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Show CHANGING TIMES - FEBRUARY1994 - 5 POA/Town Notes Meetings of Feb 2 POA BOARD: GREEN BELT LOT TRANSFER: Title search is still incomplete. Jack Campbell and Valli Smouse on February 4. At this meeting Jack resigned from the Planning Commis— sion and moved that Jeff Whitney be appointed to his seat. Motion passed unanimously. LAWYER HIRED: Steve Russell, Moab, was approved. MAIL BOXES: Bill Riggs will research moving the mailboxes to the Community Lot. PETITION SUBMITTED: A petition Our Roads was received requesting public involvement in future POA Board replace- merits. B&C Road Funds Castle Valley has two funding JOINT ROAD REPORT: Grader is in the shop; all brakes are being repaired. Castle Creek Lane and lower Homestead surveyed. TOWN COUNCIL: PLANNING COMMISSION: Randy Jorgen and Andrea Wheeling were appointed unanimously. RESOLUTION 94-1: This resolution requests that the Town of Castle Valley be included within the boundaries of the new Grand County Multipurpose Special Service District #1. This SSD will receive mineral lease monies from the state for the purpose of road construction and repair, drainage and flood control, and snow removal. Passed unanimously. CV NEWCOMERS BOOKLET: Money was allocated for a first printing of the Castle Valley booklet, offering info on town structure, how to obtain water and building permits, and gardening among other things. The booklet will be refined and updated by the Planning Commission after it has been used for a period of time. Written feedback is requested. OPEN DISCUSSION: Discussion reflected residents’ worries about discharge of firearms in the town. Much dismay was expressed about recent damage caused by kids with firearms. General agreement that some changes need to be made about recreational shooting within the town. Town Council will reconsider draft of ordinance from years back which was never passed. SPECIAL TOW N M E ETIN G As a result of statements about the need for community healing made by Jeff Whitney at the close of the regular Town Council meeting (reported above), a special meeting was called by sources for road work. As well as dues from the POA, the town receives state funds known as “B & C Road Funds.” These monies are collected from gas tax and distributed to municipalities and incorporated areas, amounts based on population, road mileage, and land What is the status of our roads? In the original subdivision, the land under the roads was owned by individual property owners. The easement across the roads was owned by the POA. This remains the case with all of the side roads. (Castle Valley Drive’s dedication put it under the County’s jurisdiction.) From this it would seem that our remaining roads are privately rather than publicly owned. I explored this issue with the two UDOT employees whose area of expertise is B & C Read Funds. Both Scott Nay and John Moore gave the opinion that “public” is defined as w rather than ownership. They gave examples of roads maintained by the county but owned by the Forest Service or by Indian reservations. In both cases the land and easements were owned by non-county entities but eligible for B & C Road Funds because of their public use use. The fund is administered by UDOT, Utah Department of Transportation. Their guidelines are regulated by the state. According to these regulations, funds can be used for such activities as road maintenance and Are our roads used by the public? Have they been traveled freely by other than property owners? Have gates or fences prohibited travel? Many of us are familiar with restricted subdivisions where access is through a locked gate. repair, drainage work, road realignment, grading, and paving. The latter would be an example of The town has been receiving B&C Road Funds since 1986. The amount has increased over the years, last year giving the town approximately Ranchos subdivision, however, this has $11,000. With the paving of Castle Valley Drive by the county, we expect other non-owners have been free to travel our streets. According to our to see a decrease in these funds, as our mileage has changed from 16 to 12 miles. The town has used the funds to repay a CIB (Community Impact Board) loan used to design and implement our drainage program and to pay our road supervisor’s salary. In recent Town and POA meetings two residents have raised the issue of whether the town is receiving these funds legally. The question of definition of qualifying roads has been their expressed concern. The regulations for B & C Read Funds defines eligible UDOT representatives, this use would roads as: “All public highways, roads exist (not currently recorded or on any plat map), or any road that is secured from public use by a gate or fence. ——Joan Sangree, or streets that are traveled ways under the jurisdiction of, and maintained to a minimum standard or higher by a county or incorporated city or town, over which a conventional two-wheel drive vehicle may travel (under normal conditions)” The question raised is whether our roads are considered public or private. privately used roads. Here in the River never (to my knowledge) been the case, at least since the town was incorporated. Visitors, service vehicles, and be considered “public”. Private entities are not eligible for B & C Road Funds. The POA could not and did not receive these funds. In 1985 when the town incorporated, all of the “publicly” used roads became eligible for these funds. Lying within the town’s boundaries, the roads are considered to be under the town’s jurisdiction regardless of who owns the actual land or easement. Exceptions to this would be the road through the Upper 80, which technically does not fig) cv Roads Chair e9 g, |
