MACO DISTRICT
MEETING MINUTES
DATE: MAY 4,
2005
WHERE: Lewis & Clark County Commission
Chambers
Helena, Montana
The Meeting Began
at 10:00am
The Pledge of
Allegiance was recited.
Chairman Ed
Tinsley, Lewis & Clark County, welcomed the attendees who included:
Gordon Morris,
MACo Executive Director
Harold Blattie,
MACo Assistant Director
Bill Kennedy, MACo
President, Yellowstone County,
Doug Kaercher,
MACo Vice President, Hill County
Frank Nelson,
Madison County
David Schulz,
Madison County
Larry Zanto,
Broadwater County
Elaine Mann,
Broadwater County
Gail Jones, Powell
County
Dwight O’Hare,
Powell County
Gene Vuckovich,
Anaconda-Deer Lodge County
Chuck Notbohm,
Jefferson County
Tom Lythgoe,
Jefferson County
Ken Weber,
Jefferson County
Garth Haugland,
Beaverhead County
Cliff Nelson,
Granite County
Carl Holttun,
Granite County
Linda Holttum,
Granite County
Susie Browning,
Granite County
Ray Barniocat,
MACo Risk Management
Ken Weber,
Jefferson County
Anita Varone,
Lewis & Clark County
Mike Murray, Lewis
& Clark County
Ed Tinsley, Lewis
& Clark County
Paulette DeHart,
Clerk of Court, Lewis & Clark County
Bernie Lucas,
Meagher Count
Dave Schwindin,
DOLI
Larry Lahren, Park
County
Dick Murphy, Park County
Jim Durgan, Park
County
Joe Skinner,
Gallatin County
Betsy Allen,
Representing Senator Conrad Burns Office
Bill Kennedy:
Thank you to all that helped with the legislative session. The Annual MACo
meeting will be in Billings, Montana on Sunday, September 25, 2005. It will
include golf, board meetings and evening dinner. Hosting a BBQ at his house to
thank everyone since he’s the outgoing president.
Nominations were
opened for District Chair for Districts 8, 9, and 12. The elections will not be
until the September meeting. There will be another District Caucus before the
elections.
Nominations for
Second Vice President:
Note* Jean
Curtiss, Missoula County was previously nominated by Districts 10 and 11
No nominations
were made, but will remain open until September
Nominations for
Financial Officer:
No nominations
were made, but will remain open until September
Nominations for
District Chairperson for Districts 8, 9, and 12:
Nominations for
Vice-Chair for District 9: Jim Durgan, Park County, was nominated and
it was seconded. He was immediately voted as current Vice-Chair.
Nominations for
Vice-Chair for District 12:
Garth Haugland, Beaverhead County, was nominated and seconded. Garth Haugland
was immediately voted as current Vice-Chair (taking over for Commissioner Ed
Beaujolais who passed away).
Harold Blattie
passed out copies of the Proposed Budget for MACo for Fiscal year
2006. It will be sent to the Board of Directors for approval at a June 8,
2005 meeting. Input will be accepted until June 8, 2005. It was discussed.
11:30: MJTP
Speaker
12:00: Lunch was
served
1:00: Historic
Trolley Ride around Helena
2:00: MDOT
Speakers: Wayne Noem, Secondary Roads Engineer, Montana Department of
Transportation and Gary Larson, past Secondary Roads Engineer.
Wayne Noem: He
presented a PowerPoint Presentation. He explained the status of some current
projects of some attending commissioners. and the 2005 priority list. $100,000
of the $200,000 of MDOT discretionary money will be used for a snow fence for
the area East of Livingston (Park County). MDOT is using state funds to help
advance projects since time is an issue. Fuel, concrete and steel costs are
affecting the current projects. MDOT received all the counties priority lists
for 2005 except Deer Lodge and Silverbow. He will wait for them until July, if
they don’t respond they’ll allow funding to go to other counties. The Mill
Creek Project by Anaconda is taking up a lot of funding at the moment so they
got it down to 10 miles of road instead of the entire road, which would use up
the budget for other counties.
MDOT Q&A:
Q.) A gentleman
asked when the repairs went from the state level to the county level for the
Mill Creek Project. He asked why the county has to maintain the road if they
never accepted it from the state on record?
A.)
Gary Larsen,
past secondary road engineer: Gary had a letter that went sent to the county by
the state. He said the county opted to take that project off the secondary road
system. The state received a letter from the county in 1976. It is on file.
Gary said the commissioners at that time made a big mistake by doing that. A
copy will be sent to them from MDOT.
Gary Larson
explained criteria for choosing how money gets dispersed to counties for road
repair:
1. Safety
2. Geometrics: Number of sub-standard,
horizontal & vertical curves, anything that relates to safety, could be
trouble.
