Teton County Commissioners Monday: The Midway Substation, Two Subdivisions, and a Budget Opening

Teton County commissioners meet Monday, Oct. 26, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with 36 items on the agenda. The largest is an 11 a.m. hearing on Fall River Electric's second application for the Midway substation between Driggs and Victor, on the same parcel the board turned down in March.

The meeting is in the Commissioners' Meeting Room, 150 Courthouse Dr., Driggs, with a Zoom link on the posted agenda. Open mic at 9 a.m. is for comment on any item on the agenda.

Monday at a Glance

This is the agenda as the county had it posted at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24. Earlier versions had the items in a different order and did not include the revised family land division ordinance, the Fair Board appointment, or the PAWS payment.

9 a.m. — Consent Agenda, Health Insurance, FY26 Budget, and N 7000 W Road Vacation

Consent agenda. About $743,000 in claims, plus a one-page fix to the FY27 salary list.

Health insurance. A.J. Argyle of GBS presents the county's 2027 health insurance renewal. Blue Cross of Idaho's offered renewal was 13.4 percent higher. The negotiated renewal is 8.9 percent higher, $86,935.32 more than this year's $976,603.56 premium to cover 76 employees, and it raises the deductible from $7,000 to $8,150. Dental, vision, and life insurance renew at this year's rates.

FY26 budget opening, 9 a.m. hearing. Resolution 2026-1026 adds $2,826,386 across eight funds to the budget for the year that ended Sept. 30, because those budgets "need to be updated to accurately reflect unanticipated revenue and related expenses, and capital expenditures funded with Remaining Cash."

The largest line is $2,332,230 from the General Fund, which the clerk's memo says is needed "primarily for the $2,000,000 Teton Creek Resort lawsuit and various smaller capital items." The county approved that settlement in March and paid it in the spring. Monday's hearing is the year-end step that writes the payment into the final FY26 budget. Nothing posted as of Saturday morning itemizes the $332,230.

The other seven funds:

Our FY27 budget story explains how the settlement payment distorts year-over-year General Fund comparisons.

N 7000 W road vacation, 9 a.m. hearing. Eddyline Ranch LLC asked the county to vacate N 7000 W north of W 4000 N, a stretch the cover memo puts at about a mile. The staff report found that 2006 road hearings validated half a mile as a county road, and recommends vacating those validated limits. Staff notes that any future connection north would require acquiring right-of-way for another 2.3 miles to Ards Road.

10 a.m. — Zamora Estates

Zamora Estates would divide 10.22 acres at State Highway 33 and N 3500 W, in the Tetonia area of impact, into four 2.5-acre lots for owner Raymundo Zamora Zanabria. The agenda lists a public hearing; it does not list this item for action. The staff report makes no recommendation. The county planning commission recommended approval 7 to 0 on Sept. 8, adding conditions to move the fire pond away from the highway and set a no-landscaping setback.

The Idaho Department of Water Resources told the county the lots would be a "dry" subdivision, "no lawns or other landscaping," without irrigation rights from another source. On Oct. 20, Kevin Brown, fire marshal for Teton County Fire & Rescue, questioned the fire pond's volume and the road: "Guadalupe Lane is about 990 feet long and dead ends. Fire code says roads over 500 feet are supposed to be 26 feet wide. It's showing 22 feet." Staff proposes making the fire marshal's approval of the fire protection plan a condition. The county had received no public comment as of Oct. 15. Teton School District 401 asks for a voluntary $5,096 contribution.

10:30 a.m. — Gallery Subdivision

Gallery Subdivision would put 15 residential lots and two open-space lots on 160 acres west of Victor, around 8000 to 8500 S 4500 W, for Jones Idaho LLC. The staff report makes no recommendation and lists four possible conditions. The planning commission recommended approval 5 to 2 on Sept. 8, on condition that a state report on the septic study arrive first. The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality's Sept. 25 letter "concurs with the findings," and adds that the letter "does not constitute an approval."

The wildlife assessment preferred clustering smaller lots on the north end; the applicant says steep slopes rule that out. The Forest Service letter takes no position on the project. It asks for firewise vegetation work "before any lots are sold" and a better legal easement on Grove Creek Road, where "the Forest relies on prescriptive county access." Teton School District 401 asks for a voluntary $19,110; staff writes that "it is not clear to staff that the county can mandate this contribution."

11 a.m. — The Midway substation, second time

Fall River Electric wants a special use permit to build the Midway substation on a 5-acre parcel near 700 W 3500 S. Teton County commissioners denied the first application 2 to 1 in March. In May, Fall River withdrew its request for reconsideration. At a June work session with the board, Fall River said it had passed on a nearby industrial site over price. In August, it refiled on the same parcel, adding a new wildlife assessment and 4.25 acres of permanent open space.

The staff report treats it as a new application and makes no formal recommendation. It names compatibility with neighboring homes as "the major point where compliance with the criterion can be debated," and says staff does "not interpret the Code or WHA policy as establishing wildlife habitat analysis as a general basis for denying a project." It also says "an AI generated comparison of the two studies," Fall River's and one commissioned by neighbors, was prepared and considered by staff. It proposes eight conditions, including a habitat enhancement plan and the extra evergreen screening the planning commission added.

