News from Across the Nation - May 30, 2016

MICHIGAN

Vroom, vroom…. A rare 1991 GMC Syclone pickup truck with fewer than 14,000 miles on it sold for $23,500 at this year’s OAKLAND COUNTY auction. Enthusiasts call it the “quickest truck ever built,” according to the Detroit Free Press. Fewer than 3,000 were ever built. Also for sale, a low-mileage 1980 Camaro with a Corvette engine; it went for $9,300. Both were both were used for years in the county’s DARE drug-prevention program and for parades.

“Car enthusiasts love to try to get a good deal to add to their collections,” County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said of the annual event. “Plus, there’s something for everyone from electronics to power tools.”

The event wasn’t all muscle cars and trucks. Dozens of former police cars and county utility vehicles were also on offer, including a front-end loader. Bidders also vied for a mountain bike and a pair of Ralph Lauren boots.

The auction brought in over $500,000, county officials said.

 

ALASKA

Villages in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, site of a proposed gold mine, are considering whether to become the state’s 20th borough. The delta area in southwest Alaska is among the state’s poorest regions, according to Alaska Dispatch News. The Donlin Gold Mine project would become the borough’s economic engine, say those helping to draft a borough charter. A confederation of 10 Alaska Native villages owns the land. Supporters say one benefit of forming a borough would be local bonding authority, making the area less dependent on state funding for new schools. It could take developers up to three years to decide whether to build the mine.

ARIZONA

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has approved PIMA COUNTY for a Section 10 (endangered species incidental ‘take’) permit for the county’s species conservation plan.

Under the Endangered Species Act, it’s normally illegal to take — that is, “harm, harass, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” — threatened and endangered species. However, the FWS does in limited cases, issue Section 10 permits to take federally listed and candidate species that are “incidental to, but not the purpose of, otherwise lawful activities.”

“The permit provides the county with a streamlined procedure for compliance with the Endangered Species Act,” County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said. It relies on conservation measures the county has taken over the past 15 years, such as the acquisition and management of working ranches and county parks.

The permit covers up to 36,000 acres of impacts to nine currently listed species and another 35 species that could become federally protected during the next 30 years.

CALIFORNIA

• A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling, subsequently allowing a lawsuit to proceed that challenges ALAMEDA COUNTY’s gun control ordinance, which bans gun stores from opening within 500 feet of residential neighborhoods, Reuters reported
• “Alameda County’s ordinance may very well be permissible,” wrote Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain in the court’s 2–1 opinion. “Thus far, however, the county has failed to justify the burden it has placed on the right of law-abiding citizens to purchase guns.&rdquo
• Dissenting from the majority, Judge Barry Silverman said, “What we’re dealing with here is a mundane zoning dispute dressed up as a Second Amendment challenge.”

• Voters in San Francisco will get to decide this fall whether to lower the voting age to 16 for local elections. The SAN FRANCISCO Board of Supervisors voted 9–2 to place a charter amendment on the November ballot, sfgate.com reported.
• Supervisor John Avalos, a proponent of the measure, said, “Regardless of whether this measure is approved or not, [San Francisco] is starting a trend that will happen across the country, where cities like ours will consider whether young people can vote.”
• If the amendment passes, San Francisco could become the first major U.S. city to lower its voting age.

COLORADO

Earlier this month, EL PASO COUNTY Parks unveiled the Bear Creek Dog Park Memorial at a ceremony in Bear Creek Regional Park, home to a county dog park. The Bear Creek Dog Park Memorial will provide the opportunity for dog owners to memorialize their best friend at one the pet’s favorite places.

The memorial consists of a granite monument with steel dog silhouettes on top, located near the main entrance. Dog owners can purchase personalized plaques to be placed on the monument in memory of their deceased canine companions. Money raised from the plaques will fund improvements to the dog park.

“The memorial is a unique amenity that adds to the overall quality of the dog park,” said Dana Nordstrom, El Paso County community outreach coordinator. “It’s a special touch for all of the people and pets who come and play.”

PUEBLO COUNTY continues to use legalized marijuana-related revenue to address social needs. First there were college scholarships funded by pot tax revenues. Now the county has awarded a $25,000 grant to help the homeless, using funds from fines assessed against marijuana growers and sellers.

The grant went to the Pueblo Area Law Enforcement Chaplain’s Corps to provide free bus vouchers to homeless people in the county.

Pueblo County Commissioner Sal Pace said the corps isn’t “just putting people on a bus and sending them 300 miles away from here. They are working with stranded individuals to help reunite them with family members that have the resources to support them and get them back on their feet.

MINNESOTA

DOUGLAS COUNTY is loosening its restrictions on lakeshore development, in line with a state law passed last year that eliminates more restrictive local laws to protect lakes.

“With the passage back in July, we can no longer administer the minimum setback where it’s beyond the state minimum setback,” county Zoning Director Steve Rannenberg told the Duluth News Tribune.

The new standards would reduce setback restrictions on most lakes in the county, allow smaller lot sizes and could lead to additional development pressures, he added.

NEW JERSEY

A one-person division of the UNION COUNTY Department of Human Services will become the Office on Women, connecting local women with government services.

The office will promote services and programs throughout the county that are aimed at women’s education, employment, social life, health care, addiction, aging and sexual violence, the New Jersey Advance reported.

NEW YORK

The WYOMING COUNTY Rural Arts Initiative’s Microenterprise Program is offering grants to county artists and artisans to help establish or enhance their businesses.

Grants can be used to help pay for the cost of studios or “maker spaces,” rent for gallery space or other display venues, art supplies and equipment, access to e-commerce opportunities and other costs involved in creating art for the commercial market.

NORTH DAKOTA

MCKENZIE COUNTY, currently the top oil-producer in the state, has pushed for state health officials to consider opening a satellite office in the county to more closely monitor the oil and gas industry, according to the Dickenson Press.

The issue was prompted by continuing concerns about disposal of radioactive byproducts of oil production in the state’s first landfill, located in the county.

OHIO

• Hoping to draw some of its residents to use its services, CUYAHOGA COUNTY is adding auto title transfer services to one of its driver’s license bureaus next year.
• The Plain Dealer reported the county loses roughly $800,000 a year in title fees because its residents opt to go other counties’ transfer offices that offer better customer service.

• Hopes to merge Dayton and MONTGOMERY COUNTY have been dashed by a new city line.
• The city recently annexed land in GREENE COUNTY, and state law would make it very difficult to pull off a merger, now that the city spans two counties. The group Dayton Together has withdrawn its proposal.
• Merging jurisdictions that span multiple counties is especially difficult and complicated and essentially would require a municipality to detach itself from the overlapping county territory, the Dayton Daily News reported.

OREGON

• Voters in HOOD RIVER COUNTY blocked a $50 million Nestle plant on the Columbia River Gorge by approving a ban on commercial water bottling with 69 percent of the vote. The measure restricts the production and transportation of bottled water to less than 1,000 gallons a day from any Hood River County water source. Nestle’s plant was projected to bottle more than 100 million gallons of water a year, OPB FM News reported.

WISCONSIN

COLUMBIA COUNTY may take control of its veterans services from the state’s Department of Veterans Affairs.

The County Board of Supervisors has approved two resolutions asking the Legislature to clarify state law to ensure that county Veterans Service Offices (VSO) are under the auspices of counties.

Board members also want state lawmakers to restore the original intent of a 1973 measure that had offered counties state aid to help pay for the salary of a VSO, the Portage Daily Register reported.

News From Across the Nation is compiled by Charles Taylor and Charlie Ban, senior staff writers. If you have an item for News From, please email ctaylor@naco.org or cban@naco.org.