[1:17] first time I got to use the gavvel.

[1:19] >> Um,

[1:22] [laughter]

[1:23] >> you know, it was so um, welcome

[1:26] everybody. I would like to call the

[1:28] joint city and county meeting to order

[1:31] at uh 12:31

[1:34] p.m. and then Mel will call the meeting

[1:37] to order for the county.

[1:39] >> Yeah, let's call the county commission

[1:42] meeting for April 17, 2026 at what time?

[1:47] 120 12:31.

[1:50] And those present are Tonnie Kenson

[1:52] Boyd, Michael McCertie, commissioner,

[1:55] sorry, councilwoman, Colin Topper,

[1:58] Councilman,

[1:59] Trisha Dean, County Commissioner, Jason

[2:02] Taylor, County Councilman, Michael

[2:04] Black, city administrator, Joet,

[2:07] mayor, Megan, Melody McCandless, myself,

[2:11] commission chair. We have Quinn Hall,

[2:15] our county

[2:17] >> deputy administrator,

[2:20] Commissioner Bill Winfield, Councilman

[2:22] Miles Loftton, Commissioner Jacqu

[2:26] Hadler, Councilwoman,

[2:29] um Caitlyn Meyers. This is hard. Um,

[2:32] [laughter]

[2:33] County Commissioner Brian Martinez, and

[2:35] County Commissioner Mayor Mcan. So,

[2:37] thank you all for coming.

[2:38] >> Yeah. And, you know, we're we'll be a

[2:41] little informal today. I think we can

[2:43] refer to each other by our first names

[2:44] just to make it a little not such a

[2:46] mouthful. Um, I have a couple of

[2:48] housekeeping things. We will be sharing

[2:50] microphones, so they move back and

[2:52] forth. You don't actually have to move

[2:54] them. So, and and they're pretty you can

[2:56] pick up everybody, but if you wouldn't

[2:59] mind sharing your mics, that would be

[3:00] great. Um, and if everybody could

[3:03] silence their cell phones and county

[3:06] council members and commissioners, if

[3:08] you could uh put do not disturb and keep

[3:11] your cell phones uh out of out of touch,

[3:14] that would be great. And I also would

[3:16] like to um say that I want to remind

[3:19] everybody that we are operating under

[3:21] the city's code of conduct and rules of

[3:23] order. I expect a basic level of uh

[3:27] decorum from everybody here, including

[3:29] the audience. I want to make sure we

[3:31] keep it respectful, that we stay focused

[3:33] on the topics, and let's make sure we

[3:35] end up with a productive conversation

[3:37] that actually allows us to move things

[3:39] forward. So, with that, um, I guess

[3:42] we'll get started. I just also want to

[3:44] say this is something that Melody and I

[3:46] have been working on for I guess since

[3:48] you've been the chair actually and we

[3:50] even talked about it before that that we

[3:52] really felt it was important for the

[3:53] city and the county to get together and

[3:56] talk about things that we could work

[3:57] towards over the next couple of years.

[3:59] You know, we don't want to get too broad

[4:01] because there's so much that we could be

[4:03] working on. So we we came together and

[4:05] we identified the issues that are on the

[4:07] agenda that we we felt were things that

[4:10] we could be working on now, working on

[4:13] like tomorrow and things that we could

[4:15] look into the future that we could uh

[4:17] share and collaborate on. So I really

[4:19] appreciate Mel's persistence in making

[4:21] sure we make this happen and hopefully

[4:23] this will continue to be the case into

[4:24] the future. So with that, our first uh

[4:28] item is the OPRA project. We've uh had a

[4:32] big celebration last week which was

[4:34] great. The pile is gone uh or almost

[4:36] gone and we just kind of wanted to talk

[4:39] about how we got there and where we need

[4:42] to go in the future. So, we're going to

[4:44] start with Sapson and Mary to give us

[4:47] kind of an update on the future sites

[4:50] that both bodies um the city resolution

[4:54] 192023 and the Grant County resolution

[4:57] 3353-2023

[4:59] approved in support of this uh of this

[5:03] uh vision for our for the umpsite from

[5:06] the community. So, take it away ladies.

[5:09] >> Yes. Uh thank you and thank you Michael

[5:11] Black for running the uh slide

[5:13] presentation case and uh Saxon has been

[5:18] working on the future sites plan every

[5:20] single one of them. This was our third

[5:23] rendition of the future sites and so I

[5:26] felt like she was even more qualified

[5:28] than myself to help with this

[5:30] presentation. So, I'm going to pass it

[5:33] over to her to talk it through the

[5:34] slides, but we'll both be here to answer

[5:36] questions and then I'll have a statement

[5:39] at the end. Thank you.

[5:41] Okay, so we've come a really long way.

[5:44] If you look that the difference between

[5:46] slide 2001 and 2025, and it looks like

[5:49] we're finally rounding the corner uh to

[5:52] actually implementing something on this

[5:54] property. So this is just a quick

[5:56] presentation about what's happened in

[5:58] the last decade and uh what the site

[6:01] futures committee has done. Okay.

[6:06] >> Right. It doesn't respond immediately.

[6:08] So

[6:13] » Oh, and all the tailings are gone. It's

[6:16] uh just the subflooring and some of the

[6:19] other stuff. But the tailings

[6:20] themselves, what was placed there as

[6:22] tailings are gone now.

[6:25] Okay. So, just quickly, the um uh site

[6:29] futures committee was established in

[6:31] 2012 and the mission is to conduct a

[6:34] public planning process to develop a

[6:36] community vision for the site. And the

[6:39] Grand County and Moab City uh will

[6:42] acquire, develop, and manage the former

[6:44] site uh in cooperation uh with other

[6:47] agencies for a wide range of uh

[6:50] amenities. And the uh the five-year

[6:52] update of community vision is required

[6:55] by the city and the county resolutions.

[6:58] And the visions were completed in 2013,

[7:01] 2018, and 2023.

[7:06] And this uh the benefits uh they're an

[7:09] opportunity for continued DOE funding

[7:11] and cleanup. uh if we had a plan, we

[7:14] felt like it would be easier uh when our

[7:16] representatives, many of you are in the

[7:18] room, uh went go to Washington and uh

[7:21] asked for more money for the cleanup. It

[7:23] will determine what infrastructure may

[7:25] transfer with the property and that's

[7:27] where we are now. We need to come up

[7:29] with a list by June 1st of what

[7:32] infrastructure things uh we would like

[7:34] transferred. It's a guide to future

[7:36] planning and management of the site and

[7:38] also obtaining community input for

[7:40] desired future use. So both Moab City

[7:44] and Grand County endorsed each one of

[7:46] these three plans and it was uh

[7:48] unanimous uh for all uh all votes on all

[7:51] three.

[7:54] So the 10 principles that the site

[7:56] futures came up with was to continue

[7:59] collaboration with the DOE and work in

[8:02] partnership uh with the office of legacy

[8:04] management. And number three, plan

[8:07] future site use is based on the

[8:09] community's visions and needs. Four,

[8:12] prioritize health and safety throughout

[8:14] the site divine design and facility

[8:17] development. And two, pursue short and

[8:20] long-term sources of funding. There

[8:22] needs to be some kind of revenue stream.

[8:24] Okay.

[8:26] Number six, use sound planning to create

[8:28] a welcoming north gateway to Moab. Uh

[8:31] develop a phased multi-year

[8:33] implementation plan. So, obviously, it's

[8:35] not going to all go in in one fell

[8:37] swoop. Uh what how do we want to start?

[8:39] How what do we want to implement first?

[8:42] Incorporate environmental sustainability

[8:44] and energy conservation measures. uh

[8:47] emphasize resource conservation and

[8:50] enhancement and to recognize existing

[8:53] rights of way and property deed

[8:55] restrictions.

[8:58] So some of the site constraints 74% of

[9:02] the entire site are either in the flood

[9:04] plane in rights of way on the steep

[9:07] hillside uh up uh on the other the hill

[9:10] behi on the other side of the pot ash

[9:12] road um conservation easements and then

[9:15] sovereign lands uh mainly the uh part

[9:18] portions of the river. So that those are

[9:21] uh constraints and DOE legacy management

[9:24] sites discourage overnight use because

[9:27] of liability. So everything the site

[9:29] futures committee has gone forward so

[9:32] far was no overnight uh anything on the

[9:35] site. Uh there's potential below surface

[9:38] contamination uh might be an issue

[9:40] digging foundations footings. We won't

[9:42] know until they get uh more uh little

[9:46] farther on with their remediation.

[9:48] culinary groundwater is not available on

[9:50] the site and groundwater right now is

[9:53] managed by legacy management.

[9:56] >> There's been some confusion lately on

[9:58] the overnight

[10:00] because uh you know it will be cleaned

[10:02] up to the standards that it would you

[10:06] would normally think someone could be

[10:07] there overnight

[10:10] you know because that's their goal is to

[10:12] get it that clean. However, because uh

[10:15] of uh legacy management and the

[10:19] restrictions they're going to have to

[10:20] put on it, like every bucket of dirt

[10:23] that leaves that place will have to be

[10:25] tested.

[10:27] Every bucket of dirt that's brought on

[10:30] has to be tested. Uh so any type of you

[10:34] know if you especially if you think

[10:36] housing not so much with a motel hotel

[10:39] but with housing that would be separate

[10:41] people doing separate things and to

[10:43] manage the comingings and goings of dirt

[10:48] and if they're going to dig down and

[10:50] disturb the groundwater.

[10:52] uh that in all the sites that have been

[10:55] cleaned up throughout the nation uh they

[10:58] have legacy management has very much

[11:02] discouraged any overnight because even

[11:05] if they couldn't prove it someone could

[11:07] come and say I stayed I lived here and I

[11:09] got cancer and it's the type of cancer

[11:11] you get from blah blah blah and the

[11:13] liability is increased greatly. If we

[11:16] could just focus on the site future for this evening. We've got a li limited

[11:20] or this afternoon we've got a little bit

[11:22] limited amount of time. So if you could

[11:24] just show us continue with the public

[11:26] outreach process and the fact that we

[11:28] will be going through this process again

[11:30] very soon.

[11:31] >> Okay. So um just here was the first site

[11:34] futures committee. I don't know somehow

[11:36] that ended up being in red uh in the

[11:39] transfer of the slideshow. Um three

[11:42] people have been on the site futures

[11:43] committee since the beginning. One was

[11:45] Norm uh and myself and then Russ von

[11:49] Koke and public outreach. You can read

[11:52] that that we had a couple workshops and

[11:55] a comment period. Uh that first one.

[11:58] Okay.

[11:59] Second one in 2018. Um again uh the list

[12:04] gets a little bit longer as to who was

[12:06] on the site committee and uh we had a a

[12:10] web page. Uh we went more on the

[12:13] computer this time. web page, a public

[12:15] comment period, an open house, another

[12:18] comment period. So that was 2018.

[12:24] And then the last one in 2023,

[12:27] uh the committee gets a little bit

[12:28] longer and we started with an open house

[12:31] and an online survey uh for the

[12:34] community and there were 179 survey

[12:37] responses and then we held an open house

[12:39] after that.

[12:45] And this is what you probably most of

[12:47] you have seen the map of this. I won't

[12:48] go over it. Um but the community vision

[12:51] basically focuses on resident friendly uses. People in town really

[12:57] wanted something uh for residents. There

[13:00] was strong support for an event center

[13:02] sort of like a a Red Rocks amphitheater

[13:04] thing, trails, a boat ramp, and a

[13:07] transit center. And the DI design should

[13:10] reduce water use and environmental

[13:12] impacts and increase sustainability. And

[13:15] on the map, you can see the kind of red

[13:17] brown stippled area. That is the flood

[13:20] plane as best as we can determine right

[13:23] now. It'll change a little bit as they

[13:25] excavate some more dirt. Um, but the

[13:28] really the viable part to put things is

[13:30] the uh the upper left hand part of the

[13:33] site. So, uh that's near uh the pot ash

[13:36] road there. So, um, that's it.

[13:39] >> So, Saxon, there's really roughly about

[13:41] a 100 acres that can be built out of

[13:43] 483, correct? [clears throat]

[13:45] >> Yeah. Yeah.

[13:47] >> So, um, proposed infrastructure to

[13:50] remain just to kind of kick that off

[13:52] since that's something that, uh, is

[13:54] looking as right in front of all of us.

[13:56] Um, the DOE administrative office area

[14:00] with the road, the parking lot, modular

[14:02] buildings, septic tank in Leechfield.

[14:05] Some of those buildings may not be uh

[14:07] viable. They might be more of a

[14:08] liability than an asset. Uh access

[14:11] roads, the main one you get to from 191

[14:14] and there are two access roads on the

[14:16] potach road and the DOE rail sighting um

[14:20] and the safety wall. It does not look

[14:22] like the cliff stability monitoring

[14:24] system is uh something to take on. Uh

[14:27] it's expensive is what we've learned the

[14:29] last few weeks. And then the

[14:31] infrastructure, I won't read all that.

[14:33] You can take a look at that. But, uh,

[14:34] that's what's there. And, uh, community

[14:37] vision infrastructure needs obviously

[14:40] going to need, uh, water up there and

[14:42] probably some kind of something for

[14:43] waste.

[14:45] And I think that's the last one. I mean,

[14:47] there are a couple, but no, I won't go

[14:49] over that. So, I'm done.

[14:50] >> Can you put up the a slide of the site

[14:53] plan?

[14:55] So um it as you see each year that we

[14:59] got closer to the end more and more

[15:01] people became interested and so more and

[15:03] more people became involved in the

[15:05] process and I'm sure in next year when

[15:08] we start the process again that uh we'll

[15:11] even have a larger group that will show

[15:14] interest. Uh what's happened since we've

[15:17] gotten so close is I know I'm getting a

[15:19] lot of talk about well this has to

[15:20] happen on the site, this has to happen

[15:22] on the site and I want this to happen on

[15:25] the site. It's even been DOE even said

[15:27] people told him that this was not the

[15:30] plan that the people wanted anymore that

[15:32] people have changed their mind. they

[15:34] want a different plan and I don't know

[15:35] how they know that because this was a

[15:38] big process we went through to find out

[15:40] and so I guess until things change this

[15:43] is pretty much what we're you know

[15:44] somewhat the plan and it could very much

[15:47] change by the next time and uh I hope

[15:50] people that want to be part of the

[15:52] process you know get become part of the

[15:55] process when when it opens up again next

[15:58] year. Are there any questions?

