Georgetown Idaho

November 7, 2024
Those Present: Greg Kunz, Marty Nate, Tee Steadman, Mayor Steve Waechtler, Maintenance Supervisor Shane Clark, Maintenance Hadley Wright, City Clerk Lynette Smith, Addison Ochsenbein of Sunrise Engineering, City Attorney Adam McKenzie, Councilor Trenton Morrell absent
Meeting called to order: 7:00 pm Invocation: Mayor Steve Waechtler
The Council entertained a motion from Councilor Tee Steadman to approve the published agenda and was seconded by Councilor Greg Kunz. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
The minutes from October 1, 2024, were read aloud by the Mayor. Councilor Tee Steadman made the motion to accept the minutes as read and Councilor Marty Nate seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
There are no votes to canvass from this election as it wasn’t a City Election.
Addison Ochsenbein, from Sunrise Engineering came before the council to report on his findings. DEQ has opened for accepting applications for loans, the City would like to keep applying to show we are still in need for a project. LHTAC only has sign grants available and he will look into if crosswalk signs are applicable. He is still working on putting together a scope for the transportation plan and we were awarded $30,000. Plans for safety to the school could be about $36,000. He will get a copy of the scope to Lynette and she will distribute to the council.
Our City Attorney, Adam McKenzie reported back that he has spoken with Mark Parker at the Fire District regarding our lease agreement. He said they don’t have the funds to build and don’t foresee being able to within the next 5-10 years. There is no sense in a lease agreement at this point and there is still concern about them owning the building and the city owning the land if we were to ever part ways. Councilor Greg Kunz is concerned if in 5-10 years we have a whole new council and they may not want to move forward with this if we lose the convenience of having a fire truck and such out this way. Adam recommended selling them the land to try and ensure keeping them in our area and the City could have the first right to buy back if it ever came to that.
Ordinance #96 and encroachment on the roads was discussed and Adam said if we are increasing our fees more than 5% we have to hold a public hearing and the fees can’t be revenue funding but needs to be sufficient to cover our costs. As reported at the last meeting, the last repair was nearly $2500 to fix on Stringtown. Concern about a $900 fee not being enough as costs continue to increase. Adam said that if the applicant doesn’t pay the fee or fails to make the repairs then the City would file a lawsuit. Councilor Greg Kunz is concerned about if the road repair sinks 5 years down the road and it was decided that someone like an Engineer or the City maintenance crew would need to sign off on the repairs to be sufficient with a 1-year warranty before any refunds would be granted. The maintenance crew would also supervise what goes back in beneath the asphalt and ensure it is brought back to existing conditions. A breakdown of requirements will be included with the application. It was decided that the Public Hearing will be held on January 7th with a fee of $3,050 and $3,000 being refundable within 60 days following approval and repair must be completed within 30 days. Applications will be approved by the council or in emergency situations can be approved by the maintenance guys
Fees at the cemetery were discussed. Clerk Smith did some research with some surrounding cemeteries to compare our prices. Adam suggested to better define our geographic area in an updated Ordinance which has been from Smith Lane to Georgetown Summit and Nounan. Councilor Tee Steadman made the motion to follow Montpelier’s fee schedule of $250.00 per space for residents, $2,500.00 per space for non-residents, limiting to 4 per household, opening and closing a grave will be $250 from Monday-Friday before 4 pm and $400 after 4 pm on weekends and holidays and cremations are the same price. We will have a public hearing on the same night to finalize these new fees.
The parking situation in front of the church was discussed. Adam suggested creating an Ordinance to prohibit parking in front of the church on City streets or installing a no parking zone with no overnight parking or longer than 3 hours, if violated, they would be cited and subject to towing. Councilor Tee Steadman has been in touch with a couple of the mines that didn’t realize the problem we had with their employees and contractors parking there. We will wait to hear back what they come up with.
It was brought to the councils attention that a citizen may be in violation of an agreement had about not packing a firearm in his vehicle where he can threaten people. Adam will look into our agreement to see about terms and was also stressed that when citizens see these things, they need to call in and report it.
The council approved giving a donation of $500.00 to the senior citizen center.
The council approved Keller Associates to prepare our Annual Land Application report again this year but we will shop around for next year because they weren’t very responsive when we needed their help during our sewer pond crisis.
The Christmas Park Lighting Event will be held on Monday, December 2nd and the Bartschi’s have reached out about doing the food again this year. Tee will line up someone for Santa. Lynette has had a photographer reach out about coming to the event and the council agreed that she is welcome to come but wouldn’t be hired by the City.
Councilor Marty Nate reported that for the Trunk or Treat next year she would like to offer hot dogs and hot chocolate. The trunk or treat was well attended again this year despite the cold. It was noted to either shut down the road or move off the road to the baseball field or even the church parking lot and use that pavilion for the food. She asked about fixing the entrance into the post office from 2nd Street and the hole off the highway by the sidewalk. She has done some research about the splash pad in Paris and found out the City got the cement donated from Parson’s from their leftover jobs and the water is recycled and is used to water the park. The city bought the holding tank and said they need a bigger tank but it was expensive. They haven’t had any trouble with vandalism or abuse. She wondered about using a rubber mulch instead of concrete. She will continue doing some more research.
Councilor Tee Steadman brought an idea of somehow motivating/incentivizing citizens to input a sprinkler system as a way to conserve water. He stated that we need to find a way to make improvements to our infrastructure or move in a different direction to prevent installing water meters. For example, even if we were to give a kickback to our 128 connections it could still be cheaper than getting a $2 million loan for our infrastructure.
Police Report: Sheriff Bart Heslington was unable to attend the council meeting but emailed a report for the council to review. They completed 60.5 hours and had 201 contacts resulting in 5 citations and 32 warnings and 28 traffic stops. He also said they can put the police car up for surplus auction and we just need to set a minimum price for it. The Mayor suggested a $3500 minimum with the equipment. Lynette will work with Bart for the information. The council reviewed the amounts coming in from citations each month.
Maintenance Report: Hadley Wright gave their report for the month of October and stated that he and Shane have been busy at the sewer ponds putting it back together, finalized the seepage test on the pond, serviced the backhoe and had to replace a fuel pump. Alice is almost done with the power at the park and shed, they got a new fuel storage tank, winterized everything at the land app site and all hoses, etc, and took the samples for the month.
Office Business: There are 21 delinquent water and sewer accounts for the month of October. Lynette reported that she was able to use the messaging service for a couple of messages this month and was able to send separate messages to each of the delinquents directly. Lynette has a conflict with the date of our next meeting since she will be out of town for a week. After discussion it was decided that the meeting will remain on Tuesday, December 3rd and councilor Marty Nate will take the minutes. The Mayor requested that she send out a message to citizens that UPS has the city on a deferment delivery service and will only deliver packages 2 days a week. Unless we all call customer service and complain it will be permanent as of the first of the year.
The chair entertained a motion from Councilor Marty Nate for the council to approve checks and vouchers for the month of October 2024 in the amount of $30,221.79 in the general fund, $12,816.82 in the water fund, and $34,218.90 in the sewer fund, with all funds totaling $77,257.51. Councilor Tee Steadman 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 November 2024 council meeting at 9:50 pm. Councilor Tee Steadman seconded the motion. All were in favor and the motion carried the council.
Respectfully submitted,

Lynette Smith, City Clerk-Treasurer