General Information

Government Type

Municipality

Entity

Oak City

Public Body

Oak City Town Council

Notice Information

Add Notice to Calendar

Notice Title

Minutes

Notice Tags

minutes

Notice Type(s)

Meeting

Event Start Date & Time

February 19, 2026 07:45 PM

Description/Agenda

Minutes of Town Board Public Hearing and Regular Meeting Held February 19, 2026 The meetings were held at the Oak City Town Hall in the Conference Room beginning at 7:45 p.m. The following were in attendance: TOWN OFFICIALS OTHERS Mayor Kirt Dutson Glade Nielson Sunrise Engineering Council Member Shawn Gonder Barry Anderson Council Member Jared Rawlinson-Absent Robert Finlinson Council Member Tom Nielson Brandon Christensen Council Member Copeland Anderson Dave and DeAnne Steele Town Deputy Clerk Karen K. Lovell Darla Hewitt Central Utah Health Dept. Town Treasurer Courtney Dutson Malinda and Dylan Carter The Public Hearing began with an Invocation given by Copeland. Before the Hearing began, the Mayor gave Glade Nielson time to introduce himself and Glade stated they had a new office in Nephi. The Purpose of the Public Hearing was to take public comment on the proposed annexation of the real property commonly known as 200 North 250 East. The Mayor presented a map showing where the annexation will be. The lots will be one acre lots. Shawn asked when they would show their plans of where lots will be and was told that would go before the Planning and Zoning Commission. Barry wondered why his annexation had not been included on the Agenda and the Mayor explained there is still a step he needs to do to be in compliance. Barry will contact Alyssa Nielson, Town Recorder, to see what else needs to be done. There were no further comments. The Mayor adjourned the Public Hearing at 7:54 p.m. The Regular Town Board Regular Meeting began at 7:55 p.m. The same parties were in attendance. The following agenda items were considered: A. Adopt Agenda. Tom moved, seconded by Copeland, to adopt the Agenda as written. Roll Call Vote: Mayor Dutson-Aye. Shawn-Aye. Tom-Aye. Jared-Absent. Copeland-Aye. B. Adopt Minutes of Town Board Meeting held Thursday, January 22, 2026. Copeland moved, seconded by Tom, to adopt the Minutes as written. Roll Call Vote: Mayor Dutson-Aye. Copeland-Aye. Shawn-Aye. Tom-Aye. Jared-Absent. C. Town of Oak City 2025 Audit Report-Spencer Hintze-Gilbert and Steward. CPAs. Spencer passed out copies of the Audit Report and went through it with the Board. He explained that they have done the Town's audit report for three years now. They work with Pelorus whom the Town goes through also. He stated that Pelorus is a very good company to work with as far as auditing goes. There are three main letters in the report and he went through those. The first letter which basically is an expressed opinion on the Audit Report. The second letter is a Management Efficiency Analysis. He went through a couple of pointers on the financial statements. There is a note that shows where the Town's long-term loans are. There is one finding included in the Audit: State law says that the Town can't go over its spending limit in any department and the entire General Fund did not overspend. The Capital Projects Fund needs to have an aligning budget. This is an issue that has happened every year for the last three years. This needs to be fixed. Spencer suggested looking at the Budget approximately three months before the end of the fiscal year and make sure any overage is moved from the Capital Projects Fund into a different fund. The State is usually not going to have a problem unless the entire budget went over not just one department but it is important to address this issue. Spencer will talk with Alyysa to make sure she knows what needs to be done. She could talk to Pelorus and set up a separate budget for this account. They found no significant deficiencies in the Town's budget. Spencer stated that Oak City Town is in a good spot because the Council is willing to keep a good eye on their budgets and Pelorus is good to make sure everything is done correctly. The Mayor thanked Spencer for coming. Spencer stated that if anyone had any questions, they are welcome to contact him. D. Discuss and Possibly Adopt the Proposed Ordinance 2026-01, the Annexed Territory Identified as 'The Steele Annexation'. Copeland started by stating that he didn't feel there was anything wrong in annexing the property but was hoping that they would not be able to build on all the lots until the water issues were addressed. The Mayor felt the same and Shawn agreed with this also. Shawn also pointed out that one thing to be careful of is to look at roads and road rights-of-way when annexing. The Mayor pointed out that past Mayor, Shim Callister, had drawn up a proposed street grid and the Town just