questions.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Thanks, Amanda. Thanks for enduring that. Boy. In my world. We'll make it short. Short but important.

Jonathan Dutrow:
Yeah, well thank you for allowing us to present this MOU and for partnering with us for a third year on our human waste initiative. I'm Jonathan Duntro, I'm the Department of Health Scientist with the Southeast Health Department. This is a Man who needs no Introduction. Ryan Rogers, he's our Environmental Director and Brady Bradford, he's our Executive Director and he made the trip from Price today to show support for this program. So thank you for giving us a few minutes here to talk about one of our favorite subjects, a human poop. Some of you may not be aware of extent of our involvement in the Trail Ambassador Program under this MOU. The Healthy Trails Coordinator works in our directive to forward the goals of our Human Waste Initiative, which is simply to mitigate and mitigate the impacts of improperly disposed of human waste on public lands in Grand County. We're proud of the work Brian has done, as well as the entire Trail Ambassador team to advance public health, safety and responsible recreation on our public lands. The impact they have had cannot really be understated. They've enhanced the user experience on our trails, dispersed camping sites and I think everyone in this room probably agrees that their preventative search and rescue program has saved a life or two by preventing dehydration, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, etc. For a little historical context, I think I have some slides, you might have them.

Madeline Logowitz:
Quinn, do You have the slides?

Jonathan Dutrow:
Yeah, there's an article from the Deseret News from 1989. I think it says, Moab dislikes the smell of success. Yeah, this is not a new problem. There's a history of human waste problems and solutions here in Grand County. That particular article was talking about a local committee that was formed to tackle human waste along River Road. And that really laid the groundwork for much of the developed campgrounds that are there today. Our situation today is not so different. Scope and scale is much larger, but community based solutions still exist. So what exactly is the problem? There are some good pictures in that slide. You guys get a chance to look at it. As you're well aware, many of our most popular dispersed camping areas and hiking trails were seeing exploding rates of vegetation and along with it at concerning densities of untreated and exposed human waste. In places there was a real potential for exposure to human pathogens and a risk of infectious disease. Yeah, the situation has quickly become a critical public health concern. We found everything from used toilet paper, surface feces, shallow cat holes, all the way to DIY ow houses, buckets full of excrement and RVs dumping their black and gray water tanks directly on the ground. Local vets have treated dogs for suspected marijuana toxicity from eating human waste. And our waste haulers from the solid waste district were receiving so much human waste that some of them even sprayed when the truck was compacting. This was an unacceptable risk to our essential workforce, service workforce. Scale of the situation was enormous and while we were able to avoid closing areas and trails by working with the land managers on targeted cleanups and installing temporary toilets, this was not a sustainable solution.

Jonathan Dutrow:
So in order to change behavior, we knew we needed to educate. We were aware that signage and social media campaigns and traditional media were great tools for education, but the real challenge we felt was getting the message to the end user in real time. And so for that, we really needed boots on the ground. This made a partnership with the county and the Trail Ambassador Program an efficient and logical solution. Together we created the Healthy Trails Coordinator position. To date, the results of this partnership have really been outstanding. Mariah has grown the Human Waste Initiative Coalition to 13 partnering organizations and agencies. A group we now warmly refer to as the Poop Group, she coordinates quarterly meetings. Along with the Solid Waste District, we were able to quickly and efficiently establish the Wag Bag bin pilot program, which is now a funded and permanent program. We created detailed instructions for disposal of the weak wag bags. Those to be put on every wag bag that was sold or given away in the county. Since then, incidence of human waste contaminated trash has nearly gone to nearly zero and no waste hauler has been sprayed with human waste once since then. 18,000 wag bags have been sold locally or handed out on trails Over 25 tonnes of, I think it's slide 22, but that's been updated since we put that in the packet. 25 tons of Wag Bag waste have been collected by the solid waste district and safely transferred to Klondike Landfill. 50,000 pounds of poop that we've maintained, been able to keep off our land.

Jonathan Dutrow:
200 COOP of Plan posters have been distributing businesses and facilities on our public plans. Visitors have even requested these as student mayors. 90,000 social media accounts have been reached with educational material specific to human waste. And the Trail Ambassadors have had over 175,000 in person educational interactions at trailheads and our high use recreation areas. Which is a staggering number when you stop to wrap your head around it. Observed a significant improvement in some of our hardest hit areas and the number of complaints we receive now have been reduced significantly. So going forward, we really hope to solidify the gains we have made and not slide backwards. However, if conditions deteriorate, the health department remains prepared to post warnings detailing its exposure to human waste and in extreme situations, possibly closed areas. It's all used until that hazard has been removed. We are concerned to hear that the Trailer Investor Program may be facing substantial cuts. We understand at times hard decisions have to be made, budgets have to be balanced. We get this better than most. But we want you to know that you have a willing partner. The health department will be excited to work with you guys in the next budgeting session to find resources, lend perspective, and work to ensure that the Trail Ambassador program can continue well into the future. So again, thank you for your continued partnership and we look forward to working together to advance our common interests. You guys have any questions? Mike? Thanks for the meeting with both me and Mel. Oh yes, I was going to say that earlier, that was great. Yeah, that's good information.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
It was good information. Thanks for Yes. That's a lot of human waste.

Jonathan Dutrow:
It's crazy, isn't it?

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
How… You understand easier than most, It's all where money comes from …It's not. All the same allowable money. Is the BLM helping us out on this?

Jonathan Dutrow:
Well, are great questions. And I think they would probably love to, I Can't speak for them, right? I don't mean to….

Madeline Logowitz:
I can Speak to that. So we previously had a cost share agreement with the VLM for $30,000 a year in addition to the in kind that they offer us. Generally speaking about the partnership, typically they don't have lot of or they have limited cash, but they often have materials and then they also provide the NEPA, so that's a big contribution that they're making, which I think it's $60,000 approximately per NEPA, and they do three or four of those per year for us for different trail projects. So not specific to the waste initiative exactly, but looking at the bigger picture, that's in the past how that partnership has gone. And then in recent years, or recently, that $30,000 for cost share agreements has been a challenge because they lost a lot of staff at the state level who manage those agreements. And it's basically an empty position. So those are big process currently. So we had paperwork in to renew that agreement for five years, and it just cannot be confirmed at this point. So there has been past Donations of various kinds cash in kind currently there's there's not.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Not to eliminate our voice in this, but if health department's going to close a trail down because there's too much human waste on it, you think I mean, we combine with our voice, would would want to help put forth that argument to BLM be like, they're going close your trails down, we need some help with this.

Jonathan Dutrow:
I think these are great conversations to have and we can have these conversations and we'd to sit down with and all of have these conversations. I think the important goal here is that we all stay committed to this program because it has a real impact, undeniable impact here. So I think there's a yeah, go ahead. I think there could be a lot of partnering agencies that we haven't explored. Just up until this point, the County has been able to foot this bill, so to speak, and we've been happy to partner with them. We understand that money's not there anymore and I think we're looking for a chance to help you guys find funding.

Ryan Rogers:
Yeah, let us be a partner that helps find grants and stuff like that. We're good at that sort of stuff. And kind of to answer your question further, when Willow's we were close to closing Willow Springs in 2017, But first we're going to talk To SITLA and came up with a plan.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Commissioner Martinez.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
No, I'm good.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I move to approve the 2025 memorandum of understanding between Grand County and the South East Utah Health Department which will provide $38,652 to Grand County for 50% of the healthy trails court in her position.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Second.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright. Motion by Commissioner McCurdy. Second by actually, I believe Commissioner McCandless was the first one in line. And so then I will open it up to further discussion. Trish?

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I appreciate what you're doing. I was on climbers, I don't know if there were six or eight of us, we started Friends of Indian Creek, and I had had to look it up. It was like, how how long ago was that? It was 02/2008, and we did it because of human and dog, but mostly human feces. It's like we have to deal. You know, there's a point when that visitation becomes I mean, people have been to Indian Creek on the weekends. It was like there was 500 climbers. It was no longer, a smattering of climbers here and there. It was literally getting to the point where you're at the crag, you turn over any rock to go to the bathroom and somebody had already got through the bath I mean, was was really bad. At first, started with swag bags and then it moved. We were able to put in a couple facilities, and I know they've expanded that since I've left. So I understand how desperate this need is, and I appreciate your guys' work.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Commissioner Hadler.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Thank you. Yeah. I just I I wanted to make a similar comment. I definitely appreciate the work that's being done. Having lived and guided here in the backcountry for the last twenty five years, including camping out as a dirtbag when I first got to here, got to Moab and and seeing seeing all the human waste out there. I think you all have helped Grand County make some very significant strides. And other point I want to bring out Trisha alluded to it just briefly, it was dog waste. I mean, I every trail I go on these days, there's people bag it, but they don't take it out or maybe a lot of them take it out, but they leave enough that it's it's a it's a massive problem. So just just wanted to highlight that. And thank you all for all the all the help you've done on this.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Anybody else? Yes, Mike. Take the conversation after this. We'll be talking to you guys.