[16:03] So, as Mary mentioned, next year in 27

[16:07] will probably be our final community

[16:09] vision process. I know there are other

[16:12] ideas. Not surprised by that. The closer

[16:15] you get to the closure of a site, other

[16:17] people have other ideas. Some of you

[16:19] were involved in this 2023 process and

[16:22] are new to it. So, looking forward to

[16:25] that next year in 27. Um, and bring your

[16:28] ideas forward. Nothing's off the table.

[16:30] Um, however, with that being said, at

[16:33] our infrastructure meeting we had just

[16:35] the other day, the DOE did say when the property is transferred, and for

[16:40] people that don't know this, we do have

[16:42] legislation in Congress to transfer the

[16:46] site to the GR to Grant County, and that

[16:50] Grant County has agreed that they will

[16:52] work with the city uh to help whatever

[16:54] we end up moving forward with. and we'll

[16:56] talk about that in a minute. But they

[16:58] did say there will be deed restrictions.

[17:01] They didn't tell us what those deed

[17:02] restrictions are. And so until we know

[17:05] what those deed restrictions, it's hard

[17:06] to know what we can actually do. We do

[17:09] know that they've seen this site and

[17:11] this what we planned on this, you know,

[17:13] in this plan were things that they said

[17:16] would be doable. But anyway, we we'll

[17:18] see where that falls out and try see if

[17:20] we can get some more information with

[17:22] the Department of Energy. But if anybody

[17:24] has any questions about this process and

[17:26] where we are today, knowing that you're

[17:28] going to have an opportunity to come to

[17:30] the table next year and put all of those

[17:32] ideas out there.

[17:35] >> Any questions? Yes, Brian.

[17:36] >> So, what have the conversations been

[17:38] like with legacy management? What

[17:39] they're going to need?

[17:41] >> We haven't really had a whole lot of

[17:42] conversations with legacy management yet

[17:45] because they're kind of not involved.

[17:46] The only part that we did was we went to

[17:49] over to Los Colonus in in Colorado

[17:51] because they had a similar site and they

[17:54] kind of told us the process that they

[17:55] had to go through. And I think what I

[17:57] want to lead into next is how we want to

[18:01] do that because in Grand Junction it was

[18:03] 20 years before they did anything. And I

[18:05] don't think we want to wait 20 years.

[18:07] And I think there are some things that

[18:09] we can implement immediately like trails

[18:12] and maybe waysides and we can ask the

[18:14] department of energy and I'm pretty mel

[18:16] and I talked about this. I really feel

[18:18] strongly that we should be asking the

[18:20] department of energy to do things to

[18:22] that site why they have the capability

[18:24] to do them that we can immediately to

[18:27] have access to. And so, um, I think I

[18:31] think we need to start working towards

[18:32] how we are going to implement some of

[18:34] these things, um, so that once the

[18:37] county gets the site, we can actually

[18:40] start moving forward with what we want

[18:41] to accomplish there.

[18:42] >> Now, the reason I brought up legacy

[18:43] management is I would imagine that we

[18:45] would want to start with where our

[18:47] priorities align,

[18:49] >> right? Legacy management as far as

[18:51] infrastructure goes and things like that

[18:52] right now. And so while we're in this

[18:55] process of deciding which assets are

[18:58] valuable, um I think their their input

[19:00] would be invaluable because I mean

[19:02] they're going to water

[19:05] it as they move on forward.

[19:09] » No, that's okay. Brian, you have the

[19:10] floor.

[19:11] >> Yeah. Yeah. Just I just want to make

[19:12] sure that our priorities are aligning

[19:14] legacy and what their needs are going to

[19:16] be so that we can just make sure that

[19:18] we're we're moving forward.

[19:20] >> Yes, I agree. and and shock his his hand

[19:22] up next. Mary,

[19:24] >> uh, what what's the process for putting

[19:25] together the 2027 2022 future sites

[19:28] committee?

[19:28] >> Saxon, I'm going to turn that over to

[19:30] you because you've been involved in the process to to put the to put the

[19:34] other

[19:34] >> on this.

[19:35] >> Yeah. I mean, basically it's going to be

[19:37] the same as what we've done before,

[19:38] right?

[19:39] >> Yeah. I I expect it'll be the same. Um,

[19:41] Russ is not available for this meeting,

[19:44] but he's the chair, so maybe I can

[19:46] advocate to him a little bit, but I

[19:48] expect it would be inviting everyone

[19:50] back. uh that was on it previously. I

[19:53] know maybe some of the pe agency people

[19:55] yeah may not um may not be available but

[19:59] just asking who's there who would like

[20:01] to be part of it and then just making

[20:03] sure that all the agencies and both city

[20:06] and county probably Castle Valley and um

[20:10] Thompson

[20:11] be involved with the Crescent Junction.

[20:14] >> Yeah, Crescent Junction also that they

[20:16] have a they have a voice.

[20:19] >> Yeah. try, you know, do our do our best

[20:20] to make sure that the citizens of Grand

[20:23] County, you know, have the opportunity

[20:25] to express what they want and what what

[20:27] they, you know, look looking forward to.

[20:30] Oh, and and legacy management,

[20:32] what they will do is they just monitor.

[20:36] They don't really do anything on the

[20:38] site as far as, you know, they don't

[20:41] even have an office on the site at Los

[20:43] Colonius. They uh they they monitor the

[20:46] water. they monitor make sure the uh uh

[20:48] stuff that comes in and goes out and uh

[20:51] that more than like you know they

[20:54] they're not like live working working

[20:56] there like the the uh department of

[20:58] environmental management. It's a little

[21:00] different.

[21:01] >> However, it's very important for us to

[21:03] develop a relationship with them just

[21:05] like we do with environmental

[21:07] management.

[21:08] >> So, and our Sarah's still there.

[21:11] >> Any other comments or questions?

[21:14] How did the rail lines fit into this the site futures and and all the work

[21:19] that that DOE went into improving them?

[21:23] >> Well, you know, we've had conversations

[21:24] with Union Pacific, [clears throat] as

[21:26] you heard at the Umpra celebration,

[21:29] Grace Npalitaniano would always put me

[21:31] in touch with them because what we would

[21:32] like to see is the Canyon Spirit,

[21:35] formerly the Rocky Mountain, be able to

[21:37] bring their passengers right into town.

[21:39] And so I think that's an important

[21:41] conversation for us to always keep in

[21:43] the back of our mind is how we can use

[21:45] that rail service to benefit our

[21:48] community. And I that's you know I've

[21:50] talked to Indian Pacific about it. It's

[21:52] something that's real doable.

[21:54] >> But we can't do anything until the DOE's

[21:56] off the site.

[21:57] >> Absolutely. Okay. Thank you.

[21:59] >> Anybody else?

[22:02] Okay. Thank you guys. Great refresher.

[22:05] Um, next up we have a and I'm going to

[22:08] let Michael talk a little bit more about

[22:10] this. Um, it's a memorandum of

[22:12] understanding between Grand County and

[22:14] Moab city's Atlas Park perspective

[22:16] planning efforts and we've got about 10

[22:19] minutes left in this discussion. Um, but

[22:21] we did pass a memorandum of

[22:23] understanding with the city and the

[22:24] county as to how we wanted to not take

[22:27] 20 years to start working on what we

[22:29] wanted to see at that site. And at the

[22:31] time there was some grant money

[22:33] available. We had about $2 million five

[22:36] 500 to$2 million available that we could

[22:39] use to start planning. This is through

[22:42] the DOE's

[22:44] funding mechanism. There was a acronym

[22:46] for it like there is for everything

[22:47] federal. But um we so we got together

[22:51] and started talking about how we could

[22:53] get that grant money. And one of the

[22:54] things we came up with was maybe we

[22:57] should start developing sort of like a

[22:59] master plan that Mel and I are going to

[23:01] talk about we're doing with maps later

[23:02] on in the agenda for that site so that

[23:06] you know we just all had a clear picture

[23:09] and that might be appropriate for us to

[23:10] do after our next 27 visioning session

[23:13] because there might be some additions or

[23:15] changes so that it's really clear you

[23:18] know and Mary suggested something 3D so

[23:20] that we can actually see what that that

[23:24] property is going to look like once we

[23:25] fully implement everything we want to

[23:27] implement. And so the city at the time

[23:29] budgeted for a staff person because

[23:31] honestly you guys, as much as we like to

[23:34] work together, I don't know that we

[23:36] could actually take on this big of a

[23:39] project as a commit in a committee

[23:41] setting. So we were proposing that we

[23:44] and we don't have it in the budget

[23:45] anymore because for various reasons that

[23:48] whole process kind of fell apart. But

[23:50] it's something I'd like to hear from you

[23:52] if you think hiring a person that's

[23:54] probably shared between the city and the

[23:56] county or how that would look um you

[23:58] know the staff the admin staff at the

[24:00] county and the city can talk about that

[24:03] so that we have somebody that we're

[24:05] working with that that's their sole

[24:06] responsibility is looking at the site

[24:09] finding funding mechanisms so we can do

[24:11] the things we want to do there and that

[24:13] kind of thing. So, I'd like to open that

[24:15] up for a little bit of a discussion and

[24:16] Michael, I don't know if you have

[24:18] anything you want to add since you that

[24:19] was your you you developed that.

[24:22] >> I'll just add a couple things really

[24:23] quick, but the mayor gave a pretty good

[24:25] synopsis of what that was and it's true

[24:28] we do need to start with a concept and

[24:30] the idea was that we were going to go

[24:32] from concept to shovel ready. Uh so this

[24:35] would be after the next concept comes

[24:37] about and it was a grant from DOE that

[24:40] was specifically targeted to under um

[24:44] privileged communities and those

[24:46] underprivileged communities were those

[24:47] who were affected by energy mining for

[24:52] uranium and things like that for a

[24:53] number of years and I believe we got a

[24:56] pretty good response from them. They

[24:57] just said maybe not right now. You're

[24:59] just a little too far away from the

[25:01] close of the the project. I think

[25:03] ownership was part of the

[25:05] >> Yeah, ownership was as well. Yeah. But

[25:07] we were looking from around$1.2 to$2

[25:09] million. It definitely was a joint

[25:12] effort and it would basically be

[25:14] feasibility analysis for the concept

[25:16] that had already been developed, civil

[25:18] site planning, public engagement and a

[25:21] final plan that would go out to bid at

[25:23] the end um that to hopefully construct

[25:26] the project if the funds were available

[25:28] to do that.

[25:30] >> Thoughts?

[25:34] I believe I spoke to uh more you I think

[25:38] I saw you speaking to him as well at the

[25:40] celebration and I think they're hoping

[25:43] that bill to transfer it over to Grand

[25:45] County is going to be moving pretty

[25:47] quickly but you know how quick

[25:52] DC but I know that until we have that

[25:55] land it's really hard to get people to

[25:57] give us money to develop until we have

[26:00] the deers

[26:02] Yes, Mel.

[26:03] >> Yeah, I think that this is definitely

[26:05] something we want to revisit and I went

[26:06] over thisou because it was there before

[26:08] right before I became a commissioner,

[26:10] but I I think the idea behind it's good,

[26:12] but we're definitely going to revisit it

[26:14] and reook at it and

[26:16] >> yeah, if there's grant funding out

[26:19] there, we want to take advantage of

[26:20] those opportunities and

[26:23] >> and once it gets transferred over to the

[26:25] county, then I think it's a perfect time

[26:26] to

[26:28] make to do ourou.

[26:29] >> Yeah. Well, yeah. I think absolutely

[26:31] 100% because that was that was, you

[26:33] know, kind of driven by this grant and

[26:35] something that we had to do. But, you

[26:37] know, mayor, I don't if I think if we've

[26:39] got legislation in Congress, I mean, I I

[26:42] think because we didn't at the time that

[26:44] we did this, we, you know, we didn't

[26:45] really know what was going to happen,

[26:47] uh, we may be able to start, um, getting

[26:50] some funding, uh, without having, uh,

[26:54] the actual land transferred, especially

[26:56] if we know that it's, you know, going to

[26:59] happen. I don't know if anybody has any

[27:02] other thoughts on that, but

[27:04] >> anybody else?

[27:06] I guess I'm wondering as we're

[27:07] considering this then with theou it

[27:11] would be joint I I I'm thinking with the

[27:13] land transfer over the county county

[27:15] then a lot more of the responsibility of

[27:17] grant application that position a lot of

[27:20] that would also go over to the county

[27:22] whether that's rolling over the umptra

[27:24] leaison position into that site futures

[27:28] or what but um I guess that that is kind

[27:30] of a question of um

[27:34] is the is the county taking on more of

[27:37] that role if we're going to come back to

[27:39] that grant application.

[27:41] >> Well, I think that's to be determined to

[27:43] be honest with you. I think the idea is

[27:46] we would love as the city of Moab to

[27:48] partner and I think we've all agreed

[27:49] that that's something that we should do

[27:51] as we develop that site. Um, but who

[27:53] actually is control of moving it

[27:55] forward? You know, I think we would also

[27:58] like to be a part of that. Um, so I

[28:00] think it's to be determined at this

[28:01] point.

[28:04] Bill, do you have anything to add?

[28:06] >> No. Um, all I've heard about the bill is

[28:10] that it's waiting to be moved on to the

[28:12] House floor

[28:14] >> and I I don't know what the process is

[28:16] to get it there, but that's where it's

[28:17] at. It came out of committee and um,

[28:20] >> right,

[28:20] >> Senator Lee was part of that committee.

[28:23] It was one of his committees. So, it's

[28:25] out of committee waiting to get a place

[28:26] on the board.

[28:27] >> And my guess it's going to be um folded

[28:30] into other legislation. I doubt it will

[28:32] be a standalone bill. Anybody else that

[28:35] has comments about the feature site and

[28:37] the process moving forward? Yes, Brian.

[28:40] >> Yeah, just two things. One is I'd like

[28:42] to just make sure that we're also

[28:43] considering the pipeline. Um, we got

[28:46] that.

[28:46] >> Yes,

[28:47] >> we got that added into the legislation

[28:49] before it went through committee. So,

[28:51] that's that's a resource I think um

[28:53] that's going to be coming towards Grand

[28:54] County. And then the second, but I just

[28:56] like um at least as we kind of move into

[28:59] it, my think we we view this as an

[29:01] asset. Um but I don't think that it's an

[29:04] asset yet. I think that we all need to

[29:05] understand what we're actually taking on

[29:07] as a liability.

