[0:00] We're We're ready to go. We
[0:04] >> Thank you. Recorders are running.
[0:07] >> All right. Thank you, Paul. I appreciate
[0:08] it. Well, welcome to the uh the May uh
[0:12] Outdoor Adventure Commission. We're
[0:14] happy to have everybody here. Uh those
[0:16] that are uh we have some participating
[0:20] online and some in some in person, but
[0:23] we have a quorum, so we're going to go
[0:24] ahead and get started. Uh thank you for
[0:26] coming. Uh, I'd like to extend a welcome
[0:29] to our new commissioner, uh, Greg
[0:31] Jensen. Um, uh, Greg, can you, uh,
[0:35] introduce yourself? Give us a little
[0:37] overview of of who you are. Thanks.
[0:39] >> Uh, my name is Greg Jensen. I am a
[0:41] commissioner for Seir County. I, uh, I'm
[0:44] in my fourth year of uh, of that seat
[0:48] and running unopposed for a second term.
[0:51] I lived in Seir Valley for 30 years. I
[0:54] have an insurance agency, independent
[0:56] agency that I've run for almost 40
[0:58] years. Have a wonderful wife, three
[1:02] daughters, three son-in-laws, and three
[1:03] grandchildren.
[1:04] >> All right. Well, we're we're happy to
[1:06] have you. Thank you. Um Okay, then we'll
[1:10] go to uh approval of the minutes. Um
[1:12] somebody want somebody like to make that
[1:14] motion?
[1:17] >> I'd be happy to make the motion to
[1:18] approve the minutes.
[1:20] >> Okay. All right. Uh the motion is that
[1:23] we approve the minutes of um that were
[1:26] sent out Friday, May 1st from our last
[1:28] meeting was that November meeting. Um
[1:31] all in favor say I.
[1:33] >> I.
[1:35] >> All right. That that passes. Uh okay.
[1:38] We'll move to agenda item number three.
[1:40] Uh our recreation participation trend
[1:43] study update. Uh Jeremy Sage and Jake
[1:46] Jorgensson. Uh go ahead whenever you're
[1:49] ready.
[1:51] All right, great. Thanks everybody. Uh
[1:53] hopefully you can hear me. I my screen
[1:55] is lighting up so that's a good sign. Uh
[1:57] thanks for having us and uh thanks for
[1:59] your support of this project too. We
[2:00] wanted to take a few minutes to update
[2:03] you on where this project is, where it's
[2:05] been, and where it's uh going over the
[2:07] course of the uh remainder of this year
[2:09] and early into 2027.
[2:12] Uh so just a little bit of introduction
[2:14] uh of RSC. If we can scroll to the next
[2:16] slide, just for those of you that might
[2:18] be uh not familiar with us, uh we are an
[2:21] outdoor recreation and um social science
[2:25] uh market research firm. Uh we've been
[2:27] doing research in the outdoor recreck
[2:29] industry and tourism industry uh for the
[2:30] last 40 plus years. Uh we do we do do a
[2:34] lot of work there in Utah with uh ski
[2:36] Utah and understanding understanding
[2:38] where the the ski industry is in Utah as
[2:41] well as nationwide with the ski
[2:42] industry, the national parks across the country and other states and
[2:46] communities across the country as well
[2:48] in the outdoor recreation and tourism
[2:49] space. Uh so it's been a great
[2:52] opportunity for us to dive uh even
[2:54] further into Utah and in this effort
[2:56] here. We look forward to continuing that
[2:58] with uh Carly, Jason, and company there
[3:01] uh in Outdoor Rec. So, if we can go on
[3:03] to the next slide, please. And just to
[3:05] give you an overview, uh for those of
[3:07] you that may not recall, what motivated
[3:09] this study and for those of you that are
[3:11] new uh to this commission, uh we were
[3:14] charged with trying to understand and uh
[3:16] the goal was to really understand uh how
[3:20] really just how vital outdoor recreation
[3:21] is to the Utah economy. um with a
[3:23] recognition that it is vital and helping
[3:26] the uh division of outdoor rec
[3:28] understand what has gone on, what is
[3:31] going on and what are those those shifts
[3:33] that are occurring in outdoor recreation
[3:36] and how does that change participation
[3:38] patterns whether that be uh seasonally,
[3:41] daily, uh by activity type uh in with
[3:45] within uh counties in regions and
[3:48] throughout the state and understanding
[3:49] kind of what are those key trends that
[3:51] are out there. uh some of these examples
[3:53] of what what's happened recently is you
[3:55] know the emergence in the last decade or
[3:57] so of of ebiking and the uh
[3:59] opportunities and challenges that ebikes
[4:02] create as well as we saw lots of uh
[4:05] alteration in who and how much and where
[4:08] people recreate uh during the the uh the
[4:11] co 19 pandemic and we have other
[4:13] population changes that have gone on as
[4:14] well that help that really facilitate
[4:16] change in outdoor recreation that we
[4:19] really want to be ahead of the game and
[4:20] how do we understand what is going on
[4:22] and how to measure that and measure it
[4:23] in a consistent
[4:25] uh data driven method that's out there
[4:28] such that we can be comparable across
[4:29] load locations across regions across
[4:31] activities. Uh and we want to take this
[4:34] effort not in an effort to just start
[4:36] from ground zero and build up but an
[4:38] effort really to build on past planning
[4:40] efforts that have gone on whether that
[4:42] be through various land managers there
[4:44] in Utah or via academic or other
[4:47] consulting partners that are out there
[4:48] as well. I know Utah State has done a
[4:50] lot of work uh in this realm. We really
[4:52] want to build off those efforts to make
[4:54] sure they come to full fruition and what
[4:57] uh their intent was and the
[4:58] opportunities to to learn and grow from
[5:00] them are. So if we go on to the next
[5:03] slide there uh our goals in
[5:05] understanding in doing this is really to
[5:07] understand what those participation
[5:08] patterns are and help to identify those
[5:11] emerging trends. And really what those
[5:13] goals then allow us to do is really
[5:15] assess the e economic and social and
[5:18] health impacts that are out there. We
[5:20] know beyond just being a major industry
[5:22] and economic driver, uh the outdoor
[5:24] recreation industry provides a great uh
[5:27] space for understanding quality of life
[5:29] for residents across Utah across the
[5:31] West. Really, we've we've seen uh that
[5:34] emergence of people moving to places,
[5:36] people locating their businesses in
[5:38] places as a direct result of the
[5:40] perceived quality of life that's
[5:41] available there. And we do have real
[5:43] measures of those quality of life
[5:45] outcomes because of access and
[5:47] opportunity for outdoor recreation. So
[5:49] it becomes more and more important both
[5:51] uh economically, socially and for our
[5:54] own uh individual and community health
[5:56] as well. So being able to stay on the
[5:57] forefront of of what is emerging and
[6:00] growing from the outdirect opportunity
[6:02] is really a a key need for Utah as well
[6:05] as other states that have significant
[6:07] outdirect industries. And then really
[6:09] what we want to do is they're on point
[6:11] four is really trying to develop those
[6:13] actual recommendations from this effort
[6:15] here. We don't want to just do this as a
[6:18] uh an academic exercise, but we want to
[6:20] have opportunities for you all and
[6:22] partners across Utah to be able to put
[6:23] these into action based on reliable and
[6:27] consistent numbers that we can compare
[6:29] across each county, across each region
[6:31] uh through out there in Utah. we go on
[6:34] to the next slide and kind of gets into
[6:37] what what it is we're trying to do in
[6:39] this effort here and we want to make as
[6:41] I mentioned a consistent standardized
[6:44] recreation measurement framework. So we
[6:46] know that the National Park Service has
[6:48] its method of counting visitors
[6:50] understanding what's going on in the
[6:52] national parks in terms of their
[6:53] activities and volume of engagement. The
[6:56] Forest Service has their volume, their
[6:58] effort, the BLM has theirs, state parks
[7:01] has theirs, local communities has
[7:03] theirs. Not all these uh pieces of
[7:06] recreation measurements and
[7:07] participation uh match up succinctly
[7:10] with one another, which creates
[7:11] challenges when we're trying to uh
[7:14] weight out uh the volume and level and
[7:17] diversity and seasonality of all these
[7:20] activities. So, a key piece of our goal
[7:22] is to integrate all these administrative
[7:24] data and observational data and build a
[7:26] centralized uh Utah based recreation
[7:30] data repository that allows us to
[7:33] translate from one entity to another and
[7:35] have consistent measurements that that
[7:37] are out there. Not only do we want to
[7:39] bring in those historic methods, but we
[7:41] also want to be able to identify gaps in
[7:43] measurement that currently exist. Uh,
[7:46] and so we are piloting a handful of
[7:48] collection methodologies that we'll get
[7:49] to in just a second. to help us fill
[7:51] those gaps both in terms of this pilot
[7:53] effort. And then that puts us on a a
[7:55] strong foot forward to continue this
[7:57] data collection process in addition to
[8:00] these other existing administrative and
[8:02] observational data that are out there to
[8:04] continue to really build a really robust
[8:06] uh set of data for Utah to understand
[8:10] how these participation trends uh
[8:14] how they're experienced in Utah and how
[8:16] they're evolving adapting in Utah too as
[8:18] we go forward uh over the course of the
[8:21] next decade plus. And I think just to to
[8:23] reiterate, this is something that a lot
[8:25] of agencies have been have been doing is
[8:27] really putting the emphasis on
[8:29] understanding participation trends,
[8:30] especially in the west because as as
[8:33] Jeremy noted, you know, there's been a
[8:35] lot of change in outdoor recreation
[8:36] participation and trying to get on top
[8:38] of trends as something that's always
[8:40] been challenging, but I think Utah is
[8:42] actually one of the first states that
[8:43] are really taking a comprehensive look
[8:45] across the entire state on how
[8:48] participation levels change. Um and
[8:51] that's something I think that you all
[8:52] are are kind of being one of the leaders
[8:54] on right now uh at a state level because
[8:56] there's just not has not been the
[8:57] attention paid to that uh until now.
[9:00] >> Yeah. And not only at the state level
[9:02] too but also nationally uh federal
[9:04] agencies uh federal agency land managers
[9:07] are now over the last year being tasked
[9:10] with understanding uh on an activity
[9:13] level what the participation looks like
[9:16] um as an output of the explore act
[9:18] that's there. So really not just
[9:20] counting visitors that are coming in
[9:21] through the gates but also understanding
[9:23] what those visitors that are coming in
[9:24] what is it that they are really doing um
[9:27] on an activity by activity basis. So uh
[9:30] this opportunity here is really uh like
[9:32] Jake said putting uh Utah on on the
[9:34] front burner of that and being that
[9:36] ahead of the game in understanding these
[9:39] recreation trends. So our overall goal,
[9:42] one key piece of this is that that
[9:43] standard definitions and documentation
[9:46] of that so we can align each of these
[9:48] data sets up uh to be able to compare
[9:50] apples to apples rather than uh where we
[9:53] currently sit where uh forest service
[9:55] data doesn't really match with what the
[9:57] measurement is for national parks
[9:58] doesn't fully match with what state
[10:00] parks has. And we're not going to go in
[10:02] and say uh forest service change your
[10:04] measurements. But this allows us, this
[10:07] allows Utah to be able to uh code and
[10:10] read and be between the lines of what's
[10:11] going on in each of these measurements
[10:12] that are there. And then this output
[10:14] will create that scheme for that
[10:16] recreation data repository uh for all of
[10:20] Utah's uh recreation opportunities.
[10:23] So if we can go on to the next slide,
[10:25] please.
[10:27] Oh, sorry, next one again. And so where
[10:30] we are going next and what we are
[10:32] starting up in this uh later this month
[10:35] in early June uh is we'll be looking at
[10:37] five different uh pilot sites that we
[10:40] will be uh collecting data on and we'll
[10:42] be collecting this data in a in a
[10:44] handful of mechanisms. Uh, one will be
[10:46] pulling in data that's already existing
[10:48] if and when it does exist and uh that
[10:52] would be uh trail counters, parking
[10:53] counts, boat ramp counters, any of those
[10:55] things that give us a count of those
[10:58] individuals or groups that are entering
[10:59] a site. And the goal with with this is
[11:02] to test these methods across a diversity
[11:05] of recreation types across the state. Uh
[11:08] so we're pulling in those that may be uh
[11:11] really made up of dispersed recreation
[11:15] across a large landscape and maybe
[11:18] smaller landscape with much higher level
[11:21] of activity and use really dense
[11:23] potentially even some might consider
[11:24] crowded spaces on there. Pulling in
[11:27] water-based recreation to test how these
[11:30] potential methods uh may be able to be
[11:33] applied across a diversity of uh
[11:35] recreation types locations. So a key
[11:38] piece of this will then also be uh
[11:40] intercept based surveys. So
[11:41] understanding not just what that count
[11:43] of people is coming into the location
[11:45] but also what it is that they are doing
[11:47] while they're on site which gets us
[11:49] really to the heart of participation.