Andrew Jackson:
Thank you.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yeah. And so after the county attorney and I just spoke here for a brief moment, but we would also want to make sure that this is transferable in the future. If this ends up moving the trail ambassadors to a different organization, would that grant be transferable to follow them?

Jonathan Dutrow:
That's up to our grants through the Department of Environmental Quality. A NPS grant. That decision would be up to them, they have been flexible.

Ryan Rogers:
And for clarification, this MOU is just to finish out this year the grant and because that county was doing so good, instead of us being the middleman, we opted to work with the county just for the county to apply for those funds. This is just for the rest of the funding this year. We have a little bit to go into next year.

Jonathan Dutrow:
Yeah, and the 117,000 or something for the county was awarded by NPS.

Madeline Logowitz:
Yeah, we, so I can't remember exactly when we applied six or eight months ago. So we applied to the same grant program, and were awarded that. That contract won't be ready to sign until the fall, but that contract is a Confusingly an NPS grant, it's not National Park Service, it's non point source pollution grant. And so that would be fiscal year 2026 and 2027. So that's kind of approved pending contract and approval. Yeah, perfect. Any further discussion?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright, seeing none, call for a vote to approve for this MOU. Those in favor? Aye. Passes unanimously. And so that has us moving number seven. It is a resolution to amend the 2025 budget. With, Gabriel Wojtek starting off here. And I I wanna just say something in case that people are leaving before this goes totally out. Gabe, actually, it was mentioned earlier by one of the citizens that this budget is amended and that there isn't a deficit that we're facing. And I I basically wanted to clarify those comments that we are still looking to find a place to come up with 1,900,000 change to move into this budget in order to amend it as we're working towards here. This budget is still short, almost $2,000,000 and that's part of what this discussion is going To be about. So Gabe, I'll let you start that off.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Thank you. I do agree with that. So there was a presentation for the opening of the public hearing at the July 1 meeting. And in the agenda summary for this item, for this approval item, there's a I went to length to sort of provide a narrative of the main key points of this amendment in a way that would be easily digestible to anyone information about this amendment. Since the presentation of the amendment on the first, there are some there are there have been some adjustments to what was presented at that time. I want to give a brief overview of those adjustments, not major. But they're in this in this on the first page of this document. That's titled proposed amendment supporting documents. There's a little bit of a dark shade on some of these cells here of this tentative budget amendment summary and that darker shade represents items that have been adjusted since the meeting on the first and the presentation of the amendment at that time. So right now, contribution from the general fund surplus in order to balance the general fund. So, share that that's what you're referring to there. It is reduced by a small amount and I'll go into to a relatively small amount and I'll go into why that was made. So, right now, as in the amendment as currently written, dollars 1,857,464 would be needed to be budgeted to be pulled from the general fund reserve balance in order to achieve a balanced budget. In addition to that, main derivation of that reduction relates to what on the first was presented as $526,000 which was to be drawn from the general fund in order to replace TRT revenues transferred to fund forty seven to support Grand County Active Trails and Transportation.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
In the current version of the amendment, that $526,000 amount has been reduced to $340,791 Therefore, transfers out of the general fund to make up for revenue shortfalls total $1,026,278 in this shaded cell here. Going down to the bottom of this document, was a bit of a There was an updated revenue projection as it relates to TRT mitigation. This was brought to light by Commissioner Martinez. He referenced an error that I had entered in my analysis regarding the splits with the TRT collection rate at four and a quarter rather than four and a half percent. The split being determined by the first 2% of that collection. And so on the second page of this document, or it's not the second page, sorry, I'm going to just scroll through your computer. Hopefully I don't give anyone vertigo. Is it in this document? Yeah, it's on this page here. We can see that it's demonstrated most clearly in this line that I have highlighted and this line that I have highlighted, the split from July 1 to October 1 is actually forty seven and fifty three, 47 going to establish and promote, 53 going to mitigation, where it had previously been in error, that split was quoted at forty four and fifty six. So I'm going to go back to the first page, and that's why that revenue projection has been updated for TRT mitigation. And likewise, the pull from the general fund to make up for that shortfall is increased slightly, I think somewhere in the order of $50,000.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
And that's also reflected here in this shaded cell. This again is in reference to fund 47, that $526,000 that had been budgeted to be collected or to be come in as revenue to fund 47, which had been TRT, is currently being proposed to be general fund dollars is reduced $372,000 And then just a general contraction to GCAT expense, Grand County Active Trails and Transportation expenses in response to that TRT funding loss and this associated reduction, which I'll touch base on here in a minute. We did receive our federal payment in lieu allocation, came in $8,672 less than expected. So that's a known quantity as far as revenue. And so that update just came in. It's not a very large amount, but because it's a known variable at this time, I entered it into this event. So additionally, there's a couple of documents that were presented on the first that have remained unchanged that go to explain adjustments made in this amendment regarding salary and benefit expenses projected for departments that are funded out of the general fund, as well as the needed cleanup of fund 23, which had been housed in fund 16, but somewhat hastily had been transferred to fund 23 in the original budget with the the knowledge that some cleanup would be necessary. So moving on to that item, that 526. Sorry. Okay. Is that blown up enough? Good. Okay. $526,000. That had been originally budgeted or allocated in TRT funds to support Grand County Active Trust Transportation.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Of that budgeted amount that was approved in the original 2025 budget, so this is kind of an error on how I have this detailed right here. I'm gonna have to clarify this. Year to date expenses to active trails and transportation that were intended to be funded by TRT totaled $163,862. That is not that that's money that, you know, because this is still an active current budget year, that that's not TRT money that has been spent. We we will appropriately account for those funds as being general fund expended. So I wanna be very clear about that. That's not $163 in TRTE funds in 2025 that have been spent for the Trails Department as has been made clear by the Commission that that is not the Commission's intent. I phrased it in that way just to indicate that that had been originally intended to be budgeted from TRT funds. As a result of conversations that I didn't participate in, but I was reported on. It was reported to me on, and I'm entering the, you know, the accounting on the on those conversations. You know, I don't think an agreement there there it was it was at least it was at least agreed to that the current amendment version would enter in option three, which was presented by trails director logowitz at the July 1 meeting, which represents a continuation of some of the responsible recreation programming, but does scale back that expenditure from 526 to what would be a total at the end of the year of $340,791. And that's made up by what would be projected to be spent out The Rest of this year under the guise of option three, in addition to what has already been spent this year. So the overall amount that is currently entered into the amendment being proposed is $340,000 out of the general fund to support that activity. And this is a brief breakdown of what option three is comprised of, and there's a more detailed document in the July 1 meeting that goes through those options. But this is what I've been directed to enter into this current proposal for your consideration. So, going back to the let's see, let's go to the end, the final summary sheet, and this goes back to the general summary that there's about $10,000,000 in general fund savings. If you look at unplanned general fund expenses this year and if you if you consider you consider using the general fund reserves to make up for revenue shortfalls as an unplanned expense, that's kind of how I'm framing it here just for the purposes of visualizing what we're doing here. There's a rough there's a very, very close association with those unplanned expenses and what is currently proposed in the amendments to be drawn from the fund balance. So that, you know, and that amount is 1,857,464 is currently proposed in the tentative or in proposed amendment. We talked on the first about the commission indicated its intent not to keep funding whole for essential services.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
So I guess that goes to that begs the question, what amount of this current tentative budget draw from the General Fund Reserve balance is made up of what we might consider non essential services? Because I think that that's what commission is still interested in scrutinizing. Sales tax shortfall, so that, you know, what I'm considering an expense that sales tax goes directly to support general fund activities. And so that would be a matter of seeking expense reduction, cost reductions in general across general fund departments. And so that that is scope of a conversation about essential or non essential. I mean, certainly, it is a discussion, but at this point, we haven't really gone into that that level of detailed scrutiny of the general fund department budgets. The TRCC shortfall also relates to, I believe it's OSDA and airport, I believe in this current budget, I would have to. Again, those are general fund departments. And so it indicated to me that we were scrutinizing the essential or non essential at this time, the essential or non essential aspects of that department activity that's supported by TRCC. That's the restaurant and car rental tax. TRT mitigation shortfall. The item in there that I think perhaps deserves more conversation is the allocation that's still in this proposed amendment to the Moab Museum.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
That's in the amount of $114,525 So that is still in this proposed amendment to be made up by general fund dollars and making up for this TRT mitigation shortfall. As well as the Moab Museum, as well as this continuation of option three in support of Grand County Active Trails and Transportation, making up for what had been previously budgeted to be drawn from to be from TRT revenue. And so, you know, my takeaway from where we left off on the first was, you know, we may need to indicate an emotion, You know, whether you know and often as a way of deciding which essential or which which which non essential services would be included or not. And so, you know, I guess I would invite or I would direct or invite the commission to I have a I have a proposed I'll just stop sharing at this point. I have a proposed. Motion, a suggested motion that indicates that there could be an adjustment made to the contribution of the fund balance based on the denial of the nonessential allocation. Alternatively, the proposed amendment could be there could be a motion to approve the proposed amendment as presented in the packet without any additional adjustments.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay, and so I have two questions. You mentioned the museum. Is there anything else in that $564,418 What are the other non essentials other than the museum you mentioned? And then why is there a difference between 1,832,602, and then the actual number you were using of $1,857,464.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Remember that there were some,