[29:08] >> Yes.

[29:08] >> And we're going to have to figure out

[29:10] how we're going to divvy up that

[29:11] liability moving on in the future until

[29:14] it does become

[29:16] >> Brian, that is a really really good

[29:17] point because I think we all get pie in

[29:19] the sky and think, "Oh, look at this.

[29:21] We've got this 500 acres of land, but it

[29:24] is going to be a liability and there is

[29:26] going to be a lot that's going to have

[29:27] to be taken care of that we don't even

[29:30] think about like all the tumble weeds

[29:32] that are going to be growing out there.

[29:33] Anyway, so glad you brought that up.

[29:37] Anything else?

[29:38] >> I'm wondering, can you can you clarify

[29:40] the the pipeline addition?

[29:41] >> Oh, yeah.

[29:42] >> Yeah. So, the uh um there's a pipeline

[29:46] goes from the Green River out to

[29:48] Crescent Junction and they use that to

[29:52] um you know as they move the tailings

[29:54] over there to water it down and tamp it

[29:55] on down. Um on the completion of the

[29:58] project um the state of Utah pass1

[30:02] I believe

[30:04] >> 001

[30:04] >> 0014

[30:06] >> recommendated that this DOE transfer

[30:10] that pipeline over to Grand County Water

[30:13] Conservancy District. So um that will be

[30:16] the possibility of water for Crescent

[30:18] Junction and hopefully for Thompson.

[30:20] Those are the those are the purposes of

[30:22] having that water transfer over or that

[30:24] construction. Um once again talking

[30:27] about liabilities. Um it is in the uh

[30:30] the DO's best interest. They are going

[30:32] to be water moving forward on that site.

[30:35] Um this would basically relieve that of

[30:38] the liability of having to maintain that

[30:40] pipeline all the way through. So R

[30:43] County, not only do we you know, get

[30:44] access to that, but we'll also get the

[30:46] other

[30:48] pipeline that goes all the way from

[30:49] Green River up to Crust Junction.

[30:51] >> But that's a huge asset out there.

[30:53] >> Huge asset to to those two communities

[30:55] out.

[30:56] >> Yep. And to that intersection.

[30:58] >> Um um anything else? We're kind of like

[31:01] done, you know, over our time with this

[31:04] one, but I do one thing that Mel brought

[31:06] up about the future site process for

[31:08] next year in 27 which I really like and

[31:11] I think it's something when we move

[31:13] forward with this that we should think

[31:14] about is looking at stages of how we can

[31:18] develop that site like what can we do

[31:21] immediately what can we do you know four

[31:24] or five years and what can we do in 10

[31:26] or 20 and so I think that's something

[31:29] that when we do start that process Let's

[31:31] not forget to kind of to to look at kind

[31:33] of the tiered approach to how we

[31:35] envision what we want to have out there,

[31:37] what we can get done now, why we've got

[31:40] the DOE there with the money to do it,

[31:42] and what we can do in the interim and

[31:44] then, you know, 10 years out. So,

[31:46] something I'd like us to consider. Um,

[31:49] and then the last thing, you know, I

[31:50] don't know that there's a whole lot to

[31:51] talk about here. I did include in your

[31:54] packet the infrastructure list. I think

[31:55] Bill, you didn't have a chance to see

[31:57] that. Um, and and then this big group is it's you

[32:02] know we can't decide what we want to

[32:04] keep and what we want to do not keep.

[32:06] And it really comes down to Grant

[32:08] County. It's going to be your property,

[32:10] what liabilities you want, what

[32:12] liabilities you don't. Mel and I were

[32:13] talking about it yesterday. We have two

[32:15] different, you know, if it was me and I

[32:17] got that property, I would want it clean

[32:19] with nothing on it. She has different

[32:21] ideas which I think are really

[32:22] appropriate. Um and and I think what you

[32:26] offered was to develop a smaller group.

[32:28] Do you want to talk about that?

[32:29] Yeah.

[32:29] >> Yeah. So, we've had a couple meetings

[32:31] with the DOE and the Entra site

[32:35] heads out there the last few u months

[32:38] and I think it's been a large group.

[32:40] We've had people from the county, the

[32:41] city, the site futures, and the steering

[32:44] committee. And I think we'll have a

[32:45] little bit smaller group that will get

[32:47] together and really hone in on those

[32:49] ideas, bring it before the commission so

[32:51] that the commission can approve that.

[32:54] And then on J by June 1st, we'll have

[32:56] that list that goes to the DOE. And I

[32:59] think including on that list is kind of

[33:01] some of those dirt projects even. I

[33:04] mean, I know we're talking about

[33:05] infrastructure, which is majority the

[33:08] electrical and the sewer and the water

[33:11] and all of the other infrastructure that

[33:12] you saw, but I think we can add those

[33:14] that list. They said add it all. Add

[33:16] it's our it's our wish list. So, as we

[33:19] but we don't want to take on too much

[33:20] liability because we already are taking

[33:22] on a huge liability. So there'll be a

[33:24] small group of people that are from that

[33:26] group, representatives. So Mary, I think

[33:28] it's be Mary, Bill, and I from the

[33:29] commission and the steering committee

[33:31] and Saxon and pick a couple other people

[33:34] and we'll um from that group and just

[33:36] hone in exactly what we want, put it on

[33:38] a commission meeting so that everyone's

[33:40] aware of what we're taking to the

[33:42] Department of Energy.

[33:44] >> Sounds great.

[33:45] >> Thank you. So this was our first item of

[33:49] something that we could be working on

[33:51] together. I know we're looking at 29 for

[33:53] closure when we finally get it, but I

[33:55] think the point of this is that we start

[33:57] working together now so that when we get

[34:00] to 29, we have something that we can

[34:02] actually use. Everybody agree with that?

[34:06] >> Yes. Great. Good. All right, moving on.

[34:10] Main Street sidewalk in installation.

[34:12] Now, this is something hopefully we can

[34:14] get done sooner rather than later. Um,

[34:17] as you all know, we've got a new liquor

[34:18] store in town and there's no place for

[34:22] people to walk except on the road from

[34:23] the liquor store downtown to town and

[34:26] UDOT came to us when when they first,

[34:28] you know, started in on that project and

[34:31] said, you know, you could you guys do a

[34:33] sidewalk? Would you be interested in

[34:34] doing a sidewalk? And so I believe

[34:36] Michael and Quinn, you guys are on this

[34:39] agenda item to kind of talk to where

[34:41] we're at and uh kind of what the costs

[34:44] and and how we can share this this

[34:46] project. Um so

[34:48] >> so I'll do a quick overview. We're going

[34:50] to ask you do to come up. Dan Hinckley

[34:52] here is here from UD do and then we've

[34:54] also got the county engineer who's who's

[34:57] coming up as well. So, just as an

[34:59] overview really quick, um this is

[35:03] the the stuff in red here is the city of

[35:06] Moab. The property we're talking about,

[35:08] uh we'll go over in just a second, but

[35:10] this is the the South Maverick here, the

[35:13] new liquor store still under

[35:14] construction here. And then we've got

[35:17] the dollar store and the the tire store

[35:19] here. Um the uh let's get Sorry, my

[35:23] computer.

[35:26] So, I'll show you the sidewalk. So, this

[35:28] is where we have sidewalk right now in

[35:30] the black dashed line. And then this is

[35:32] where we're looking at sidewalk. The uh

[35:35] sidewalk is about 675 ft in linear

[35:39] distance, but it's about six feet wide.

[35:42] And that's what we have on both ends

[35:43] right now is a six foot wide sidewalk.

[35:46] Um we're looking at a total cost for the

[35:48] sidewalk of around $75,000.

[35:51] uh depending on your uh drainage issues

[35:54] and elevation and fill and things like

[35:56] that, it could could be a little bit

[35:58] different, but that's our internal

[36:00] estimates of what we think the cost

[36:01] would be. Uh the um this is going to be

[36:06] a joint project, which I'll talk about

[36:08] in just a second. Us here, they can talk

[36:10] about the curb and gutter cost and the

[36:12] drainage, but uh they did say that they

[36:14] thought this was a good project and they

[36:16] want to participate. And then I'll also

[36:18] uh Grand County has talked about a

[36:22] several different options for

[36:23] participating. We don't know which one

[36:25] is going to be yet, but there's a they

[36:27] have another project that they could

[36:28] make it part of or it could be a

[36:30] standalone project. And then the last

[36:32] thing here, this is just a couple of

[36:34] pictures from the north and south. And

[36:36] then in the middle, all the sidewalk

[36:38] we're looking at would be on UDOT

[36:40] rightway. We think all the sidewalk

[36:42] would certainly, but I think through

[36:44] engineering there might be some

[36:45] discoveries with drainage that we may

[36:47] need to talk about. Um, there's no

[36:49] effect to private property as far as we

[36:51] know right now. The city, county, and

[36:53] UDOT would be working together on this

[36:55] and as the mayor pointed out, this fills

[36:57] in a a really big gap in the community

[36:59] and and uh it's a pretty important

[37:02] project for the community. So, Dan, did

[37:06] you want to

[37:08] >> Yes, absolutely. [clears throat] Thank

[37:10] you, Mayor. and chair. It's wonderful to

[37:11] be with you today. Councilman,

[37:13] commissioners. I'm Dan Hinkley. I'm the

[37:15] district engineer for UD do located in

[37:17] Price. I oversee all the maintenance and

[37:20] construction activities in southeast

[37:21] Utah. So, our initial estimate, just a

[37:25] very quick estimate, uh with this about

[37:27] 675 ft of curbon gutter, uh UDOT would

[37:31] be covering the cost of that curbon

[37:34] gutter, the asphalt tie-in, and any

[37:36] needed drainage improvements in that

[37:38] area. And we estimate that's probably

[37:40] going to run 60 to $65,000 and it could

[37:45] be more depending on how bids come back

[37:47] and the way that in which it's uh leted

[37:51] I guess or or the way in which the

[37:52] contractor looks at that. And so we

[37:54] would be working directly with that and

[37:56] we would our proposal would be to create

[37:58] an agreement with the local governments

[38:00] to be able to pass through that funding

[38:03] so that once that's buil uh built we

[38:06] would receive an invoice then pay that

[38:07] invoice. So we would actually be doing

[38:10] the curb and the gutter and you would

[38:12] reimburse us for it.

[38:13] >> Yes. That's

[38:14] >> that that's pretty typical. We can we

[38:16] can definitely deal with something like

[38:17] that. They they usually pay their bills

[38:19] so [laughter] they're pretty good.

[38:21] >> If not, you know who to call.

[38:23] >> Yeah.

[38:26] The count's portion of this would

[38:27] be the uh design which Horox is willing

[38:30] to do to to put together a design enough

[38:33] for an estimate to create that agreement

[38:35] with UD do as well as add that change

[38:38] order under the pending contract with

[38:40] Silver Spring construction for the

[38:42] Jackson Street phase 2 storm drain

[38:45] project that we're about ready to

[38:47] >> right I think from our perspective from

[38:50] the city's perspective we just want to

[38:52] see it move forward if Jackson Street is

[38:54] moving forward that's great let's let's

[38:56] just do it but if it's if it's going to

[38:58] be delayed uh we might want to look at

[39:00] doing this as a separate project

[39:04] >> yeah I'll say we've got quite a few

[39:06] different options available to us with

[39:08] the Jackson Street drainage and we've

[39:09] had some discussions at the county about

[39:12] the overall cost. Obviously, that's a huge component of this for the

[39:16] Jackson Street project and we've also

[39:18] got a few other projects in the works

[39:20] and we the commissioners have the option

[39:23] to shift some of that funding around and

[39:24] so we'll we'll hit them up and see where

[39:25] they want to go with this but if if this

[39:28] is the the direction they choose to go,

[39:30] we're happy to make it happen.

[39:33] >> Any idea what a timeline would be? I

[39:35] kind of feel a little urgent about this

[39:37] just because of all the people walking

[39:39] down the road.

[39:40] >> I think we'll have a decision on our end

[39:43] as far as whether we move forward on the

[39:45] full Jackson Street project or a

[39:47] modified version of it within the next

[39:49] maybe not the next not not Tuesday but

[39:52] next week within four weeks. So if you

[39:54] have to modify would that like

[39:57] >> if we have to modify that will

[39:58] definitely change the scope of the

[40:00] engineering and that would probably take

[40:01] another

[40:03] >> Sean how many weeks probably another

[40:05] three weeks to modify

[40:07] >> it's a week for design the agreement but

[40:10] yeah I think that would go on the May

[40:12] 5th commission agend for that decision.

[40:19] So I I think we should be shooting for

[40:22] going out to bid somewhere late June or

[40:25] early July. I think it sound might sound

[40:28] like a a little whiles a while away to

[40:31] some people because it's we want to get

[40:33] on this right away, but I think that makes the most sense and if we can

[40:37] keep moving towards that that'll line up

[40:39] with our budget. Although if it happens

[40:41] sooner we could figure it out. Uh but I

[40:44] think that's the most realistic thing

[40:45] and what we should shoot for.

[40:48] Great. Um, well, the liquor store just

[40:50] opened, so if we can get the sidewalk in

[40:54] this year, I think that's a success. Any

[40:57] comments or questions from anybody? Yes,

[41:00] Bill.

[41:01] >> Um, my question would be, so the the

[41:04] county would be on the hook for the

[41:05] design portion only of this, just for

[41:07] clarification.

[41:09] >> That's where we are right now. I my

[41:11] proposal to the council will be that I I

[41:13] feel like that's that's a pretty good

[41:15] trade since it is in the city. the

[41:17] rightaway of the of the road is in the

[41:20] city. The property it's adjacent to is

[41:23] not in the city, it's county. Um, but if you guys could cover the design and

[41:29] the project management as well, uh, then I think we could cover the cost of

[41:34] the sidewalk knowing that the counties

[41:36] or that UD do's going to cover the cost

[41:38] of the curb and gutter and tie in.

[41:41] >> Or she could give us money if you wanted

[41:43] to. We'd be happy.

[41:46] Anything else, Bill?

[41:47] >> No, that's all I had. Thank you.

[41:49] >> Anybody else?

