CACHE COUNTY – In what was a meeting remarkable for its brevity on Feb. 11, the members of the Cache County Council approved an interlocal agreement providing improved public health, mental health and substance abuse services for Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties.
With no discussion, the council unanimously passed Resolution 2025-03, which amended the interlocal agreement of the Bear River Association of Governments. Council members quickly followed that by approving Resolution 2025-04, outlining the specifics of the “Multi-County United Local Health Department Interlocal Agreement.”
That plan is intended to ensure quality and effective delivery of those services to citizens of the three-county area, according to Jordan Mathis, the director of the Bear River Health Department.
At the panel’s previous meeting, council member Nolan Gunnell requested that a vote on the plan be delayed until specific language could be added to its text requiring annual assessments of the plan’s effectiveness.
With those revisions added, the interlocal agreement sailed through the council’s approval process.
In a previous presentation to council members, Mathis emphasized the benefits of the interlocal agreement, which would combine the BRHD’s funding for substance abuse with the similar funding for treatment services now provided by Bear River Mental Health.
The integration of those funds would provide better service to the public, Mathis argued.
To oversee the new agreement, a Bear River Behavioral Health Advisory Council would be formed to coordinate with the county councils of Cache, Box Elder and Rich counties; liaise with a newly hired director of behavioral health; and, solicit public input on behavioral services.
The membership of that panel would be based on county population, with five members from Cache County, three from Box Elder County and one from Rich County.
Council member Keegan Garrity questioned whether responsibility for appointing members of the new advisory panel could be delegated, but council chair Sandi Goodlander quickly closed off that discussion.
“That’s what we do,” she said.
After adjournment of the public phase of the council meeting, the council members reconvened in a closed Executive Session.
According to their published agenda, the purpose for that private gathering was discussion of the purchase, exchange or lease of real property, including any form of a water right or water shares; or to discuss a proposed development agreement, project proposal or financing proposal related to the development of land owned by the state.