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Residents press Trinity County on road repairs, staffing and budget cuts; sheriff and CAO outline grants and staffing plans
Summary
Public commenters urged the Board to revisit road repair decisions, extend public comment times and restore funding for libraries and IT. Sheriff Tim Saxon and County Administrative Officer Trent Tuthill discussed grants, staffing plans, and timelines for a pending appeal and budget hearings.
Multiple residents used the Sept. 16 Trinity County Board of Supervisors public comment period to press the board on road repairs, budget priorities and staffing.
Resident Dan asked the board to re‑place Denney Lake Mountain Road on the agenda and questioned recent FEMA road-repair fund distribution; he urged longer public-comment times. Lisa Wright of Lewiston asked that agenda backup include page numbers to make review easier and reported cannabis business Flora has 18 applications moving to site inspection and plans to submit four noncultivation license applications this week. Benny, a budget watcher, urged the county to restore library and IT funding and flagged large increases in public-safety budgets as the county enters budget season.
County leaders responded during department reports. Sheriff Tim Saxon summarized recent search-and-rescue purchases and wildfire responses, saying volunteer fire departments and incident management teams had quickly contained recent fires. He said a Direct Relief grant of $85,000 purchased a new SAR pickup truck and that increased staffing, tied to pending budget actions, will allow the sheriff to fully staff the jail and improve inmate health services.
County Administrative Officer Trent Tuthill addressed several public concerns: he said a public appeal has been noticed to the attorney general and is scheduled for Oct. 7; the county released the proposed budget on Sept. 8 and public hearings are set for Sept. 23. Tuthill also said the community development director recruitment is active (national advertisement), the county is arranging Hmong translations for materials and community meetings, and that the state controller has signaled likely reimbursement for election costs.
Supervisors reported on community-plan meetings in Post Mountain, Lewiston, Hyampom and Trinity Center, and on regional engagement through CSAC and workforce development organizations. Several supervisors urged residents to attend upcoming local community-plan meetings and highlighted the value of volunteer fire departments.
No board action resulted from the public comments beyond referring items to staff and scheduling budget hearings; staff asked residents to contact the County Administrative Office for follow-up meetings on budget matters.