[41:51] All right. Well, keep us posted. Quinn,

[41:54] I'm sure you'll keep the commission

[41:55] posted and you and Mark and um you do

[41:59] and Michael, we'll get this moving

[42:02] forward.

[42:03] >> Great.

[42:05] >> Thanks.

[42:06] >> Thank you.

[42:13] » All right, we're back on time.

[42:15] All right,

[42:16] >> good job you guys. [clears throat] All

[42:17] right, so the next um the next piece is

[42:21] economic development. And we all know

[42:24] that county city our economic um goals

[42:28] are pretty much similar and our main

[42:30] economic driver of course is tourism and

[42:33] for the city um downtown is a really

[42:37] important thing and we'll get to that.

[42:39] But you know, Mel and I have been

[42:41] working on I have been working on this

[42:43] project for a long long time. And with

[42:46] the help of Michael and Melissa, we are

[42:49] moving forward with the final phase of

[42:52] the Moab art area partnership for

[42:54] seniors campus. And we believe that this

[42:57] is a big economic driver for our

[42:59] community. Also, it's not only um helped

[43:02] support our senior population, which by

[43:04] the way, fifth of our population is 55

[43:07] years and older, and we'll talk a little

[43:09] bit about that, but we just wanted to

[43:11] give you an update on the maps project

[43:14] because we believe it could also be

[43:16] enticing retirees to come to our

[43:18] community and that there's a really nice

[43:21] economic component to this that we kind

[43:23] of don't think about that often. And so

[43:26] Mel and I kind of wanted to bring this

[43:27] to the forefront of the the county uh

[43:30] the commission and the council so that

[43:32] we can start thinking about our senior

[43:34] population, 20% of our population and

[43:38] how we as two bodies can help support us

[43:41] as we get older. So and people that are

[43:44] currently here. So would you mind

[43:46] pulling up the

[43:47] >> Sure.

[43:49] You want to just say the color view map

[43:51] or

[43:51] >> Yeah.

[43:55] So recently, the Healthcare Special

[43:56] Service District, who owns the property,

[43:59] has is going to be putting out an RFP

[44:01] next week to a variety of planners that

[44:06] um it's called,

[44:08] >> okay?

[44:08] >> Um of the for the completion of this

[44:12] project. And as you can see on your

[44:13] screens, that's the site. That is the

[44:16] Moab campus right there. What you see in

[44:19] green green hash is the property that we

[44:22] own. That's about 8 acres. And so our

[44:25] goal there and Melissa, I I wouldn't

[44:27] mind if you could come up in case

[44:28] there's any questions. I mean, I won't I

[44:31] know

[44:32] um you're you're up for the the next

[44:34] three. So the next two also, so it'd be

[44:37] great to have you here if there's some

[44:38] questions. Um so that green portion is

[44:40] what's left. It's eight acres and some

[44:43] of it's commercial, some of it is

[44:45] residential. You're

[44:46] >> going to bring it up on a larger

[44:48] >> Okay. So be able to see it better.

[44:52] And so what we want to what we want to

[44:54] do is develop that and our primary goal

[44:57] there is independent senior housing

[44:59] because there's a lot of housing out

[45:01] there. Um we don't really talk about

[45:03] senior housing that much. Um you know we

[45:06] have the housing task force. I've talked

[45:08] to Caitlyn about this you know um but we

[45:11] never we talk about workforce housing.

[45:13] We talk about you know essential

[45:15] services housing but we don't talk about

[45:17] senior housing. And I think it's a big

[45:19] issue for our community. For example, I

[45:22] live in a four-bedroom, two-b house with

[45:24] my husband on a quarter acre of land,

[45:26] and I don't want to have to do all the

[45:28] work I do in my yard anymore, and I

[45:30] don't need a house that big, but I don't

[45:32] have anywhere else to go if I wanted to

[45:34] move. And so the idea of this campus is

[45:37] so that people like me and others that

[45:40] want to maybe move back into town, have

[45:43] a smaller footprint in their home, not

[45:45] have a bunch of yard maintenance, kind

[45:47] of like a mini retirement community.

[45:48] Really, that was the whole vision for

[45:50] this. And so we we're going to put on

[45:52] RFP to hire somebody, the consultant, a

[45:55] planning consultant to help us come up

[45:57] with a master plan on what we can do.

[45:59] some of this property is commercial, so

[46:01] we can also have retail, you know, and

[46:03] Melissa did a really great job of kind

[46:05] of describing to us this the committee

[46:08] that worked on this, you know, of all

[46:10] the different things that we could

[46:11] actually do there that would benefit not

[46:14] only the senior population, but kind of

[46:16] integrate it into the entire community.

[46:19] And so anyway, that's kind of where

[46:21] we're going with this. You can see the

[46:23] lighter green next to the Moab Regional

[46:25] Hospital is the care center. We need to

[46:28] expand that care center. We need to add

[46:30] another 34 units with a memory care and

[46:33] other services provided for long-term

[46:35] care. Um the little pink dots on on the

[46:39] uh on the right that is Walnut Lane. And

[46:43] then there's one little strip of

[46:44] property that's owned by a private uh

[46:47] person that's about it's about an acre

[46:49] and it's got about 10 trailers on it.

[46:52] And so we've also going to ask this

[46:54] consultant to look at this this uh u uh

[46:57] the expansion of the care center and how

[47:00] maybe we can include Walnut Lane and

[47:03] this other parcel into the full

[47:05] development. Now the green piece is

[47:07] going to be the senior housing piece.

[47:09] The others could be whatever you know

[47:12] whatever is determined that we want to

[47:14] be there other than the care center. So

[47:16] hopefully this person that we hire is

[47:18] going to be able to help us figure all

[47:19] of this out and um so that's kind of

[47:23] where we're at at with maps.

[47:25] >> Yes. So

[47:25] >> what is what's the commercial zone to

[47:27] it?

[47:28] >> Where is it on here?

[47:29] >> Yes,

[47:30] >> it is directly behind I think it's the

[47:34] property right behind the right next to

[47:36] the grand center.

[47:37] >> Okay.

[47:37] >> The one area is the recovery center with

[47:39] the black line. That's the recovery. I

[47:41] think that's commercial and I think

[47:43] right behind it is commercial. behind.

[47:46] Yeah.

[47:47] >> And then how about that piece of

[47:48] property to the north, that little the

[47:50] red dot property that

[47:51] >> that is community rebuilt and we've

[47:54] talked to them because right now they're

[47:56] they what they want to do is put a

[47:58] culde-sac in there. And there's some

[48:00] concerns with our planning staff that if

[48:02] there was a fire, they'd be trapped in

[48:04] there. And so we want to figure out a

[48:06] way to connect them to the care c uh

[48:10] center road down below and come up with,

[48:12] you know, and these are all things that

[48:14] a master plan. So basically, we put that

[48:16] in there because that's going to be most

[48:18] likely community rebuilds housing, which

[48:20] is great.

[48:21] >> Um, so

[48:24] anybody else questions?

[48:28] » Nobody's very talkative. You guys are

[48:30] like way talkative in your meetings.

[48:31] >> They want to make me stay on. [laughter]

[48:34] I I'm excited to see this happen. I know

[48:37] I remember years ago we met and

[48:42] before the new hospital I mean this has

[48:43] been a project for

[48:47] years.

[48:47] >> Oh yeah this far

[48:50] >> 25 actually

[48:52] >> yeah okay assessment. So yeah, as u when

[48:57] I was running for commission, I would

[48:58] have never thought that senior housing

[49:01] was going to be something that I was

[49:02] going to champion, but as I was put on

[49:05] the council of agent aging board and

[49:07] also the Canyons Healthcare Special

[49:09] Service District, it was very apparent

[49:12] that this was a need. You know, we all

[49:14] hear about housing just like Joette

[49:15] said, but not really senior housing,

[49:17] senior needs. um and the fact that by

[49:19] 2030 one one out of every five residents

[49:22] going to be over the age of 55 in our

[49:24] community. And so I wanted to jump on

[49:27] the bandwagon and start working with

[49:29] this. So one of the things that we need

[49:31] before we can close all the gaps is

[49:33] information. And so right now we have a

[49:36] communitywide comprehensive needs

[49:38] assessment and gap analysis that's going

[49:40] to be going out. It's in the advertiser

[49:42] this week. There's a QR code or website

[49:45] I think in the advertiser. You can go on

[49:47] there. It's on our website. If you look

[49:49] if you search um older adults update,

[49:53] you can also find a bunch of information

[49:55] on what we're doing with this needs

[49:56] assessment. And this assessment will

[49:58] directly inform policy decisions,

[50:01] funding advoc advocacy, what the program

[50:04] will develop and also what the county's

[50:06] planning framework looks like. So, this

[50:08] is really important. We're hoping to get

[50:10] this done quickly and you can fill it

[50:12] out for yourself. you can fill it out

[50:14] for those that you know, but we want to get that far and wide. So, if

[50:19] you see that in the next few weeks,

[50:20] please take your time and get that

[50:22] accomplished. That will help us in our

[50:24] future planning.

[50:26] >> Very good. This is really exciting to

[50:28] me. You know, I don't know all of you

[50:31] guys are aware. I'm a gerontologist.

[50:33] Study of aging has always been my

[50:34] background. You know, I've been in

[50:36] long-term care and uh aging population

[50:39] issues my pretty much my whole career.

[50:42] Um, and I really, you know, Mel and I

[50:45] have been talking and and the Lisa and I

[50:48] just really want to advocate for our

[50:49] senior population and you know, the

[50:51] county, you guys run a lot of the senior

[50:54] services, Council on Aging, the Grand

[50:57] Center, Meals on Wheels, but I feel like

[50:59] the city needs to step up on this also

[51:01] and that we it's something that we all

[51:04] can absolutely work together on. And

[51:06] let's not forget about that population.

[51:09] You know, we're all going to be there,

[51:10] Bill. We're already there. her there and

[51:13] so are you. Yeah. So, and Mary and Todd,

[51:15] I mean, we just I just feel that's so

[51:17] important and I just was thrilled

[51:18] because I remember when Mel became uh

[51:21] the, you know, got on the commission and

[51:22] you guys appointed her to the council on

[51:24] aging and some other aging and you're

[51:26] like, I'm the youngest person here and

[51:27] now I get to go deal with all the aging

[51:29] people, which was great because it was

[51:31] an eye openener, I think, for you. And

[51:33] I'm just really proud that Melissa also

[51:36] jumped on this bag of wagon that the

[51:38] three of us just see this important need

[51:40] and we want to put things forward to

[51:43] address it. And I don't want us to

[51:44] forget that because we get all involved

[51:46] in umptra and you know these fun sexy

[51:49] projects well sidewalks but you know all

[51:52] these other things and we you know we're

[51:54] just forgetting about one of our main

[51:57] you know most important

[51:59] >> people and and I just want to also say

[52:01] that today Bill and I got to go to the

[52:04] grand center which was packed with

[52:05] people and wish Margaret McCay

[52:08] >> Mackie

[52:09] >> Mackey her hundth birthday and those

[52:13] kind of things just mean a lot to me and

[52:15] I know they do to Bill also. So, I don't

[52:18] know what more we want to talk about.

[52:20] >> Go ahead. Yeah.

[52:21] >> The last piece of this that I really

[52:23] want to bring forth, I I think

[52:25] everywhere I go lately, and maybe it's

[52:26] because my ears are open, but people are

[52:28] talking about this. You know, they're

[52:30] saying, "I want to be first on the list.

[52:31] I'm I'm before you." You know, they're

[52:33] kind of fighting over who gets to move

[52:35] into this as it goes and when's it going

[52:37] to be done and how fast is this going to

[52:39] happen and all of those questions I

[52:41] don't necessarily have the answers for.

[52:42] or I know we're moving forward. The

[52:45] expansion of the care center is key. I

[52:47] think that that needs to happen. But my

[52:50] biggest concern that I'm hearing out

[52:51] there is that

[52:54] well, I grew up here. I lived here my

[52:57] whole life or my grandparents did and we

[52:59] can't even get into the care center. You

[53:00] know, there's a hundred people on the

[53:01] waiting list. So, I think we need to

[53:03] talk about policy. So, I think as as we

[53:05] all are working on this, if you have

[53:06] some really great ideas, you know, we

[53:08] created policy for housing. we have our,

[53:10] you know, you have to work here to live

[53:12] here in our housing. So, I think that we

[53:14] need to look at some policy that's going

[53:17] to include

[53:20] giving a space for those pe community

[53:22] members that have lived here. Yes, it's

[53:24] the economic driver. Yes, we want people

[53:26] to come to Moab and spend their last

[53:28] breast here because it's a beautiful,

[53:30] great air quality, but we also don't

[53:32] want to forget about all the people that

[53:34] lived here and made that happen. And so

[53:36] as we are building this, we need to

[53:38] build policy to go right along with it.

[53:40] So we just don't get there and be like,

[53:41] "Oh crap, we have this amazing space."

[53:44] And now our local grandma and grandpa

[53:47] can't move in there or ourselves. So

[53:50] that's something I really want to start

[53:52] working on as well is that policy and

[53:53] what that looks like. And I don't know

[53:55] what it does yet, but I'm going to ask

[53:57] for everyone's help on that as well.

[53:59] >> You know, one of the things and and

[54:01] Melissa, maybe you can uh talk about

[54:03] this a little bit. Sorry to put you on

[54:04] the spot, but it did come up in one of

[54:06] our subcommittee meetings about the

[54:08] council on aging. I mean, we have a

[54:11] great council on aging right now led by

[54:14] Karen Fury and and and how we could

[54:17] strengthen how the county could

[54:19] strengthen that board to take on some of

[54:21] these things that that Mel's talking

[54:23] about. Do you remember those

[54:24] conversation, Melissa? Am I really

[54:26] putting you on the spot on here on this

[54:27] one?