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
It's roughly $25,000 there. So it's a difference.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Yeah. So things like the reduction in the tilt, for example. Okay. There's some other little items that little adjustments that were made and that kind of that weren't factored into the full, like that sort of tally. That chart. I was kinda isolating those out. Okay. It was close enough. As far as that, the TRT mitigation shortfall, what is currently allocated is of TRT mitigation is search and rescue, solid waste, law enforcement, which I believe the Commission has indicated is considered essential, and then lastly the 114,525 to the museum. The answer is that that is really the 114,525 is the it's the only item in there that one might consider non essential.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay, thanks. That answers my two questions. I'll go to Commissioner Hadler and then Commissioner Hadeen.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Great. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Gabe. That was that was a thorough presentation and it made sense to me. For just one quick question, I'd still like to keep the floor. But as far as that museum contribution, that 114 is for the whole year. Wouldn't half of that already have been given to the museum?

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
That's a good question. I'm I'm looking at my soft budget software right now,

Luke Wojciechowski:
And it

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Looks it looks like in this case, we haven't made an my my actuals are showing zero right now, so it looks like an allocation has not been made.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Okay. Thank you. And then I would like to go ahead and make a motion to approve the budget amendment as presented. And if there is a second, I would like to continue to keep the floor of a few comments as to that.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I'll second it.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Motion by Commissioner Hadler. Approve as proposed and seconded by Commissioner Hadeen with Commissioner Hadler continuing on with the discussion.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Thank you, Bill.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
I think this is I I've been involved in a lot of conversations on this. I think think my preference would be to fund a few of these things, at a higher level, but I just wanna say that I very much appreciate, the spirit of compromise in coming to an a tentative agreement, which I which I hope will continue, about, things such as the GCAT funding. And option three, I think I I'd prefer, one of the other options for sure, and I think, some others would prefer not to fund at all. But, again, I just wanted to say that I that I appreciate that spirit of compromise. I definitely, as far as the other non essential items, I'm I'm fully in favor of funding the museum as we discussed last year when we were budgeting. I think the the museum is doing a fantastic job. It fills a unique niche in the county, with cultural tourism that is appreciated by locals and visitors alike, and, I'd especially like to see that contribution continue. So thank you guys, and I'll yield the floor.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Commissioner Haddin and then Commissioner Martinez.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
And I I guess I have a a question for Gabe and then I would like to make a comment. We had spoke about the REC Special Service District and then now it's kind of so did I miss something along the way? I'd just like to see where that piece, that line item I don't know, Mike, if you wanna add anything. If you wanna advocate for it. So

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
Yeah. I I haven't been I guess where I the the indication that's been left off for me is that that there isn't going to be scrutiny from the past or for the remainder of this budget year of allocations made to the rec specialist. Okay. Perhaps that's gonna going to be re examined for the future. That's kind of where I'm left with this.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Okay. Then my comment is, I'll kind of fall in line with Jacques that I would have preferred to fund GCATT to a higher level. However, I do appreciate coming to a compromise in light of, you know, TRT funding, just overall sales tax coming in, and and what we need to do to tighten our belts at this point. So I I appreciate that compromise. I do hopefully, understand, and I think there's somewhat of a misconception. My understanding is going back this this idea of coming up with the trail ambassador was Elaine Gisler, is my understanding long ago. Is that correct, Mary? And so, you know, I think at that time, saw that need, and I've already talked about the Friends of Indian Creek. The reality is we want visitors here. We're welcoming here. We're doing all this advertising, and people come to marvel at our landscape and our surroundings. And I think that this program does everything we can possibly do to protect our environment. And so, if we invite visitors here, we also need to educate them. And again, going back to Friends of Inning Creek, was very simple. We did some basic kiosks at that time, you know, don't cut down the trees for your campfires. I mean, poor, you go into Super Bowl campground and every cottonwood was stripped, didn't have a leaf left on it. So, the reality is you have to educate visitors to our environment, and so I greatly appreciate what this program has done, and I think our support of that is supporting that continual visitation and welcoming tourists to a place that we all marvel at.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Commissioner Martinez.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah, so I got a question and then I'll make a comment for just a minute. But I guess this would be to Jacques. You said that a negotiation was reached. Could you just talk about that negotiation? Because that wasn't part of it. I think that everybody would like to know what what negotiation was reached.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Don't I don't know if it's I don't know if it's a negotiation. I just had conversations with other commissioners about. Where we can kind of find some common ground on this. So, yeah, if I misspoke when I said negotiations, just conversations, I would have liked to have seen the program fully funded for the rest of the time. And I think that I would have also, know, you know, some of this compromise, this option three eliminates mountain bike trail ambassadors eliminates climbing trail ambassadors, both those are activities that I very much favor support. You know, it it affects things directly. So this is definitely, definitely definitely hurts. It's it's it's tightening the belt, and, I would prefer not to do it. But that's what I'm supporting.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Bill, was that also your?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yeah, that that was the way that I take it as well. Commissioner hadler and Madeline Logowitz and myself, and I believe we had admin, both Quinn and Mark in attendance, we just kind of came to the conclusion that it was very possible that it could completely be cut at this point, or we could look forward a little bit and show some empathy for people that had to consider either looking for another job or possibly ending up somewhere else under another organization to try to get through the end of the year with where we were. For myself personally, I looked at the numbers and I don't remember without going back to Gabe's numbers there, but the difference was we have to come up with money out of savings of approximately now, I think it's a million $857,000 or it was gonna be a million 600 and some thousand dollars. And it just made sense to me to extend that program as best we could out to the end of the year and then start looking at how we're going to meet the budget next year. And I think we have to all realize that we're not done making cuts. The reality of it is that we're in this situation right now because of a huge shortfall.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
And we can all hope that the economy turns around in the next six months, but the reality of it is we're not done. I think that we're gonna see an update at the next commission meeting will give us an indication of just we're currently at six point one, I believe Gabe has mentioned, and what that will look like at the next commission meeting will kind of give us an idea. Hate to say it, but you can only take away so many pencils and crayons and paper. We have to budget based off of a reduction in staff in the future if the economy doesn't wreck itself and that pendulum might take a little while to swing back. We have improved the amount of money or increased is the proper word, I guess, the amount of money that we're putting towards advertising and that's directly related to our budget woes. I think that it was a good move and I certainly appreciated the work that all of us put into and come into a compromise to get where we are and get us through the end of the year. So, yes, Mike and then Mary.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
I was just asking a question because I didn't know how to negotiate. So, up. I apologize. So, no, you're just fine. Yeah. So, just like to just mention right here, but I look at this right here and when I looked at it originally, when I started looking into HB456, we're looking at a structural deficit here in the county, right? We are spending way more than we know than it's going to be coming in, Right. We have we have we have things that we just cannot afford here inside the county. And I think these pets are going to have to be made. I do I do like that the idea of empathy and trying to continue the programs the best that we can to finish out through the year, but I think that right now is a time to start looking at how we're going to be moving forward in all departments because we just don't have the funds to keep funding this. We cannot continue to fund into a deficit the way that our current projection is going right now. And so just letting everybody know that, yes, this negotiation or this compromise been reached. And I do think it's a great compromise, but I don't think that it's a solution. And I think that everybody needs to understand that. As all of this started happening, talked to quite a few people about the Trail Ambassadors. And one thing was that I got from every single person that…Well, I'm sorry. There was two people that actually Colin was one of them, there was one other person that I talked with. Not one person was willing to fund the trail ambassadors at a property tax that I talked with. Most people, we talked about funding the Trail Ambassadors under the TLT, they said, That's great. We like that. We welcome them. But when it came down to funding the Trail Ambassadors over property tax, most people that I talked to said, no, no, no, no, we don't want to do that. It should be funded another way. That's just not possible and I just want to make sure that that's out there. I realize the great benefit that the trail ambassadors provide out here, Right? I see them out there, I understand the benefits to the search and rescue. I see them out on the trails handing out wag bags. I understand them on the trails. Are a very valuable program to this community and I do value them. That being said, how do we fund them? Our taxpayers are not willing to fund this program, our property tax owners are not willing to fund this program, We're really left up against a wall right now. And I just want to just mention that, that I agree. I think that the negotiation and moving forward to the end of the year is a good idea, and it's something I think that we have room for as we kind of look through what we have in savings right now, but it's not something that I see moving on into the future.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'll just real quick before I go to Mike, will say that we've already sent all departments emails that to look at this year's budget to start tightening belts where we can. And we had a discussion. I don't remember when it was. At administrator Tyner and I maybe couldn't as well with the sheriff and he's got an open position for a dispatcher for the nine eleven services. And we've asked him to move his lead person into that position to work and to not fill it. So it isn't this isn't one department suffering here. This is the entire county and we're going to have to look at everybody's budget for next year. And so I'll move on to Commissioner McCurdy and then Commissioner McGann. Sorry, I butted in.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I have a simple question. Gabe, on the voting to approve adding to our TRT tax collection rate, quarter percent or half percent. Is that enacted? Was that enacted in July? Are we still waiting on that coming? That increase to come through.

