10 W Fallon Ave Baker, MT 59313
Fallon County of Montana

Fallon County Planning Board Minutes – December 2022

Fallon County Planning Board Minutes – December 2022

December 5, 2022.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Carson Beach, President; Lisa Espeland; Beth Epley; Vaughn Zenko; Jon Slagter; Pat Hanley, Vice-President; Shelley Dean (phone); Kyle Vennes (Phone)

STAFF PRESENT: Mary Grube, Planning

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER: 7:30 p.m. Carson apologized for coming in late.

PUBLIC INPUT: None present.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: Beth Epley moved to adopt the minutes as presented. Vaughn Zenko seconded the motion. Carson called for discussion. Lisa said that she does not feel that state law says what Joel states in the last paragraph of the minutes that under state law the Planning Board has the responsibility to compile the document and get it ready for adoption. Mary interjected and said that this is a legal matter and as such requires input from the County Attorney. She stated that she would try to find which statute states that specifically the following business day.

All were in favor and the motion carried.

GROWTH POLICY WORK SESSION: The information from Joel came after the packets got sent out to the Planning Board. Joel summarized the minutes very well. Mary reviewed these notes.

The Board went over the Communication Plan. Discussion took place regarding the Listening Sessions and the dates for Plevna, Baker, and Fairgrounds. The sessions needed to take in place in January. We will have refreshments and appetizers available. Carson asked how long they would last. Discussion took place on the amount of time and days. Kyle will be gone to Denver in January. He was uncertain if he could participate in Plevna. We talked about doing it on the 5th . They talked about doing it all in one week. They talked about doing it during the basketball games. The 26th of January at the school.

Baker has a couple of Tuesday games. No Tuesday home games for Baker. The Baker game will be the 24th.

Shelley felt the Rural meeting needs to be more toward the beginning of January. Vaughn felt that was too soon after the holidays for promotion. The 12th seemed like a better date.

Discussion took place as to the time the meetings should start. Carson said he could start after he’s off work at 3:30. They felt that they could do it at 4:00 p.m. to start.

Rural time set from 5 to 7 as they are getting off work. Carson recommended that we shouldn’t stress about the small things.

Vaughn suggested that we do a Facebook live. Vaughn said he would be willing to do that.

Mary said she would send a follow-up letter to the Planning Board with the details.

Discussion on approaching the youth took place. Discussion on sending out an invitation.

Michelle Anderson was recommended to reach out to at the school.

Discussion of doing an assembly at the school. Ask the school if we can do an assembly.

Would like to have them engage as well. Discussed an incentive for the survey to be completed.

Get a list of who the youth contact for each church for the youth group.

Reach out to leaders of FFA, 4-H, etc.

Discussion took place at reaching out to businesses. Decision was made to send out invitations out for the first meeting to local businesses.

Concern of the timeline made by Carson. KLJ will be doing a lot of the footwork. He was concerned that it would be too much for the Planning Department.

Beth encouraged an invitation to the Chamber of Commerce as well.

Advertisement will be on the radio, in the paper, and on Facebook.

Agricultural and grazing districts and conservation districts, invitation will go out.

Shelley mentioned the Farmer’s Union Co-op and the Weed Board.

Extension is the other area in which agricultural residents are involved in.

The stakeholders were looked at. We had a meeting that included a lot of the government employees.

Mary said she can send an email out to everyone and ask them questions and follow-up with a phone call for the individual stakeholders.

Need to discover what times the different meetings are held.

Mary said she would interview the FMC CFO and CEO as well.

Kyle hung up the phone and left the meeting.

The Planning Board went over the survey and made suggestions. Mary will get these to Joel and Neil.

Jon Slagter moved to adjourn, and Pat Hanley seconded it. Meeting adjourned at 9:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted:

s/ Carson Beach, President

s/ Mary Grube, Executive Secretary to the Board