[54:28] >> No, you totally are. I I think you know

[54:31] we talk about it all the time that one

[54:34] of the biggest foundations of economic

[54:36] development is having a community where

[54:38] people want to live because if you have

[54:40] a livable community those people are

[54:44] starting businesses they it's a place

[54:46] where they want to live and I feel like

[54:47] we do a really good job at looking at

[54:49] all of the different areas what makes

[54:51] the community livable and what we had

[54:53] talked about is we also need to put that

[54:55] same amount of focus into what it's like

[54:57] to age here. So having a council on

[55:00] aging, you know, what's so important

[55:02] about that board is that they're the

[55:04] advocates for aging. They're the ones

[55:05] that are supposed to be pushing the

[55:07] county. They're the ones that are

[55:08] supposed to be pushing the commission to

[55:10] the point of discomfort to make sure

[55:11] that those voices are heard and that advocacy moves forward. So to be

[55:16] able to task them and have them really

[55:18] be able to engage as a board and push

[55:20] these policies forward and make these

[55:23] recommendations, the stronger that board

[55:25] is, the greater the advocacy they should

[55:28] be pushing to be able to advocate for

[55:30] aging adults almost to the point of

[55:33] discomfort, right? It's one more voice

[55:35] at the table.

[55:37] >> Great.

[55:38] You guys have any thoughts on that? I'd

[55:40] love to hear from you.

[55:42] It's very easy to pull that up on the

[55:44] advertisers's web page. I just did

[55:46] myself to do that assessment. So, I

[55:48] really recommend everybody

[55:50] >> participate.

[55:51] >> Yeah. Participate in that because some

[55:53] of our comments will be part of the

[55:56] decisions, you know, around just like

[55:57] Mel said, we don't want to

[56:00] have just retirees moving here to take

[56:02] up these spaces. We want to welcome them

[56:05] here, but we also need to take care of

[56:06] our aging population. some of our in

[56:10] families that started this valley. So,

[56:13] you know, I I would urge you to go to

[56:15] that advertiser page for that,

[56:18] >> right?

[56:19] >> Yeah, just just kind of second on that

[56:21] right there. Um, you know, that the

[56:23] easiest way to advocate at the state for

[56:25] funding, which this is going to require,

[56:27] is to have data. So, you know, being

[56:29] able to have the needs assessment in

[56:31] hand when we're up there talking to

[56:33] legislators and it's it's invaluable to

[56:35] say, "No, this is where we're at. This

[56:37] is where we're going right here. Can you

[56:39] guys help us get there? So,

[56:40] >> great. Thanks,

[56:42] >> Mike. You've been quiet.

[56:46] » Definitely not my usual, but I I I know

[56:50] that I am one of the younger members of both the commission and the council.

[56:53] >> You won't be forever.

[56:54] >> I won't be forever. Uh this has been an

[56:57] ongoing uh topic for my own family.

[57:00] uh my wife's parents uh now parent are

[57:06] uh far more aged uh they're older than

[57:10] uh even my own parents and the question

[57:13] of availability of care centers and

[57:16] everything we have always looked uh over

[57:19] the last four years we've looked outside

[57:22] of Mov because we know uh no uh getting

[57:26] in getting uh getting a room at the care

[57:28] center is it's a list. Uh we also know

[57:32] that uh our other communities that are

[57:35] close, Grand Junction Price both do

[57:37] this. They both have uh senior living.

[57:42] Uh and I in that I would really look

[57:45] towards our communities. I mean what

[57:47] they are doing right next door. Uh

[57:50] because they're not that far away. If

[57:52] they have a good idea, our person who we

[57:54] put on this should be stealing those

[57:56] good ideas. So, I mean, it's it doesn't

[57:59] take a lot for a a good uh

[58:04] picture of what is going on with aging.

[58:06] Uh, Grand Junction has huge communities.

[58:09] Uh, I I've stayed with them. I've had uh

[58:15] family and friends uh uh in senior

[58:18] living in Grand Junction and uh I've

[58:20] seen some things that they do right and

[58:22] I didn't know at the time that they were

[58:24] doing some things wrong, but now being

[58:26] in a a a a commission member position.

[58:29] You see that and you see what

[58:31] infrastructure needs are going to be

[58:32] meet uh downtown. But I hope we look

[58:35] towards local communities that are doing

[58:37] things right right next to us.

[58:40] >> Yes. Very very well taken. And we have,

[58:43] you know, when we first started all

[58:44] this, I mean, my whole thing, like I

[58:46] said, was I want this to be a little

[58:47] mini retirement community because we're

[58:50] small and that's our biggest challenge

[58:52] is we're, you know, we just don't have

[58:54] those kind of populations. But I think

[58:56] we can get this done and I think with

[58:57] the help of a consultant and with Mel

[58:59] and Melissa and Michael in the

[59:01] healthcare special services that we can

[59:04] make this happen. I really encourage

[59:06] everybody to pay paying attention. Mel

[59:08] and I will report back to our bodies

[59:10] about it and um hopefully we'll start

[59:13] seeing some real movement in in the next

[59:16] well we'll be the first year is going to

[59:18] be a lot of a community engagement and

[59:19] then we'll have a plan and then after

[59:21] that we have to figure out what we're

[59:23] going to do you know how we're going to

[59:24] make it happen.

[59:25] So, anybody else? Yes, Caitlyn.

[59:27] >> Yes. Um, I have a a question and a

[59:29] comment. I'm I'm curious to hear um I

[59:32] guess just a quick run through of what

[59:34] the scope of, you know, kind of what the

[59:36] RFP is. I hear that independent senior

[59:38] living is a priority and memory care,

[59:41] but curious if there are specific

[59:44] commercial uses or what the vision is in

[59:46] the RFP. Um, and then and I guess also a

[59:51] comment being one of the probably the

[59:54] youngest person here. Um, I think that

[59:57] senior housing is a young people's issue

[1:00:00] too. Um, I think it's a a

[1:00:03] intergenerational conversation. Um,

[1:00:06] because your fourbedroom house is a

[1:00:09] place where someone that's my age could

[1:00:11] buy and then start a family. So, um just

[1:00:14] wanting to be clear that I, you know, we

[1:00:16] do talk about all kinds of housing and

[1:00:18] um from my perspective, I want to

[1:00:20] advocate for on behalf of and to young

[1:00:24] people into the community that this is a

[1:00:28] an a topic of conversation for everyone.

[1:00:31] Um MAP senior living is actually 55 and

[1:00:34] up. So, you know, even just this idea of

[1:00:37] what senior housing means, that's that's

[1:00:39] my parents. that's, you know, that's a

[1:00:42] lot of people in this room. Um, so kind

[1:00:45] of opening up that conversation that

[1:00:47] this is for everyone, echoing people

[1:00:49] getting involved.

[1:00:51] So, our vision is the final phase of the

[1:00:54] maps campus will establish an integrated

[1:00:57] senior community, woven into the fabric

[1:00:59] of Moab's landscape, healthcare network,

[1:01:02] and daily civic life. It will be a place

[1:01:04] where people of all ages and income

[1:01:06] levels can age in place with dignity,

[1:01:08] connection, and a true sense of

[1:01:10] belonging. And our goals, oh, wait,

[1:01:13] there's more. The completed campus will

[1:01:15] serve as a model for small rural

[1:01:17] communities, demonstrating sustainable

[1:01:19] human- centered solutions to the

[1:01:21] challenges of an aging population. more

[1:01:24] than a place to live. It will be a

[1:01:25] community people act a community where

[1:01:28] people actively choose to be a part of

[1:01:31] one that fosters engagement, purpose,

[1:01:33] and continuity over time. And our goals

[1:01:36] are to create a cohesive integrated

[1:01:38] series of developments that have a sense

[1:01:40] of place through all phases of

[1:01:42] development. Organize transportation and

[1:01:44] circulation to minimize vehicle

[1:01:46] pedestrian complex and maximize

[1:01:48] accessibility. Provide continuity

[1:01:51] throughout the development with pathway

[1:01:53] seating and lighting standards. Create

[1:01:55] multi-generational open space community

[1:01:57] park that serves needs unmet in other

[1:01:59] parks in the community and maximize the

[1:02:02] comfort, safety, and use of open space

[1:02:04] in the maps development. And that those

[1:02:06] goals were from 25 years ago when we

[1:02:08] started this project, but they still

[1:02:10] apply today.

[1:02:12] And it was approved last week at the

[1:02:14] Kayan's Healthcare Special Service

[1:02:15] District meeting. And so it'll go out, I

[1:02:18] think next week. It'll be all ready to

[1:02:20] >> Yes.

[1:02:21] >> be the planes out.

[1:02:22] >> Yes.

[1:02:23] >> For and and hopefully have respondents

[1:02:26] back by the end of Mayjune

[1:02:30] >> for the for that board to go through.

[1:02:32] So, and Tony's on that board as well.

[1:02:34] >> I just have one comment.

[1:02:36] >> Sure.

[1:02:36] >> Couldn't you have found a better um

[1:02:39] search search term than older adults?

[1:02:42] Can't be. We'd be wisdomful adults or

[1:02:44] something.

[1:02:45] >> I would love that, but it's for

[1:02:47] consistency. Yeah, we're just holding

[1:02:49] the standard. And I'm

[1:02:51] >> older adult.

[1:02:53] That's [laughter]

[1:02:55] >> um and Caitlyn, I'm happy to send you

[1:02:58] more of the scope and the deliverables.

[1:02:59] So, if you want those kind of specifics,

[1:03:01] I just don't think it's I need to get

[1:03:03] into those now. But, um anyway, I think

[1:03:06] we'll wrap up this discussion. Um more

[1:03:08] to come on this, but we really wanted to

[1:03:10] share this. I think this is a a really

[1:03:12] important. This is like the last piece

[1:03:15] of property in the city of Moab and we

[1:03:19] want to make it something really

[1:03:21] special. You know, I was at the Grand

[1:03:23] Center today and I'm like, "Wow, this

[1:03:24] place hasn't aged." I mean, it looks so

[1:03:26] good for as long as it's been there. And

[1:03:28] so, I really would like to see

[1:03:31] >> What's that?

[1:03:31] >> They take care of it really well.

[1:03:33] >> They do. I really would like to see us

[1:03:35] um you know I'd like to see this final

[1:03:37] map space something that everybody in

[1:03:39] this room can be a part of and to be

[1:03:41] proud of. So anyway, that's it on that.

[1:03:45] Now we're going to move into the

[1:03:48] downtown plan and the city's getting

[1:03:49] ready to update our downtown plan and we

[1:03:51] kind of had conversations about this in

[1:03:53] the past. Um but we really want, you

[1:03:57] know, the county to be a part of this

[1:03:58] process. you know, our downtown is your

[1:04:00] downtown and um and that's kind of our

[1:04:03] jurisdiction. So, we kind of have a lot

[1:04:05] of focus on that. But, Michael and Lisa,

[1:04:08] if you guys wouldn't mind just kind of

[1:04:09] walking everybody through what our

[1:04:11] thoughts are and where we're going to go

[1:04:12] with this.

[1:04:13] >> All right. So, the I think the most

[1:04:15] important thing here is that the uh

[1:04:18] there is a downtown master plan that

[1:04:20] wasn't adopted and it was uh done in

[1:04:22] finished in 2017. And we do think that

[1:04:25] there are things in that master plan

[1:04:27] that can be taken out and still used

[1:04:30] today. So we are working on uh hiring a

[1:04:34] consultant who can come in and uh

[1:04:39] and update that plan for us. And some of

[1:04:42] the things that we want to do are to the

[1:04:45] big things are to have a unified vision

[1:04:47] for downtown. Safety is a major uh

[1:04:50] component of this especially when it

[1:04:52] comes to multimodal

[1:04:54] uh talking about bikes, pedestrians,

[1:04:56] anybody in the walking wheeling network

[1:04:59] uh versus cars. And then obvious and

[1:05:02] then going down to having a plan that we

[1:05:05] can build on and we can implement uh

[1:05:07] going forward to to build our community

[1:05:11] or our downtown uh into the next

[1:05:14] generation. But also, as you can see in

[1:05:16] the map that I put up, there's a there's

[1:05:19] a long oblong oval thingy. That's the

[1:05:23] downtown, and that's Main Street and

[1:05:25] First West and and part of Center Street

[1:05:28] and and, you know, part of First East

[1:05:30] and things like that. But there are also

[1:05:33] a lot of nodes that connect to downtown

[1:05:35] and those have to be part of any

[1:05:37] discussion that we have with downtown.

[1:05:40] Um, you can see medical/housing. That's

[1:05:42] the plan that we just we just talked

[1:05:44] about. That's that life. You could call

[1:05:46] it a lifestyle center. It could be

[1:05:48] whatever you want to call it, but that

[1:05:49] master plan there needs to connect to

[1:05:52] downtown as well to get the quality of

[1:05:54] life. And we got several educational

[1:05:56] facilities, recreational facilities, and

[1:05:58] civic facilities. And over time, we

[1:06:00] might even see some of these corridors

[1:06:03] uh for the downtown, maybe the downtown

[1:06:06] move just a little bit. If demand

[1:06:08] continues to grow, uh we could see

[1:06:11] things expanding down Center Street a

[1:06:13] little bit more and and a couple of

[1:06:14] other streets as well. So, we want to

[1:06:17] look at everything. That's my point is

[1:06:19] we don't necessarily want to plan

[1:06:20] everything, but make sure that there's

[1:06:22] an opportunity to connect to the nodes

[1:06:25] that currently exist and the ones that

[1:06:27] we're looking at going forward. So, some

[1:06:29] of the things that we've already done

[1:06:30] over the last couple of years is we've

[1:06:33] got a a big sidewalk project that we're doing right now. You might have

[1:06:36] seen some of the amazing infrastructure

[1:06:39] uh fixes that we've done in front of the Mick and and in front of the coffee

[1:06:44] roasters, and we're going to continue to

[1:06:46] do those things. Uh the trash ban trash

[1:06:49] bin replacement has been going on. We've

[1:06:52] got recycling bins out there now, plus

[1:06:55] regular old trash bins with art on them,

[1:06:57] things like that. I won't go through all

[1:06:59] of these, but we did do a trial for bulb

[1:07:02] outs. I think it there's a mixed view of

[1:07:05] how successful that was. I think if from

[1:07:07] the pedestrian standpoint, I think it

[1:07:09] was very successful. I think from a

[1:07:12] driver standpoint, there's probably some

[1:07:14] a little bit of a learning curve with

[1:07:16] bulb outs and things like that that we

[1:07:17] still need to talk about. Uh we have

[1:07:20] done some uh bus parking on Maine. We

[1:07:24] are doing some enforcement with uh

[1:07:26] trucks in left lanes with the police

[1:07:28] department as well as red light runner

[1:07:30] enforcement which they've always done.

