Two Tooele County entities are battling over the assets of the former town of Ophir, which disincorporated last fall.
Tooele County has filed a claim for $358,582 against the town of Ophir, according to Tooele County Treasurer Mike Jensen.
Jensen was appointed by 3rd District Court Judge Robert Adkins in October 2016 to manage the collections of claims against the now defunct town. Adkins set a deadline of Feb. 1, 2017 for claims against Ophir’s assets.
Included in the county’s claim is $3,523 paid by the county for Ophir’s general operations, $1,652 for snow removal costs from November 2016 through January 2017 — and $353,408 that Tooele County paid for two miles of roadwork through the town of Ophir.
Tooele County School District, which according to state law will receive the remaining assets of Ophir, filed a protest of Tooele County’s claim in 3rd District Court.
Tooele County entered the claim for the full $353,408 of the roadwork even though the county’s written agreement with Ophir only calls for the former town to pay $10,000 upfront and then 75 percent of Ophir’s fuel tax money from the state of Utah for 10 years, estimated at $5,000 per year.
But according to Tooele County Commission Chairman Wade Bitner, in a past meeting between the county commission and the Ophir Town Council, the council verbally agreed to raise the town’s property tax to allow the town to reimburse the county for the full expense of the roadwork over an unspecified period of time, according to Bitner.
“That’s bull—-,” said former Ophir Mayor Walt Shubert. “There’s no way we would have agreed to that. We never made an agreement like that while I was mayor. We could hardly hold on as a town as we were. The agreement we signed was supposed to cover all the roadwork the county did in the town limits.”
The county filed the claim for the full expense to protect its ability to recover the full cost of the roadwork, according to Bitner.
The alleged verbal agreement is not recorded in the Aug. 20 written agreement signed by all three county commissioners.
The agreement was also not mentioned in the Sept. 1, 2015 county commission meeting when the previously signed agreement for the roadwork was ratified during the public meeting, according to meeting minutes.
The promise of anything beyond the $10,000 payment and 10 years of 75 percent of Ophir’s state fuel tax revenue was not included in a proposal letter sent to the county commissioners from the Ophir Town Council dated Aug. 9, 2015.
“We’re not trying to cheat the county out of what is due to them,” said Tooele County School District Superintendent Scott Rogers. “We understand that they want reimbursement for operational expenses and snow removal. If there is fuel tax money that was paid to Ophir that is owed to the county, they should get that. We would like the court to take a look at this claim for over $350,000 when the written agreement is for $60,000.”
Rogers also pointed out that after the dissolution of Ophir, the county will receive 100 percent of Ophir’s state fuel tax allotment along with the unincorporated municipal services property tax from property in what was the town of Ophir.
The Lieutenant Governor’s Office issued a certificate of dissolution for Ophir Town on Oct. 21, 2016. At that time the town had around $100,000 in the bank and owned property, including the town’s park and historical district.
The town park had a history of being booked a year in advance for use by groups from outside of Ophir.
“We wanted to look at how the traditional use of the property could be continued and maybe how our students could benefit a little from the use of the property,” Rogers said.