[11:51] And so those those on-site surveys will
[11:53] be conducted over a roughly 10day period
[11:56] at each of these locations to give us a
[11:59] good idea of what these visitors are
[12:01] doing. And we'll overlay both those
[12:03] first two bullets with uh mobile mobile
[12:05] location data. Uh so cell phone based
[12:08] data for those of you that are unaware.
[12:09] Jake, do you want to give a a snippet of
[12:11] what mobile location data is for us?
[12:13] >> Yeah. So if you if you've seen uh if
[12:15] you've never seen mobile location data,
[12:17] basically we're able to gather anonymous
[12:21] uh cell phone data from people in parks.
[12:23] And this data has been used in other
[12:25] industries for a long time, but the park
[12:27] and recck field is more new to it. But
[12:30] we have our own data set that we use,
[12:31] but also we're we'll be leaning a little
[12:33] bit on um the Utah Office of Tourism as
[12:36] well because they've gave us a bit of a
[12:37] demo on some of the work that they've
[12:39] done with it. But essentially what we're
[12:41] able to do is look at across a park and
[12:43] especially at these pilot sites where
[12:46] people are going in the park, what's
[12:47] kind of the level of density of use. So
[12:49] if you see a single trail head or a
[12:52] single location that shows up with
[12:53] really dense congestion, we can use our
[12:56] surveys and some of these other data
[12:58] sets to kind of cross validate what
[13:00] we're seeing. So it gives us the ability
[13:02] to kind of look back in time uh and and
[13:05] understand how people are moving around
[13:06] a site, but also where they come from.
[13:09] um cell phone location data because it's
[13:11] being collected 24/7 365. The big data
[13:14] warehouses that collect this on a large
[13:17] scale are able to understand the town
[13:19] that people visit. So you can look at
[13:21] local versus instate out of state trends
[13:23] to see how people are using a site
[13:25] differently. So we'll be using that in
[13:27] conjunction with intercept surveys plus
[13:29] these other counts that already exist
[13:31] like Jeremy mentioned if there's trail
[13:33] counters or parking lot counts as well
[13:35] as any kind of permit data. And we try
[13:37] to take these different methods of data
[13:38] together to um kind of triangulate what
[13:42] participation looks like at a site.
[13:46] >> Great. Okay. And then if we go to the
[13:47] next side slide, we can go over uh just
[13:49] quickly what these five pilot sites are
[13:51] that we were we worked with a handful of
[13:53] partners across uh state of Utah both in
[13:57] terms of forest service folks uh BLM
[14:00] folks, state park folks, tourism uh and
[14:03] of course the folks there at the
[14:05] division of outdirect to identify a set
[14:07] of five sites to give us a nice
[14:09] cross-section of recreation
[14:11] opportunities, potentially recreation
[14:13] challenges that exist out there across
[14:15] Utah. So, the first one that we are are
[14:18] looking to be at uh will be out in uh
[14:20] early May or sorry, late May to early
[14:22] June. Uh this will be the uh the Valley
[14:24] of the Gods area there in southeastern
[14:26] Utah with a primary uh recreation type
[14:29] of u motorized recreation. Uh we see
[14:32] this as a really remote scenic landscape
[14:35] which sometimes can create challenges
[14:36] for surveying. Uh but also uh we have
[14:39] some unique opportunities to get in and
[14:41] not only survey and capture what we can
[14:43] but also utilize that mobility based
[14:46] data to capture uh those locations where
[14:49] we might not be able to get into a
[14:50] survey and understand what that broader
[14:52] volume is and understand how these
[14:54] methods might work for
[14:56] uh low volume usage across a wide uh
[14:59] swath of area to understand that that
[15:01] capacity there. So that's our first one
[15:03] that will be in in uh late May, early
[15:05] June. And if we go to our next slide, we
[15:08] will have a very different uh piece of
[15:11] uh Utah property there in Sand Hollow
[15:15] Reservoir down there in southern Utah
[15:17] with uh motorized non-motorized water
[15:20] use. Uh we see this as a very high uh
[15:22] demand type space. A lot of supply built
[15:25] up around that with the large boat
[15:27] launch, parking areas, and amenities
[15:29] that are there on site. And so this
[15:31] gives us a chance to test out these
[15:32] methods with a really concentrated use
[15:35] low location that also includes
[15:36] water-based recreation uh there. And
[15:39] this one will be another one that we are
[15:40] getting to in
[15:43] uh uh early summer, so June of of this
[15:46] year. So these will be our first two.
[15:48] And then our last three we'll do is
[15:49] we'll uh get through the the peak of
[15:52] summer and get into more uh late summer
[15:55] early fall pieces. So if we go to the
[15:57] next slide and this next one that we are
[16:00] thinking about here is uh hold the rock
[16:02] road. So coming uh there again in
[16:04] southern Utah again another uh mixed use
[16:07] motorized use hiking, biking, climbing.
[16:10] This one on the demand side is a
[16:13] relatively medium. If we think about it
[16:15] a range from uh Valley of the Gods up
[16:18] through something like a sand hollow
[16:20] this falls more in that medium side. So
[16:22] it's a access corridor within this first
[16:25] recreation base out of there. So that
[16:27] gives us another site for uh testing
[16:30] these methods out. And again, this will
[16:31] be one that's in early fall of of 2026.
[16:35] And then if we go to next slide, we get
[16:38] into the Pavant trail system. So we're
[16:40] getting into more uh non-motorized
[16:43] recreation sites up there in uh central
[16:45] Utah by Richfield there. Again, another
[16:48] medium uh use area. And really what we
[16:51] have here is that that purpose-built
[16:52] trail networks with destination biking
[16:55] going on. So this is a one that's really have a space for uh non-motorized
[17:00] use uh trail systems and understand how
[17:05] um especially here like mo mobility data
[17:06] allows us to understand those those
[17:08] flows of uh visitors through and out
[17:11] there and understand are we capturing
[17:13] all these users uh at key uh trail
[17:17] heads? Are there more dispersed
[17:18] recreation going on that we may not be
[17:20] capturing and how do we capture those in
[17:22] a comprehensive manner? And again, this
[17:25] one will be done in late summer or early
[17:26] fall. And then our last one is
[17:30] skip ahead again,
[17:32] the uh the Guardsman Pass recreation
[17:35] area. So larger recreation area. A lot
[17:37] of opportunities there to capture the
[17:40] wide variety of uh spaces there on the
[17:42] central Wasatch. Uh big uh demand level
[17:45] here in this space. uh potential areas
[17:48] for uh for that demand uh or exceeding
[17:53] uh some of the supply that is there. So
[17:54] understanding what those those
[17:56] constraints might be, how the users or
[17:58] visitors may perceive uh those
[18:00] experiences there given the level of
[18:03] supply that's available compared to that
[18:05] level of demand that's there. And this
[18:06] one again will be in that that fall time
[18:08] period potentially into that uh that
[18:10] leaf peeping space as we get in into the fall of 26 year. So those are our
[18:16] five pilot sites that we'll be using.
[18:18] Again, we'll be during the summer and
[18:20] throughout this period of time, we'll be
[18:21] doing our pilot sites. We'll also be
[18:23] collecting and uh assessing that data
[18:25] for our standardized definitions across
[18:28] each of these spaces and across all
[18:31] landscapes in Utah as well that we can
[18:33] understand how to make sure we can
[18:36] calibrate data collection that's ongoing
[18:38] from all our our land managers and
[18:40] public entities that are out there. So
[18:42] if we go to the last slide here or last
[18:45] two slides. Uh so the the goal of all
[18:48] this this effort here is really to dive
[18:50] in dig deep to what we don't necessarily
[18:52] know right now. Right? We we can get
[18:54] counts. We can pull up mobility data and
[18:56] see where people are going on site,
[18:58] where they're coming from, but we don't
[19:00] know a lot of their perspectives, their
[19:01] perceptions of those sites. So we want
[19:04] to do through the development of these surveys is to really capture
[19:07] behavioral patterns, understanding what
[19:09] it is they're doing, when they're doing
[19:11] it, how they may may perceive the
[19:13] conditions on the ground, uh that can
[19:16] help us understand better what's going
[19:17] on with that that count data. So, not
[19:19] only will we be doing these on-site
[19:20] intercept surveys, but we're also
[19:22] conducting a uh a panel-based online
[19:26] survey that will be distributed to a set
[19:28] of Utah residents as a as well as a set
[19:31] of visitors to Utah uh that have been
[19:34] there and experienced the uh outdoor
[19:36] recreation spaces over the course of the
[19:37] last two years to get us a general
[19:40] perspective of who is doing what in Utah
[19:43] on what kinds of landscapes and using
[19:45] what kinds of equipment, whether that be
[19:47] uh ebikes or uh mountain bikes, road
[19:50] bikes, uh skis, whatever those cases may
[19:52] be to pull all these pieces together.
[19:54] And like Jake mentioned earlier, uh
[19:57] thinking about how we are able to
[19:58] triangulate the information that were
[20:00] collected via these various uh portals
[20:03] of information coming in from surveys,
[20:05] from counts, from administrative data,
[20:07] from mobility data. So if we can go back
[20:10] to the next slide or board. Uh so just
[20:13] to reiterate what our our goals were
[20:14] here and these are our outcomes really
[20:17] to understand what these trends are as
[20:19] they are exist on the ground in Utah. Uh
[20:22] really put us at that that front step of
[20:24] how do we understand these? How do we uh
[20:26] be prepared for changing dynamics as
[20:29] much as we can in how and when and where
[20:32] spaces are used across Utah. That in a
[20:36] nutshell uh is where we're at with this
[20:38] project. uh hope to be able to come back
[20:39] in uh
[20:42] the later fall, early winter to uh give
[20:44] an update on how these four or sorry,
[20:47] these five case studies have uh unfolded
[20:49] and how this fits into what our final
[20:52] outcomes might look like.
[20:55] Not sure if we want to take any
[20:56] questions on that or
[20:58] >> All right. Yeah, thank you for your
[20:59] presentation. Are there any questions
[21:01] from any of the commissioners? Anybody
[21:04] have any Do we have any Oh, go ahead,
[21:07] Natalie. Thanks. Um well, first off,
[21:10] we've worked with RC before. So with the
[21:12] office of tourism, I don't know Jeremy
[21:13] if you can see me, but um great partners
[21:17] and we always respect the knowledge that
[21:18] they bring to our state, especially with
[21:20] sharing this information and they've
[21:21] done it regionally as well. Um a
[21:24] question that I have that we always
[21:25] navigate with tourism is forwardf facing
[21:28] information and how do we forecast for
[21:30] future trends. I don't know if that's
[21:31] something that you all are considering
[21:32] with this data set and how you can think
[21:35] of a methodology for thinking about that
[21:37] because we're always looking to predict
[21:38] for the future as we're thinking about
[21:40] planning for our outdoor recreation
[21:42] experiences and visitor experiences.
[21:44] >> I don't know if there's anything in this
[21:46] study that covers that as well.
[21:48] >> I think there I mean I think naturally
[21:50] the the goal of this study is to have
[21:52] something that's reproducible like by by
[21:55] the state to be able to define other
[21:57] areas. And I think that the general
[21:58] reason why we picked the categories that
[22:00] we've used to define areas, one Utah
[22:03] State has had developed those um in
[22:06] their their previous planning effort.
