March 2024 Minutes
March 5, 2024
Those Present: Greg Kunz, Trenton Morrell, Marty Nate, Tee Steadman, Mayor Steve Waehtler, Maintenance Supervisor Shane Clark, Maintenance Hadley Wright, City Clerk Lynette Smith, Addison Ochsenbein of Sunrise Engineering, Sheriff Bart Heslington, Tyler & Katana Sorensen, Morgan & Heather Kidd, Kevin Nate, Janelle Crockett, Paul Miller, Tiffini Ricks, Mauria Teuscher, James Teuscher, Whitney Teuscher, City Attorney Adam McKenzie by phone
Meeting called to order: 7:00 pm Invocation: Mayor Steve Waechtler
The Council entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate to approve the published agenda and was seconded by Councilor Trenton Morrell. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The minutes from February 6, 2024, were read aloud by Clerk Smith. Councilor Trenton Morrell made the motion to accept the minutes as read and Councilor Greg Kunz seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Police Report: Sheriff Heslington came before the council to give the police report for the month of February and stated there was 64 contacts and they worked 58.25 hours and issued 13 citations. He asked about dates for Twin Creeks and the Easter Egg Hunt. The hunt will be handled by the 2nd Ward Young Women on May 3rd or 4th.
Addison Ochsenbein of Sunrise Engineering came before the council and thanked them for signing the road contract with them. He has approached the NRCS about grant opportunities are there aren’t any out there for municipalities at this time. There is an option with the Army Core of Engineers, they will donate 75% if we do 25% for water repairs and he will look into applying. He will keep us updated with other opportunities as they arise.
Tyler and Katana Sorensen came before the Council to report on the Twin Creeks celebration. They are planning towards July 20th. They asked about if we can set up a Venmo for donations for Fireworks and for people to be able to pay for the different stations during the day. The difficulty with Venmo that Lynette has found is that it has to by tied to a phone number and generally needs to be a cell phone to accept messages and notifications to, but it also would have to be set up as a business account which charges an extra 1.9% plus $0.10 for convenience fees. Lynette will continue to look into getting it set up. Katana said that finding other volunteers besides the councilmembers is really difficult. She is going to start a Facebook group for Twin Creeks to look for others to help and wants to form a committee in case she can’t be there. Councilmembers felt it needs to go on as it is the only thing that really unifies our community. Bear Lake County Fire Chief Mark Parker has some extra fireworks he wants to contribute as well. Some ideas of things they will have this year are the breakfast, fish pond, dunk tank, etc and everyone loved the food vendors also.
The council listened to some citizens concerns about a butcher shop being in City limits. Cody Coombs has mentioned building a butcher shop on his property that is half in the County and half in the City. It would need to be rezoned to a commercial zone from agriculture and residential where it’s at and it is in our impact area. There would need to be a public hearing to rezone and we would be able to put restrictions about the smell, gut piles, sanitary, killing outside of town, etc. Citizens questioned who will enforce the restrictions and vehicles parking. Councilmember Tee Steadman said it would be controlled if it’s in the City and by USDA and FDA if he is selling out of his shop. Even the County will have to have a public hearing and rezone the property. Paul Miller said he feels there is a reason the founding fathers zoned the City the way they did. Other citizens voiced they would rather if the business was on Main Street. There is a State Statute about carcasses being left in City limits. The subdivision ordinance just adopted does not state anything about commercial zones. The council appreciated the citizens coming and for their input. Cleanliness is an issue and the council will take into consideration the neighbors concerns. Cody will still need to come to the council to present a plan and so it was tabled until the next meeting.