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
We've been told that it would become effective October 1.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
October 1. Yeah. Does that?

Clerk/Auditor Gabe Woytek:
It's factored in.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
It's factored In there. That's what I wanted to know.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
We're counting every penny we got.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Making sure, Mary, please.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I, you know, I won't bond very long because I've made myself clear before I think we're a little premature doing all these cuts. I was so excited hearing Giga's presentation today. I think we're gonna see much more TRT tests coming in this summer with all the movies and all the things that are happening than we were anticipating. So I don't think the shortfall is going to be as great. It is across your fingers. We also I just don't think we're going you know, we we've left a lot of, positions unfunded. I I'm very uncomp I think the trail ambassador, we have time. I think it should be completely funded for the rest of the year because we've heard tonight it's an amazing program. It does a lot of good, and we have that time as the health district proved to us tonight. I think we can go out there and for 02/1926, find partners. I think we can find partners and it can change and it can look, a lot different for 02/1926. But I do think this is an important program, and it is our goose that lays the golden egg. If we do not protect our back country, we are cutting ourselves off. And I I think we should I I I really think we should support the that we shouldn't be doing these cuts at this time.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yes, commissioner McCarthy.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Optimism is a good thing, but we're seven months, seven and a half months exactly into this year and 6.1% down as we know right now. And every, I'm glad that hear emails were sent out already. And admins working with departments already on this year's budget, because next year is going to be taking the teeth.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Don't like that analogy, but Is anybody else have any other comments? If not, I'll call for a vote on. Remind me commissioner motion and seconded commissioner Dean. Thank you. It's been a few minutes and collapsing. No further discussion. I'll call for vote. All those in favor of the motion as presented.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Aye.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Those opposed. Motion passes six with one abstaining. Commissioner again, I mean, not abstaining against. I'm sorry, Mary.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Oh, no, there's no change to apologize for.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright. So, we will move on to number eight. Consideration of response to BLM draft environmental assessment on class one p fives.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
That's me. Give me one second. All that. So, let's see here. So, BLM, Whitefield office released the draft EA, concerning the authorization of class one e bikes on designated bike trails and presented a few different alternatives. Alternative A was to leave all the trails closed as is. Alternative B was to open up the brand trails originally and then some other trails on a phased approach. And then alternative C was to open up all trails. We got quite a few responses in here. So there's, you know, I went and attended the GCAT, I'm sorry, the trail mix committee meeting and listened to the concerns that was there. I also attended the motorized trail committee as well and listened to their concerns right there and their letters is posted inside of here as well. And then also inside of here we have a letter posted from Scott Newton, the Poison Spiked Spider, Poison Spider Bites that kind of goes through what the number of bike outfitters that kind of support it as well. The letter that I have presented right there supports alternative C. And then also we also had a letter an alternative letter presented by Jacques. Jacques, do you want to go ahead and present your letter?

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Sure, thanks Brian. Yeah, my letter is a result of discussion at Trail Mix that I attended to, as well as conversations with many kind of longtime Moab bikers, that's going to kind of my community as well as e bikers and other trail users. Think the relevance of everyone and not just not just mountain bikers, but users such as hikers and equestrians, etc. Make a make a big they they deserve a voice. And I think trail mix is a good way to give them a voice. Anyway, long story short, I my letter is proposing to, support option b. That's a little less than trail mix. Well, trail mix was, supporting a kind of a b minus approach, which did not include, the Pipe Dream Trail and, part of the Amasibak Trail system in, being open to ebikes. So, yeah, you can go ahead and continue, Brian. And then, if if you have anything else to say, and then I I had some other comments I'd like to make, but I'll return it back to you.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Yeah. So well, I think Brian had some more comments. Want to finish up with yours?

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Sure. Yeah, Give me just one second. Let just pull up my letter real quick here and I can. So some of the main topics that I brought up in the letter and the reason that I supported all previously was the main reason was enhanced accessibility and inclusivity. The second is the growing popularity and economic benefits that the e bikes provide. The third was the minimal environmental impact and efficient management. And then the fourth was the limited user conflicts that had been seen in other locations. And then the fifth was just alignment with the evolving trends that we've seen out here. When we look at some of the letters that have been presented, the majority of the mountain bike companies, tour guides and outfitters sign on to a letter supporting alternatives to ASRI. On top of that, when you look at the I was just looking here on the respondents right there there is on public, the respondents bring the public scoping comments that were received in support of allowing class one e bikes on the identified mountain bike trails, four forty seven of the five forty two comments. That's 83% of the people that commented supported e bikes on the trails. That's a pretty big number right there. I know Jacques said that he went and talked to the community, but there's a big portion of that community that spoke up tonight that didn't feel that they were heard. I know that Jacques mentioned that they have the ability to go to these trail mix committee meetings and speak up on their own. But once again, these are not paid positions right there that are at that meeting. And we are paid positions. And I think it's our duty to go out and reach out to the business community, to reach out to the outfitters, and to reach out to the entire community besides just our friends, and see what the conversation is out there. And what I'm seeing out there is there's a large population that does want to see alternative C as the preferred alternative.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Anybody else? The

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Job should I would go first.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right, Commissioner Hadar will let you go with it. Sorry if I was stepping up. Yeah,

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Thanks. I wanted to say thanks to all of our advisory committees for the time and effort that they put into the research and discussion of this topic. You know, they are volunteer boards, I know some of those meetings run really long with the discussion. And we put a lot on on those private citizens to, to comment and work on these things. And I've been I've been heavily involved in e bike issues since for ten years. 2015 was when I first started selling and renting e bikes in Moab, first business to do so. And I do let's see to Brian's points. I reach out to plenty of folks. I know everybody on on those letters. I don't just talk to the business owners, I talked to the people who actually work at those businesses too. And I can tell you that there's a lot of people who are frustrated with e bikes. But that's, that's fine, whatever. I want to offer a compromise. I think I really like, that trail mix and motorized trail committee both came forward and made a suggestion tonight and in their discussions, and that suggestion was that we go with a phased approach. I would also propose one I'd I'd propose going with c with that compromise and what they suggested, a three year approach with each of the three, with with with a third of the trails, which is about 75 miles a single track, I believe, roughly, for each of three years.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
And I think that can be done pretty easily phasing in different trail systems over the three year period. But the other thing that I would like to add would be to exclude the Raptor Out system from that, but include all the rest of the trails. And the reason for that is because our Sandflats Stewardship Committee has weighed in on that as well again, they don't recommend making that a motorized trail system. The trail system does start in the Forest Service. You aren't allowed to ride e bikes up on the top trail there. That's Eagle Eye. And that could present some confusion, but also, I think that the Sandflats is in the best position. They maintain those trails. Also, they're in the best position to make a decision about that. So I'd like to respect them as well as the other two committees. So I'd like to make a motion to approve a letter that kinda compromises between the two letters, supports option c, excludes the Raptor route, and also presents a phased approach to a phase three year approach is recommended by the mob, the motorized trail committee to integrating e bikes into the mob trail systems.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
We have a motion. Is that a second, Trish or okay. And the second by commit. We have a motion by commissioner had your second by commissioner had been and Mike with discussion.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Two quick questions. I know we got letters of support of a phased of a phased opening to eBikes, but I see see conflict being made in a phased. One, if if we represented that we wanted to open our trails to e bikes, we could promote that, you know, come to my e bike in my lab, excessively, but we're gonna we're already opening up the problems by saying, well come to Moab with your e bikes, but stay off of these trails, and when people don't pay attention to that messaging, they're gonna get caught on said non trails until they are the next year or the next year. So it's going to hurt our messaging right out the gate, and to speak to the point on Sandflats Recreation Area, I do understand that Sandflats Recreation Area abuts the forest and forest service and I use I would use this as our view to tell the Forest Service that, hey, we recommend also that you start looking at bike access too, because they're a thing, they're not going away, and that's the, I mean, telling people you can't on some trails, you can't on some trails, you're opening up, we'd be opening up the problem of enforcement for the next three years when we could just say they're open.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Go ahead, Melody and then we'll go to Mary.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Well, I really liked the letter we got from Dave Clover and he mentioned that we could use our TRT promotional money, we can encourage people to come here and go on those routes that are open. So I think it's doable. I don't think that the plan approach is going to affect, think a bit promotional efforts will mitigate that. So I think, and I'm in favor of step plan approach, opening them all up. I understand what the, Sunflat stewardship committees ask about the Raptoroute, you know, it's the only that small section and e bikes could go around it. So I I mean, I'd be in favor of that. I think that ultimately that's really small, you know, concession to ask for that one route to close to e bikes. I'm gonna