[22:08] But the idea would be like if you have a
[22:10] site that is very high demand and high
[22:12] supply, what can you expect in terms of
[22:15] some of the trends and participation
[22:16] challenges you might see at it? The idea
[22:18] is be able to categorize sites kind of
[22:21] broadly but then over time conduct
[22:23] research on on a regular basis to try to
[22:26] understand how trends have shifted. So I
[22:28] think our goal is to make sure that
[22:30] there can be some forward looking. There
[22:32] are always you know as you know there
[22:35] things you can't predict especially as
[22:37] technology changes and stuff like that
[22:39] but the the idea is to have something
[22:42] you can be used moving forward well into
[22:43] the future.
[22:45] >> Right. And a key key piece of what we
[22:46] want to talk about with this the uh
[22:48] potential respondents on the survey too
[22:50] is understanding uh what happens when
[22:53] they get to a site and that site is is
[22:55] overcrowded. They can't they can't park
[22:57] there. They can't recreate there or they
[22:59] don't want to recreate there. What does
[23:00] that spillover look like? So we
[23:01] understand kind of what that
[23:02] displacement pressures are. So, as we
[23:05] understand displacement pressures at one
[23:06] site, we understand the potential
[23:08] spillover to other sites and could be
[23:09] adequately uh prepared for what those look like uh as a recreation area
[23:15] becomes more popular.
[23:19] >> All right. Thank you. All right. Any
[23:21] other questions from the commissioners?
[23:24] All right.
[23:24] >> Looks like there's someone with their
[23:25] hand up online.
[23:26] >> There's someone online.
[23:28] >> Yeah, this is Commissioner Taylor. Hey,
[23:30] I'm I'm I'm interested in especially the
[23:33] Hole in the Rock Road. Tell me again how
[23:35] you collect this this data. Uh Hole in
[23:38] the Rock uh road is is home to me. Uh
[23:41] I'm excited about finding this
[23:44] information and but how do you go about
[23:46] collecting that? So the way it's it the
[23:50] idea is that each site has some
[23:52] similarities but also just some
[23:54] differences based on kind of what the
[23:56] site is designed like and and Hole in
[23:57] the Rock Road is a is a unique one where
[24:00] what we're going to be doing at Hole in
[24:01] the Rock Road is as people are entering
[24:04] the road starting to kind of get start
[24:06] their journey is we're going to try to
[24:08] survey them on site with people on the
[24:10] ground. Sometimes we will also be
[24:12] roaming to where if people are camping
[24:14] or they're at trail heads, we'll be able to look for for locations
[24:18] where people congregate and we'll have
[24:20] tablets or our surveyors will be on
[24:22] ground with tablets in their hand that
[24:24] have has a survey on it and they'll be
[24:26] asking them. It's usually like a five to
[24:28] seven minute survey asking questions uh
[24:30] while they're on site. But for some
[24:33] areas, especially the remote areas, we
[24:35] also may leave QR codes on signs after
[24:38] the fact that if someone is visiting
[24:40] there, but we just didn't have someone
[24:42] on the ground, we can have a sign that
[24:43] says, "Hey, take this survey about your
[24:45] experience." They can scan it on their
[24:47] phone and take it. That's we we prefer
[24:49] to have someone on the ground actually
[24:51] doing the surveys because it, you know,
[24:53] there's only certain types of people
[24:54] that want to scan something and do it
[24:56] where a surveyor can talk to anybody.
[24:58] But that's why kind of we've we've built
[24:59] these different types of data collection
[25:01] in is you know what we don't get from
[25:04] surveys or we can't be on the ground at
[25:06] all times. We use that cell phone data
[25:08] to try to understand patterns across
[25:10] seasons and apply that together. So I
[25:12] think it's for some places it's a it's
[25:15] easier to talk to folks who are on the
[25:16] ground recreating. For others you got to
[25:18] be a little more creative and we're
[25:19] trying to kind of take that flexibility
[25:20] into account for for every site.
[25:24] >> Thank you.
[25:27] >> Okay. Okay. Any anybody else online have
[25:28] any more questions for him?
[25:31] All right. Thank you, uh, Jeremy and
[25:33] Jake. We we appreciate it.
[25:35] >> Yeah. Thank you all.
[25:37] >> Yeah.
[25:38] >> All right. We'll move to our next agenda
[25:40] item. Um, Director Curry, uh, Jason
[25:43] Curry is going to give us a session
[25:47] update of the legislative session. Go
[25:49] ahead, Jason.
[26:03] set up for something else and we can't
[26:04] change it. So, um,
[26:09] thanks Jeremy and Jake. We've got a lot
[26:11] of excitement building for that uh that
[26:14] study. It will, I think, provide a lot
[26:16] of clarity and a lot of information for
[26:18] us as a division in our decision-m uh
[26:20] but also all of our partners, state
[26:22] agencies, tourism, state parks, our
[26:24] federal land managing agencies, national
[26:26] parks, forest service, county
[26:28] government, and and everything in
[26:30] between. Um we hope to have a dashboard
[26:31] available that will help make um just
[26:34] build confidence in the decision-making
[26:35] process, whether that's in funding or in
[26:38] policym or what have you when it comes
[26:40] to outdoor recreation. So, super excited
[26:41] about that. Um, so here's a here's a
[26:44] quick leg. I'm going to emphasize quick
[26:46] because many of you were following
[26:48] things and uh certainly if you have any
[26:49] questions as I gloss over. Um, please
[26:52] bring those up. Um,
[26:55] HB12 outdoor recreation accessibility
[26:58] amendments. That was Representative Doug
[27:00] Welton. In our current language for
[27:03] grants, um, it's pretty limited on the
[27:05] type of equipment that we could um, have
[27:08] eligible for for a grant application. So
[27:10] there is a a definition change where
[27:13] adaptive equipment that could be
[27:15] typically categorized in with other
[27:17] equipment in an unintended way is now
[27:19] considered infrastructure. So just like
[27:21] a wheelchair ramp would be clearly
[27:22] infrastructure, so is a specialized
[27:25] access chair considered um as
[27:27] infrastructure when it comes to um grant
[27:30] applications. So um something we felt
[27:32] like was really going to help bring
[27:34] greater access especially for our
[27:36] adaptive community that rely on on
[27:38] special tools. Many of them don't have
[27:40] their own special tools, but in a place
[27:41] like a state park um or or literally
[27:44] anywhere else that if um if the entity
[27:47] operating that recreation site wanted to
[27:49] have adaptive equipment as part of the
[27:51] offerings um they could apply for a
[27:53] grant and have it be eligible under um
[27:56] the infrastructure definition.
[27:59] HP30 was kind of a hot topic even uh two
[28:03] sessions ago when uh we we saw the the
[28:06] bill that made it so if you wanted to go
[28:08] onto a wildlife management area in
[28:10] certain counties uh you had to have a
[28:12] hunting and fishing license. And uh
[28:14] during the session, it didn't really get
[28:15] a lot of attention, but after it passed,
[28:17] uh it really immediately got a lot of
[28:18] attention, especially once they started
[28:19] posting people at these um intersections
[28:23] and entrances [clears throat] onto WAS
[28:24] for trail runners, mountain bikers, and
[28:26] the Typonus WMA down by um Alpine was
[28:30] certainly uh high-profile. And then
[28:33] during the interim, there was a a really
[28:34] good resolution and cooperative effort
[28:36] between Representative Shallonburgger
[28:38] and um and others that were interested
[28:41] including Division of Wildlife Resources
[28:43] to um [clears throat] to come up with a
[28:45] process for individuals who maybe they
[28:47] won't ever have a hunting and fishing
[28:49] license, but a mechanism for them to
[28:50] both recreate on wildlife management
[28:53] areas, but also to uh to contribute
[28:56] monetarily. And um so I think it turned
[28:59] out really good. We're we're excited to
[29:00] be able to, you know, help solve a
[29:03] problem and um continue to to be able to
[29:05] recreate on WAS, especially because they
[29:08] plan to roll out um more WAS that are limited in this way. But um
[29:13] overall, I think it's going to it's
[29:14] going to work well. HB54 voting
[29:17] amendments. This is one a little bit
[29:19] similar to back in 2023 um when we
[29:22] implemented our our uh off highway
[29:24] vehicle adult education course. This is
[29:26] going to be a boating um education
[29:28] course. And just like um HB 180, which
[29:31] was the OV adult ed course, it was
[29:34] driven by the community, OV advocates
[29:36] and writers were the ones that that
[29:38] pushed for this, wanted this, helped
[29:40] craft it. And it's the same thing. Um
[29:42] it's not something necessarily that the
[29:44] division was was trying to push, but um
[29:46] members of the community and the voting
[29:48] community came before interim and um it
[29:50] was an interim study item. then um
[29:53] evolved into a committee bill and now we
[29:55] have HB54 which is going to require in
[29:58] order for any adult to operate a boat or
[30:01] actually any any eligible or or legal
[30:03] boat operator would have to obtain a a
[30:05] certification that they uh know the
[30:07] basics kind of the rules of the water so
[30:09] to speak when it comes to rideway speed
[30:11] and proximity what the buoys mean um
[30:14] from a public safety standpoint
[30:16] um HB381 that one was pretty high
[30:19] profile with uh ebike law and
[30:22] Representative Cutler um clarifying some
[30:25] definitions and further refining
[30:27] definitions on what types of ebikes are um allowed in certain areas,
[30:33] especially in in city. Doesn't have a
[30:35] lot to do with natural surface trails
[30:36] that we primarily deal with, but um a
[30:39] lot of communities and law enforcement
[30:41] have been dealing with significant
[30:43] problems when it comes to young people
[30:44] on electric devices. And that's
[30:46] everything from your class one ebike,
[30:49] which is fairly low profile, all the way
[30:51] up to and including um major powerful u
[30:56] electric motorcycles like the surons and
[30:58] things like that that um been in the
[31:01] news a lot and unfortunately caused some
[31:02] injuries and some harm. So, he did it in
[31:04] a way I think that was really good to um
[31:07] not discourage their use and not
[31:08] discourage kids from being on equipment
[31:10] like that, but um to provide a little
[31:12] bit of structure and a little bit of
[31:13] safety and kind of along the lines of
[31:15] the boating safety education to provide
[31:17] some education for those younger riders
[31:19] who are allowed to ride an ebike um out
[31:22] there in in traffic, but require them to
[31:25] take a training so that they know kind
[31:26] of the rules of the road and we don't
[31:27] have uh unfortunate accidents like we've
[31:30] had so far. Um, that's Yeah, it's been
[31:34] interesting. I've heard a lot of good
[31:36] feedback from from cities.
[31:39] Um, let's see.
[31:41] >> Jason, can I ask you a question about
[31:42] that one?
[31:43] >> Yeah,
[31:43] >> sure.
[31:44] >> So, I I believe that one goes into
[31:46] effect on May 6th and there's a training component part of it
[31:52] and I think your office will be crafting
[31:54] that training.
[31:56] >> Well, uh, the training will be crafted
[31:57] by the Department of Public Safety. We
[31:59] are helping them since um we kind of had
[32:02] experience with HB180 and the the
[32:04] offhighway vehicle training. We're
[32:06] consulting and helping the Department of
[32:07] Public Safety as they are the ones
[32:09] that'll be administering it. Good
[32:11] question.
[32:12] >> I think that one has a
[32:14] is going to need to have a really great
[32:16] nexus between in particular
[32:19] um cities and the state. Um, with our
[32:23] early early early spring this year,
[32:26] we've seen just a tremendous rise of all
[32:30] kinds of ebike and e- motorcycle usage
[32:34] in our city. And um, I almost wish this
[32:38] bill had an earlier effective date
[32:39] because we could have used it two months
[32:41] ago. But, um, I think we're going to
[32:44] need help with a coordinated plan to
[32:47] push the training and things like that
[32:48] out to to parents or kids that are, um,
[32:53] you know, getting some type of a a
[32:54] warning because they haven't completed
[32:56] it or they're not wearing a helmet or
[32:58] different things in making sure we have
[33:01] good connection on pointing people back
[33:02] to the training. So, to the extent that
[33:04] the League of Cities and Towns could be
[33:06] helpful in setting that out or cities
[33:08] can be setting it out, um
[33:10] >> I know that um I talked to
[33:12] Representative Cutler a couple of weeks
[33:13] ago about HB381 and implementation. I
[33:16] know he's he's gotten a lot of
[33:17] communication from cities and um from um
[33:20] rental groups, people that rent ebikes
[33:22] and e- motorcycles. He's got a lot of a
[33:24] lot of good input going. Um, so I'm I'm
[33:27] pretty confident in the process we'll
[33:29] will involve some heavy consultation
[33:31] from from local government, cities and
[33:33] towns.
