September Council Minutes
September 3, 2024
Those Present: Greg Kunz, Trenton Morrell, Marty Nate, Mayor Steve Waechtler, Maintenance Supervisor Shane Clark, Maintenance Hadley Wright, City Clerk Lynette Smith, Addison Ochsenbein of Sunrise Engineering, Sheriff Bart Heslington, Councilor Tee Steadman absent
Meeting called to order: 7:00 pm Invocation: Mayor Steve Waechtler
The Council entertained a motion from Councilor Greg Kunz 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 August 6, 2024, were read aloud by Clerk Smith. Councilor Marty Nate 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 Bart Heslington came before the council to give their report. They did an OHV class at the Mayor’s place and it was well attended and the citizens appreciated having it. They completed 58.5 hours and had 184 contacts resulting in 13 citations and 7 warnings. Councilor Marty Nate questioned how the calls happen, and the process and timeline followed for how things are followed up on if a call in is made and Sheriff explained and stays in contact with our liaison Councilor Tee Steadman.
Addison Ochsenbein, from Sunrise Engineering came before the council to report on the roadway projects. The project is basically complete and they made it to 3rd, 6th, East and West Street. We ran out of money before they could do 5th Street or Hayes Lane. The Mayor will need to sign a notice of completion and waiting for a final pay application from Avail Valley. Addison inquired about applying for a grant to fix the bridge and will need ITD to come look and sign off on it. We did receive the Transportation Grant and he is working on putting together a scope for that and will present at the next council meeting.
Councilor Trenton Morrell made the motion to leave the regular meeting and move into public hearing for the purpose of accepting the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 and to reopen the 2023-2024 budget to accept and expend the road grant. Councilor Greg Kunz seconded the motion and a roll call vote was taken and is as follows: Marty – yes, Greg – yes, Trenton – yes. Motion carried. The Mayor then opened the floor to the public for discussion, comments or concerns. Clerk Smith reported that the office has not received any comments, written or verbal pertaining to the proposed budget. Councilor Marty Nate made the motion to leave the public hearing and go back to regular meeting. Councilor Trenton Morrell seconded the motion and a roll call vote was taken and is as follows: Marty – yes, Greg – yes, Trenton – yes. Motion carried. Councilor Trenton Morrell made the motion to accept the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 as printed and to accept and expend $239,000 for the roadway grant. Councilor Marty Nate seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Ordinance #114 the appropriations ordinance for the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024-2025 was presented and read to the council. Councilor Greg Kunz made the motion to approve Ordinance #114 and was seconded by councilor Trenton Morrell. All were in favor and a roll call vote was taken and is as follows: Marty – yes, Greg – yes, Trenton – yes. Motion carried.
Ordinance #96 was discussed for clarification on the wording and a deposit, raising the fee and having a separate permit fee. Anyone that cuts the road, bores under the road or does anything with the road should get and fill out the form and submit a fee. Shane will ask Kam Whitaker how much a trench would cost. Discussed to get a bill from Kam for Intermountain Gas to fix the patch on Stringtown. The Gas Company should be responsible to pay for the patch and should have gotten a permit to dig also. Questioned moving the no dig policy back to October 1st. Councilor Trenton Morrell brought up we are already charging $5,000 per utility hookup so we should keep the permit fee down to lower to $50 and refund the deposit. We will have a public hearing at the next meeting to raise the fees from $800 to $1000 and $950 would be refundable.
City Attorney, Adam McKenzie, revised our deeds for the cemetery to give to those that purchase plots. Councilor Greg Kunz made the motion to accept the new form and was seconded by Councilor Trenton Morrell. All were in favor and the motion carried the council. It was discussed to raise the fees at the next meeting as well for the purchase of plots and that no trees can be planted throughout the cemetery or by citizens.
UpAhead Messaging Service has reached out to Lynette and seems to be a better way to get word out to a community. We are currently using our website, Facebook and the Remind app but where we aren’t a school we probably technically shouldn’t be using the app. This service would have a set up cost and then $100 per month. The council decided to hold off for now and to have some other members come in for a demo with them to see how the messaging service works before we make a decision.
Councilor Marty Nate brought up her concerns with big trucks traveling on Hayes Lane and wondered why they can’t turn off of Stringtown instead. The Mayor said that the traffic will stop or at least slow down once the construction of the home is completed.
Councilor Trenton Morrell reported that he and Councilor Tee Steadman have found another guy to communicate with for the State Highway and they have talked about moving forward with our school zone along the highway to get traffic to slow down during the hours that kids are traveling to and from school. The State is currently working on updating their templates and then we can move forward with an agreement between the City and State to complete the school zone. He also inquired about some senior projects the City would need done. One suggestion was to paint the playground equipment. He will find out more criteria to see if we have more projects we could use help with.
Maintenance Report: Shane Clark gave their report for the month of August and stated that he and Hadley have been busy with the road project, marked utilities and had a grave opening. They have gotten their monthly samples and the spring has a lot of water right now. The weeds at the cemetery have been sprayed. The service missionaries have came and painted the pavilion. We need to do one more seepage test at the other lagoon and have had issues there with it being plugged; there must be a leak or a pipe broke somewhere. They are continuing to work on that and get issues resolved there.
Office Business: There are 15 delinquent water and sewer accounts for the month of August. Lynette asked if the Mayor is interested in participating in the Mayor’s Walking Challenge again this year and if he walks 10,000 steps the month of October, we can get $1000. He will participate again but needs a new watch. Lynette received an inquiry about doing a 3-year contract for the fireworks at Twin Creek Days. Concerns were that the Mayor and Sorenson’s are the primary ones that receive donations for the fireworks and once his term is served, we would still be locked into that price. If nobody continues to do the leg work to raise the funds, is the City willing to still pay for that service each year. The City opted to stick to a year to year basis.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate for the council to approve checks and vouchers for the month of August 2024 in the amount of $28,855.47 in the general fund, $10,623.48 in the water fund, and $23,897.51 in the sewer fund, with all funds totaling $63,376.46. Councilor Trenton Morrell seconded the motion. All were in favor and motion carried the council.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate that council adjourns from the September 2024 council meeting at 9:00 pm. Councilor Trenton Morrell seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynette Smith
City Clerk-Treasurer