needs to stick to that as much as possible. Tom addressed his concerns with water issues as the Council Person over the Water Department. He pointed out that the State is mandating cross-connection valves and now wildland fire issues. The State is now facing a dry water year, and the Town has more water connections than they can really deliver if those in Town decide to develop, according to the ERCs. The Town has also added more property to the Cemetery which will take more water. He is very concerned about annexing when there are such water issues. The State and engineers throughout the State say the greatest issue for Utah is water. He feels that the water needs to be looked at before annexing. The Mayor pointed out that the property could be annexed and then look at the building when parties are ready to develop. Tom felt the need to look at water first as parties could sell lots and then end up not being able to develop the roads or water lines and end up defaulting after selling the lots. DeAnne stated that they understand the water problem but they have to sell at least one or two lots to afford to put in the roads and water lines. Dylan stated that the Town has enough water it just needs a source. Copeland explained that he would move to adopt the Ordinance for the following reason: There are things coming into the County that are going to make us grow fast, and he would rather have the City have the control of its growth and not the County. Copeland moved, seconded by Shawn, to adopt Ordinance 2026-01 'The Steele Annexation'. Roll Call Vote: Mayor Dutson-Aye. Shawn-Aye. Tom-Nay. Jared-Absent. Copeland-Aye. Next Dave and DeAnn will need to go to the Planning and Zoning Commission and go over plot placement and a Mylar needs to be created and signed. E. Discuss and Request Signature for Cooperative Wildfire System (CWS) Agreement-Copeland Anderson. Copeland explained the Agreement and why it needs to be signed. Mostly due to new House Bill 48 and the fact that if the Town doesn't sign the agreement, the Town would have to pay for any fires that occurred within Town limits. It basically gives the Town authority to take care of fires but the State will pay for it. The County would have to pay about $500,000 in in-kind fire prevention and mitigation work. Oak City's Participation commitment will be $10.00. Copeland explained the Agreement and its necessity for signing, primarily because of the new House Bill 48, passed last year. The County Fire District has always signed the CWS agreement, but now the County, the Fire District, and the Municipality must all sign the Agreement to participate in the program. By signing this Agreement, the local fire department must meet minimum national standards for wildland fire training, certification, and suppression equipment. and cover its participation commitment (PC), which is calculated from Oak City's wildfire risk assessment and 10 years of historical fire costs. Oak City PC is $10. Oak City has to spend or perform in-kind work on one of these three categories: prevention, preparedness, or mitigation. Since Oak City is part of the Millard County Fire District, they cover the PC and are responsible for developing projects or in-kind work in these three categories. If a fire starts within the city limits, the city can delegate all costs associated with fire suppression and management to Forestry, Fire, and State lands (FFSL). Still, its PC will increase based on its 10-year historical fire costs. If Oak City doesn't sign the CWS agreement, it would be financially responsible for paying a portion of the fire cost if a wildland fire leaves its city limits and also financially tied to a fire that burns into its city limits. For example, if a fire started in Oak City limits and burned out of city limits, and the fire was 150 acres and 50% of the fire was in city limits, and the other of 50% was outside of city limits. That fire ended up costing $20,000 to suppress, since 50% of it was in Oak City. Oak City will be financially responsible for paying half of the fire cost, which would be $10,000 and vice versa if a fire burns into Oak City. Copeland explained that it is like Oak City having wildland fire insurance. The purpose of this program is to encourage cities and counties to invest in themselves to help reduce wildland fire costs and wildfires. Millard County's 2026 PC is just over $500,000, based on its 10-year Historic Fire cost average and wildfire risk assessment. How the FFSL determines the PC amount is that they take Millard County's 10- year Historic Fire Cost, drop the high year and lower year, and then total the remaining years and divide by 10 to determine the participation commitment amount. This goes for Municipalities as well. The Mayor signed the agreement. F. Public Comment. Darla