Mauria Teuscher and James Teuscher came to present the council with the Audit from the 2022-2023 Fiscal Year and reported that revenues are down from previous years due to the grants received other years. Gary Teuscher says that the City is doing a good job and is still bringing in enough to pay the bills and the City manages its money well. Councilmember Trenton Morrell made the motion to accept the audit and transfer funds from the water and sewer funds to the general fund to payback the general fund. Councilmember Marty Nate seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the Council. The Teuscher’s also informed the council that this is the last year they will be able to audit our books because they can’t be the ones to prepare the financial statements and prepare the audit to be audited. They can continue to prepare our financial statements but we will need to find another firm to perform the audits.
The council then called City Attorney, Adam McKenzie at 8:30 pm to get an update on the shed that needs to be moved. Adam has spoken with them directly and they will be signing an agreement to have moved once the snow is melted sufficiently, hopefully by April 15th and they will remove the snow from the neighbors fence also. He also gave an update on the legal description for the property that we annexed last year. The Idaho State Tax Commission rejected the annexation last year because the legal description had the whole parcel and not just the part being annexed. Tim Christensen did the original legal description and we were waiting on him to update with a new legal description before moving forward. At the next meeting, we will need to make a motion to accept the amended map and legal description and send to the State Tax Commission again for approval.
Councilor Marty Nate rolled out the cemetery map to show everyone and it looks really good. We will place a book up there of all who are buried in the cemetery and who owns the plots. We just need a place to house the book. She has found a grant for a musical section to be put into the park. She is also looking into a grant for a gravel bike path to be put along the old railroad right of way and have benches placed at each end and it would still remain as a recreational right of way. The council suggested maybe starting past Left Hand Canyon at that parking area instead of Half Mile Lane. One of the grants is for $50,000 and the other is $47,000. She will apply and let us know how they go. She also wants to add some cornhole boards to the sand pit and add more equipment to the park slowly.
Councilor Greg Kunz asked if the County can come out to help with the ruts along Stringtown and Shane reported that we have called for the past 2 weeks and we are on their list. There was also discussion about people that continue to push snow across the road. We need to get a list to Sheriff Heslington to deliver notices throughout town for people to stop doing it because the letters that Lynette sends out haven’t worked. Greg also wanted to clarify that when Manuel Figueroa moves away or passes away that the agreement for him to have a trailer on that piece of property will go with him because the agreement is applicable to him only. The lot does have a water and sewer hookup and power to it but it’s too small for anyone else to do anything with.
Councilor Trenton Morrell will follow up with the County Commissioners about paying for the speed limit signs.
Maintenance Report: Hadley Wright gave their report for the month of February and stated that he and Shane have contacted Alice Hayes about looking at our options for more power in the park and she will get back to us in the spring when the snow has melted. They have talked to the County about winging the streets and a price on chip seal. They said it would be $25,000 for 1 mile just for the oil and $9.50 a ton for the chips plus about $2-3,000 to haul it. We have about $30,000 budgeted and will need to locate a crack seal machine. They dug 2 graves this month and plowed snow. They turned water on and off at a location for an inspection and cleaned out the fire hydrants. Lynette found and reviewed agreements that the City has with Corey Hayes and with the County for private lanes in the City about plowing. It looks like there is a trailer parked on West Street past 6th Street and someone is living in it. Lynette will send a letter with the Ordinance explaining to can’t be living in it more than 30 days.
Office Business: There are 24 delinquent water and sewer accounts for the month of February. Lynette has to have surgery next week and will be out for at least 2 weeks but can continue to do some stuff from home. She will be upgrading the website this summer to be more user friendly because Roland Smith is retiring from helping to do the updates. SICOG requested for us to compile and sign a letter to help them get a grant and so the Mayor will sign that tonight.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Trenton Morrell for the council to approve checks and vouchers for the month of February 2024 in the amount of $20,764.96 in the general fund, $8,404.41 in the water fund, and $20,310.40 in the sewer fund, with all funds totaling $49,479.77. Councilor Greg Kunz seconded the motion. All were in favor and motion carried the council.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Trenton Morrell that council adjourns from the March 2024 council meeting at 10:45 pm. Councilor Greg Kunz seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynette Smith
City Clerk-Treasurer