[1:07:32] But I just want to make sure that that that's out there that they continue

[1:07:36] to do that. And then um we are also

[1:07:40] improving our Matt the Moab area transit

[1:07:43] signage uh stop system and and all of

[1:07:46] those things downtown as well. So, last

[1:07:49] thing is just to state that we have

[1:07:51] submitted a grant application. The city

[1:07:53] has uh we're hoping to plan start

[1:07:55] planning with this downtown plan in

[1:07:59] June. Uh we do have several things that

[1:08:01] are in progress, but I wanted to mention

[1:08:03] that there are also some other plans

[1:08:05] that will go into this. There's a

[1:08:07] smaller north entry beautifification

[1:08:09] plan. That's one of the council's goals

[1:08:10] for this year, one of their priorities.

[1:08:12] Obviously, that needs to be wrapped into

[1:08:14] this, but doesn't necessarily need to

[1:08:16] wait until the master plan is done.

[1:08:19] We're hoping to do a master plan for

[1:08:21] Swany, uh, Swany Park, and we'll be

[1:08:24] talking about a lot of different things

[1:08:25] there. Um, not the least of which will

[1:08:28] be skate park and and location, future

[1:08:31] location for those types of things. And

[1:08:33] then the maps master plan. Um, we want

[1:08:36] to try to incorporate all of these

[1:08:37] things and make sure they're all talking

[1:08:39] to each other so that all of those nodes

[1:08:41] do have those connections going forward.

[1:08:43] So, we'll leave it at that. I believe

[1:08:45] that was it for for me. So, that's where

[1:08:48] we are with the downtown master

[1:08:50] planning.

[1:08:51] >> Do can you or Melissa or Mel address how

[1:08:54] the county would be

[1:08:57] plan?

[1:08:58] >> I can I can Yeah, I can do that. So, I

[1:09:01] think there's there's a couple of

[1:09:02] different ways that we could do it. Now,

[1:09:04] it hasn't been set up yet, but we

[1:09:05] definitely could have a a

[1:09:08] multi-jurisdictional committee that

[1:09:10] could be involved with this, just like

[1:09:12] we're talking about with the site

[1:09:14] futures and those types of things. And I

[1:09:16] think um we just need to sit down and

[1:09:18] decide who's going to be on that. The

[1:09:19] mayor and I have talked a lot about

[1:09:21] making sure that the county is involved

[1:09:23] in this and that the county has a seat

[1:09:25] at the table. Um but the the city will

[1:09:27] definitely be putting out the RFP,

[1:09:30] moving forward with uh getting a

[1:09:32] consultant, things like that. But we

[1:09:33] definitely want uh tra travel and

[1:09:36] tourism in involved as well, the county

[1:09:39] and downtown businesses

[1:09:42] and other affected entities or affect

[1:09:45] affected parties and stakeholders. Uh we

[1:09:47] just haven't put that list together yet,

[1:09:49] but that's the idea.

[1:09:53] >> Sounds good.

[1:09:55] I'm sure that one of the commissioners

[1:09:57] would be interested in joining that when

[1:09:59] it's time as well as other staff

[1:10:02] possibly.

[1:10:04] You guys are just like

[1:10:07] are you like not able to talk because

[1:10:09] yes Trish

[1:10:11] I I I was told I had to keep my mouth my

[1:10:14] mouth shut

[1:10:16] [laughter] that I fine I probably gave

[1:10:18] the

[1:10:20] >> I didn't I did a pretty good job. I

[1:10:22] [laughter] mean, I'm all into this.

[1:10:24] >> No, please, Trish,

[1:10:27] >> you get one change.

[1:10:28] >> I got one strike figure out.

[1:10:31] >> No, I think it's fabulous. It' be great

[1:10:33] for the the county to be involved in

[1:10:36] that, Disney.

[1:10:37] >> I have a question. How are these plans

[1:10:38] going to come into play with your land

[1:10:40] use code update you guys are doing right

[1:10:42] now?

[1:10:43] >> It's it's all integrated. So, part of

[1:10:46] the downtown master plan, we'll be

[1:10:48] looking at the land use codes as well.

[1:10:50] Um, parking is a big part of that,

[1:10:51] parking requirements and land uses. Uh,

[1:10:55] all of those types of things will be

[1:10:56] part of the discussion with the master

[1:10:59] plan and also will carry over into what

[1:11:01] Corey's doing with the, uh, with the

[1:11:03] land use update.

[1:11:05] >> Perfect. One thing I've noticed here is

[1:11:07] um, you know, we all we all kind of

[1:11:09] agree that tourism is our economy, at

[1:11:11] least as right now. Um, and in places

[1:11:14] for tourism to grow so that we can stay

[1:11:16] relevant. So, right now, I know that um

[1:11:19] starting off outfitters or anything like

[1:11:21] that. Right now in both the city and the

[1:11:22] county, there's just not a lot of spots

[1:11:24] for. So maybe when you guys are looking

[1:11:27] at how this plays together between this

[1:11:29] plan and the you know land use code

[1:11:31] update, maybe looking into some of those

[1:11:33] outfitter restrictions that have been

[1:11:35] placed in your guys land use code same

[1:11:37] way we're looking at the county as well.

[1:11:42] » Yeah, that is one of the priority items

[1:11:45] is the outfitter designation. Is it the

[1:11:48] C2 zone? Yeah. So that NC3. So that orc3

[1:11:53] that'll be uh we are working on that

[1:11:56] right now. Right, Corey? So

[1:11:58] >> it's great. We're going to stay

[1:12:00] relevant. We're going to need to grow.

[1:12:01] There's so many great things that happen

[1:12:03] in this community. We should make sure

[1:12:05] there's places for sure. For those

[1:12:08] >> Absolutely. No. And I think as we do

[1:12:10] this downtown plan, I think it's really

[1:12:11] important to include um you know the the

[1:12:14] office of tourism, you know, the county

[1:12:16] and the city and stuff. so that we're

[1:12:18] all on the same pages because I know

[1:12:19] that as I've been on some of these

[1:12:20] boards and stuff, everybody's kind of

[1:12:21] talking and things but no one's talking

[1:12:23] to each other. So, I think this kind of

[1:12:24] gives a platform to where we can all

[1:12:26] come up with a a similar message and

[1:12:29] work together to, you know, create a a

[1:12:32] very vibrant and established downtown

[1:12:34] where people want to come and hang out

[1:12:36] and um spend money, you know, for lack

[1:12:40] of a better word. So, I so I'm looking

[1:12:41] really looking forward to this joint

[1:12:43] effort. And you know, I'll just throw in

[1:12:45] there too, the downtown is really nice.

[1:12:48] I I live right downtown and and we walk

[1:12:51] downtown all the time and it and it is

[1:12:53] it's in inspirational to be able to be

[1:12:55] downtown among all these people who

[1:12:58] choose to be in this area. And I agree

[1:13:01] with Brian. I think that uh one of we do

[1:13:04] need to think about what our future

[1:13:05] looks like and not just rest on our

[1:13:07] laurels. And and so that's one of the

[1:13:10] things with the sidewalk project, you

[1:13:12] know, why wait until the master plan was

[1:13:14] done to we know we need wider sidewalks.

[1:13:16] There's a lot of areas where we're

[1:13:17] missing sidewalk where we have holes

[1:13:19] where there used to be lights or trees

[1:13:21] or things like that and we can reclaim

[1:13:23] those things. So that's what we're we're

[1:13:25] trying to do. But but um building on on

[1:13:28] what we have and what uh to give credit

[1:13:31] to the the uh business owners what

[1:13:33] they've built on on Main Street as well

[1:13:36] and in the downtown. So

[1:13:39] >> yeah, Mike,

[1:13:40] >> in speaking about sidewalks and pathway,

[1:13:44] uh me and Miles catch up at the Liam

[1:13:46] Lumberyard quite often and uh we really

[1:13:49] need to put some interconnectivity to

[1:13:51] Spanish Valley Pathway currently going

[1:13:53] into the works and the city's uh

[1:13:56] multiathways.

[1:13:58] Um it really will give a good balance

[1:14:01] right there at the city county line uh

[1:14:03] to get uh to get our all of our

[1:14:06] residents across both both directions.

[1:14:09] Uh and I mean the interconnectivity with

[1:14:12] a large development, the Royal Crossing

[1:14:14] development. It's it's going to be key

[1:14:16] to get multimod multi- uh mobile transit

[1:14:21] in in from a a large group of people uh

[1:14:26] to bring them into town that are not

[1:14:27] driving down 191.

[1:14:29] >> So, and I know that they'll use it often

[1:14:32] for that. I will personally be on that

[1:14:35] trail quite a bit, but we really need to

[1:14:37] continue that interconnectivity uh

[1:14:39] conversation, especially at those

[1:14:40] joints.

[1:14:41] >> Right. Any other comments?

[1:14:48] Kadoki, when do we anticipate us moving

[1:14:51] forward with this downtown plan?

[1:14:53] >> Well, we need we've got a lot of things

[1:14:55] to do as far as organization as you as

[1:14:58] you heard. We don't have that committee

[1:14:59] set up yet, invitations or anything like

[1:15:02] that, but we're hoping talking to Val

[1:15:04] today and Corey and Alexi and we were

[1:15:06] thinking uh we're going to get started

[1:15:08] in June.

[1:15:11] >> Great.

[1:15:12] Melissa,

[1:15:13] >> I keep saying we're starting in June.

[1:15:14] Maybe we need to start some stuff later.

[1:15:16] >> Yeah,

[1:15:16] >> but everything

[1:15:19] in June. We'll see. We're we're moving

[1:15:22] forward on a lot of things, but we're

[1:15:23] hoping to get that master plan review

[1:15:25] started.

[1:15:27] >> Bill, did you

[1:15:29] >> I will comment. It's good to see all the

[1:15:30] sidewalk repairs coming in and being um

[1:15:33] considered and move forward on. There's

[1:15:36] a lot of the elderly people that move

[1:15:37] around town and I literally had one fall

[1:15:41] outside my house. You know, luckily I

[1:15:43] saw her. She had three dogs and I was

[1:15:45] able to help the poor gal. But um yeah,

[1:15:48] it's good to see the sidewalks being

[1:15:49] worked on for sure. Appreciate that.

[1:15:52] >> And and we budget we'll keep budgeting

[1:15:54] until we get them done.

[1:15:56] >> We do have it in your budget. Misa, do

[1:15:57] you want to add anything? As the

[1:15:59] economic development person for the

[1:16:00] county,

[1:16:01] >> I have nothing to add. Corey has shared

[1:16:03] some thoughts and some interesting ideas

[1:16:06] and all of them make me excited. So, I'm

[1:16:08] just excited for this to move forward.

[1:16:10] >> You'll definitely be a part of the

[1:16:11] process.

[1:16:14] >> Um, all right. Anything else about the

[1:16:17] downtown plan?

[1:16:19] >> I appreciate the seat at the table.

[1:16:21] >> Oh, appreciate being able to collaborate

[1:16:24] with this. So,

[1:16:24] >> Oh, no. You have to be

[1:16:27] all of these items. We want you I mean,

[1:16:29] this is what this is about is all these

[1:16:31] items. we want you guys to participate

[1:16:33] in. And the last one on economic

[1:16:36] development is the golf course, which is

[1:16:39] um is kind of an interesting one because

[1:16:41] to be honest with you, this city council

[1:16:43] hasn't really talked about the golf

[1:16:45] course even though we own the land and

[1:16:47] it's a great asset for us and it just

[1:16:49] kind of came up a year or so ago. There

[1:16:52] were some problems. The golf course was

[1:16:54] not, you know, was everybody was

[1:16:56] worried. The grass was dying. The the

[1:16:58] greens were bad. And luckily they were

[1:17:01] able to turn that around and it actually

[1:17:03] put them on our, you know, um, it

[1:17:06] started making us pay a little closer

[1:17:08] attention to how we can support the golf

[1:17:11] course. And then the county gave them a grant, I believe, to start helping

[1:17:17] them move forward to how we can really

[1:17:20] make that asset the best asset that it

[1:17:22] could be. And I Which one of you two

[1:17:25] wants to start this conversation?

[1:17:26] Because I know Melissa's been involved

[1:17:27] and I know Michael's been involved. We

[1:17:30] did get a signed lease from them. We had

[1:17:33] just so commissioners understand we had

[1:17:36] a lease that expired. It was not a good

[1:17:39] lease. I think it was I mean basically

[1:17:41] we lease the golf course the to the golf

[1:17:44] club or not much.

[1:17:47] >> I don't even think we've ever

[1:17:48] >> Oh, it's nothing. It's zero. It's

[1:17:50] absolutely nothing. In fact, it's

[1:17:52] subsidized a little bit and I can

[1:17:54] explain that. But um Melissa was working

[1:17:57] with them on their on their plan. So

[1:18:01] did you want to say anything about this?

[1:18:03] [laughter]

[1:18:04] So how we sort of came together is that

[1:18:07] the lease piece was up in the air and

[1:18:09] there were kind of some challenges and

[1:18:11] they approached the county about a grant

[1:18:14] to be able to put together a whole

[1:18:16] business plan. So, a master plan, golf

[1:18:18] architecture, economic feasibility plan,

[1:18:22] what it would bring to primarily use as

[1:18:24] a fundraising document to be able to

[1:18:27] revamp and completely create something

[1:18:29] new there. And how Michael and I started

[1:18:32] talking about it is it doesn't make a

[1:18:34] lot of sense to be able to help them put

[1:18:35] that feasibility study together to be

[1:18:38] able to raise funding to improve

[1:18:39] something if there isn't a really good

[1:18:41] relationship and agreement in place that

[1:18:44] would allow them to long-term do that on

[1:18:46] behalf of the city. So it was sort of

[1:18:48] that's how the city and the county came

[1:18:50] together on that.

[1:18:51] >> Right.

[1:18:52] >> And it was a really great engagement and

[1:18:53] helped us move forward to be able to fix

[1:18:55] I think a few different things.