was given time to go over the Healthy Utah Community Program. In order for the Town to join, she will need a letter of commitment from the Mayor. There are three categories that the Town needs to participate in to qualify. Active Living: put in a walking or biking trail, have a healthy community garden, or a store or place where extra produce can be offered or use of a local food bank. Adopt ordinances that allow backyard poultry/animal husbandry. Mental Health: Have a CPR class. Hold a suicide prevention class which Darla happens to teach. Hold a reoccurring community event that promotes social connections. Oak City's Town Days would qualify as this. The Town can qualify pretty quickly and easily and might qualify for a grant. The Town needs to have at least one item in each category that is being done and Darla has already come up with those and put in the Letter of Commitment to participate for the Mayor to sign. The Town needs to choose one item that the Town will work on for the next three years. The Town also needs to set up a Community Coalition. Coutney wondered if the Council could be the Coalition where they meet monthly anyway. Darla felt this would work but thought it would be good to have a citizen member as an extra voice. The Mayor mentioned that he thought Janet Lindquist, an Oak City resident, would be good for this. He is willing to talk to her about this. Tom wondered if the Town could spearhead a plan to plant trees and then take care of them. Darla felt this would be great. There are two possible deadlines for the Town to submit its Letter of Commitment: either March 1st or July 31. Copeland will spearhead this and will try to meet the March 1st deadline if possible. The Mayor signed the Letter of Commitment. G. Monthly Financial Report. The Financial Report was Read and Approved by Board Action. The Mayor went through the Financial Report quickly. The Town has enough water to supply about 400 water connections right now. The Mayor would like to buy enough water to supply about 450 to 500 water connections total so can have some extra water and he has found a guy who is willing to sell the Town some water at a good price. H. Departmental Reports. Before the meeting, the Mayor sent out emails to each department head for their input. Tom Nielson. The Mayor asked Tom to look into: Does the Town need a Mini Ex. Tom felt one was not needed. The Mayor wondered if it might be good to replace the town's backhoe which is breaking. Tom felt the backhoe could be repaired pretty cheaply in fact some work has already been done on it. The backhoe hasn't had that many hours of use. The Council felt to stay with the backhoe. What about animal control? Do we have or need a dog catcher? Have had one in the past but do not have one currently. There have been a few instances where dogs have caused problems which had to be worked out. After some discussion Shawn said when problems come up, he would be willing to contact parties with the offending animals and work out things with them. Before road widening, Shim thought it would be good to look at any culverts that are too short. Will have Jared Rawlinson get with Tom and go over this. Shawn also suggested looking at the pot holes that need to be filled in. Shim talked about removing the utility box on the Ford Truck and make it a flat bed. Tom wasn't sure a flat bed was needed. He suggested a snow plow. Tom will talk to Ben Nielson, Town Public Works Specialist, about the idea of a snow plow. Are the meters at the Park and Cemetery installed and on? Tom will check to make sure but he believes they are. Follow up on the water meter change out project. Tom stated that water meters are just being changed out as needed. Completion of pipeline on Trevor and Chelse' water line. Tom stated that this still needs to be worked on as the easement there needs to be worked on so the line can be finished. Kirt thought that Shim said he had finished the easement. Tom will check on this. Follow up on the Well aquifer recharge. This is still being worked on. Getting the electronics on it. Tom will continue working on this. This was all the Mayor had asked Tom to follow up on. However, Tom also stated that he would like to get the sprinkling system in at the Cemetery. Steve Nielson has offered his equipment to do it. Will start this as soon as the weather will allow. Tom is going to a water meeting next week. He would like to get some equipment at the meeting if it isn't too costly. He will check into the costs and okay it with the Mayor before purchasing. Jared Rawlinson. Jared was not in attendance. The Mayor had emailed him to ask him to report on the street improvement project and to look into grants that might be available to beautify main streets in small towns. He suggested Jared check with