[33:34] >> Thank you.
[33:35] >> If not, let me know. I'll put the word
[33:36] in.
[33:38] Uh, let's see.
[33:43] I'm not going to go over that one. And
[33:44] then HB567,
[33:46] um, outer recreation infrastructure
[33:49] grant program. has just opened again
[33:51] broadened another definition of
[33:53] infrastructure to include uh something
[33:56] along the lines of of algae bloom
[33:59] treatments in recreation areas. So if an
[34:01] algae bloom treatment is um causing it
[34:04] so that people can't recreate in an area
[34:06] then um the grant and the fund the
[34:09] infrastructure or the adventure fund
[34:11] could potentially um fund a project like
[34:14] that. So there was a there was an RFA
[34:18] that funded a couple of algae mitigation
[34:21] projects, one in at Willard and one at
[34:23] Manowway.
[34:26] Um let's see.
[34:34] There's a little bit more on this.
[34:37] Full transparency, this is the first
[34:38] time I've seen these slides. I tried to
[34:39] pull them up several times today and
[34:41] could not get it to work.
[34:42] Um,
[34:47] this will be available obviously to you
[34:49] in the meeting materials.
[35:02] Is this next? Okay.
[35:12] basically.
[35:16] » Sorry. Um, thanks Carly. Um my
[35:19] understanding from 381 is essentially
[35:22] as of tomorrow or Wednesday, sorry, uh
[35:26] May 6 that no individual under the age
[35:30] of 15 can ride outside of their parents
[35:34] line of sight
[35:36] >> unless they have
[35:38] >> until the unless they have a training
[35:40] which hasn't been developed yet.
[35:41] >> Correct.
[35:42] >> Okay.
[35:43] >> Yep.
[35:44] Um because I know my local police
[35:47] department has been out letting people
[35:52] know in a very friendly way that they
[35:55] will be less friendly on Thursday.
[35:57] >> Okay, [laughter] that's a good thing.
[35:59] But I think there will be a process like
[36:02] a knowledge 15 and under is essentially
[36:05] illegal without a parent starting
[36:07] Wednesday.
[36:07] >> So starting Wednesday, we won't see any
[36:09] of those kids on there.
[36:10] >> No. No.
[36:11] >> No. I saw two of them this morning on my
[36:13] way into the office. Um I was cussing at
[36:16] them under my breath and then realized,
[36:17] oh, I know that one. I'm gonna talk to
[36:20] his dad when I get back in contact.
[36:21] >> Hey, just just clarifying question.
[36:23] That's any vehicle over 20 miles an
[36:26] hour. Is that correct?
[36:27] >> Um now we're getting into details that I
[36:29] >> electric.
[36:30] >> Going to have to consult actual text on
[36:32] >> unassisted. I I un non- pedal assisted I
[36:35] think.
[36:36] >> Um so yes, anything because there's a
[36:39] different class of ebikes. Um, the
[36:42] lowest class is pedal assist up to 20
[36:45] miles an hour.
[36:47] Um,
[36:49] and then it goes up from there. And
[36:50] there is a power rating as well,
[36:53] >> which has is getting quickly outdated
[36:57] based on the size of the motors that are
[36:59] coming in these.
[37:00] >> I can give you a some bullet points on
[37:02] that one if you want. Representative
[37:04] Cutler sent those to me the other day.
[37:06] He's the author of the bill. says it
[37:09] directs the Department of Public Safety
[37:10] to develop an online personal electric
[37:12] vehicle safety education and training
[37:14] program ages 8 to 15. It allows
[37:17] independent use of any ebike class on
[37:20] public roads with a DPS safety
[37:22] certificate or supervised use without a
[37:25] certificate. So, um, age 16 or older,
[37:31] uh, and older, allows ebike use on
[37:33] public roads with no safety certif
[37:35] certificate, supervision, or driver's
[37:37] license required.
[37:39] Uh, establishes a helmet requirement for
[37:42] ebike and e scooter riders under 21 when
[37:45] riding on public roads, not paths. Does
[37:48] not apply to ride share. Fines for not
[37:52] wearing a helmet are capped at $25 per
[37:54] violation. and it clarifies distinctions
[37:57] between ebikes, high power electric
[38:00] devices, and e motorcycles. It updates
[38:02] marketing and labeling rules for these
[38:05] devices and provides clear enforcement
[38:07] authority.
[38:09] It's kind of kind of an overview on
[38:11] there.
[38:13] >> Yeah. And it's extremely nuanced.
[38:15] There's a lot of small details including
[38:17] the types of of
[38:19] ebikes that you can actually change from
[38:22] class one to two to three with just the
[38:24] settings. Um it's it's probably going to
[38:28] be much the same as it has been in the
[38:29] past. Law enforcement is going to be
[38:30] doing their best, but um the uh the
[38:33] effective date on the delivery for the course isn't until May 5th of 2027.
[38:38] So um
[38:41] again, it's not not a recreation
[38:43] centered bill. It's highly
[38:45] transportation oriented and public
[38:46] safety oriented. We're we're helping
[38:47] consult on it. Um but yeah, as long as
[38:51] they're on the sidewalk, I think they're
[38:53] probably going to be okay. But once they
[38:54] get it out into the street, different
[38:56] cities and towns are going to probably
[38:57] have a tough time over the next 9 to 12
[39:00] months.
[39:03] Okay. Any questions?
[39:05] >> I I have one quick one just back to the
[39:07] OV and vote safety course. Once you pass
[39:11] those, what's the expiration or how
[39:13] often do you have to redo that?
[39:15] >> Um, good question. So,
[39:18] we asked for similar to how OV the OBV
[39:21] adult education course is once in a
[39:23] lifetime, which we thought made sense,
[39:25] but that is not how this bill turned
[39:27] out. It is every year it has to be done
[39:30] again. But the the commitment is that it
[39:33] will be made in a way that can basically
[39:35] be tested out of. So, should be fairly
[39:37] minimal in terms of the time needed to
[39:40] basically clap out of your training.
[39:43] >> Yeah. A little update on that as well.
[39:45] From what I remember of the bill, um,
[39:48] Representative uh Mike Peterson ran ran
[39:50] that bill and he's a voter and he hated
[39:53] doing spending all the time doing all
[39:54] the the muscle certification every year
[39:56] and everything. He didn't want to add to
[39:58] it. So the compromise was to do be able
[40:00] to do all of those together in I think
[40:03] under or at that same time. So it
[40:05] wouldn't add more time to to the
[40:07] certification. So it it's just putting
[40:10] more information, the need to know
[40:11] information inside that that one
[40:13] training that they are already required
[40:15] to do anyway.
[40:16] >> Yeah.
[40:21] All right. Any other questions on the
[40:23] bills?
[40:25] It was a good session, but um glad it's
[40:27] over. I haven't thought about it in a
[40:28] while, which is good.
[40:33] » It is good to be over some of that
[40:34] sometimes.
[40:36] All right. Um, we'll move uh to our next
[40:38] item on the agenda, agenda item number
[40:40] five. We're going to have our uh
[40:43] Division of Outdoor Recreation staff uh
[40:46] do some presentations. We've got uh
[40:48] Patrick Morrison will will be up first.
[40:50] >> Great.
[40:51] >> Thank you, Chair. Um well, first off,
[40:53] thank you. uh you know we finished
[40:55] legislative session which for us means
[40:56] it's outdoor recre initiative season
[40:58] session if you will um so I think I just
[41:00] kind of wanted to walk you through uh
[41:02] just a little bit about uh kind of
[41:03] recapping last year some lessons learned
[41:05] and then kind of what we're planning for
[41:07] this year um am I in control slides here
[41:13] oh
[41:15] I think it's my first time using one of
[41:16] these so um I guess going back um you
[41:19] know this commission the first thing we
[41:20] really did as part of this commission
[41:22] was the outdoor recreation strategic
[41:25] plan. Um, and so that is still just the
[41:27] guiding force behind the outdoor
[41:28] recreation initiative. Um, you know, the
[41:29] mission is to deliver Utah's strategic
[41:32] outdoor recreation plan. Um, and you
[41:33] know, I think we're all pretty familiar
[41:34] with this, but uh, some of the steps
[41:36] we're going to take this year, I think,
[41:37] are going to fold much more aggressively
[41:39] into some of the things that we're
[41:40] talking about within the strategic plan
[41:41] that I'm very excited about. Um, just
[41:44] looking at last year, if you remember,
[41:46] uh, we had 51 project submissions
[41:48] across, uh, five regions. Uh, we had $55
[41:50] million in requests. Um you can just see
[41:53] some of the project types and and how
[41:54] those requests shook out by region. Um
[41:57] in the end, I don't expect you all to be
[41:59] able to read this. I just kind of wanted
[42:00] to show you, but just to kind of break
[42:02] it out. Um you know, we did get to split
[42:04] the funding out pretty well. Um in the
[42:06] end, you know, we saw WASA front with uh
[42:08] 4.9, Southwest with 3.5, the central
[42:10] region with four, Eastern with three,
[42:13] Northern with 2.6. Um and then we had
[42:15] the DO priority request uh for 2.6
[42:17] million. Um I think it was a really
[42:19] successful year. Uh we definitely
[42:20] learned a lot of lessons coming out of
[42:21] it. Um, but there was a lot to really
[42:23] celebrate and that's kind of some of the
[42:25] stuff I just wanted to talk about as we
[42:26] look at
[42:28] this next.
[42:31] I keep wanting to do this in time with
[42:32] the clicks, but
[42:37] there we go. Okay, so this is some of
[42:39] the stuff I wanted to look at. So, the
[42:41] successes clearly um $21 million awarded
[42:44] to 38 projects. A huge success. And so,
[42:46] let me just say thank you to this
[42:47] commission for supporting this program,
[42:49] for your engagement with it. Um we have
[42:51] uh Commissioner Winfield. You'll hear
[42:52] from a little bit, but he was also a
[42:54] ranking member in the eastern region. So
[42:55] maybe just a thank you to the
[42:56] commissioner's time during that. Um but
[42:59] it was a really really great year. You
[43:00] know, we're starting to see a lot of uh
[43:02] you know, projects starting to wrap up.
[43:03] Um just just really a lot of excitement
[43:06] for this. Uh one thing that we are
[43:07] coming out of it is trying to build our
[43:09] capacity. We've been able to identify a
[43:11] lot of capacity issues with some of our
[43:12] partners. Um you know, a lot of the
[43:14] federal partners. Um we're working to do
[43:16] project management here. You know, we're
[43:17] running a few design engineerings. We're
[43:19] helping with some NEPA. You're going to
[43:20] hear about a lot of the work Karly is
[43:22] doing with Northwash here in a moment.
[43:24] Um just it's really impressive what we
[43:26] can do and as we are staffing up to kind
[43:27] of meet some of these capacity needs. Um
[43:29] and then we're initiating the long range
[43:30] planning efforts. Um so this is
[43:32] something that you know this is a big
[43:34] investment from the legislature into
[43:35] outdoor recreation. We want to make sure
[43:37] we're being very strategic and as part
[43:38] of that is laying the groundwork for
[43:40] long range plans. uh some of the
[43:42] challenges that we saw last year uh we
[43:44] had uh monthly meetings um for two hours
[43:47] from essentially June through October. I think some of those meetings were
[43:51] really really great. We did get a lot of
[43:52] good engagement. However, agenda
[43:54] building all that time um the virtual
[43:56] meetings there was kind of inconsistent
[43:58] engagement. You know, you always know
[43:59] when somebody is uh mic is off, camera
[44:01] is off, you're just like are they there?
