The last Carbon County Commission meeting for the 2015 year was held on Wednesday evening.
A discussion of the proposed sale of radio licenses that were previously discussed at a commission meeting was on the agenda. Various members of the community spoke either their displeasure or their agreement of the sale. Jim Piatchatelli spoke with the commissioners and raised quite a few questions.
“Why has this been denied before with other commissioners and now it’s being approved?” he asked. He also asked why they hadn’t put out a public notice about the sale. Commissioner Casey Hopes spoke at that time, saying that since there are only the local radio stations that the licenses could go to, the commission didn’t see it as something that needed to be put out as a public notification. Piatchatelli’s main concern was that once the radio licenses are sold, they can’t easily be bought again.
“The value of the license is much greater than the purchase price,” stated Piatchatelli.
Another key discussion of the night was the appointment of members to various county boards and committees. The board of adjustments had four vacancies and two applicants. The positions were not given to the two applicants yet, however. The decision was made that until the second advertising period of the positions is up at the end of December, the positions will not be appointed. The career service council had one vacancy and one application, Stacey Jones, who was appointed to the board.
The planning commission had two vacancies and five applications. The applications were all received by the first deadline so the positions were appointed. The decision was made to bring back Don Torgerson and Richard Tatton due to their hard work and dedication. Scott Young was then appointed to the sheriff board and there is still one vacancy available. There were nine vacancies and eight applicants for the tourism tax advisory board. However, Commissioner Jae Potter stated that the state law requires members must be a board of five with three from the industry and two from outside. Two from the industry applied and six are from the outside. The decision was made for Athena Robinson and Tina Henry to be appointed as inside of the industry. They are still waiting of applicants for the other spots available.
The last few things discussed at the meeting were topics such as the 2016 budget, the commission meeting schedule for 2016 and the 2015 budget amendment. To conclude the meeting, commissioner Potter was rotated in as the commission chair to begin January 1.