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Go to commissioner McGann, then commissioner Martinez, and then McCurdy.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I think

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
I had my hand up also, Bill, just to let you know.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Yeah. I see you now.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'll I'll catch you after Mike.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I think e bikes are here to say, and I think they're they're really good event invention, especially the pedal assist ebikes because people get exercise while at the same time, they're able to do something perhaps at another point they couldn't do. With that being said, as an ebikes writer, I celebrated and wrote letters in support of having the trail that goes through town and the trail along the River Of Those to be open to ebikes. And I was so thrilled when they did, and I'm still thrilled they are. But I found that there's there's some issues with that that were unexpected. We're very unexpected. I mean, because people don't you know? You know, there are things other than just the pedal assist e bikes that they they're showing up on the trails, and they're they're causing problems. And I think a phased approach is going to help us look at it in a more holistic way because we're gonna we're going to see that, oh, this is that we're gonna have to mitigate this, and we're not gonna have to mitigate that. There's things we're going to have to do to to make this doable. And as we know, it's a lot easier to open things up than to close them.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
So through our through our investigation and through a phase system, which would give us the opportunity to really study the impact and study the problems with enforcement. How much is it gonna cost just to enforce that it's only pedal assist ebikes? And that all of these look like bikes that are really motorcycles aren't on it. That will give us an opportunity to figure out how much how are we gonna, you know, how are we gonna enforce what we're asking for? Because we're asking for ebike, pedal assist ebikes to be allowed on the trails. We're not wanting all ebikes. So that's I think, eventually, we will have and we should have all the trails open to e bikes. I think especially as our population is very active, gets older. But at the same time, I think always, you know, opening it wide open, we don't know what's gonna happen. And by phasing it in, we're gonna have a better opportunity to study and understand the impacts and the pro on the process enforcement. So that's why I support today's program.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you, Mary. Brian, and then Mike, and then Jacques.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah. Just a couple of things. So first off, you know, I I personally do like the idea. I was there when, the motorized trail committee was kind of talking about the phased approach and talking with Jennifer Jones, who was a big part of this VA. The collaboration that would be required between GCAT and the BLM, go ahead and collaborate to roll this thing out. It's a phased approach. And I like that approach. I mean, I personally think that that's a nice way. I would agree with you, Jacques, that that's something that I could agree to. However, I have heard from what we bring up again, four forty seven people on the comments and the majority of our biking outfitters that that's not the ideal situation. And I did talk to them and ask them why that's not the ideal situation. And so the guides and outfitters, I mean, we've been told and as I've been told my entire life, right, we're the eyes and ears out there. You know, I can't imagine how many BLM and MPS meetings I've been at where they've said, you know, the the guides and the outfitters, you're our eyes and ears out there. And and I think that we really are. I mean, I've I've heard it enough that I believe it. Alright? That that we are the people that talk to the majority of people that come on out here. And so I think that a giant majority of the people that come and visit Grand County, they're getting their information from the people at the bike shop, whether they're renting bikes, whether they're going out on tours, or whether they're getting onto the bike shop's website to find out which trails are open and which trails are muddy.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
And so, think that those are the people when I want to listen to, I think they carry a lot of weight. And one of the things that they're worried about with the phased approach is that how are they going to be telling people, hey, this trail right here system is open, this trail system is not open, and this trail system over here is closed. And so that's their concerns, and I think that that's a valid concern. But I also have concerns, and the reason that I do like the idea of a phased approach is for our staff. I mean, there is going to be a lot of work to be done for our crew to go out there just to replace the signs out there, and put new stickers up on all the spots. So there's a lot of work to be done. And I think that, you know, between the BLM and GCAT, I think that they could accomplish that in a two or a three year phase plan. But, you know, the problem I have still that I personally have with phased plan is I think that if we really were interested in phased plan, we should have done it five years ago when this thing came out. We should have jumped on it five years ago, and we should have been ahead of the curve, and we should have started moving right then.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Right now, the phased plan just kind of feels like a negotiation that's veiled. Right? And everybody's just trying to scramble to grab as much ground as they can and sacrifice any kind of face that they can. I mean, I don't ride e bikes. So, I mean, I don't have, a big dog in the fight, but I do talk to a lot of people that do ride e bikes. A lot of my buddies that I ride with are getting to that age where they do like to ride e bikes. I like to ride with them. I like to go out with their kids. It is a big, big group outing and it's a lot of fun. And then talking about the Raptor route, and I understand that the Sand Flats Recreation and I read their letter, but a couple of things on that. The Forest Service argument right now, I think that we've seen two findings of no significant impact have been found on Forest Service land allowing e bikes. E bikes are coming into Forest Service right now. I think that that conversation is about to start changing here pretty soon. And, you know, to not have them coming down the Raptor route, if we are gonna be changing trails in the Forest Service, I think it's setting us up for failure. Because people coming down the whole enchilada, they're where's the bailout? The bailout is the raptor route. Right? When you're coming on out

Quinn Hall:
And you're like, am I

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Gonna run Porcupine Rim or

Quinn Hall:
Am I gonna run

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
The Raptor route? And so I don't want to set us up into a situation where we say, let's leave the Raptor route alone. And next thing you know, the Forest Service goes ahead and opens up the Forest Service trails. And now we don't have the easy bailout for e bike riders. I think that support and that right there would be a spot that I just I don't feel comfortable for. And right now we do have a lot of trails that are open to just standard bikes, to analogs. Fisher Mesa Trail is open, Lower Porcupine Singletrack, the Eagle Eye portion of Raptor Route, Hidden Valley Trail, The Hole Enchilada, Hazard County, Jimmy Keene, Moonlight, Schumann's, Hells Canyon, all of those trails up there are all only open to analyte bikes. So there is still that option right now to go out, if we were to adopt alternative C, to still go out and still have that same experience to where there are no e bikes out there. And to be honest though, we all ride out there. How many times have we gone out there, even though those trails, there are no e bikes allowed? I know that I see at least three or four e bikes out on every single one of those trails when I ride. The time has passed. I think that once again, need to be looking forward and we need to get ahead of this curve. And I think that we need to embrace this change right here.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'll go to Mike and then to you Jacques and then I want to weigh in.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Brian said well we're behind the curve. We shut down a trail system up on sand flats of literally removing the bike trail off of the roadway clear out from, I mean, clear at the top of the road, I mean, or at least to the canyon. We did have a plan on trying to find funding to get approved to put a bike path up there. We could have kept them off all trails, or at least section of trails a lot easier in the past, but being behind the curve means that we block them off of certain sections, they're going to go there and we're going to have to mitigate that and in another year it's going to come up, hey we have to mitigate hundreds of people off of said trail, said trail, said trail, because we didn't allow, we just didn't say you could go on all trails in Grant County. We should have been building trails for e bikes years ago, and we did a good job of building many trails, but we're still negative on some very key points. Sandflats is really one of them. We should have funded the bike path off when we had a chance before, but again, we're behind the curve, and especially with e bikes.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Yeah.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Well, I mean, Mike, that was just a bike path at Sandflats. It wasn't single track. And there's there's there's lots of good e bike opportunities in Sandflats, the very famous slickrock trails, probably the very first trail ever legalized for e bikes at some point, we people have been riding this since the beginning, and they're still allowed to ride them. But anyway, I mean, a phased approach is it's it's not difficult to implement that it's it's easy for bike shops to tell people where they can go and where they can't see you to have that information posted online. I mean, I did it for years telling people where they could rent the where they could ride the e bikes they rented for me where they could go. That's it's it's not really an issue. With e bikes, we're also I think it's hard to have this conversation without also having conversation about increased maintenance because we I mean, our trails are are our crown jewel, and that's why people come here, and we're gonna see more impacts. And having more maintenance is gonna be crucial. I'm just saying that as an aside. I think we need that anyway. Some of the routes that Brian mentioned that we can still ride e bikes on, almost all of those were up in the forest and that's or I mean not that we can still ride e bikes on but that are not e bike legal are all up in the forest and for six months of the year, they're inaccessible. And as far as coming down the whole enchilada and a bailout for e bikes, I mean, we came down the whole enchilada for years on analog bikes and you could still bail down sand flats.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
You can ride part of the Slick Rock Trail if you want to. You can you can come down that, but you you're not legally allowed to ride e bikes on the whole enchilada right now, and no shuttle companies will take e bikes up there. And you also really don't need them. I mean, it's it's it's a mostly downhill trail. There's there's parts that you can you can you can use an e bike on uphill. But I mean, I've ridden that route probably 100 times and and most of it's gonna be actually easier on a regular bike than an e bike. So those are those are some points. But anyway, I do think that the the Raptor route, it would be nice. Can you can always change designations. If they did change the designation, the Forest Service, then we could then then the BLM could revisit our sand flats stewardship committee could revisit allowing e bikes on the Raptor Route. But I do think that's a that's a that's a really nice compromise, and it does give all those traditional mountain bikers. And there are, no matter what you guys say, there's plenty of traditional mountain bikers out there who are frustrated with e bikes and would like to have a place to ride where they don't, where there isn't motorized activity. And I think having that one small trail system available for those people would go a long way towards even keeping people like that coming to Moab, because those were the people that built our bike community to begin with. I think that's it. I support my original motion.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I have a couple of questions. What's holding us to the phased approach, number one, because if we wanted to do a compromise here, we could look at opening up all of the trails other than the Raptor Park, which would be somewhat of a compromise where we find ourselves right now. I can see the benefits to the phased approach on our staff, but a lot of this isn't our staff's responsibility. It's the steward of the public lands. So we do have a a state crew down here as well as our own GCAT crew. And with the help of the BLM, what would hold us to a phased approach rather than asking that they open all of the trails except for the Raptor Route? And as long as what you say is correct, Jacques, we could if the Forest Service does move in the future to allow ebikes up there, then we could relook at the Raptor Route. By that time, we're gonna have enough, I don't know, what time under our belt here that would allow us to see if there really is as much conflict or if there isn't any conflict. So is there an option? And Mike, I know you have your finger up next, but I think Brian and I've always thought that two more knowledgeable in the issue. So I'd rather hear from them as if there's even any sense whatsoever to my recommendation.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
And so one other thing I'd like to just mention about about the Raptor route is when we're out looking for the funding on the up route. Right there talking to the division of outdoor recreation. Just need to make sure that when we're looking for that funding that it's not going to be required to have e bike accessible because that is one of the stipulations that is starting to become attached to some of these grants for trail building. So I just want to kind of put that out there that that might be one of the stipulations that we're looking at when we're talking about the uproar. But I'd like to go ahead I'd like to go ahead and just make a substitute motion. Okay. Okay. Second here, though. Pull up the. Move to approve the letter commenting on the BLM authorization of class one e bikes on designated mountain bike trails as presented in my letter with the following edits. While we support alternative C, adaptive management and a phased implementation will provide time for trail crews to roll out this approach. We suggest opening half of the trails year one and the remainder of the retrails the following year, conducted in close collaboration between BLM and GCAP. However, we specifically request that the whole enchilada system, including Raptor route, not be open to Class one e bikes until Forest Service approves their route I'm sorry, approves their use.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay, we have an amendment Substitute. We have a substitute motion here by commissioner Martinez and second by commissioner McCandless and Jacques, I'll let you comment first because I kind of ask questions of both you and Brian there and I I don't mind. Feel free

