Contractors' Yards Amendment The Fremont County Board of Commissioners says any decision on amending Fremont County’s zoning resolution dealing with contractor’s yards operating in residential neighborhoods will wait until a new Board of Commissioners is seated in 2011. The Commissioners voted at last Tuesday’s meeting to table consideration of the zoning amendment until March 8th. Commission Chairman Ed Norden said that following the November 9th public hearing the Commissioners could not provide the staff with any clear direction on what language changes should be made in the draft document.
The Commissioners said that the comments made at the public hearing again pointed to the problem of trying to draft some language that could achieve a balance between people who want to operate small contracting businesses in residential neighborhoods without irritating their neighbors. John Zajkowski of Penrose told the board that he agreed with the comments at the public hearing that ‘one size does not fit all’ when it comes to different neighborhoods around the county. Zajkowski said the permitted space of a contractor’s yard should be in direction correlation to the amount of space that a contractor owns. Zajkowski said he would be open to securing a special review use permit if it would allow him to continue operating on his property at Penrose.
Commissioner Mike Stiehl said he is unsure whether the county should be tying contractor’s yards to home occupations and said he‘s not convinced at this point if the county should even modify the zoning resolution or leave things as they are. Anticipating that the staff and board would be unable to get any changes adopted before the end of the year, it was decided to table the amendment until March, thus allowing time for Commissioner-Elect Debbie Bell to get up to speed on the issue early in 2011.
Commissioner Norden added that once the board develops some language changes to the amendment he would like to see the issue brought up again for another public hearing to give contractors and other citizens an opportunity to be heard on the matter.
Budget Hearing The Commissioners last Tuesday also conducted a second and final hearing on the 2011 proposed county budget. County Manager George Sugars said with the county’s 2010 general fund budget expected to close out the year with $547,000 in reserves, it’s now estimated that the 2011 general fund would end next year with $554,000 in reserves. Sugars notes that number is still far short of the minimum $1 million in general fund reserves that the Board of Commissioners continues to target.
Sugars added that the Commissioners believe it is important to try to restore some of the employee benefits the county eliminated in 2010. Specifically after cancelling the county’s four percent retirement match for employees in 2010 the Commissioners decided to restore the retirement match at a three percent level in 2011. Sugars said the budget will come up for adoption by the Board of Commissioners at the December 14th regular meeting.
Other Business The Commissioners:
- Joined with County Clerk Norma Hatfield in honoring motor vehicle department accountant Cheryl Potter who is retiring after 26 years of service;
- Authorized the chairman to sign an agreement to participate in the 2011 recycling program through the Upper Arkansas Area Council of Governments;
- Appointed Marie Adams, Tom Young, and Kathy Shoemaker to the Fremont County Fairs & Shows Association Board;
- Appointed Debbie Chess, Virginia Haynes, Marsha Bouchard, Ralph Kunselman, and Todd Saymanski to the Fremont County Fair Board;
- Appointed Lisa Wood to the Fremont County Heritage Commission to fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Roberta Miller.