[44:03] You know, and I was actually pretty
[44:04] impressed with the amount of engagement,
[44:06] how many people did come to all of them,
[44:07] particularly from our electeds who were
[44:08] part of the ranking. I think they took
[44:10] it very very seriously. Um, but I do
[44:12] feel that we miss some of that more kind
[44:14] of holistic in-person like um kind of
[44:17] network building, trust building, some
[44:19] of that stuff that that we got. Um, we
[44:21] did see not every county was represented
[44:23] on some of these councils. Um, and then,
[44:25] you know, we have people kind of
[44:26] applying to wrong programs often. You
[44:28] know, people would uh apply for maybe a
[44:30] standard like park project, you know,
[44:32] something that wasn't necessarily in
[44:33] line. And so we we learned a good amount
[44:34] about like how we communicate, what are
[44:36] our goals, and then how is kind of the
[44:38] structure in which we're running this
[44:39] program serving our goals. And so some
[44:41] of the opportunities that we're going to
[44:42] look at um this upcoming year, um we get
[44:45] greater attendance, uh greater
[44:47] connection through these in-person
[44:48] meetings. Um want to shout out Tyler
[44:49] Thompson from the Watershed Restoration
[44:51] Initiative. I pretty much meet with him,
[44:53] uh once a year just to kind of debrief
[44:54] the year. Um as we know, wershed
[44:56] restoration initiative, a long-standing
[44:58] program. uh it's spoken with uh just so
[45:00] much respect when people talk about that
[45:01] program and that's kind of one of the
[45:02] goals of what this program is going to
[45:04] be. I really want people to speak about
[45:06] it how people are currently speaking
[45:07] about the program. Um but we also want
[45:10] to figure out opportunities to connect
[45:12] uh not only the ranking council members
[45:14] you commissioners with some of where the
[45:16] money is actually going on the ground.
[45:17] Uh we want to hold more meetings that
[45:19] involve site visits. Um and then as we
[45:22] are starting to develop some of the
[45:23] longrange plans uh we want them to be
[45:25] integrated into what are the regional
[45:26] priorities. um we don't know what the
[45:28] regional priorities are because we want
[45:29] to work with the regions so they can
[45:30] help to help us you know ascertain what
[45:32] are those priorities um and then we'll
[45:34] also look for better opportunities to um
[45:37] create more project management capacity
[45:39] so you know we're looking to hire a
[45:40] specific role to manage some of these
[45:43] projects um through this program through
[45:44] some of the other work we're doing so I really have a lot of excitement for
[45:48] this this next year um so this is kind
[45:50] of what we're going to run the OI
[45:52] program as um you know our our forecasts
[45:54] we we met with our finance director um
[45:56] seemed pretty pretty flat in a good way.
[45:58] You know, we're looking around 21 to 22
[46:00] million available for this program next
[46:01] year. Uh that's, you know, consistent
[46:03] with what what we've had the past two
[46:04] years. So, meeting structure is
[46:06] changing. Uh we're going to try to
[46:07] respond to just some of the challenges
[46:09] that we saw. So, one, we're going to get
[46:11] rid of monthly virtual meetings and
[46:12] we're going to pivot to uh in-person
[46:14] meetings. So what we're really looking
[46:16] to do is have one meeting at the start
[46:18] of the year uh essentially like a fiveh
[46:20] hour meeting to do a lot of like on the
[46:23] ground regional visioning workshop um
[46:25] but to identify what are the regional
[46:28] annual funding priorities you know we
[46:30] want them to be able to help us um and
[46:31] then we're going to spend kind of that
[46:33] season working to solicit projects that
[46:35] are working with some of those
[46:36] priorities you know I don't think it's
[46:37] going to be one it's not going to just
[46:38] be like camping but you know hopefully
[46:39] we'll have a few options of like this is
[46:41] really what the region's looking um you
[46:43] know before that of course we'll bring
[46:44] in our ranking councils um to you know
[46:46] just kind of get them prepared for that.
[46:48] Um but we are looking to do a site
[46:50] visit. This is going to be an optional
[46:51] one um but one where we can bring
[46:52] everyone together kind of look at a
[46:54] program in action. You know I keep
[46:55] looking at the the work that's being
[46:56] done in Wayne County with the the Beats
[46:58] Lewis and the Meeks Mesa two big OI
[47:00] projects real close. I think it'd be
[47:02] really great to get a lot of our members
[47:04] um within this program with the
[47:06] commissioners out to there hear from the
[47:07] project partners just just get those
[47:09] opportunities there. Um, and then we'll
[47:11] kind of come back for the end of the
[47:12] year, which will be another in-person
[47:14] meeting. Um, and again to to quote Tyler
[47:17] Thompson from the WR, he's like, if you
[47:18] want people to come, give them food, you
[47:20] know. So, we'll also we'll also be
[47:22] giving people food uh while we're doing
[47:23] this. But we'll do that um that big kind
[47:25] of like, you know, 5 hour, 4 hour
[47:28] ranking meeting uh where we can actually
[47:29] give a little bit more voice to our
[47:31] general counsels for some of those
[47:32] priority or I guess preliminary
[47:34] rankings. I want to make sure they have
[47:35] a good voice. Um, but ultimately rest
[47:37] some of that authority within our
[47:38] ranking councils before it's brought to
[47:39] you as recommendations for your
[47:41] approval. Um, and then yeah, that's
[47:43] going to be our our last meeting of that
[47:44] one. And so I think this is what the
[47:47] calendar is going to look like. Uh,
[47:48] those those first kind of ranking
[47:50] priority determining meetings are going
[47:52] to be in June. Uh, midsummer we'll do
[47:54] that site visit. I would love any and
[47:56] all of you to join us for those. October
[47:57] is when we'll do that final ranking
[47:59] meeting. Um, and then we'll come back to
[48:00] you in November. I guess November 16th,
[48:02] 2026 for that project approval. Um,
[48:06] shout out to Morgan. She's done a great
[48:08] job of helping us get some of these
[48:09] locations. So, we do have the schedule.
[48:11] Uh, we have places reserved. Um, and,
[48:14] uh, just really, really excited to kind
[48:15] of use some of the awesome skills we
[48:17] have on staff with facilitating with
[48:19] kind of leading some of these workshops.
[48:20] I think learning from the two-year
[48:22] process of developing that strategic
[48:24] plan is going to be just a great kind of
[48:28] information bank for how we go out to
[48:29] these communities and try to do some of
[48:31] this visioning. But, you know, the goal
[48:32] being regions are going to determine
[48:33] their priorities. We're going to help
[48:34] them find those projects um and they're
[48:36] going to help to recommend those uh for
[48:39] your approval.
[48:44] » Oh, June 16th
[48:46] right here.
[48:49] Um, and I think that's it for my slides,
[48:51] but I'm happy to take any questions on
[48:52] anything I presented before I turn it
[48:54] over to Emily.
[48:58] Okay, excellent. Well, again, just thank
[49:00] you. Uh, you know, this program doesn't
[49:01] exist without your support. Um, it's
[49:03] really a highlight so far of my
[49:04] professional career, so I'll keep doing
[49:06] my best and I hope we keep having your
[49:08] support. And, uh, welcome to you,
[49:09] Commissioner Jensen.
[49:11] >> Thank you, Patrick.
[49:20] Hi everyone. Thanks for letting us give
[49:22] a little brief or uh update about the
[49:25] outdirect planning assistance or ORPA
[49:27] program. Um again, this is a reminder
[49:30] and just kind of refresh of this
[49:32] program. Um you allocated
[49:35] um 2.5 million this past year to
[49:38] increase the funding for this. This
[49:39] program really aims to increase planning
[49:41] capacity, recreation planning capacity
[49:43] at the local level. through awarding
[49:46] funds, which then the communities go and
[49:48] um hire consulting services to, you
[49:51] know, kind of offload their plates.
[49:54] Sometimes I get people who are city
[49:58] recorders or administrative assistants.
[50:00] You know, they're not planners by trade,
[50:02] but this program has
[50:03] >> Emily, will you introduce yourself and
[50:05] your name and and and what you do?
[50:07] >> Sure.
[50:07] >> Thank you. That I think that'll help.
[50:09] >> Yeah. I'm Emily Meadows. I'm with the
[50:10] Division of Outdoor Recreation. and I'm
[50:12] the outdoor wreck planning statewide
[50:14] planner. So again, this historically you
[50:18] can see here 2023 and 24 this program
[50:20] was really just internal staff trying to
[50:23] go out and help communities at the local
[50:25] level. In 25 we got um 1.5 million
[50:28] allocated and we created a grant program
[50:31] for it. So again um that was a huge
[50:34] success. I'll kind of just
[50:38] go to this slide to show just the recap
[50:40] from last year. Um there was over 43
[50:42] applications that were submitted um
[50:45] totaling 4.5 million in requests. And so
[50:48] again, we awarded 21 um of those and 1.5
[50:52] million um spread throughout the state.
[50:54] And um this last picture is just uh you
[50:58] know the planning in action. This is up
[51:00] in Rich County. They're doing a trails
[51:02] master plan. and I've been able to, you
[51:04] know, go to these public events, um, and
[51:07] community engagement efforts that
[51:09] they're really doing and putting the
[51:10] dollars on the ground, which is cool.
[51:13] Um, another way we're doing building
[51:16] these resources with that 2.5 million,
[51:19] um, we're in the process of creating a
[51:21] trails planning and design handbook,
[51:24] which, um, we've went through the RFP
[51:26] process and were able to select a
[51:28] vendor. So, we'll be working with um SE
[51:30] Group moving forward to create that
[51:32] resource for statewide community
[51:34] partners.
[51:38] Um any questions about ORPA? It's
[51:41] currently open right now and so I think
[51:43] last I it'll close in a couple weeks in
[51:46] May 15th, but last I checked there were
[51:48] 60 applications in draft.
[51:52] >> On this it shows uh 1.5 million was paid
[51:56] out. And you probably said this, I
[51:57] missed it. I hurry and had to take a
[51:58] picture and SC read it.
[52:00] >> Um, and so is there was there a million
[52:03] dollars left over on this planning last
[52:05] year?
[52:06] >> So last year we just had 1.5 million and
[52:08] then we were able to increase it to 2.5
[52:11] for this year.
[52:12] >> Yeah, great question.
[52:13] >> As I'm looking to to see little rural
[52:16] counts in in southern Utah, central
[52:18] Utah, eastern Utah, it looked like it
[52:21] was quite a diverse uh dispersement of
[52:24] money. Yeah, I think the really the cool
[52:28] part about this program, it it really is
[52:30] enabling and empowering those really
[52:32] small, typically rural communities that
[52:35] they've never even thought or dreamed of
[52:38] doing recreation planning. This really
[52:40] has enabled them to pursue it and think
[52:42] about how it can help give them that
[52:44] roadmap to then be more competitive in
[52:46] our other infrastructure grants, which
[52:49] is really exciting.
[52:51] >> Mr. Mr. Chairman, if I could share for
[52:52] our our newest commissioner, I had the
[52:54] opportunity to serve as um one of the
[52:57] evaluators for uh this particular grant.
[53:00] Last year and um I think it's
[53:04] particularly valuable in helping tea up
[53:06] the types of applications you you would
[53:08] then see later as a grant or an ORI
[53:11] grant. um communities kind of can't get
[53:15] to the approvals that they might need
[53:17] from a NEPA application or something
[53:19] else if they can't show a a master plan
[53:22] or a feasibility study or those types of
[53:25] things. And so, um there's obviously
[53:28] challenges in in small rural
[53:30] communities. There's challenges in small
[53:34] urban communities that have small
[53:35] professional staffs that that don't
[53:37] always do this type of thing. And so I I
[53:39] thought it was very meaningful and was
[53:41] happy to advocate when we brought this
[53:43] back to add additional money uh last
[53:46] year that that this program will then
[53:49] ensure that the applications we see in
[53:51] other processes for bigger grants are
[53:55] shovel ready and ready to go and
[53:56] communities won't feel frustrated that
[53:58] they're
[54:00] denied a a grant in one of those bigger
[54:02] programs for lack of being
[54:05] as as you know tight and ready as they
[54:07] need to be when they apply.
[54:09] Thank you,
[54:12] » Josh.
[54:13] >> Thank you. Um, to follow up on what
[54:16] Commissioner Bradshaw was saying, is
[54:18] there an opportunity to identify
[54:21] projects that went through the ORPA
[54:23] program in future grant applications
[54:28] that having gone through this process
[54:30] just gives me a higher level of
[54:33] confidence
[54:35] that the scope and estimate are
[54:39] better vetted I will say rather than
[54:42] less vetted and therefore more likely to
[54:45] come to fruition on the current time and
[54:48] schedule. It's just
[54:50] an idea for the grant applications for
[54:53] those who are evaluating.
[54:55] >> Yeah, that makes sense.
[54:56] >> And I will speak to you. We I believe we
[54:59] did include a question um have did you
[55:02] apply to ORPA and receive ORPA services?