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
To Brian, I'm sorry. You cut out on me for just a second. Could I could I so did your motion say that you wanted a a was it a two year phased approach? Is that what you proposed, Yeah.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah. A two year phased approach.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Okay, instead of a three and then the other thing that you said was not to include the whole enchilada or except I mean, obviously part of the whole enchilada is motorized anyway, the cocapelli part and much of porcupine rim. So Well, why don't we

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Just take out the whole enchilada system and then we'll just leave it as I can amend the function to just have include the Raptor route not be opened to class one e bikes until Forest Service approves their use. And I think that a compromise I think that I feel confident. And the reason that I choose the two year, I mean, the BLM is going to choose whatever makes most sense to But the thing that I like about the two year approach rather than a three year approach is that two year phased system is already built into that EA right there. So they already have that. And so rather than trying

Commissioner Mary McGann:
To add another unit onto that,

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
This would just be adding the trail work in the trail, the number of trails into that alternative that they already have built.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Okay, and then and then again, just to clarify. So as far as like the whole enchilada, basically all the top part is in the forest. So that the non motorized part of that you already you won't be able to ride anyway and then the lower part is in a in a WSA and you won't be able to ride that anyway either but the middle part will always be open because it's open to jeeps and motorcycles etc.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Right. And he he basically removed the the whole enchilada from his motion. Yeah. You haven't yet.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah. Let's take with just the raft and proud on that.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Yeah. So you have to make him make an amended motion language, then get a second, and we have to vote on the amended motion.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Matters. That one again. All

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Right. That's it.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
I want to make an amended motion.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Sure. Or or we could just start up, you know, commissioners can make whatever motions they want, but we have to when we go back and clean it up, we have to go through the the process. If

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
If I may, it seems like, I mean, honestly, it seems like it doesn't matter since since those uses will already be open. Just I mean, anyway.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Let's clean it up then just so that the letter is a little bit more clean. I'll go ahead and amend the motion.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Yeah, please do.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Okay, please, thanks. I move to approve the letter commenting on the BLM's draft authorization of class one e bikes on designated mountain bike trails with as presented in my letter with the following edits. While we support alternative C, adaptive management, and a phased implementation, we'll provide time for trail crews to roll out this approach. We suggest opening half of the trails year one and the remainder of the trails the following year, conducted in close collaboration between BLM and GCAT. However, we specifically request that the Raptor Route not be opened to Class 1b bikes until Forest Service approves their use.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Second.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by Commissioner Martinez, second by Commissioner McCandless. Further discussion needed or can we vote on that? So it all works.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Sure. I'm not a mountain biker, so I don't know when you guys say whole enchilada versus only the Raptor portion of it. No. If that encapsulates what you guys are looking for and stellar, then you guys vote on the amending the motion.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
A motion. Yeah. On amending the first.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Correct. First votes to amend it. Second votes to approve the original motion. Okay. Say original motion. The amended motion becomes the original motion.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
I don't like the two years, but I understand the staffing.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right. So I'll call for a vote to amend the motion. Those in favor. Aye. Passes unanimously. And so then I will call for a vote on the motion as stated by Commissioner Martinez.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Hey, Bill, can we have, before you call for that vote, can we have just a, could I, can I make a comment on on that? Sure. Thanks. I just want to say I do appreciate the spirit of compromise that's pervaded this discussion. Again, this is an issue that's pretty close to my heart, I do respect all voices being heard. I've heard from a lot of both sides, and it's a difficult position to be in and a decision to make, but I would, in that spirit of compromise, I would somewhat I'll I'll I'll vote for it. Somewhat somewhat half heartedly. I'd I'd I'd much prefer three years, but but, yeah, that's all I have to say.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thanks, Jacques. Anybody else? All right. I didn't mean to step on you before calling for a vote. So all those in favor of the motion is presented by commissioner Martinez. Aye. Those opposed.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Stick with the three years, Brian, but I appreciate your compliment.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
The motion passes from six to one, one opposed commissioner Dean. And so with that, we will then move on to item number nine, which is a discussion, excuse me, I just lost it here, discussion and approval of letter to secretary Bergen regarding Arches National Park timed entry and infrastructure investments. And that is you, sir, commissioner Martinez. Through all these letters.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
So the background on this is the Grand County Commission. I have drafted a letter to Secretary Bergen of the Department of the Interior acknowledging Making America Beautiful Again by Improving Our National Parks Executive Order link to the executive order. What prompted me on this is after I read this is is a federal directive coming down to federal lands. How that's dictated is kind of beyond Grand County. What I want to make sure though is that we have a seat at the table when things do happen so that we can go ahead and ask for some of these infrastructure projects that we have been talking about for, you know, the past fifteen years. You know, I think that there's a lot of people that have concerns on how the park is managed. And I do think that that Grand County being a part of that is quite.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right discussion.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Thank you. Think.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I Commissioner had been and then commissioner McGann.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
In reading I really actually like to call out that the secretary of the interior shall review the maintenance backlog within National Park Service and to speak to Brian's point there. I'd like to be the first. On the on in the list there, I mean, get to the front of the line as quick as we can. I know we have a decent backlog emergency operations center. Being at the first of the table, hands out first.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Commissioner Haddin, Commissioner McGann, Commissioner McCandless. I'll try

