March Council Minutes
Thursday, April 9th, 2026March 3, 2026
Those Present: Brooke Bruesch, Marty Nate, Tee Steadman, Mayor Tony Price, Maintenance Shane Clark, Maintenance Hadley Wright, Addison Ochsenbein from Sunrise Engineering, Sheriff Deputy Wes Barnhill, Deputy Jack James, City Attorney Adam McKenzie, Fire Chief Mark Parker, Morgan Kidd, Mario & Cynthia Johnson, Ed & Kathy Izatt
Meeting called to order: 7:00 pm Invocation: Councilor Marty Nate
The council entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate to approve the published agenda and was seconded by Councilor Tee Steadman. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The minutes from February 3, 2026, were read aloud by Clerk Smith. Councilor Marty Nate made the motion to accept the minutes as read and Councilor Brooke Bruesch seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Addison Ochsenbein of Sunrise Engineering came to the council to give an update. The Transportation Plan Draft was sent out to all council members to review before the meeting. He pointed out some points of interest in the plan for upgrading sidewalks and active transportation for biking, shoulder edge maintenance, safe routes to school, crosswalk enhancements and improved lighting. There is a sign grant available later this fall to apply for the highway crosswalk. Addison requested for the council to review the draft and those points of interest so we can get this plan finished up because this is what we will use for future funding opportunities as well.
The Bear Lake County Fire Chief, Mark Parker, came before the council to apprise them on an upcoming levy to be voted on in the next elections in May. He came with a form to be filled out for ISO ratings to update our inventory before May 1st to help with lowering homeowners insurance rates in our area. He expressed the need for the levy to be increased and what those increases will be used for and why they are needed. He said our manpower is down County wide and said for a single home structure fire that 14 fighters are needed. We currently have Morgan Kidd, Nic Higgins and Ray Fiske for fighters in our community and he can’t add fighters to the roster that don’t stay up on training. He expressed that this commission is concerned about the future and trying to plan ahead and need people to vote in favor of the increased levy to keep the Fire Department going.
The impact area is due to be finished up with the County. They just finished with Montpelier and Georgetown is next on their list. Mitch Poulsen worked on our maps of the impact area of the recommendations we gave him last year to include our sewer lagoons, cemetery and railroad right-of-ways but they shortened it from including Left Hand Canyon Road. It was recommended to let Mitch and the Commission know that we are ready for a town meeting where they can come and talk to the public about what to include in our impact area and future growth and development, etc. It has also been discovered that only the County needs to adopt an Ordinance about the impact area and Cities are no longer required to do so. Councilor Marty Nate made the motion to accept the language of the proposed Ordinance with the exception of the map and to invite Mitch to our next council meeting. Councilor Tee Steadman seconded the motion. After further discussion Councilor Marty Nate made the motion to rescind her previous motion and was seconded by Councilor Tee Steadman. Clerk Smith will relay to Mitch our need for keeping Left Hand Canyon in our impact area due to having city water lines up there and houses connected to City water even though they are outside of City limits and invite Mitch to come to our next meeting.
Councilor Marty Nate informed the council that she has met with her committee for the Twin Creeks Celebration and the event will be held on Saturday, July 11th this year with more details to follow.
Clerk Smith has a lot of older files that need to be discarded and would like to burn them. At the recommendation of City Attorney, Adam McKenzie, this will be tabled until the next meeting to give him time to review the Ordinance about which files exactly can be disposed of.
The floor was then opened for public comment in which, Mario and Cynthia Johnson approached the council with updates on the dog issues in town. She has gathered a lot of circumstantial evidence from nearby citizens. A jury trial has been set for May 1st in regards to the dogs in question. Cynthia has concerns about our dog ordinance not having enough bite to it. It was discussed that the current ordinance, if violations occur, they are charged with a misdemeanor which gives them the right to a jury trial and can result in the dogs being destroyed. If it were changed to an infraction instead of a misdemeanor then the City can only fine them. The Sheriff’s department expressed that they don’t know what they don’t know and can’t cite what isn’t reported. Councilor Marty Nate expressed she would like more details about what is happening in the police reports and Deputy Sheriff Barnhill responded that they are somewhat limited on the information and details they can give on open and active investigations.
Police Report: Deputy Sheriff Wes Barnhill came before the council and presented a report for February. He reported that there was another animal incident with dogs and another noteworthy event was a firearm discharge incident. He told everyone to follow the County Sheriff’s Department Facebook page as they make posts about these public incidents to hear about them in a more timely manner. They gave 3 citations, had 9 traffic stops, and 41 directed patrol warnings.
Councilor Marty Nate reported her committee for Twin Creeks is actively planning. She also mentioned that the previous Mayor went around and got a lot of donations for the fireworks and so the new Mayor has big shoes to fill to ensure the fireworks still happen this year. She has been working on more grants from AARP for sidewalks and the approach at the Post Office. She also applied for the grant with PacifiCorp for the mulch on the ground under the playground. She also recommended including set backs on the building permit applications for right-of-ways. There is some discrepancies on what the set backs are as they are different on each street. The last time that Ordinance #62 was updated was in 1996. The only precise way to know if any are in within the correct limits of the right-of-ways is to perform surveys on each street which is very costly and not necessary.
Councilor Tee Steadman reported that he went to the fire meeting and was told that there will be a BLM office stationed back in Soda Springs soon.
Maintenance Report: Shane Clark gave their report for the month of February and stated that he and Hadley took samples for the monthly testing and also performed the new test on the water that was required by DEQ, and we received a non-detect and hoping that is all that is needed and we won’t have to do further testing. The test is $700.00 each time. They had an unusual event this month with needing to plow snow! They did some testing on water pressure at some homes this month and all were within the necessary ranges. They went to the water tanks and cleaned up the shop and cleared out some files. They shut off water at a location and attended some virtual trainings.
Office Report: There are 25 delinquent water and sewer accounts for the month of February. She has been selling a lot of dog tags this month. There will be a luncheon on Friday the 6th with the Mayor, the maintenance employees and herself with Rocky Mountain Power. Lynette has a conflict with the next meeting on the 7th of April and requested the meeting be moved to the 8th and all were ok with that. The website was down this month, but Lynette has gotten all of the login information now so we can update the payment with our own details. Marty is going to check with her son about helping us to move the website to another hosting site that is more user friendly and updated. The accounts at US Bank have now been officially closed, thanks to former Mayor Steve for continuing to follow up with them. We also may need to consider getting a new credit card because our current one is with US Bank and it is difficult getting payments to them or setup online. Lynette will reach out to Ireland Bank to see what options are there.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate to move into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho Code 74-206(1)(f) to discuss the dog ordinance and related dog issues. Councilor Tee Steadman seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken and is as follows: Marty – yes, Tee – yes, Brooke – yes. All citizens were removed from the meeting and the council then proceeded to receive direction from City Attorney, Adam McKenzie. The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Tee Steadman to leave the Executive Session and move back into the regular meeting. Councilor Brooke Bruesch seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken and is as follows: Marty – yes, Tee – yes, Brooke – yes. Adam would like to be on the agenda for the next meeting again but may be available by phone instead of in person.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate for the council to approve checks and vouchers for the month of February 2026 in the amount of $37,309.00 in the general fund, $9,364.85 in the water fund, and $24,593.36 in the sewer fund, with all funds totaling $71,267.21. Councilor Brooke Bruesch seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate that council adjourns from the March 2026 council meeting at 10:20 pm. Councilor Tee Steadman seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynette Smith,
City Clerk-Treasurer