[1:18:57] >> Yeah. and and the the lease we had

[1:18:59] before was was m there's a lot of things

[1:19:02] missing in it and I and I think on both

[1:19:04] sides there were questions. So, we're

[1:19:06] really happy to have a a new lease

[1:19:08] that's going forward. We're going to

[1:19:09] propose 15 years because we think that's

[1:19:12] how solid this lease is and they've had

[1:19:15] it for so long anyways. They're probably

[1:19:16] going to be there for another who knows

[1:19:18] how long. Um but uh we're really happy

[1:19:21] with the relationship we have with the

[1:19:23] golf course and we're really um

[1:19:25] satisfied and and definitely

[1:19:28] um thankful for the opportunity through

[1:19:31] the county to for them to get some money

[1:19:33] to do a master plan because when I was

[1:19:35] talking to them a year or so ago, they

[1:19:38] said, "Well, we need money." And I asked

[1:19:40] them, "Well, what for?" And they said,

[1:19:41] "Well, just stuff." And and we and I

[1:19:45] know they need stuff. They weren't I

[1:19:47] mean they weren't joking but but in

[1:19:49] reality um the city and the county

[1:19:53] really need to know where the money is

[1:19:55] going and how it's being spent and that

[1:19:56] it's going for good uses and that is

[1:19:58] going to um build the golf course so

[1:20:01] that it can make more money going into

[1:20:03] the future. Really quick about the

[1:20:05] relationship with the golf course and

[1:20:06] the city. The golf course has been

[1:20:08] leasing um the city has been leasing the

[1:20:11] golf club golf course for a long time, a

[1:20:14] very long time. Um, we don't charge

[1:20:17] anything for the golf course for the

[1:20:19] lease unless the golf course makes

[1:20:21] money. And as long as I've been here,

[1:20:23] I've never seen anything come in uh to

[1:20:26] the city. And we do have them submit

[1:20:28] financials every year. Um, we also

[1:20:31] provide them with uh cheaper water as a um a partner of the city, but

[1:20:37] they've also agreed to not use water

[1:20:40] from our wells during periods of time.

[1:20:43] So, there's a little bit of a tradeoff.

[1:20:45] um because they have access to other

[1:20:46] water during the summer and things like

[1:20:48] that. So, so we we think we um are

[1:20:51] working really well together. We're look

[1:20:52] really happy that they've got a good

[1:20:54] superintendent up there and that their

[1:20:56] management is going well and that uh

[1:20:59] people are generally happy. I don't hear

[1:21:01] about when I get my haircut anymore. So, things seem to be going well and

[1:21:06] we'll keep working on it.

[1:21:09] excited for the planning the uh plan

[1:21:12] grant that you gave them and what the

[1:21:13] outcome is for that. And we're going to

[1:21:15] participate a little bit.

[1:21:16] >> Oh yes. Uh we are also participating

[1:21:19] um with I think $25,000 I think is what

[1:21:22] it is. And then we're also helping them

[1:21:25] to purchase a few other things up there.

[1:21:27] And in signing this lease, it also opens

[1:21:30] the uh the golf course to access to some

[1:21:33] capital uh that the council has budgeted

[1:21:37] that they would pay back over time

[1:21:40] >> and the RF the master plan RFP went out

[1:21:44] and we have responses, correct? Two full

[1:21:48] proposals. Um, so they'll be making that

[1:21:51] decision soon and we've included those

[1:21:55] proposals in the packet for today if

[1:21:57] anyone wants those

[1:21:59] >> great access.

[1:22:00] >> And I'm assuming you're going to be

[1:22:02] working with the board

[1:22:05] >> to help help them because this is new

[1:22:08] for them.

[1:22:09] >> They're all about golfing.

[1:22:11] Well, and I think I mean that's the

[1:22:13] decision that needs to be made. And

[1:22:14] before I started working on this

[1:22:16] project, I had no idea that there's

[1:22:18] actually a point at which a golf course

[1:22:21] to be able to repair it becomes uh

[1:22:25] impossible to repair cost effectively.

[1:22:28] So, you finally get to a decision-m

[1:22:30] point where you have to decide, do we

[1:22:31] want a golf course or don't we want a

[1:22:33] golf course? And ours is really close to

[1:22:35] that tipping point. So, then the

[1:22:37] question becomes, what is it? Do we just

[1:22:39] want to keep it on autopilot and

[1:22:41] maintain it till we get to that tipping

[1:22:42] point or do we want to put it in a place

[1:22:45] where we have a strategic vision for it

[1:22:46] so that we want to invest and kind of

[1:22:48] feels like that's the direction that

[1:22:50] people are interested in moving in. So

[1:22:52] yes, working really closely with them

[1:22:55] and with the city to be able to help

[1:22:57] them get the best plan possible. And

[1:22:59] they're even in their economic

[1:23:01] feasibility study which is going to be

[1:23:03] really great. they're going to break

[1:23:04] that down to say here's what the

[1:23:06] specific impact is going to be on the

[1:23:08] city economically if we invest in this

[1:23:10] asset and here's what it's going to be

[1:23:12] for the county if we invest in the

[1:23:13] asset. So we just wanted to take a

[1:23:15] really partnership forward approach from

[1:23:17] the beginning about kind of what's in it

[1:23:20] for everyone so that we can all step in

[1:23:22] and help support them. It's great. I'm

[1:23:25] excited about that.

[1:23:26] >> Yeah.

[1:23:27] >> Yes. Brian.

[1:23:28] >> Yeah. I know that and I think two

[1:23:30] reasons you know the golf course is

[1:23:31] important. You know, we've talked about

[1:23:32] the economic driver and you know,

[1:23:34] believe it or not, Utah does have some

[1:23:36] great municipal courts courses and there

[1:23:38] are people that go and they travel

[1:23:40] around to go see these municipal

[1:23:42] courses, but also for the residents. I

[1:23:43] know there's a lot of folks here uh that enjoy going out there and recre

[1:23:48] golf course. So, it's it's it's twofold.

[1:23:50] >> Y any other comments? I'm a golf course.

[1:23:54] Yes, Bill.

[1:23:55] >> I would like to just know some of those

[1:23:57] numbers moving forward. I don't golf.

[1:23:59] So, the most I've ever done is gone out

[1:24:02] and watched the turkeys, right? Because

[1:24:04] they're all over out there. But, um,

[1:24:06] what are the numbers? How many locals?

[1:24:08] What's the percentage you compared to

[1:24:11] tourism? What are we seeing out of it?

[1:24:12] So, in the process that that would be

[1:24:15] >> I think that's what information we're

[1:24:17] trying to get because we've been trying

[1:24:18] to get that and they don't really keep

[1:24:20] track of it. It's just like there's a

[1:24:21] lot,

[1:24:23] >> you know. So, so we don't really get

[1:24:25] those numbers and I think that's what

[1:24:26] this study is going to show us so that

[1:24:28] we can build on that.

[1:24:29] >> Great.

[1:24:29] >> What's the timeline for that, Melissa?

[1:24:32] >> They want to have the uh feasibility

[1:24:35] study and architecture back by late

[1:24:37] June. So, pretty quickly.

[1:24:40] >> Great.

[1:24:40] >> And

[1:24:42] say that again.

[1:24:43] >> June.

[1:24:46] >> That might that might be

[1:24:47] >> that might be a little quick, but

[1:24:49] >> start somewhere.

[1:24:49] >> Yeah. But good to have lofty goals.

[1:24:53] >> And I mean they've got some really

[1:24:55] impressive I mean when you start to look

[1:24:57] under the hood of the proposals

[1:24:58] especially one of them there's some

[1:25:01] pretty impressive architectural chops to

[1:25:03] get a short course and some things that

[1:25:05] would really make that course relevant.

[1:25:09] » Okay. So anything else about the golf

[1:25:12] course? We're almost six minutes to our

[1:25:14] adjournment. Um, and our last item is

[1:25:18] um, water conservation. And I think uh,

[1:25:22] I don't know if I should have mentioned

[1:25:24] this at the beginning. The housing task

[1:25:26] force is not going to be presenting

[1:25:28] today. They they weren't ready to do

[1:25:29] that. So, we're going to move uh, right

[1:25:31] to our water conservation plans. And,

[1:25:34] you know, I thought Mel and I thought

[1:25:36] this was an important thing to add. We

[1:25:38] kind of added it last because

[1:25:40] as you all know, we've we've had great

[1:25:43] rain the last week, but we're in a

[1:25:46] drought and um very little snow in the

[1:25:49] mountains this year. And we felt it was

[1:25:51] important to show our community that

[1:25:53] both the city and the county want our

[1:25:56] community to voluntarily or I don't know

[1:25:59] what you're Brian you're and Miles are

[1:26:01] going to share with us what what the

[1:26:02] county wants to do with GWISA but we

[1:26:05] just feel we needed to jointly share

[1:26:08] be protective of your water. We need to

[1:26:10] make sure that we don't have water

[1:26:12] issues in the future. So Brian if you

[1:26:14] wouldn't mind just Sure. I'll start off

[1:26:16] I've broken it down into three little

[1:26:17] things. Okay. um starting off kind of

[1:26:19] where Grand County is at second just

[1:26:22] some stats from the state and then third

[1:26:24] of the call of the river in general. So

[1:26:27] you know uh Grand as far as a couple of

[1:26:29] things um uh so watersavers.com

[1:26:33] I think is something that folks should

[1:26:34] know about. Uh there's two things that

[1:26:36] they can get there. One is there's a

[1:26:38] smart controller rebate. So you can get

[1:26:41] a a rebate for a controller that will

[1:26:43] help um you know monitor your you're

[1:26:47] putting out on your lawns. Um then also

[1:26:50] if you already have one of those, make

[1:26:51] sure that you set it to drop mode. Um

[1:26:54] the other thing is is there's a a grant

[1:26:57] now to replace your uh grass. So that's

[1:27:00] been passed both in the county and the

[1:27:02] city. So anybody who wants to zero skate

[1:27:04] can get a rebate for that grass right

[1:27:07] there. Um a couple of the messages that

[1:27:10] have been coming out the Yavapify

[1:27:12] through is wait till Mother's Day to

[1:27:15] begin watering.

[1:27:16] >> Um If you could uh a little note, 60% of

[1:27:21] uh of residential culinary water is

[1:27:24] attributed to outdoor use. So that's

[1:27:27] water 60%.

[1:27:29] So that's watering your lawn, your

[1:27:30] plants, your trees, and other

[1:27:32] landscaping. Um, a couple of those

[1:27:34] messages are, you know, just slight

[1:27:36] changes to your watering habits. You

[1:27:37] know, like walking less frequently,

[1:27:39] watering during cooler parts of the day

[1:27:42] and choosing water wise landscape can

[1:27:44] make a meaningful difference at the end

[1:27:46] of the year. So, um, couple of the the

[1:27:49] bigger things, one is adopted the 2025

[1:27:52] water conservation plan last October.

[1:27:55] Um, that replaced the 2020 plan. Um, it

[1:27:58] set its own goal to reduce water

[1:28:00] consumption to 214 gallons per capacity

[1:28:04] day. Uh which represents a 20% decrease

[1:28:08] from the current state recommendation of

[1:28:10] 267.

[1:28:12] Um however, currently uh we're actually

[1:28:15] at 183 downloads per capacity date in

[1:28:19] Grand County. So when we talk about all

[1:28:21] the things that we need to do, I also

[1:28:23] think that we need to give ourselves a

[1:28:24] little bit of a pat on the back for what

[1:28:26] we are doing.

[1:28:28] Um the uh uh Grant County is working

[1:28:32] water use and preservation element um to

[1:28:35] go inside of the general plan. Uh that

[1:28:37] element uh will go to public hearing

[1:28:39] April 27th, 2026 and then it'll be

[1:28:43] scheduled for a public hearing before

[1:28:44] the county commission May 5th.

[1:28:48] Um talking about Utah and kind of a

[1:28:51] little bit about where we are. Uh, the

[1:28:54] Division of Water Resources will be

[1:28:56] holding an online drought meeting on

[1:28:58] Tuesday, April 21st at 91. If anybody's

[1:29:02] interested, I can get you guys the link

[1:29:03] to that.

[1:29:05] Yeah,

[1:29:07] that's what I want. The uh uh one thing

[1:29:10] that that's that's that's happening

[1:29:12] right now is the lack of snow pack is

[1:29:14] strongly influencing the water supply

[1:29:17] forecast here and it's creating some real challenges in the runoff. uh model. So what you're seeing online

[1:29:25] sometimes people are having trouble

[1:29:27] reading it and it's just because this is a precedent of our models aren't

[1:29:31] built with the with the lack of snow map

[1:29:34] path that we have. Um during March,

[1:29:37] Utah's snow pack deteriorated from

[1:29:39] borderline to record poor conditions,

[1:29:42] two completely uncharted territories.

[1:29:44] And this is from the uh uh USDA April

[1:29:47] 1st water supply, Utah division of water

[1:29:51] resources. Just this close right here.

[1:29:53] As opposed to last year's March pre

[1:29:56] precipitation in Utah well above normal

[1:29:58] at 146, the high pressure system

[1:30:01] resulted in 550,000

[1:30:04] acre feet loss uh in just over two

[1:30:07] weeks. So um you know we went from bad

[1:30:10] to to to pretty bad.

[1:30:13] um 64 of the 140 snowtail sites in the

[1:30:17] state of Utah were completely melted out

[1:30:20] uh on April 1st and that's the

[1:30:22] historical peak snow package. So state

[1:30:26] mountain this is this is where people I

[1:30:28] think are getting a little bit confused

[1:30:30] as well. So the state mountain soil

[1:30:32] moisture levels are at 70%. And people

[1:30:35] are thinking well that's great. Well,

[1:30:37] that's it's because the snow mat snow pack has run off. So, same with our

[1:30:42] reservoirs. We're looking at our

[1:30:43] reservoirs which are currently at 69%

[1:30:46] right now. And we're saying, well,

[1:30:48] that's not that bad. And the reason is

[1:30:50] because the snow melt has already come

[1:30:51] down and being stored in these

[1:30:53] reservoirs. Um,

[1:30:56] moving on to the Colorado River. Um,

[1:30:59] let's see here. And, and this number is

[1:31:01] going to change is actually today that

[1:31:03] they were supposed to have the DROA and

[1:31:05] the

[1:31:07] meeting today um give us a little bit

[1:31:09] more information, but currently the uh projection is 4.4 acre feet. That's what we're supposed to receive as

[1:31:17] far as hydraology goes. Um and that

[1:31:20] leaves a 3.08

[1:31:22] million acre feet gap when we got to

[1:31:24] deliver compact this year. Um and that's

[1:31:27] without the upper basin not fully any of

[1:31:31] it als

[1:31:34] the the drill. So Dr. is the drought

[1:31:36] response operation agreement. And so

[1:31:39] what that is is when Lake Cow reaches

[1:31:42] 3525, that level above sea level right

[1:31:45] there, um the drought resource

[1:31:47] operations agreement is one of the

[1:31:49] policies from the previous uh record of

[1:31:52] decision goes into effect. uh they

[1:31:55] manage for the infrastructure

[1:31:57] um of the dam and so they're going to be

[1:32:00] made along with the SEIS which is the

[1:32:04] supplemental environmental impact

[1:32:06] statement which uh talks about how much

[1:32:08] water we can release out of the uh like

[1:32:12] I said right now the um Colorado upper

[1:32:15] basin is supposed to deliver 7.5 million

[1:32:18] acre feet per year down to the lower

[1:32:20] basin Um,

[1:32:23] but that's over a 10-year period. So,

[1:32:26] you know, 75 million over a 10-year

[1:32:28] period. Right now, we're required,

[1:32:30] depending on whose interpretation of

[1:32:33] that you look at, 7.4 million acre feet

[1:32:36] is what we're required to deliver

[1:32:38] downstream.

