Jefferson County’s property and casualty rates are set to rise 16-17 percent, the county commissioners said last week. The county is part of an insurance pool, so its rates are affected by those in other counties, they said.
The commission has been busy working on the annual budget and has other major costs to consider as well. One is the pledged cost of extending infrastructure to a proposed rest area. Another is the continuing tax delinquency by the owners of Montana Tunnels.
Commissioner Leonard Wortman reported May 30 that mine owner Patrick Imeson has proposed selling the county the log building on Boulder’s Main Street previously used as a mine office for Elkhorn Goldfields, owned by the same firm as Montana Tunnels, as an offset for a tax payment now due by the end of June.
The firm missed a March deadline previously set for that payment. Wortman said the county cannot pay more than appraised value, so an appraisal would be necessary. He said he thought the building, located across from the post office, might make a good office for the county’s event coordinator. County attorney Steve Haddon said the county would have to take a serious look at the costs to bring the building up to code and making sure it complies with accessibility requirements. The commission took no action on the issue.
On another issue, Haddon recommended the county explore establishing a policy on service animals in county buildings. He reported that a citizen wanted to bring an emotional support animal into justice court, and his office was asked about it. A review of the relevant state and federal laws did not help much, he said. “Candidly, gentlemen, the legislation on it is pretty broad,” Haddon told the commissioners. The access was allowed, he said, but advised the county develop a policy in anticipation of future requests.
The commissioners took a step on resolving an ongoing dispute over ambulance service in the Whitehall area. They unanimously approved setting an election for November 7 on forming an ambulance district outside of Whitehall city limits and on choosing board members to administer the district.
Commission Chair Cory Kirsch described the process to resolve the dispute “stressful, long, drawn out.” The decision at the commission will allow affected voters to control whether to form the district.
In other business conducted May 30, the commission:
• granted a variance to R.D. Marks for a subdivision road connection, emphasizing the decision was specifically for the unique situation, not setting a precedent for future subdivisions;
• granted a request to amend a parkland requirement for the seasonal Alhambra RV Park;
• opened bids for a contract to provide meals at the jail. Farmer’s Table bid $3.75 per meal. The River Pizza and Subs, which has the current contract, bid $5.08 per meal. The bids were referred to the sheriff for review and recommendation prior to awarding the contract June 7;
• approved adding $60,000 to an existing $310,000 loan from the state’s InterCap program for improvements to the fairgrounds rodeo arena bleachers. The money will be used to stabilize the bleachers and only necessary dollars will be borrowed, said the commissioners:
• opened bids for two projects associated with the county’s emergency broadcast radio stations. Telesystems Services of Cardwell was the only bidder to operate the system for two years at a cost of $34,500. Rocky Mountain Fleet Services of Ennis was the only bidder to provide a backup power supply at the stations at a cost of $5950 per system for up to seven systems; • approved the updated DUI Task Force plan after hearing from Barb Reiter about the provisions and changes;
• approved the updated county safety manual and revisions to the county program to conserve employee hearing;
• concurred with the findings of an MDT speed study on Colonial Drive and South Hills Frontage Road requested by officials in Helena. The study concluded no changes should be made to the existing speed limits;
• appointed Christina Binkowski to serve on the county planning board;
• and agreed to write off $535.85 in delinquent taxes, saying the estate of John Sutherlin could not cover the tax bill.
