January 2021 Minutes
January 5, 2021
Those Present: DeLoy Kunz, Greg Kunz by phone, Marty Nate, Tee Steadman, Mayor Steve Waechtler, Maintenance Supervisor Shane Clark, City Clerk Lynette Smith, Bret Kunz of Insurance Designers, Valerie Ross of News Examiner
Meeting called to order: 7:00 pm Invocation: Mayor Steve Waechtler
The Council entertained a motion from councilmember Marty Nate to approve the published agenda and was seconded by councilmember Tee Steadman. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The minutes from December 1, 2020 were read aloud by Clerk Smith. Councilmember DeLoy Kunz made the motion to accept the minutes as read with a couple of changes from September to November in the Maintenance Report and DeLoy to Greg for employee bonuses. Councilmember Tee Steadman seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Bret Kunz of Insurance Designers came before the council to request an agent change again. It has been almost a year since the City switched agents with ICRMP and he wanted to follow up to see if we would switch back. He said he would be more than willing to go to bat for us if we have a claim or if we feel we are getting treated unfairly by ICRMP, but for the most part, the agent stays out of the claims. Bret encouraged the council to shop around for other insurance besides ICRMP but Good Luck finding better rates or service.
The City advertised vehicles available for auction and received back only one bid for all of the vehicles. It was for the dump truck with the plow from Eric Jensen for $1,100.00. The City decided to accept his bid. Shane will make arrangements for him to come and pick up. Now that the auction is over, we can sale the other vehicles as first come first serve. The Mayor will take care of advertising and selling the side-by-side and Shane will re-list the police car and the silver truck to sell. Since the last meeting, we did purchase a new service truck with a plow to replace the silver truck because the Mayor found us a good deal sooner than we thought we would near Jackson Hole for a 2013 Ford F-350 for $31,000. Shane and Alan have been using the big plow and this new plow truck together and it has worked really well for cleaning up, smaller lanes and areas and at the cemetery.
The council proceeded with reviewing the new zoning draft with lots of discussion on minimum lot sizes between ¼ and ½ acre. Marty will continue to make a few changes and then we will submit to Adam to start putting together in Ordinance form and to make sure it is all legal. The Mayor has spoken with Rick Phillips at Simplot before Christmas to get their 10 year plan on the Georgetown mine so that we could have an idea to plan for growth etc. Getting this Ordinance in place before everyone moves in for the mine will help us.
The council continued by reviewing the animal control draft and there was lots of discussion about wanting to keep the ag in our community but also need to prevent from having irresponsible caretakers. Marty will keep researching what other communities are doing and add in that citizens fences should be inspected to ensure they are accurate enough for the animals they are trying to keep in.
Councilmember Marty Nate said that she would like Shane to let Officer Martinez know when funerals are so that he can be out here to help stop traffic. She also would like to start remodeling the inside of City Hall and asked when Shane and Alan felt like they could get started on it. They will help Marty to put some ideas together.
Councilmember Tee Steadman would also like to see the shed have two more bays added to it so we can park more things inside, such as the new plow truck we’ve gotten and the fire brush truck we’ve talked about before amongst other things. Shane will work on getting some bids together or see if it’s something that he and Alan can build.
Police Report: There were 25 contacts for the month of December.
Maintenance Report: Shane gave his report for the month of December and stated that he, Alan and Doug were able to attend training for two days in Soda Springs and had another two days virtually. They dug some more graves and Shane helped to install the SCADA alarm system at the water tanks. Shane also spoke with Doug about the sewer chlorinator building and they inspected it and it has not settled any more. There is a water leak on Hayes Lane that they will be fixing tomorrow. He also reported that we’ve received a letter that we will need to get seepage tests performed this year. He will reach out to a couple of engineers so we can get that completed this summer.
Office Business: There are 17 delinquent water and sewer accounts for the month of December. Lynette reported that the dog tags are on their way for people to renew for the new year, she will have the W-2’s available later this month and the City got approval from the CARES Grant for the police salary to be reimbursed. That money should be coming soon. The Mayor also had her turn off the FaceBook account for others to post on. It is for the City’s use for informational purposes and not for everyone to vent and complain about happenings in the City. She also reported that she has been having some troubles with deposits at Zions Bank. The City advised her that if things don’t get resolved then we should take our funds to another bank. She was also advised to check into and see if City funds can go in a Credit Union. Lynette will report back at the next meeting.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilmember Marty Nate for the council to approve checks and vouchers for the month of December 2020 in the amount of $25,227.10 in the general fund, $17,338.39 in the water fund, and $27,971.00 in the sewer fund, with all funds totaling $70,536.49. Councilmember DeLoy Kunz seconded the motion. All were in favor and motion carried.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilmember Marty Nate that council adjourns from the January 2021 council meeting at 9:45 pm. Councilmember DeLoy Kunz seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynette Smith
City Clerk-Treasurer