[1:32:39] Um,

[1:32:41] DRO will be able to seis right now to

[1:32:45] say that we're actually going to lower

[1:32:46] that to 6 million acre feet. So we' be

[1:32:50] we'd be allowed to go down to six

[1:32:51] million acre feet right there um for

[1:32:54] that delivery. The second thing that

[1:32:56] they'll look at so they'll look at the

[1:32:57] downstream deliverables and they'll also

[1:32:59] look at where they can pull water into

[1:33:01] Lake Pal as well. Um and the reason that

[1:33:04] they're looking at that it's it's not

[1:33:05] really so much the power but it's the uh the delivery of water. So you know at

[1:33:10] the turbines that's that's where the

[1:33:12] water is supposed to come out. The uh

[1:33:14] once we drop below 349 um the water will

[1:33:17] have to the snowways off on the side and

[1:33:20] those are not designed to deliver water

[1:33:22] that way. Um so they're going to look at

[1:33:25] that. The meeting that was supposed to

[1:33:27] happen today that got moved off to the

[1:33:31] 20th was going to answer the question of

[1:33:34] utility. And so what that means is is

[1:33:37] they're going to say, "Well, if we we

[1:33:39] drop the flow down to six million and we

[1:33:42] pour the water from Clay Gorge to to

[1:33:44] replace that, does that even does that

[1:33:47] even do anything?" Right? So if we even

[1:33:49] follow the drought, you know, the the

[1:33:51] drought plans that we have, will that

[1:33:53] actually cause a big enough difference

[1:33:56] to go through all December? And so

[1:33:58] that's that's supposed to be happening

[1:33:59] on the 20th. Uh it's also has to do with

[1:34:03] the timing of how that release is going

[1:34:05] to happen. Um you know the releases will

[1:34:08] be coming from Tw

[1:34:11] and one of the the reasons are is

[1:34:13] there's construction projects that are

[1:34:15] happening both on Blue Mesa and N. So

[1:34:19] we're not going to be seeing any

[1:34:20] releases coming out those two residents

[1:34:22] any large releases um that the drill put

[1:34:26] down. Um those releases though are

[1:34:29] scheduled for May. So, um, you know,

[1:34:32] with that March out hydraology that we

[1:34:34] have, we were originally looking at the

[1:34:36] forecast that this would be October.

[1:34:38] It's moved up to May, but we're actually

[1:34:40] going to be seeing, uh, drone pulling

[1:34:42] releases down from from Gorge. Uh, other

[1:34:48] things is there's an EIS out right now.

[1:34:50] The seven states were unable to come to

[1:34:52] a agreement. And so right now we're

[1:34:55] looking at one of the seven um you know

[1:34:58] alternatives that the Bureau of

[1:35:00] Reclamation put out. Uh one that we're

[1:35:03] really looking at is one of the

[1:35:04] alternatives has a release down 4.5

[1:35:07] million acre feet. Um

[1:35:10] but either which way I think that that

[1:35:12] we're that we're walking in pretty

[1:35:14] uncharted territory. uh when you look at

[1:35:17] the the the rule of law um you know uh a

[1:35:21] compact or a treaty you know that that

[1:35:23] kind of is up at the top and then below

[1:35:26] that we're going to have your NEPAS and

[1:35:27] your records of decision and then down

[1:35:29] below that you're going to have policy

[1:35:31] like your draw up or your SEIS u so

[1:35:34] right now what we're actually looking at

[1:35:36] is that the draw up or SEIS might make

[1:35:39] us go into a contact uh on the Colorado

[1:35:43] River and so it might be the bureau of

[1:35:46] wreck puts us into a call from compact

[1:35:50] river

[1:35:52] starting maybe as

[1:35:55] you know jaws like that um other things

[1:35:59] that we had this year I hate to

[1:36:02] interrupt you but I'm wondering if you

[1:36:04] can share with us what some of the um

[1:36:07] things that Gwissa is going to be asking

[1:36:09] the community to do this year to kind of

[1:36:13] help us manage with our situation

[1:36:16] regards we're not in we're not in there

[1:36:18] things that I kind of mentioned at the

[1:36:20] beginning those were the things that was

[1:36:22] looking at okay yeah I can finish miles

[1:36:24] there's other things I don't know maybe

[1:36:27] talk about wells or anything like that we were

[1:36:30] >> No the main things I wanted to talk

[1:36:31] about from a local standpoint is I

[1:36:33] wanted to echo I mean you were very

[1:36:34] thorough um I wanted to echo the

[1:36:38] education portion of what we're asking

[1:36:39] for our residents um particularly with

[1:36:42] their use of culinary water in

[1:36:43] irrigation So very much the watering at

[1:36:47] cooler parts of the day or at night. And

[1:36:49] also that in really tough drought years

[1:36:51] like this, we need to look towards like

[1:36:54] especially with lawns and stuff like

[1:36:55] that, looking towards making them

[1:36:56] survive the year rather than thrive

[1:36:58] through the year. The understanding that

[1:37:00] we don't all need super green lawns this

[1:37:03] year. Um Obie mentioned at our our last

[1:37:06] meeting that we're not seeing a drop in

[1:37:08] wells right now and that's good. But

[1:37:10] what we have to understand is this

[1:37:11] snowpack like we are not working off

[1:37:14] this year's snow pack in our wells right

[1:37:16] now. So this the consequences of this

[1:37:18] dry season are coming for us later. So

[1:37:21] it is our job to conserve now to be

[1:37:23] prepared for those when they when they

[1:37:25] do come. Um, now there are a couple

[1:37:29] small things that Gwissa is doing in

[1:37:30] regards to irrigation wells to fulfill

[1:37:33] some of the needs of uh of the Moab

[1:37:36] irrigation and um we can talk about that

[1:37:39] at a later date. But um we are trying to

[1:37:41] get a couple irrigation wells on and

[1:37:43] basically now that they have opened up

[1:37:45] irrigation they are currently running

[1:37:48] wells to bolster that supply because the

[1:37:52] lake is already at such a low level.

[1:37:55] >> Thanks. Um, Brian, I didn't mean to cut

[1:37:57] you off, but stuff you're saying is kind

[1:38:00] of scary and you know, I guess the the question

[1:38:05] is like, did the Colorado peak already

[1:38:08] for us?

[1:38:08] >> Yes.

[1:38:09] >> For us river runners,

[1:38:10] >> like I just like I just said, the

[1:38:12] modeling

[1:38:13] >> the modeling was very difficult because

[1:38:15] we're in uncharted territory. The models

[1:38:18] weren't built. The models weren't built

[1:38:20] >> to measure this Um, I'll give you on a

[1:38:24] positive note, uh, we did HB 473 passed

[1:38:28] this year um which is which was a big a

[1:38:31] big thing for Grand County and San. So

[1:38:34] um if you do run into Representative Chu

[1:38:37] um he stuck on his neck out for Grand

[1:38:39] County of course representative Alrech

[1:38:42] and Senator Hinkens was the driving

[1:38:45] force that we were

[1:38:49] helpful in that legislation.

[1:38:51] >> Thanks for your detailed explanation on

[1:38:54] how what our situation is. But at the

[1:38:57] same time, I think it's really important

[1:38:58] for us to understand that because some

[1:39:01] of us just take it to grant for granted

[1:39:03] and we don't really know. So, it's

[1:39:05] important for us to be paying attention.

[1:39:07] So, thanks for your detail. Alexi, do

[1:39:09] you want to just give us a briefing on

[1:39:11] what the city's going to be

[1:39:14] doing?

[1:39:14] >> Joan, Mike did have a comment.

[1:39:16] >> Oh, sorry, Mike. Go ahead.

[1:39:17] >> You're okay. Uh, in speaking about those

[1:39:19] river runners, I want everyone to know I

[1:39:22] have been uh capping the river every

[1:39:24] night. It peaked three days ago. We are

[1:39:27] down an inch from three days ago.

[1:39:28] >> No kidding.

[1:39:31] >> Go back up though.

[1:39:34] >> Because we got snow. Okay, I'll do the

[1:39:35] very quick version there. There are

[1:39:38] visuals that I can share, but um

[1:39:40] essentially the city has also been

[1:39:42] thinking about it. We adopted a water

[1:39:44] shortage response plan. Since a lot of

[1:39:46] our water comes from wells and springs,

[1:39:49] we're not triggering that, but we can

[1:39:50] still do a lot of the voluntary measures

[1:39:52] that are in it. That includes things

[1:39:54] like monitoring, fixing leaks, uh

[1:39:56] looking at operational water that's used

[1:39:59] within like hotels or using water to

[1:40:03] clean vehicles or pavement, ways that we

[1:40:05] can save uh how we fill swimming pools

[1:40:07] or run water features. And then as uh

[1:40:12] we were talking about as well, like a

[1:40:14] lot of that water is used in outdoor in

[1:40:15] the landscape and the way we water

[1:40:17] things. Um so paying attention to times

[1:40:20] that people are watering, what they're

[1:40:21] watering, prioritizing trees over lawns

[1:40:23] or annuals, um and minimizing what we're

[1:40:27] using until it's absolutely necessary.

[1:40:30] Uh we are also working on doing an

[1:40:33] outreach campaign starting from now and

[1:40:35] running through the end of summer

[1:40:36] because we anticipate that this might be

[1:40:38] hanging around for a while. Uh doing

[1:40:41] press releases, social media, reminding

[1:40:43] people about some of those state

[1:40:44] programs you were talking about. Uh

[1:40:46] giving people some tips about how to do

[1:40:48] things, hosting trainings to help people

[1:40:51] who need assistance figuring out how to

[1:40:53] change irrigation systems or things like

[1:40:54] that. Um, and then kind of wrapping it

[1:40:57] up in September and hopefully we see a

[1:41:00] little water before then.

[1:41:02] >> All right. So, there will be some

[1:41:04] information coming out to the community.

[1:41:05] I believe what we're doing is just city

[1:41:07] residents. I don't know if the if GWISA

[1:41:10] plans to put something out there for the

[1:41:12] county or how you guys want to

[1:41:14] >> use so they they actually have a program

[1:41:18] that will go ahead and talk.

[1:41:20] >> Okay. Very good.

[1:41:21] >> Messaging system.

[1:41:22] >> That's great. which helps people

[1:41:24] especially with identifying leaks,

[1:41:27] right? All the you know the things that

[1:41:30] you can do finding and making sure that

[1:41:32] your infrastructure is is is topnotch is

[1:41:35] probably so

[1:41:39] >> the city is also it is now our turn to

[1:41:42] update our water conservation plan.

[1:41:43] We'll be checking out what is and doing

[1:41:45] that this year

[1:41:46] >> and that would be a great Has the city

[1:41:48] done that in the past that that sort of

[1:41:50] direct communication with our water

[1:41:52] users

[1:41:54] >> through billing and I mean I know

[1:41:56] sometimes we get messages on our billing

[1:41:58] >> like if they notice leaks or other

[1:42:00] things that are showing up in water use

[1:42:02] then people are notified

[1:42:03] >> but just general yes we have done

[1:42:05] general and we're going to be doing

[1:42:08] that's what we're looking at this year

[1:42:09] is is uh all the opportunities that we

[1:42:12] have to in front of people at all the

[1:42:14] different venues and through mail and

[1:42:17] dropping into hotels, restaurants,

[1:42:19] things like that.

[1:42:20] >> Great.

[1:42:20] >> Okay.

[1:42:22] >> Any other questions about water?

[1:42:25] All right. More to come on this.

[1:42:27] Anything else? We're at the end of our

[1:42:29] agenda. Anything that anybody wants to

[1:42:32] comment on?

[1:42:35] » Yes, Mel.

[1:42:36] >> I just want to comment that the date for

[1:42:39] our next meeting is going to be August

[1:42:40] 18th. It said 81 19th on the agenda, but

[1:42:43] it's they're going to be congruent um

[1:42:46] congruent with our regular meeting,

[1:42:48] which is August 18th. And so we'll

[1:42:50] probably start that around 2:30. Don't

[1:42:52] quote me on that, but we'll start our

[1:42:53] meeting a few hours early so that we can

[1:42:55] do a joint meeting and then we'll move

[1:42:57] into our regular county commission

[1:42:58] meeting that day.

[1:43:00] >> And Mel and I work together on that

[1:43:01] agenda. And I just want to close with

[1:43:05] anybody who's out there saying that the

[1:43:07] city and the county don't work together.

[1:43:10] I this is a unique meeting because we

[1:43:13] haven't had one for a while. But there's

[1:43:15] a whole lot of other things that we do

[1:43:17] work together on that that we didn't

[1:43:19] talk about today. So I just kind of want

[1:43:20] to end that myth that we are working

[1:43:23] together and today is a good example of

[1:43:25] how we're going to continue to work

[1:43:26] together in the future. So with that,

[1:43:28] we're journ Oh.

[1:43:30] >> Oh, sorry.

[1:43:31] >> No. Again, I wanted to tell you two

[1:43:33] specifically thank you uh for being the

[1:43:36] leaders in uh setting setting this up. I

[1:43:39] can't wait to national. Great. Thank

[1:43:40] you.

[1:43:41] >> All right. Thanks everyone. Have a great

[1:43:42] weekend. Thank you.

Special Joint City Council/Grand County Commission Meeting - April 17, 2026

Transcript