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
To be quick. So, you know, via our our recent legislation that pays beautiful bill, there was a 1,200,000,000 cut to the National Park Service. And currently, they're clawing back 267,000,000 from the National Park Service Park Services 2025 allocations. Since the beginning of 2025, with Doge cuts, the Park Service has lost 24% of permanent staff. This EO, executive order proposes a surcharge on foreign visitors via fees and passes. And to me, that equates to, you know, kind of pushing foreign visitation away, which we really can't afford right now. I did a little bit of research. They believe that those surcharges will add up to about $90,000,000 and hopefully you see that doesn't add up to the cuts that they're making and are clawing back. So, to be honest, I feel that this letter, and I'm not I appreciate the what's the word? Kind of the intent behind it. You're right. We have these needs. Some of them I don't agree with, but we obviously have needs. The Park Service has needs. I would have preferred that it was a collaborative effort where you're working with Superintendent Pace define the needs that she sees. But to be honest, I just feel like this letter is just like a pie in the sky, like, oh, we want all this stuff when the Park Service is under extreme stress. They're having their budget just hammered, and so you're going to turn around and go, Oh, and we want a road coming in from the North entrance.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
It's just, I don't know, I find it a little silly, to be honest. I would actually support it, which is difficult to state because of all the other things I just said, if we removed those initial comments about timed entry because we've had a lot of feedback that we have now funded a $60,000 study to see if timed entry is affecting our visitation. So then to put it in a letter that basically states, like, we assume it's it's affecting our visitation, I think is is a little ludicrous, to be honest. It's like if you have if we've already made those conclusions, then why spend $60? You know? So I would I would actually support it if we took that out, maybe. I don't know. I just I just I just think it's unrealistic. And to be honest, I thought the executive order was this is nothing against anybody in this room, but it's at a federal level. It's somewhat mortifying to read. It just, at one point, it's saying we want to do this to foreign visitors near the end. It's like, oh, but we want to, you know, we want to encourage foreign visitation. It's like, so what is it? Literally within a document, know, a one page document, it completely counters itself, and so I wasn't that impressed again, that has nothing to do with anybody in this room, that's at a higher level, so that's where I sit.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Commissioner McCurdy, and then Commissioner McGann. Nope. Nope. Not me. I mean, oh, McGannan and McCanless. My apology. We got a few answers. Try and stay ahead of it and then I'll get to you, Jacques. Thank you. I

Commissioner Mary McGann:
When we started studying, when issues of becoming overcrowded to the point that it was a safety hazard because the cars were lined up all the way to the freeway. All these all these systems were considered, but the cost is really high. And and there wasn't the monies to do anything, and that's why they chose the time to entry. So, you know and and I don't think these are bad ideas. I have no problem asking for them. I mean, I really don't. I mean, if we can ask for them, I think it might be pie in the sky, but we could ask for it. I'd like to add the emergency building to it. I would like to add that because it was came from the phrase of Arches and Canyonlands. But I think paragraph is it two or three? Paragraph through two. Is it no. Sorry. That it's a paragraph. Paragraph two. I I think that isn't necessary because because it's almost it's almost taking away from the impact of of what you're asking for or what what if we prove it, what we're asking for. Because we're asking for all this, and yet then we're also saying that we don't think this is good and this isn't working.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Well, I think, you know, let's ask for what we want, but take paragraph two out completely, and I would support the letter because, you know, I just don't think it fits. I mean, besides fact, you know, that that that other people brought up that it's like, why are we saying that we already believe that timed entry hurts us before we've done the study? That's kind of plus, I think it almost waters down what you're trying to get at. It's that you want things to improve the part. That's what you want from the letter primarily, I'm assuming. And I think that to throw that in is, like, people what do they say? Less is more? People don't like to read long letters. They want to get to the bullet points, get it done, and this kinda confuses the entire issue. So I just think adding the what friends at the Arches and Canyonlands requested and just removing number two makes the letter stronger, and I don't I think it kinda counterpredicts what we voted for in the past. So

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Alright. Melodie.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Well, in the executive order, it does say the secretary interior shall review all the department's recreational access rules and take steps to rescind any that unnecessarily restrict recreation in national parks, which, I mean, January, we've been advocating that. I mean, I've been advocating it for years. I feel like the the reservation system has once it's been in effect, our visitation has gone gone down into the county, maybe not half the park if there are numbers. You know, we can talk about numbers being skewed here and there. But anyway, so that's why I think it's important to leave that sentence in there because that is something that we're looking at is unnecessarily restricting recreation. And I definitely agree with adding in Friends of Arches comment about the construction of the updated Emergency Operations Center to improve incident response. And I also, after listening to community response and the letters, I know I really, it hits home. And I know we did send a letter in support of the federal facilities earlier this year in March, which did say that we wanted to protect those employees. But I didn't really specifically go out and say we weren't just employees because I really like a letter that came in that said, you know, that we have to keep the to keep the parks and other federal land in good shape. They need good employees. And we have good employees, but we need to make sure that they feel feel safe and, you know, that they're dedicated to keeping it beautiful. And I I don't know if we can add this in this letter because this is kind of about infrastructure, but I think it's super important that we do send a letter that is supporting the employees and making sure that funding is there for employees as well.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right, Jacques. Jacques?

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Yeah, thank you, Bill. I don't support the letter. Think the directive is is disingenuous when you cut $260,000,000 from national parks and this year's budget alone and then say you're going to make it up out of the pockets of foreign tourists who you've been driving away all year to begin with is a little bit ludicrous. Again, not it's not against anyone here. It's just a it is what it is. As far as a couple of the asks, you know, if we if they establish a northern entrance to the park, those those people are likely most of them who come in that way aren't even going to come to Moab and spend money, they'll come down from Green River or whereas they're passing through I 70 and or from Grand Junction, I think that actually might hurt our economy a little bit. And then some of the other things, yeah, I totally don't support the part about the time to entry system. I mean, if we're paying someone to give us an opinion on a time reservation system and say that we strongly believe this to begin with, I think that's also that doesn't belong in the letter. I, I, I don't support any part of it. Thanks.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
County attorney, this is then I'm going to weigh in. I Don't have a dog In the fight.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
They haven't spoken yet.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Sorry for that.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
So if You if you look at the third sentence in your letter, second paragraph, third sentence starts with we strongly we strongly believe that if you replace that with we question if the time entry system is limiting visitation and harming our local economy, these concerns prompted Grand County Commission to engage with that flows or logically, but I don't have a dog in the fight.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Give me your verbiage again now that I'm

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Just taking the word we strongly believe that and replacing it with we question if and then everything else kind of flows. I'm not championing this but that's middle ground ish to what you guys are all saying. Go ahead, Brian.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah and so speaking on a couple of people's points, think that there's a confusion on visitation versus what the effects on our economy are. The Camp C Gardiner is to find out what the effects on the Grand County's economy are. I can look at the visitation numbers and you can tell that the visitation numbers have been stunted by the reservation system. Let's go start right here. Let's go to 2014. We'll start at 1,284,000. 2015 1,400,000.0. Twenty sixteen one point five eight five. Twenty seventeen one point five. Twenty eighteen one point six. Twenty nineteen one point six. Right? Like the numbers keep going up. 2020 everything dropped, twenty twenty one one point eight, there was your spike, twenty twenty two one point four, twenty twenty three one point four, twenty twenty four one point four. The reservation system has a capacity problem that it cannot allow more than, I don't think that it can allow more than 1,400,000 people into the community. I mean, that's what I've shown over over the years and when we look at the numbers of currently this year, we are tracking up a little bit but we're also the last two months, we've been tracking down, right? They're they're they're following this just about the same or within five or 10,000 people either which way.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
That's one that's one that's one that's one conversation is the visitation versus the what the effects are on our economy. And I do agree that there are two separate conversations. Right? Getting to Tricia's comments, I understand your concerns. I think that charging somebody more and then asking them to come to you a hard ask. But it's also an ask. Right? I mean, is something that I'm wondering if we're going to see a bigger fund that's going towards the Brand USA that's going to be funded towards funding national parks, right? Because I know that they received a pretty good cut as well. So maybe we're going to see something like that where they're making a bigger push to push people to our parks. And I also thanks for your help on the letter and helping out with some of the writing. I did change up some of the things on there to what you said and I appreciate that.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
That's not me, it's Grammarly. I mean I do a lot of editing but I do a lot of Grammarly too.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
I recommend it to all my college students, why not, Why wouldn't you?

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah. And and to what Mel said, I I I agree with you on the employees. And I think that, you know, I mean, if if you wanna write a a letter supporting, you know, staff at Arches, I would get 100% behind it and help you write it. But I think that this letter right here is talking about the infrastructure needs. And I do like what Steve Evers had brought for Prince Of Arches National Park. And so I think with that, I'm going go ahead and I'm going to make a motion. Let's see here. Got list.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
European Marlin Just say it again.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Sorry there. I move to approve the letter to secretary, Brigham as presented with the following edit. Following bullet point number five, add fundamental infrastructure investments such as an updated emergency operation center to improve incident responses.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Motion by Commissioner Martinez, second by Commissioner McCurdy. For their discussion. Mike, I know your hand was up and then melody and Then. Myself.

Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Did you get a Second.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
The discussion, would have liked to see Stephen's edits to just to make it flow a little better. But, and I understand the Gramalys, but I really want to say I'm an international tourist when I can afford it, and I gladly pay up to $14 more for my family to attend the the falls in Jamaica because I am not a Jamaican citizen. I I I know that's the one fee that I pay every time I go, but I I pay gladly because I know it's going directly to them at the Jamaican Pulse to make it better. So that's an easy motion or easy conversation point. But the international tourism hasn't been happening since COVID. I am the guy that takes the Asian or French buses into arches. It's it's not someone else. It's not hyperbole. We're not talking about staff. It's me. I go up there with them. I talk about arches. I guide them through arches using a CUA. Like, they're not here anymore, and they haven't been since been COVID. That's not some something to do with current federal politics. It was the day COVID shut down. They haven't come back.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Melody.