The planning commission recommended approval 4 to 3 on Sept. 8, its minutes show. Public comment fills a 158-page file. Anna Trentadue, who represents two neighboring landowners, wants equal time and the last word, and staff suggests the board settle that first.

After the hearings — The family land division and written decisions

Family land division. The ordinance would let a landowner give or sell a small parcel to a close relative without subdivision review, to create what the draft calls "affordable housing opportunities for those who grew up in the community." The revised draft brings back the five-year hold on resale that the planning commission's September version dropped. County Administrator Billie Siddoway's memo says the board still has to decide how many parcels may skip the zoning district's density limits.

Smallwood event barn. The written decision on the barn the board approved Oct. 13 allows events for up to 250 guests, with two a year allowed up to 383. Five conditions in the Oct. 13 minutes are missing, including a buffer along lot lines next to homes, a health district food license, and a permanent building for restrooms and food preparation.

Teton Reserve lot consolidations. Two decisions each merge two lots in the Teton Reserve subdivision, on Silver Fox Lane and Swallowtail Drive. The Swallowtail decision names Commissioner Brad Wolfe as making the motion and Commissioner Ron James as seconding it; the Oct. 13 minutes have it the other way around.

Smash indoor recreation. The agenda calls this an "LDC Code Amendment," but the document is the written decision on the appeal the board granted Sept. 28, 3 to 0. It finds the proposed center similar enough to a park and recreation field use, and says the ruling "should not be considered as a categorical determination for this type of use."

Wild Water / Tetons West school. The draft decision on the conditional rezone for a small private high school at 2301 N Highway 33 describes, in its body, parcel RP05N45E148505 moving from RN-5 to Industrial Research on an application filed June 22. Its approving paragraph names a different parcel, RP04N45E128100, rezoning "to RN-5," on an application dated Jan. 6. The board approved the school's development agreement Oct. 13, 3 to 0; that agreement caps the site at 32 students and 6 teachers.

Later Monday — Public works, dispatch, and final tax rates

Public works report. The department update says the new W 6000 S bridge should be in place by the third or fourth week of November. Scour turned up on one of the Stateline bridges over Teton Creek, and the county wants a temporary fix before spring runoff; "eventually this structure will need to be replaced." The employee housing the road department rented for out-of-valley plow drivers last winter is now offered at a monthly rate similar to what the department paid for the whole season, and until there is an alternative, those drivers will stay overnight in the vacant Annex office. The solid-waste crew building is waiting on a Driggs utility permit because "neither the City nor the County could produce the original will serve letter."

Snow plowing. This contract covers county parking lots at the courthouse, law enforcement center, Annex, Buxton search and rescue building, and 4-H grounds, not roads. Staff recommends Alpine Road Repair & Snow Removal. The bid sheet shows the incumbent, MD Nursery & Landscaping, with the lowest skid-steer rate at $115 an hour, but staff's estimated cost per storm, built on each bidder's own time estimates, puts Alpine lowest at $372. The county spent $14,900 on the contract last winter, which the memo calls a "very light year."

Dispatch. Priority Dispatch is back on the agenda. As of 10:15 a.m. Saturday, the county had posted no document for it or for the dispatch training expense listed beside it. The Oct. 13 minutes record the commissioners approving the 911 call-handling software at $24,770 a year from the contingency account, at the same meeting where they approved $360,000 for Motorola dispatch consoles.

Minutes. Of the five sets of minutes up for approval, the Oct. 13 minutes set the clock RAD Curbside is on: 14 days to accept the county's two-year extension "unconditionally" before the curbside franchise goes out for bid. RAD is not on Monday's agenda.

Final levies. The corrected levy certificate, generated Oct. 22, sets the 2026 property tax rate for each taxing district in the county. Compared with the version the board approved Sept. 18, three districts' rates changed. Teton School District 401's total rate dipped slightly. The Cache Clawson cemetery rate fell. The library's temporary override fell and is now marked as adjusted for urban renewal. The other rates did not change.

City rates are 0.000716564 for Driggs, 0.000726051 for Tetonia, and 0.000877425 for Victor. The school district's supplemental levy on this sheet is the current one; the district's new request is on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Fair Board. Commissioners consider appointing Kayden Driggs, a former Idaho FFA president involved with the Tetonia Rodeo Grounds Committee, to the Teton County Fair Board. The letter of interest names youth programs as a focus.

Operation Green Light. The courthouse will be lit green Nov. 4 to 11 for veterans under a proclamation that also asks residents and businesses to put up green lights. The county is in its fourth year participating, the public works report says.

Closed sessions. The board meets privately with its attorney on pending or likely litigation, then on a personnel matter. The agenda does not say what either concerns.

PAWS. Added Saturday morning, this is the vote our Oct. 20 story said was still to come. A proposed agreement would pay the shelter $5,000 for FY26 and $28,000 for FY27, and the memo asks the board to authorize the remaining $23,000 if PAWS accepts. The memo says commissioners authorized $10,000 on Oct. 13. The Oct. 13 minutes record that money only as discussed, and Commission Chair Brad Wolfe called the item "just direction."

What We're Watching

Teton County commissioners denied the first Midway application in March on two findings in their written decision: that the substation was not "compatible with adjacent uses," and that buffering "would not be enough to mitigate all the adverse impacts."

What to watch: whether Teton County commissioners decide the Midway application Monday or continue it, and how they rule on the neighbors' request for equal time.