3. Travel
4. Maintenance
Back in circa
days, years ago, the county took over gravel secondary roads and the state took
over most paved secondary roads (240+ miles of road).
Q) How do they
remain secondary roads if they are gravel?
A) Because they
are still a major collector.
Q) If there are
counters across the roads, whom can we call to ask the results?
A) Dan Bison (Head
of Traffic)
Gary Larson, past
Secondary Road Engineer, spoke about the “Public Process”: S.T.I.P:
Surface Transportation Improvement Program was put together to involve the
public, which has the next 3 years of projects and all phases of those
projects. Every year they generate the “STIP” to make sure they get public
involvement and feedback. The document is put on the Internet, newsletter, 500
copies sent out through state to libraries, local papers. Projects that are between phases may not be
listed, but the projects are still being worked on. A copy is sent to each
county, comments are to be sent in writing and another document will be
produced (this August will be the next). Last year no comments were received.
He stressed that the counties should be responding. This document is very important.
Q) If the STIP
does not include those between phases, does it mean that when those projects do
get in later, will they be pushed back?
A) We don’t put
them in because there are too many projects in the program. This helps cut
cost. We put things in that are in “active” construction phase so the document
won’t be so large. The purpose of the STIP is to get public involvement, which
is required by the Federal Government.
It’s updated monthly. It runs on a Federal Fiscal Year.
Gary will put
together a new book this fall for Oct 1, 2005-Sept. 30, 2007 and it will show
the plan of how MDOT will spend their money. A project didn’t get bumped if you
don’t see it in the book. It’s just in between a phase. You can get online to
see the STIP.
3:00: DNRC Speakers
Gary Williams and Julie Shea from Gallatin National Forest.
Julie Shea: As of
2000, Fire Restrictions needed work and better coordination across Federal,
State and Counties. A group called MACo was formed. Representatives are in each
county and a Federal Rep within the state. New restrictions were on a fact
sheet handed out earlier by DNRC. Julie Shea is the South Central Fire
Coordinator, which covers primarily Gallatin, Park and Sweet Grass County, also
portions of Meagher, Carbon, Stillwater, Madison, (mainly Federal in the latter
counties). May 1st is the first day of fire season and the last day
is Sept. 30, 2005. “Public Safety” is the #1 reason they made fire
restrictions. There are hardly any human caused fires anymore except the
hunters in late fall. 95% of Montana fires are lightning caused. Stage 1
restrictions are campsite fire designations. Smoking restrictions in vehicle or
3’ diameter areas. Stage 2 restrictions are the building, maintaining and
attending campfires. We designate which campgrounds can remain open. The “Hoot
Owl” means no activity from 1am to 1pm daily. Those 2 stages are what the
coordinators work with. Beyond those 2 stages is called a “Closure”. The area
of high fire activity is closed, not the complete zone or area, which the
public accepts better. Enforcement is done by the Forest Service on BLM land,
by the State on State Land and private land and by the county on county land.
The area coordinators within your counties should be receiving the area
restriction plan any day now.
Gary Williams,
Central Land Office Manager: Meagher, Broadwater, Jefferson, Lewis & Clark,
Madison, Beaverhead and Gallatin. The other counties need to talk to Tony Leon.
In Bozeman, the unit manager position is currently vacant, in Helena it’s D.J.
Bocken and in Dillon, it’s Dick Moore. They manage the school trust lands and
activities on those, but also get involved with private landowners to aid in
forest management. They are involved in the counties programs now. Recently the
legislature provided a large budget for the program. Land banking program
authorized them to sell some state lands that are hard to keep up or recreate
in and use the money to buy better land and make it state land. They can’t sell more than 100,000 acres
total and can’t sell beyond 2008. Nominations are taken from lessees only, not
landowners. They prioritized Garfield, Custer and Choteau Counties. A concern
is buying up a lot of state lands in one county. Scoping notices are sent out
to all commissioners, lessees, and adjacent landowners before the sale and a
public hearing is held. A bidding process and final sale process goes on and it
goes before the land board twice during this process. The utilities are very
interested in working with the counties. Real Estate Management EIS was put in
place to try to provide guidelines so people don’t buy and build all around the
high value lands and ruin their value/beauty. State lands should not be set
aside as open land only. We’ll work very close with local planning offices to
develop some of the land for high revenue development.
Harold Blattie:
Former Teton County Commissioner, Murray Sexton, is now head of DNRC and is
making an effort to establish good relationships with the county commissioners.
A bill just passed and now under current law you cannot abandon a county road
that provides access to public lands or water public waters unless the same
access is provided otherwise. There’s still a lack of consistency for the
public and that’s the purpose of these groups. He cited 7-33-2201, the
authority of the county governing body to protect the range, farm and forest
resources. The authority is not in the local fire department, fire chief. The
authority lies with the commissioners on lands over which the county has
jurisdiction.
The meeting was
adjourned at 4:00pm