[55:04] And so they were able to check yes or
[55:06] no. So we are trying to track that and
[55:08] see do they go through ORPA then are
[55:10] they awarded Uorg and then you know the
[55:13] completion. So yeah,
[55:17] great. Um, looking forward, um, I'll
[55:20] touch on the regional long range
[55:22] planning and provide a brief update.
[55:24] Again, um, as we mentioned a couple
[55:27] times, the division's really trying to
[55:28] develop a 10-year out 10 to 15 year
[55:32] strategy to really provide regional long
[55:36] range recreation planning throughout the
[55:38] entire state. giving them that roadmap.
[55:40] Again, that's locally led and also
[55:43] regionally vetted so that when they come
[55:46] with projects, we can refer back to the
[55:48] regional long range plan and say, "These
[55:51] are the priorities we identified in this
[55:53] plan. Does this align with the the
[55:55] plan?" Yes or no. It's an easy way to
[55:57] kind of gut check. Um so, we've been
[56:00] doing the central region plan as our
[56:02] pilot region. Um it's been an amazing um
[56:05] effort.
[56:07] Um this is kind of we've been working
[56:09] with SE group as our consultants um to
[56:11] support us and really the role of the
[56:13] plan is again to identify developing
[56:17] regionally significant projects um and
[56:20] then you know we've trying to figure out
[56:21] how that fits into our existing ranking
[56:25] um process with ORI and then you know
[56:29] going forward we're kind of in that in
[56:31] between of as we develop we're also
[56:34] continuing OI as an annual
[56:36] um program. So, we're learning as we go
[56:39] and trying to develop something that
[56:41] makes sense. But any this is what
[56:43] included for the the central region
[56:45] plan. We had a survey out for about two
[56:48] months and received over 1500 responses
[56:51] both from residents within the central
[56:53] region as well as visitors. um our
[56:56] consultants as well as some of our team
[56:58] conducted a week-long site visit
[57:00] visiting each county and meeting with
[57:02] you know public land managers, some
[57:04] local community um stakeholders um and
[57:07] just getting a sense of you know what is
[57:09] on the ground. Um you know they also are
[57:13] bringing a lot of data to this plan
[57:15] including um just that regional asset
[57:18] inventory and then outdoor recreation
[57:20] business inventory. And then we each we
[57:23] conducted six countybased stakeholder
[57:25] meetings. So with each of the counties,
[57:27] we brought all the stakeholders that as
[57:30] much as we could diversify, you know,
[57:32] representing each of the counties, all
[57:34] the different land management agencies,
[57:36] all of the different types of
[57:38] recreators, business owners, tourism
[57:41] folks. So it was really a robust um
[57:45] initial phase of a community engagement.
[57:48] And then from that,
[57:51] now my clicker is not pro. Can you go to
[57:56] Thanks. Um, we have a project website
[57:59] that you can refer to and um, the
[58:01] handout we provided is kind of the the
[58:03] key takeaways from that survey. Um, it
[58:06] was really interesting to just see the
[58:07] differences between what residents were
[58:10] experiencing versus what visitors I
[58:12] guess it's not that surprising because
[58:14] most of the visitors go to Capitol Reef.
[58:16] most of the residents avoid Capitol
[58:17] Reef. Um but along with that, we they're
[58:20] creating these um county profiles that
[58:24] really highlight, you know, those
[58:26] recreation assets, what the businesses
[58:28] are, what the communities are saying.
[58:30] So, we have county profiles for each of
[58:32] the counties. And then we also are
[58:35] developing these types of maps just to
[58:37] again highlight those kind of highlevel
[58:40] recreation assets within the region.
[58:43] Um,
[58:45] I guess I'm going to go backwards here
[58:47] now, but just to give an idea, last year
[58:49] we were able to secure funding for our
[58:52] northern region as well as the south
[58:54] southwest region. And so we'll be
[58:56] kicking those two long range regional
[58:58] plans off this year. um and hopes to
[59:02] again secure funding if and if the
[59:06] regions in eastern and front get just as
[59:08] excited seeing this as an opportunity to
[59:11] we'll secure funding for them and then
[59:14] hopefully have the entire state planned
[59:16] um or have regional recreation plans for
[59:19] the entire state in by 2028.
[59:23] Any questions about that?
[59:29] Thank you, Emily.
[59:30] >> Yeah,
[59:31] >> appreciate it. Or does anybody on the
[59:32] commission have any any questions for
[59:34] Emily? Any online?
[59:37] >> All right. Thank you. We'll uh go to
[59:41] Carly now.
[59:51] Hi everybody. My name is Karly Lanch.
[59:53] I'm the trails and planning program
[59:54] director with the Utah Division of
[59:56] Outdoor Recreation. I've been um working
[59:58] to support this commission for the last
[1:00:00] almost four years and it is such a
[1:00:02] wonderful um time to come to these
[1:00:04] meetings and kind of use them as a
[1:00:05] reflection point as to where we were
[1:00:07] just three years ago, four years ago
[1:00:09] when we became a newer division with our
[1:00:11] strategic plan. And now we're we're
[1:00:13] doing things that are somewhat uh
[1:00:15] revolutionary if I might be so bold as
[1:00:17] to say that. and and uh really helped
[1:00:19] lead the way as the state of Utah with
[1:00:21] the first former office of outdoor
[1:00:23] wreck. Um so yeah, I just wanted to give
[1:00:25] a shout out to my colleagues as well for helping us push the needle in um
[1:00:29] outdoor recreation in Utah. Um I am now
[1:00:33] going to talk about uh an exciting
[1:00:35] update about the Northwash boat ramp. I
[1:00:37] have a colleague online um who's helped
[1:00:40] us support the project and so he might
[1:00:42] come off of mute to to add in as I go.
[1:00:45] Um but this commission uh with the
[1:00:47] support of our staff helped identify the
[1:00:49] Northwash boat ramp um as a priority
[1:00:51] project a few years ago. This was still
[1:00:53] when the ORI process was being kind of
[1:00:56] incubated. Um and so it was an
[1:00:58] opportunity for us as staff to kind of
[1:01:00] cut our teeth in the project management
[1:01:01] and delivery side of the of the
[1:01:04] equation. So we are now launching into
[1:01:05] you know more planning grant grant
[1:01:08] support and then uh getting into the
[1:01:10] project management and and delivery. So,
[1:01:13] just to give a little bit of color and
[1:01:15] context, if you're not familiar,
[1:01:16] Cataract Canyon is Utah's Little Grand
[1:01:18] Canyon, and this is the takeout for for
[1:01:20] that section of the Colorado. It's a
[1:01:22] worldclass whitewater um and uh has been
[1:01:27] uh suffering at at the takeout for many, years. Um the Utah Guides and
[1:01:32] Outfitters have been advocating for
[1:01:34] stewardship and improved access for
[1:01:36] almost 20 years. Um the American
[1:01:38] Outdoors Association has elevated this
[1:01:41] nationally. Um, and it's been a a big
[1:01:44] project for us the last few years. Um,
[1:01:47] and this is to I don't need to talk to
[1:01:49] every bullet here, but this just gives
[1:01:51] you um an a timeline of when we started
[1:01:54] to meet with the National Park Service
[1:01:56] to understand why we weren't being able
[1:01:59] to um improve the access on this site.
[1:02:03] And this shows sort of our uh our
[1:02:08] lengthy um co coordination effort with
[1:02:12] Glen Canyon. Um and we're really uh as
[1:02:15] soon as we were able to provide funding
[1:02:17] through this commission and enter into
[1:02:19] an agreement with the Department of
[1:02:21] Interior, we were able to make some some
[1:02:23] tangible progress and more progress than
[1:02:25] there's been made in over 20 years. Um,
[1:02:28] so here's a photo of the ramp um at uh
[1:02:31] 5400 CFS and then a congressional staff
[1:02:34] visit or site visit that we did back in
[1:02:37] 2024
[1:02:39] talking about the issues and trying to
[1:02:41] understand why what we need to do to
[1:02:43] shake loose um a solution here to
[1:02:45] improve access. Um we were able things
[1:02:49] really uh started to move forward
[1:02:52] quickly when we're able to enter into an
[1:02:53] agreement and secure funding here. So we
[1:02:55] went through um engineering uh aspects
[1:02:58] last fall, geotechnical and then a a
[1:03:02] notice to proceed in full compliance
[1:03:05] package um landed on our division desks
[1:03:08] back in March of this year. And so we've
[1:03:10] been able to hit the ground running. Um
[1:03:12] Jones and DeLill has been doing the
[1:03:14] construction or the design and
[1:03:16] engineering and um uh Brown Brothers
[1:03:19] Construction has done the actual work on
[1:03:21] site and they've been fantastic. They're
[1:03:23] based out of Lowa.
[1:03:26] And so here's a um bird's eye view of
[1:03:30] the existing takeout in the the
[1:03:33] construction area. Kendall, if you're on
[1:03:36] online, do you want to chime in here?
[1:03:41] » Yeah. Uh what are you what are you
[1:03:43] looking for?
[1:03:44] >> Oh, just if you want to talk about the
[1:03:46] site and Kendall's been based out of
[1:03:49] Blanding, so he's been boots on the
[1:03:50] ground for us.
[1:03:52] >> Yeah. I know it's it's been it's been
[1:03:53] great. The um Brown Brothers
[1:03:56] Construction got in and they moved dirt
[1:03:58] very quickly. Um we the the ramp is
[1:04:02] essentially finished other than we are
[1:04:05] waiting for the surface mat uh a block a
[1:04:09] concrete block mat to arrive from back
[1:04:12] east. And that's that's what we're
[1:04:14] waiting on. So the project is is nearing
[1:04:18] completion. They the contractors say
[1:04:20] that they'll need about a day or a day
[1:04:22] and a half of work uh once the mat the
[1:04:25] matting arrives for them to be
[1:04:27] completely finished.
[1:04:31] Thanks, Kendall. Here's that
[1:04:33] articulating block mat that Kendall was
[1:04:36] talking about here. Um it's supposed to
[1:04:38] really help uh provide a sustainable
[1:04:41] ramp solution to get back down to the
[1:04:44] water.
[1:04:46] And this is the reason why we are here
[1:04:49] today requesting additional funding to
[1:04:51] help support and cover the bases to wrap
[1:04:53] up and complete the project. Um due to
[1:04:55] freight costs and that this is a
[1:04:57] material that's not locally sourced or
[1:05:00] product that's not locally sourced,
[1:05:02] we've had to um the the project cost has
[1:05:06] increased a little bit. You'll also see
[1:05:07] that there's um I think there's a
[1:05:10] handout at the front that kind of breaks
[1:05:11] down the costs. Um due to some of the
[1:05:14] geotechnical complications on site,
[1:05:16] there's some added jersey barrier just
[1:05:17] for added safety. Our boating program
[1:05:20] was able to contribute some funding for
[1:05:21] ongoing geotechnical monitoring to
[1:05:23] ensure that the site is safe and
[1:05:25] sustainable. Um and so we're here today
[1:05:27] to just um request funding to help uh
[1:05:30] the get the project over the finish
[1:05:32] line.
[1:05:34] Um here's a a photo um from April, so
[1:05:38] last month. It's already May if you can
[1:05:39] believe it. Um, and we actually have a
[1:05:41] party that was getting out of of the
[1:05:43] water here. Um, and Kendall and I were
[1:05:46] able to meet with um, some of the guides
[1:05:47] and outfitters and the National Ability
[1:05:49] Center and some other folks um, to help
[1:05:52] kind of prep them on what to expect on
[1:05:54] the site when they're taking boats out.
[1:05:55] And one of the people said, "You know
[1:05:57] what? We are so excited from National
[1:06:00] Ability Center." They said, "We have not
[1:06:01] been able to do programming down
[1:06:02] Cataract Canyon because the the boat
[1:06:04] ramp has been so so terrible. And so
[1:06:07] this is the first time we're going to be
[1:06:08] able to start bringing that programming
[1:06:10] back. So that means veterans, people
[1:06:12] with mobility limitations are able to
[1:06:14] now access this river for the first time
[1:06:17] in a while. So really, really gratifying
[1:06:19] to hear about that. Um the project's
[1:06:22] almost done. And yeah, this was just a
[1:06:25] fun visual um to look at where we were
[1:06:28] in 2023 when we first started kind of um
[1:06:32] coordinated state support to to help
[1:06:35] improve the access year and now where we
[1:06:37] are right now until the delivery of of
[1:06:39] the block map. So, we've got live um
[1:06:42] project updates on our website if you're
[1:06:46] interested in following along.
