Taxes, bonds & impact funds

The Carbon County Council of Governments (CCCOG) met at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 19 at the Hanna Town Hall.

Steve Nicholson, the chairman, was not in attendance so Kenda Colman, the vice-chairman, ran the meeting.

The minutes of July 18 and Aug. 15 along with the treasurers report were approved by the council.

Morgan Irene, mayor of Elk Mountain and CCCOG Secretary/Treasurer, said most information he needed on the 5th penny tax had come in from the municipalities, but there was still some tweaking to do before putting forth a report.

Colman said she was given a note that the Great Divide Economic Development Coalition needed a representative from a town council person in Carbon County to serve on the board.

Carbon County Commissioners chair, John Johnson, told the council that commissioner Sue Jones was starting advertisements educating voters on the 5th penny tax. Those ads were to start Oct. 1 and run until election day.

Colman said that her experience at the Carbon County Fair 5th penny tax booth was that people were either for it or totally against it.

Colman also told the council she received a notice that Boswell Springs and Chokecherry Wind projects impact funds had been dispersed to the county.

Jon Nelson, owner of North Fork Engineering, gave an update of fundraising efforts being made on educational material for the Specific Purpose tax, also known as the 6th penny tax.

“I have reached out to about nine entities and we are asking $2,000 apiece and two have committed already,” Nelson said. “I am hoping to have this pulled together by Nov. 1st.”

Nelson said there are 30 entities he is looking at eventually contacting. He wanted to know, as the money comes in, who should be responsible for the funds. The council decided to approach Barbara Bonds with Fruedenthal and Bonds for her opinion.

CCCOG officers were approved as new check signers.

Bonds was approved by the council to be the attorney used by CCCOG in the event of the 6th penny tax getting approved.

Kara Choquette, representative from the TransWest Express Transmission project, gave an update.

“I wanted to give you an update on what is coming,” Choquette said. “We have been working with Carbon County with Sid Fox’s office and applied for conditional use permits last Friday and we are very excited about that.”

She said there was a tentative date of Nov. 5 was set for TransWest to come before the zoning and planning commission for the conditional use permits with a possibility of Dec. 4 to come before the Carbon County Commissioners.

“Again this is preliminary, look for the final notices, but I wanted to put the TransWest project on your radar screen,” Choquette said. “We are looking at our construction period being 2020 to 2025.”

The next scheduled Carbon CCCOG meeting is at 6 p.m. on Nov. 15 in Rawlins.