Amy Clayton:
Brian, I just wanted to

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Recommend if we can move this to our state delegation as well as state legislators and the governor, just because I feel like the state needs to step up too.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
I think that's a great idea right there. I think

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
That it's important to get this letter out there for sure. I know that there's this argument that we are paying for a study, but I I don't think the letter relates to the study. The study is just to end a argument that's going on in this entire community, let alone up on this dias. It's not the study is going to possibly change Bill Winfield's mind on the reservation system, and it's possibly going to change miss Pace's interpretation of the reservation system. And it's important that we have that study done just for the community as far as I'm concerned. And we talk about 60,000 back through the studies from the last five years. I don't know how many of them were water studies that are sitting drawing dust. The trail to tomorrow, couple 100,000 was drawing dust. We can we can dig up study after study that's been done here drawing dust. So $60,000, it pales in comparison to all of these studies that have been done. So it's it's just a a kind of a political comment to keep throwing that out there. I just wish that we could get the study done and change Bill Winfield's mind if that's what's gonna happen. It's very possible. And I'm going to accept that study and I'm hoping that my colleagues will accept it as well when it comes out.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'm not here to hope that it comes out in my favor. I just want it to come out. Let's get it out and be done with it. We've seen previous studies, the white paper by the National Park that was paid for by the National Park. You know, it has a dubious ring to it just like the individual that called our study dubious or called I guess he called the Hancock study dubious. We need something that isn't manipulated by anybody. We need a study done that doesn't have anyone's fingers in it. And we've had people already trying to manipulate this study send in their opinions from the public. We had people who were dead set against this study the minute that the commission voted to approve the study to pay for it, come racing and wanna be at the table to be able to try and craft the study. I I don't want any one commissioner on this board or any one citizen or anybody, National Park Service, city of Moab. I don't want anybody's influence in the study, and that has been stressed over and over to Ken Gardner. We do not want a study that is influenced. We want a clean study. Otherwise, there's no value to it. And that's why I'm pushing for it when it comes to the study. And I think that needs to get out there.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
So we kind of bury this instead of having this continual $60,000 argument, and that's totally diverting away from Brian's letter here. And I support the letter. It isn't a perfect letter, but I think that it starts the conversation and gets our hand out as it says towards infrastructure needs. And we might not get any of them, or we might only get an emergency operation center, or we might get the paving lot repaired and paved at the visitor center arches. There there's so much backlog that's out there. Who knows what we're gonna get to? But I'm up at the legislature every single year with my hand out trying to bring back money to this county. I worked hard on the Raptor State Park appropriation. I've worked hard on the roads department bringing money back to this county. We brought back grants that are getting sidewalk and curb and gutter on Holyoke Lane. The only way that you get those is by being there asking for them. You do not get them hoping that it happens. And I'm that's I'm supportive of this. And I know you're dying away in, Mary. I see your hand there, and I've let you. But I I think that it's time to vote for this and move on after you've had a a comment.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
So Is that you know? So I I do I I have a problem with the we strongly believe. I I preferred what Steven said.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Well and and I appreciate that, and I'll I'll let Brian stick with it or comment on whether he wants to change the his motion, but I think we've all kind of had our opinions out here.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
I'll comment on it real quick. I want to stick with we strongly believe. We strongly believed it enough that we went and funded a $60,000 study. Right. We believe that there is a lack of visitation right there. And it doesn't say that, I don't make any claims that this is fact, I just say that we believe this and we went ahead and have this study with and commissioned. Now we've engaged with Kempsey Gardner policy to assess the extent of the impacts. That's all.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Is there value in change in the verbiage if Commissioner McGannan wants to vote for it? Sure, yeah.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I got confused.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yeah, I mean, yeah, would if you would support the letter, I'll go ahead and change the

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Verbiage. Remind us your verbiage. Just

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
We question if.

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
And so we should leave that. If this

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I I'll go for it, but I I I do think it would cancel the letter Just because I know people like to.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I'm just asking y'all are not forcing it.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
That's great. I'll go ahead and amend the motion.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Let's put in the motion to replace the language.

Commissioner Brian Martinez:
Yep, I'm gonna Oh, that'd be nice. Not gonna make the whole motion. I amend the motion to replace the language. We strongly believe that the timed entry system is limiting visitation and harming our local economy. To we question if the timed entry reservation system is limiting visitation and harming our local economy.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Does it help point?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
Say it.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Does that hit the point?

County Attorney Stephen Stocks:
It's your guys motion with that. Yes. Yes. Okay. Second, and you've got an amendment.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Okay. Motion amended motion by Commissioner Martinez seconded by Commissioner McCurdy. Those in favor of amending the motion.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Aye.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
That passes unanimously. Now we vote on the motion with the verbiage changed in that second paragraph. Those in favor of the letter as amended. Those opposed.

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Nay.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
All right. That passes five to two with commissioner handler and commissioner had Dean again. And thank you for working through all of that. Wanna say that I appreciate the fact that we have worked hard here tonight to come to some agreements. And even though we didn't totally maybe one, two, I think we've all been willing to move a little bit, and I appreciate that. So we will go on to a discussion number 10, discussion of Moab City Services. And I put this on here, and this was put on before a date was said that we would be able to work with our partners at the city. And so I don't think that we need to go into a terrible amount of depth here. I would also, before I start my discussion number 10, to say that I think we should move number 12 with future media. I'm just in the essence of time here. So up.

Jenna Gardiner, public comment :
She's thumbs up.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
I agree.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Right. Moving number 12. But can we finish on ten before we go to comments, or did you have something, commissioner McGann?

Commissioner Mary McGann:
I just wanted to make a few comments. I I felt like this meeting went better than many of our meetings. I felt like there has been much more decorum, that there has been much more respect, and I I'm it I did get anxious during this meeting like I normally do. The discussions and the disagreements were

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Professional. Professional. So I appreciate Constructive. Thank you.

Commissioner Melodie McCandless:
Several. Skipping 12.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Oh, no problem. You know? We are we're skipping 12. Yes. And Steven was fine with that. I've checked before.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Come back to it someday.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
But Yes. Yeah. In the future. And so just to discuss regarding the discussion around Moab City services, there are a lot of loose ends between the county and the city. And I believe that the city who is here feels the same way, but I feel like we need to kind of collect all those loose ends up and get everything tied up. And so there is a meeting scheduled. I wanna say that it's actually tomorrow Yes. At 02:00. Correct me

Jonathan Dutrow:
If I'm wrong. I'll check if I correct you if you're wrong.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank you. And so really that I think that I have a list of about six or seven different things. They don't need to be discussed now, but it goes everywhere from the 09:11 services to the stuff with the CJC, to the victims advocates,

Brayden Saunders:
To the I don't know

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
What they call the dog pound or Yeah. Animal control. And so there's all of these handshakes and loose ends out there, and it is my goal. And I believe it is with the city as well to try and get the ones under an MOU that we need to have under an MOU, get the past cleared up and the account ledgers cleaned and we know moving forward that we're paying for X and that they are paying for Y or whatever you want to call it. And that's that's really all this is about. And I didn't want because the discussion hadn't been made with any other commissioners. It was myself, the sheriff, Mister Tyner folks from the city that we're going to be in that meeting and it needed to be something that the entire commission was aware of. And so, yes, Trish.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
So can I ask who's gonna be in the meeting on your guys' end? Then so

Sam Newman, public comment:
Sure. It'll be myself, the city manager,

Commissioner Mary McGann:
And chief. Up and talk because they don't get it on. They don't get it on.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Oh, and chief and chief bell.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Yeah. Okay.

Sam Newman, public comment:
So thanks, and I appreciate that. I I think we're on the same page.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Thank

Sam Newman, public comment:
You. We we wanna get those loose ends tied up as well. Okay. I've been working with mister Tyner, and I think we've had some really good conversations. Tomorrow, we're looking forward to the meeting right here and both myself and

Commissioner Jacques Hadler:
Chief Bell will be here.

Commissioner Mary McGann:
Okay.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Thank You. And then on your on the county's end, Bill?

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
It'll be myself and the sheriff and I believe Mr. Tyner.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Do you mind sit ins? I think we

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
Started out small to begin with. It's easier. Yeah,

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Thank you. You had to sit through that.

Commissioner Mike McCurdy:
Hey, wait, wait to join us.

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Now, you know, I don't

Commissioner Trish Hedin:
Want to hear anybody bouncing in. Complaining about your meetings, This is this is commonplace.

Commissioner Bill Winfield:
I believe that that ends of the meeting. Correct? We don't have a close session or anything. So, at that point, I would say that we adjourn the meeting. Thank you, folks. Appreciate that.

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