[1:06:51] another photo and the the funding
[1:06:53] request. Happy to take any questions.
[1:06:57] >> Just a quick note, there will be uh
[1:06:59] ribbon cutting June 4th. Um obviously
[1:07:02] anybody who wants to go and attend,
[1:07:04] you're welcome, but uh it's probably
[1:07:06] going to be in the news just like a lot
[1:07:07] of the projects that this group has has
[1:07:09] already approved in years past. The
[1:07:11] Colorado River pathway that was just in
[1:07:13] the news last week with Governor and UD
[1:07:15] do and their project to connect there.
[1:07:18] Um, Forest Road 85 up American Fort
[1:07:20] Canyon was was high-profile in the news.
[1:07:22] So, the work that this commission does
[1:07:24] is is recognized by a lot of folks. But
[1:07:27] this this one has been a long time
[1:07:29] coming and uh not not without some real
[1:07:32] tenacity from from Carly and Kendall.
[1:07:34] And so, well done.
[1:07:39] » Thank you, Joey. We appreciate your
[1:07:42] updates on this. It looks It's nice
[1:07:44] seeing the pictures and the uh the
[1:07:46] progress that's made for government
[1:07:48] work. That's pretty quick. So, it's
[1:07:51] pretty good.
[1:07:52] >> Took us 20 years, but now that we we
[1:07:54] have
[1:07:55] >> once we got on it, it went pretty quick,
[1:07:57] right? So,
[1:07:58] >> y
[1:07:59] >> All right. Uh thank you. Does Does uh do
[1:08:02] any commissioners have any any questions
[1:08:03] for Carly?
[1:08:07] » I think we'll get to that later on.
[1:08:10] Yeah. And when we get to agenda item
[1:08:12] number six,
[1:08:13] >> Jason, um, if I could number two in the
[1:08:16] is that the request on the back? Uh, it
[1:08:19] says additional boat ramp, Matt. And
[1:08:21] sorry if I missed this in your
[1:08:23] presentation, but did you change the
[1:08:26] project like covering more ground or is
[1:08:28] it just an increased costs?
[1:08:30] >> It's increased cost due to complexities
[1:08:32] on the site. Um, we actually did our
[1:08:34] best to try to shrink the we had our our
[1:08:39] constituents wanted a 30- foot wide ramp
[1:08:41] and we had to shrink it down to about 16
[1:08:43] feet um just due to the site
[1:08:45] complexities. Um, but there was still
[1:08:47] some overages with the freight and the
[1:08:48] material costs and I think Kendall can
[1:08:51] help me out if I'm missing anything
[1:08:53] there. Yeah, I mean we another effort
[1:08:55] that we made was the the map material um
[1:08:59] is not going to cover the full 16 foot
[1:09:02] width of the of the travel area. It's
[1:09:06] only going to cover 10 feet um down the
[1:09:09] middle, which everybody everybody
[1:09:11] involved, the contractor, the engineer,
[1:09:13] Carly, myself, we we feel like that's
[1:09:15] sufficient um for the traction and for
[1:09:17] the stability, but we've even we've even
[1:09:20] gone so that far to try to reduce the
[1:09:22] costs as much as as we could.
[1:09:26] >> Yeah, and I apologize. Yeah, you were
[1:09:28] right. We we do need a motion at this
[1:09:30] point. We're I was reading the agenda
[1:09:32] wrong. So, um, somebody would like to
[1:09:35] make a a motion.
[1:09:37] >> There there's a question online, too.
[1:09:38] Commissioner Taylor has his hand raised.
[1:09:40] >> Oh, go ahead.
[1:09:41] >> I
[1:09:42] >> Yeah, I don't have a question. I I I I
[1:09:45] love this project and I'm glad to see it
[1:09:47] going forward. Um,
[1:09:50] we do a lot of good things in this
[1:09:52] commission and I'm really pleased with
[1:09:53] this. Pleased that we're getting it
[1:09:55] done.
[1:09:57] >> Thank you, Commissioner. Would anybody
[1:10:00] else like to uh have any questions,
[1:10:02] comments?
[1:10:02] >> I have a question. So,
[1:10:05] do we have where will the additional
[1:10:07] funds come from? Will they come from the
[1:10:10] new fiscal year's OI bucket of money or
[1:10:15] >> they can come out of the prior fiscal
[1:10:16] year? So, the current there was a little
[1:10:18] bit of a rollover from funding last that
[1:10:21] kind of lapsed through. Um, so there's I
[1:10:25] think we had a a meeting with our
[1:10:27] finance manager. there was 3.5 that
[1:10:29] wasn't spent or had uh come back into
[1:10:32] the account. So I think we can utilize
[1:10:34] that from the last fiscal year and
[1:10:36] everything else will roll into this
[1:10:38] upcoming cycle and fiscal year. Did that
[1:10:42] answer your question?
[1:10:43] >> Yeah, that that helps a lot because it
[1:10:46] it's one thing to be as supportive in
[1:10:49] concept when you have a project overrun.
[1:10:50] It's another thing to figure out how
[1:10:51] we're paying for it.
[1:10:53] >> Absolutely. You need to know those
[1:10:55] numbers. I appreciate that.
[1:10:58] Great question, mayor. If I can follow
[1:11:00] up. So, I appreciate, you know, trying
[1:11:03] to make it affordable and stay within
[1:11:05] the budget, but is there a desire to get
[1:11:09] more resources to get the full 16 ft?
[1:11:12] >> So, that's a really excellent question.
[1:11:15] So, the one of the reasons why this has
[1:11:17] been a hangup and a project that hasn't
[1:11:19] come to fruition for over 20 years is
[1:11:21] because it's technically not an official
[1:11:23] asset as identified by the National Park
[1:11:25] Service. And so because of the
[1:11:27] hydraology in the canyon, they're
[1:11:29] wanting to actually make a more
[1:11:31] permanent longtime sustainable ramp up
[1:11:35] upstream of where this site is. And so
[1:11:38] if just because of the hydraology in the
[1:11:40] canyon, there could be a pretty
[1:11:41] significant rapid that forms just
[1:11:44] upstream in which case that this site or
[1:11:47] this particular ramp that we've put
[1:11:49] state resources into might not be
[1:11:51] accessible. When that will happen, it's
[1:11:53] hard to say. We don't know. But because
[1:11:55] this is a key a key access point that
[1:11:58] kind of unlocks this regional guiding
[1:12:00] economy um and ecosystem there if it it
[1:12:03] was um important for the state to to
[1:12:06] step in and and be involved. So the park
[1:12:08] service is is um going to create a a a
[1:12:11] north height ramp um that'll be more
[1:12:14] longterm just upstream. So yeah, we
[1:12:17] wanted to keep it simple and improve the
[1:12:19] access for the time being. We are not
[1:12:20] sure exactly the the timing on that
[1:12:23] other ramp. So,
[1:12:28] » good question.
[1:12:30] >> Any other questions or we'll we'll look
[1:12:32] for a motion?
[1:12:34] >> I'm prepared to make a motion that we
[1:12:36] approve the additional funding the
[1:12:38] additional cost for the um the boat ramp
[1:12:41] of $140,200.
[1:12:45] » I'll second that.
[1:12:46] >> We have a second. Thank you. Um the
[1:12:50] motion is that we approve the uh funding
[1:12:52] request to cover the remainder of the
[1:12:54] project costs for the Northwash boat
[1:12:56] ramp of $140,000
[1:12:59] $140 thou,200.
[1:13:02] Um.
[1:13:04] >> All in favor say I.
[1:13:06] >> I.
[1:13:08] >> And those against.
[1:13:10] >> Okay. I rule that passes unanimously.
[1:13:12] >> Thank you for your support of the
[1:13:14] project. I'm excited to see you all
[1:13:15] again in the fall with hopefully some
[1:13:16] more more good updates.
[1:13:18] >> Okay. Thank you.
[1:13:19] >> Just one thing on that. I hope they have
[1:13:20] a video so we can watch people back down
[1:13:23] that [laughter]
[1:13:25] >> there's already a video on on YouTube of
[1:13:27] someone that was so excited about the
[1:13:29] project that they they filmed the
[1:13:30] construction.
[1:13:31] >> Those are fun videos to watch. People
[1:13:32] trying to back down that don't know how
[1:13:34] [laughter] to back down.
[1:13:35] >> Hence the Jersey barrier, which thank
[1:13:38] you for for funding the Jersey Barrier.
[1:13:40] >> There we go. Yeah, if you can find that
[1:13:42] YouTube video and send it out to us.
[1:13:44] >> Absolutely.
[1:13:45] >> All right. Thank you. Um, so we have
[1:13:49] that. We're going to go to uh agenda
[1:13:51] item 6B.
[1:13:54] Uh, uh, Patrick Morrison again. Thanks,
[1:13:57] Patrick.
[1:13:58] >> It's me again. Um, so I'm just going to,
[1:14:00] uh, introduce our two commissioners here
[1:14:02] to present. Make sure I'm on the right
[1:14:04] slide. So, um, you may remember, I think
[1:14:07] it was in the January meeting last year,
[1:14:09] you granted me, uh, some authority for
[1:14:12] contract modifications. I believe it was
[1:14:14] 10% of the award up to 20,000 scope of
[1:14:16] work changes that didn't, you know,
[1:14:18] really alter what the project was
[1:14:19] awarded for and then like budget line
[1:14:21] items that don't, you know, necessarily
[1:14:23] change any uh total award. Um, this one
[1:14:25] I I think is an example of what I feel I
[1:14:27] wanted to bring them in to make the
[1:14:29] formal request for your approval. I felt
[1:14:30] this one exceeded my authority. Um, so
[1:14:32] just a little background, this was award
[1:14:34] um not this most recent cycle, but the
[1:14:36] 2425 year um for the Mud Springs Trail
[1:14:39] System phase two. Um phase one uh has been great. Um it got a um awards
[1:14:45] from our recreational trails program and
[1:14:46] our Utah recreation grant. Um so this
[1:14:49] was going to be the continuation of
[1:14:50] that. I don't want to kind of step on
[1:14:51] the presentation and and they drove all
[1:14:53] the way down here uh to present. Um but
[1:14:55] more just kind of want to introduce um
[1:14:57] Commissioner Winfield from Grant County,
[1:14:58] Commissioner Man from San Juan County.
[1:15:00] Um this has been a great partnership
[1:15:01] between the two counties and and I guess
[1:15:03] I'll just kind of let you take it away.
[1:15:04] Um so this is just a scope of work
[1:15:06] adjustment. This is not a funding
[1:15:07] adjustment. Um but just here for your
[1:15:09] approval. So, please take it away.
[1:15:17] » We might fight over who gets the
[1:15:18] clicker.
[1:15:19] >> Right. Will you guys uh introduce
[1:15:21] yourself and and tell us who you
[1:15:23] represent as well as you get as you get
[1:15:25] started?
[1:15:25] >> Sure. Thank you.
[1:15:26] >> I'm Commissioner Lorie Man and I
[1:15:28] represent Sanan County.
[1:15:30] >> And I'm Commissioner Bill Winfield and I
[1:15:33] represent Grand County. Um before we get
[1:15:36] started, I would like to thank you for
[1:15:38] that Northwash boat ramp because that
[1:15:40] industry that you were talking about
[1:15:42] that that's our counties, right? So
[1:15:45] that's that's huge for the boating
[1:15:47] community and I know my commissioner
[1:15:49] Martinez, fellow commissioner, has
[1:15:51] worked on that long and hard for years.
[1:15:53] So we're very excited even to see the
[1:15:56] YouTube videos of somebody backing down
[1:15:58] it.
[1:15:59] >> And actually I was there a couple months
[1:16:01] ago. Commissioner Martinez and I went
[1:16:03] down there and said, "Yeah, what a
[1:16:04] need." So to see those pictures now,
[1:16:06] it's great. So thank you as well.