Jess Peterson or Micklane Farmer and also look online to see what is available. Jared should be reporting on this next month. Shawn Gonder. The Mayor emailed Shawn and asked him for: Update on the digital power meters. Since Dave Steele, past Council Person over the Power Department, was in attendance he reported that there are 24 new power meters and they are all working. Get an update on the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) pooling agreement from Dave Steel or just update the Council on what we are looking at. Actually, the Mayor ended up feeling like the Town's attorney needed to look at the Agreement to make sure everything is ok. Dave will also look into this and report next meeting. Dave did point out that without a Pooling Agreement with UAMPS the Town would be on its own to try to get power when needed and that could be a big mess and very costly. This ended the email requests from the Mayor. Shawn asked if Joan Sumsion uses her own vehicle to read the power meters. Yes, she does. He felt that the town should look at compensating her for that. Dave felt that Courtney and Shawn should be trained to enter information on the new meters. He said he is willing to be trained also if desired. Shawn stated that the power cost adjustments are no longer needed at this time. The Power went out on Doug Murdock and Legrand Richard's line. Dixie Power repaired this. It took approximately two hours. T- Mobile wants to put in equipment at TV Hill. Courtney stated that she had some information on this. Shawn and Courtney will look into this. Dave mentioned that Brandon Cummings, Dixie Power, had tried to contact Shawn but was unable to get a hold of him so he contacted Dave. Dixie Power and the Town has been looking into refurbishing a voltage regulator that went out. The regulator has been refurbished and they want to come get it in. Dave didn't think there would need to be an outage to get this in. Dave also reported that through UAMPS, they have a project that they are forming, that goes along with the wildfire mitigation plan, for the power system. Dave turned it down initially but decided he ought to mention it to the Council to see if they would have any interest. The potential cost would be about $1,600 for a residential assessment of wildfire risks and they would go over next steps the Town should take in wildfire mitigation. There would be further costs for a more comprehensive assessment. The Council will keep this in mind but won't be interested. Copeland Anderson. The Mayor emailed Copeland and asked him to look at the possibility of a Town internet upgrade including looking up Starlink for business and compare it to CentraCom. Include internet at the Hall with a mini booster to the pavilion and do we need a separate plan for the water tanks or is there a way to piggy back the Hall. Is it worth changing companies in the long run for speed and cost? Check with Courtney as she has already done some leg work on this. Copland reported that Starlink offers two plans. He went over the costs of both plans and compared it to CentraCom. Copeland thought it might be worth going with Star Link. He will check further with CentraCom and Frontier before deciding. The Mayor asked Copeland what he found out about replacing the Hall Stage Curtains. He got quotes from two companies. The quotes did not include shipping. He went over the bids including the weight and size of the curtains. The one company quoted $2,400 the other $1,600 but the drapes differ in size and the material they are made with. Where the prices differ so much, there is probably a big difference in the quality. After some discussion, the Council decided to go with the $1,600 curtains with the idea that they can be returned if necessary. I. Miscellaneous. There were no miscellaneous items. J. Adjournment. The Mayor adjourned the meeting at 10:12 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, __________________________________ Approved by: ____________________________ Karen K Lovell, Oak City Town Clerk Kirt Dutson, Mayor

Notice of Special Accommodations (ADA)

NOTICE OF SPECIAL ACCOMMODATION DURING PUBLIC MEETINGS In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals needing special accommodations (including auxiliary communicative aids and services) during this meeting should notify Karen Lovell at 435-846-2707.

Notice of Electronic or Telephone Participation

N/A

Meeting Information

Meeting Location

30 West Center
Oak City, UT 84649
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Contact Name

Karen Lovell

Contact Email

oakcitytc@gmail.com

Contact Phone

4358462707

Notice Posting Details

Notice Posted On

March 20, 2026 08:28 PM

Notice Last Edited On

March 20, 2026 08:28 PM

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