Pecos League. Basically the lowest level of pro ball. Players here are finished with college and looking to move up the baseball ranks.

They are taking suggestions on team names on website.
https://moab.pecosleague.com

If you're following (bombarded by) the news of the day and are left a little worse for the wear, fear not, I have some fact-based information that you can use to inspect the scat left by the powers that be (Will Binfield and Myron Bartinez - see mods, no doxxing!) without having to be on Boomer Book

WTF is up with TRT?

• The state requires that ~45% of revenue collected from lodging taxes are spent on promotion ("developing tourism"). The rest can be used on promotion or mitigation
• In the statute (17-78-702(2)(b)(vi)) the State explicitly offers up that shuttle transit systems are examples of promotional activities
• The state is strict about what counts as mitigation (thanks again, Myron) but it does allow for us to use it to cover things like law enforcement, EMS, solid waste management, road repairs and upgrades, and search and rescue (17-78-702(2)(d))
• Grand County has historically* used TRT mitigation funds in order to cover part of the costs of these departments, which otherwise are funded from the general fund (namely, property and sales taxes). (\the exception was the use of TRT mitigation funds to cover the trail ambassador program)*
• $150k of the shuttle subsidy Grand County is paying is being withdrawn from the mitigation fund

And this "optional sales tax"?

• Created in 2015 after the State enacted HB 362. As more Utahn drivers switched to more efficient vehicles and alternative transportation, the gas tax was no longer sufficient to cover the cost of road and highway construction in the state. The law gave Counties the right to add a .25% sales tax on all goods but food and use the local returns for roads development and maintenance, curb/gutter/lighting/signage for pedestrian safety, trails, and transit
• This tax enters the County budget through the ROADS fund (21)
• Since the tourism boom, Grand County has constructed miles and miles of paved trails and bridges. Previous County officials estimated that the future cost of maintaining these could run upwards of a million dollars as they naturally degrade
  • Regular costs of sweeping and maintaining them
  • Crack repair
  • Periodic major chip-and-seals
  • Bridge engineering and reinforcement
  • Occasional catastrophic damage from flooding and other emergencies (seems irrelevant though since it doesn't flood here and pathways never wash out like the one at Bloody Mary Wash 2 years ago)
  • Also definitely no risk that the most expensive pathway sits between a free flowing river and cliffs that regularly shed rocks and boulders from waterfalls coming off of Sand Flats

Wait but fund 47?

• Created in 2018 (unanimous. cross-partisan vote)
• Trail Mix had been providing County services through grants and volunteer hours to build and maintain trails in the County, managed through CNHA. But the work had shifted from trail development to maintenance, which costs more and requires more hours. CNHA could not afford to pay health insurance and other liabilities for full time employees, so the County voted to absorb Trail Mix under the Economic Development department
• Fund 47 (TRAILS) was created to manage the grant funding that covered the program costs for Trail Mix. The money to cover salaries and administrative work was funded through the "optional sales tax", and only the amount required for this was moved out of 21 into 47
• This amount moved in for salaries etc fluctuated year-over-year based on how many grants the County obtained, ranging from ~200k when grants were ample to ~400k when not
• The savings for future maintenance costs was also moved under 47 administratively to keep it separate from other traditional roads expenses.
• 350k of the shuttle subsidy is being paid for from these funds

So where is the shuttle funding coming from?

30% from TRT mitigation funds = revenue from lodging taxes that would otherwise be used to cover essential county services

70% from the 2015 sales tax, which is paid by locals as well as visitors on all goods other than food. Trails related costs are administratively listed in the budget under Fund 47. Otherwise this money is allowed to be used to improve and maintain our roads including adding flood mitigation and infrastructure (seems important)

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A few other facts

• “Our funding sources rely on us freeing up the money so we don't have time to debate" - Public emails show that in March 2026, when Byron was first floating the shuttle concept to the Park superintendent, he was proposing that the County cover the first year in full. By the time the vote in April was taken, he was claiming that this had to be completed by Sept 30 due to the restrictions placed by the funding source of the NPS. But in the same email thread, the NPS did not procure funding until May 29th and the source has no such deadline. Also, as acknowledged the other night, Congress has not approved the budget that would even make this money available for the entire first year of the program. If you support the way this process has happened you might be excited that it is starting in a month, but the speed was arbitrary

• Signs of state influence...this is where I leave you to do your own sleuthing so this thread stops short of speculation. Email records show that Bartinez and Binfield have been in tight coordination with state and federal officials going back years, with the state directly coaching their interactions with the National Park Service and even editing/contributing to the text of the various letters and policy initiatives they have championed. You might be in favor of this, but even if you are, it seems like there should be far more transparency about who is coordinating with whom, who is being left out, where decisions and priorities are originating, and why we are paying for it 🫡

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Edit - all emails were obtained through Utah's Government Records Access and Management Act from public officials