[1:16:08] >> Yeah. So So this mud spring system that
[1:16:13] started there, the phase one has been
[1:16:16] completed other than just a little tiny
[1:16:18] portion which will be completed this
[1:16:22] year before the NIKA races start. The
[1:16:25] problem that existed is after phase one
[1:16:28] was built, they hadn't put a whole lot
[1:16:30] of thought or had a construction
[1:16:32] manager, anybody involved and the road
[1:16:34] system to get into this, which will
[1:16:37] handle up to, I'm told, 5 to 10,000
[1:16:41] people will come to these Nika events,
[1:16:44] these high school races.
[1:16:46] That that was kind of left out of the
[1:16:48] plan. And so what we're trying to do is
[1:16:50] pivot and take money from phase two that
[1:16:53] would enlarge the trail system and be
[1:16:56] able to use that to build the road and
[1:17:00] the um
[1:17:02] >> parking lot
[1:17:02] >> parking lots. And just for a little bit
[1:17:06] of
[1:17:08] um I don't know what I'm trying to say
[1:17:10] here to show you the size of those
[1:17:12] parking lots. A football field is very
[1:17:15] close to an acre and so we have 15 acres
[1:17:19] that we have to prepare in parking alone
[1:17:24] and it's out in basically it isn't a
[1:17:27] sand dune because it's growing sage
[1:17:29] brush and tim tumble weeds but we've got
[1:17:32] to prep that land and then put a base
[1:17:34] down for all these people to come in and
[1:17:37] be able to be participate in these
[1:17:39] races. And so there's an ex pretty
[1:17:42] extensive amount of money that's going
[1:17:44] to have to go into the infrastructure to
[1:17:46] open this up. And a lot of the costs are
[1:17:50] borne by the two counties. We're doing
[1:17:52] as much inind as we possibly can with
[1:17:55] our road departments. Um Todd Adair from
[1:18:00] San Juan County and Cody McKini from
[1:18:02] Grand County are participating in those
[1:18:04] efforts where the expense is coming in
[1:18:08] as the surface that's needed to put
[1:18:10] down. It's an extremely clay area out
[1:18:13] there, sandy clay. And so that it's
[1:18:16] going to require a rock subbase as well
[1:18:18] as then a road base on top of that.
[1:18:21] We've also collaborated quite a bit.
[1:18:23] Feel free don't let me do all the
[1:18:25] talking with you Dodd who's helping us
[1:18:28] with the majority of the road work not
[1:18:30] all of it the inind is coming from the
[1:18:32] counties but they are also helping with
[1:18:34] the surface on the road itself
[1:18:37] and so we've worked with Jared Beard and
[1:18:40] Dan Hinckley mostly the two of them I
[1:18:42] know there's a few others that have been
[1:18:43] involved but
[1:18:45] >> so the other problem we have is when you
[1:18:48] um in San Juan County if you're heading
[1:18:50] if you're coming south and headed north
[1:18:53] there's a an area called um Blue Hill
[1:18:56] and you descend down and then you turn
[1:18:59] to get into the access in that mud
[1:19:00] springs area and it's just very very
[1:19:04] dangerous and UDOT has approached us
[1:19:06] several times about shutting that
[1:19:08] ingress into that. So the the reason for
[1:19:12] moving this road is to move it further
[1:19:14] down for safety. It's more cost
[1:19:16] effective to move that down further than
[1:19:19] to do a turning lane for them. So,
[1:19:22] that's another thing we've been working
[1:19:23] on is trying to get this access better.
[1:19:25] And oh, yep, there's our slide. And you
[1:19:27] can see that when you come in, if I Yep.
[1:19:30] Right there access, that's the danger
[1:19:33] point. And what we're ending up doing is
[1:19:36] coming clear down to this cross section
[1:19:39] here
[1:19:41] is all the new road being built in
[1:19:44] there.
[1:19:45] >> So, when you're trying to turn right,
[1:19:46] those those trucks are what's on your
[1:19:50] tail basically. and it's really
[1:19:51] difficult to make a turn, right? And
[1:19:53] then you're slowing everyone down
[1:19:55] behind. So it's it's like we said, it's
[1:19:57] a dangerous access to come into. So
[1:19:59] that's hence the change of the road.
[1:20:05] So we're basically here just asking you
[1:20:07] to allow us to divert the phase 2 funds.
[1:20:10] And it's possible that we don't use all
[1:20:13] of them. Whatever isn't used up will
[1:20:15] then go back towards phase two in in the
[1:20:18] future there. But currently what we have
[1:20:20] is some worldclass Nika racecourses that
[1:20:23] we don't have access to get people
[1:20:26] safely into. And so that that's what our
[1:20:29] ask is today is to be able to use funds
[1:20:31] that you've already
[1:20:33] approved but to use them towards the
[1:20:36] infrastructure that'll be required
[1:20:38] there.
[1:20:40] >> Any questions?
[1:20:45] » I don't have a question, Mr. chairman,
[1:20:47] but um I help uh coach a local mountain
[1:20:51] bike team and so I'm familiar with the
[1:20:52] Niker races and the vast amount of
[1:20:55] people that um a Niker race uh puts out
[1:20:58] for one of these races, which is both a
[1:21:01] blessing to a community when the
[1:21:02] mountain bike community descends to buy
[1:21:04] stuff in your your area um and use hotel
[1:21:08] rooms and all of those things, but also
[1:21:10] it's it's a lot of people that show up
[1:21:12] all at once um to to get to these areas.
[1:21:16] is. And so, um, I can absolutely
[1:21:19] understand how it would it would back
[1:21:21] up, uh, a highway, um, with a lot of of
[1:21:25] vehicles coming from all different parts
[1:21:27] of the state to attend the races, um,
[1:21:29] based on the regions. And I'm sure
[1:21:31] you're hosting multiple weekends in a
[1:21:33] row u, as well, because that's usually
[1:21:35] the goal of a of a NIKA facility. So,
[1:21:37] that would that would mean that you'd
[1:21:39] have multiple weekends throughout the
[1:21:41] fall season where you
[1:21:42] >> are experiencing those same safety
[1:21:44] issues. So, we just want to validate
[1:21:46] that having been to many Nik races that
[1:21:49] um you travel in a pretty big pack.
[1:21:53] >> That's what we
[1:21:54] >> with with a lot of equipment.
[1:21:55] >> Yes.
[1:21:57] >> And we we currently have two Nika races
[1:22:00] scheduled for this this fall at this
[1:22:02] place. So,
[1:22:03] >> I think I'll be at one of them.
[1:22:06] >> Oh, great. Join us.
[1:22:08] >> All right. Um
[1:22:11] any other questions, Natalie?
[1:22:13] >> Yeah. Um
[1:22:15] just a question about the funds you're
[1:22:18] redirecting from phase two. What won't
[1:22:22] be done as a result of that? Is it the
[1:22:24] additional trails that are being that
[1:22:25] would have been built during the phase
[1:22:27] two?
[1:22:28] >> So we'll just have to reapply to get
[1:22:30] that expansion of the phase 2 trails,
[1:22:33] but phase one does the trail system for
[1:22:35] phase one does us no good if we don't
[1:22:37] have the infrastructure in. So yes.
[1:22:40] >> Yeah. And it seems like you just need
[1:22:42] that critical access point again
[1:22:45] >> um to be able to have them access those
[1:22:47] areas and those trails especially for
[1:22:48] the Nik races as
[1:22:50] >> Raj
[1:22:51] maybe I'm not going backwards. I was
[1:22:53] just going to show you but that that cut
[1:22:55] off that's in there currently
[1:22:58] >> UD do wants to close that down
[1:23:00] completely because it is such an unsafe
[1:23:03] >> access there for either direction
[1:23:06] >> to get into that. So that little portion
[1:23:08] will eventually be closed off right at
[1:23:11] the highway so that people can't get in
[1:23:13] and out of there.
[1:23:15] >> And phase one in its current completion
[1:23:17] already allows for Nika to come in
[1:23:20] >> without wait
[1:23:22] >> trail system itself is built up enough
[1:23:25] to allow for a Nika raceourse.
[1:23:27] >> Yes. Yes. the trail system is completed,
[1:23:31] >> but we just don't we can't we can't park
[1:23:33] people
[1:23:34] >> in those parking lots without the the
[1:23:37] infrastructure in
[1:23:41] » Thank you. Yeah, I had I had kind of
[1:23:43] similar question. I'm glad she asked it.
[1:23:45] Um I just pulling I'm just pulling up
[1:23:47] the code here on what what is approved
[1:23:49] because um we've had a lot of pe I
[1:23:52] believe in the past we had a lot of
[1:23:53] people saying, "Hey, we need roads." And
[1:23:55] it's like, "Okay, this isn't a road
[1:23:56] thing, but Uh, I just want to clarify
[1:23:58] for the the commission u what a rec what
[1:24:02] the code says is a recreational
[1:24:04] infrastructure project.
[1:24:06] I think this would qualify but just just
[1:24:10] let's let's let's get it on record here.
[1:24:12] So recreational infrastructure project
[1:24:15] means an undertaking to build, improve
[1:24:18] or restore and approve facility,
[1:24:20] installation or natural feature needed
[1:24:24] for the public to access and enjoy the
[1:24:26] state's outdoors. So recreational
[1:24:29] infrastructure project may include the
[1:24:32] establishment, construction or
[1:24:33] renovation of a trail, trail
[1:24:35] infrastructure or a trail facility.
[1:24:37] Construction of a project or restoration
[1:24:40] of a water body for a water related
[1:24:42] outdoor recreational activity.
[1:24:44] Development of a project for a wildlife
[1:24:47] watching opportunity including bird
[1:24:49] watching. Development of a project that
[1:24:51] provides a winter recreation amenity.
[1:24:54] construction or improvement of a
[1:24:56] community park that has an amenity for
[1:24:58] outdoor recreation and construction or
[1:25:00] improvement of a naturalistic and
[1:25:03] accessible playground. So I don't
[1:25:06] >> furthermore
[1:25:07] >> go ahead.
[1:25:08] >> What section is that?
[1:25:09] >> Um it's
[1:25:12] um this one.
[1:25:13] >> Yeah. 78 79-2
[1:25:16] >> and and more specifically in the outdoor
[1:25:17] venture fund um very explicitly in in
[1:25:20] 519 909 902 um subject to appropriation
[1:25:24] the money from the account may be used
[1:25:26] for construction upgrades replacement
[1:25:29] acquisition and then E under three E
[1:25:32] providing access from state highways so
[1:25:34] pretty pretty clear
[1:25:35] >> so yeah so yeah we're I think we're good
[1:25:38] >> thank you Patrick
[1:25:39] >> yeah so u at this point are there any
[1:25:42] other questions or
[1:25:48] comments.
[1:25:50] All right, at this point we'll look for
[1:25:52] a motion. Somebody would like to make
[1:25:54] that one.
[1:25:55] >> Natalie, go ahead.
[1:25:56] >> Yeah, I'd be happy to make a motion to
[1:25:58] approve the Mud Springs Trail System
[1:26:02] phase 2 scope change.
[1:26:03] >> Okay. Do we have a second?
[1:26:06] >> Mr. Chair, I'd second.
[1:26:10] » All right.
[1:26:11] >> Multiple seconds,
[1:26:12] >> Mr. Taylor. Thank you for the second.
[1:26:14] All right. The motion is that we approve
[1:26:16] the the phase 2 scope change for the mud springs trail system. All in favor
[1:26:23] say I.
[1:26:24] >> I.
[1:26:27] >> And those against. All right. I rule
[1:26:29] that pass unanimously. Thank you.
[1:26:31] >> Thank you.
[1:26:32] very much.
[1:26:33] >> Thank you.
[1:26:35] >> Okay.
[1:26:38] >> I just turned it off myself. Okay. So,
[1:26:40] um, well, thank you, uh, for joining our
[1:26:43] make make meeting. Uh, before we close
[1:26:45] the meeting, uh, I've been told to make
[1:26:48] sure that everyone remembers to mark
[1:26:49] their calendars, uh, for the our next
[1:26:53] for the our second and potentially final
[1:26:56] outdoor adventure commission meeting for
[1:26:59] ORI project approval on Monday, November
[1:27:03] 16th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm. So, uh, all
[1:27:08] right, we'll be looking for, uh, one
[1:27:10] final motion.
[1:27:15] All right. Uh, motion to adjurnn. All in
[1:27:17] favor say I. Thank you. I I
[1:27:21] >> We are adjourned. Thank you.