COG subcommittee recommends funding Mormon Trail completion, COG studies; members approve committee recommendations

Council of Governments members on Aug. 21 voted to approve a subcommittee’s funding recommendations for third-quarter sales-tax and corridor-preservation priorities, including a $1.65 million allocation to finish the Mormon Trail project and funding to support two regional planning requests submitted by the Council of Governments (COG).

Council member leading the subcommittee presented the recommended awards and scoring results. The subcommittee recommended awarding Tooele County the full $1.65 million requested to complete Mormon Trail work and match a previously announced $5 million federal grant. The same subcommittee recommended funding both COG planning requests, which include a countywide pavement assessment and a utilities/impact-fee study, and recommended awards to several corridor-preservation applicants. The subcommittee presentation said the full set of third-quarter requests totaled approximately $1.75 million; corridor-preservation recommendations presented to the COG were approximately $975,000.

The subcommittee lead said application scoring had improved but noted the group had difficulty scoring regionwide planning requests because the rubric was oriented toward capital or construction projects rather than planning. He proposed changes to scoring for preapproved, regionwide items so such requests receive consistent points in future rounds. The lead also urged members to consider long-term planning needs—citing several east–west corridors, Sheep Lane and planned growth that could require large investments—before committing all available funds to smaller projects.

During discussion, some smaller jurisdictions raised concerns that the current scoring system disadvantages lower-population towns because projects from Rush Valley, Vernon and Stockton tended to score lower on per-user and benefit metrics. One jurisdiction asked whether the county could partially fund Grantsville’s Sheep Lane request (a project described in the subcommittee presentation as nearly $18 million and therefore low-scoring on a per-user basis); the subcommittee lead said partial funding was possible but difficult to score without a defined phased amount in the application.

The COG approved the subcommittee’s recommendations by voice vote after a motion and second. The record shows an affirmative voice vote and at least one voiced opposition during the roll call; the meeting transcript did not capture a roll-call tally of individual yes/no votes. Members recorded no amendments to the subcommittee recommendation during the meeting.

The subcommittee chair also summarized the group’s account balances and trends: third-quarter and corridor-preservation funds together were described as approximately $8.05 million available countywide, with third-quarter funds increasing roughly $3 million over the previous year while quarterly preservation requests totaled nearly $19 million. The chair cautioned the COG that fully funding large corridor requests (for example, Grantsville’s Sheep Lane) would exhaust funds and urged ongoing discussions about setting aside corridor-preservation dollars for large, long-term corridor acquisitions or phased work.

Several members requested that corridor-preservation and third-quarter allocations be standing items on future meeting agendas so jurisdictions can coordinate multi-year preservation strategies. The subcommittee chair said staff would return with scoring-rule changes to better account for regionwide planning items and project-phase proposals.

No additional formal votes or budget transfers were taken at the meeting; the action recorded was approval of the committee’s recommended funding list for further processing by the county.