October, 10th 2023 MINUTES-
Members present: Mayor B. Jack Funk Council Persons: Kim Hansen, Patrick Sundstrom, and Lindsay Edwards
Members Excused: Mike Christensen
Others in attendance: Annie Johnson, Jennee Mangum, Johnee Mortensen, and Courtney Staley 1. Call to Order-Mayor Jack Funk called the meeting to order at 7:00 P.M. 2. Pledge of Allegiance-Mayor Jack Funk led the room in the Pledge of Allegiance 3. Approve Minutes- September 12th ; Edwards make a motion to approve the September 12th minutes. . The motion is seconded by Sundstrom. Ayes; unanimous, the motion is passed. 4. Invoice Report-Hansen makes a motion to pay the bills. Edwards seconds the motion. Ayes; unanimous and the motion is passed. 5. Fire Department- Chief's Report; Courtney Staley filled in for Chief McClaughry-The fire department is working on the state license plate grant. If they are awarded this grant it would be $5,000 that can be used for needed gear for the department. The women fire fighters attended an all female training and it was a huge success. This was for girls 17 years and up to show what they do as fire fighters. Courtney expressed that it was neat to see the interest from the women in the communities. There is a raped intervention training at the end of the month. The goal of this training is to train them to go in with teams of two if there is someone trapped inside or a fire fighter goes down in a structure fire they can rapidly deploy multiple fire fighters that would go in and assist bring them out. 6. Councilperson Lindsay Wilson-Edwards 6.1 Emery Town Heritage Council/Pioneer Church Update-They are starting back up with the work on the church. There was an interior adobe wall that they are repairing. They are starting slow to avoid collapse. Once that is done they will go into the basement to sure up that wall with cinder blocks and mortar. The they will prepare the basement for the concrete floor. They will install a sump drain. On the outside they will finish the drain line for the French Drain. Terry and Mark will do the prep for cement pads for the AC system and the propane tank. This will take a day maybe two and it will save around $12,000. 7. Councilperson Patrick Sundstrom 7.1 Animal Control- Sundstrom is working on the dog issue that the town is having. The dog that attacked the chickens has been taken care of. The problem he is facing is the impounds are all full, but Annie is trying to help with foster vouchers for this problem. 7.2 CVSSD- At the last district meeting they approve United Minerals for a water connection. Jacob encouraged cities to look at what they are charging for outside connections and think about raising the rates to help with the huge increase in taxes. Sundstrom made a suggestion that the council may want to think about raising the rates for the outside connections and the Bronco mine connection. Funk questions what the rate increase should be. Sundstrom says that would be up to the town council to decide. Sundstrom then gives an update on the pond progress. He said that Garrett Hansen has been
working on cleaning the pond and was about 2/3rds of the way done but they pulled him off that project to do patches. Garrett told Sundstrom that it is coming along really well. Sundstrom gives the council a schedule of the money they will spend on the towns in the county for the next year. He points out that the project for Emery will be getting the ponds updated and fixed. Edwards asks if they mentioned when they will be doing the chip seal on the roads. Sundstrom explains that they are a bit behind schedule because the cost of materials has increased so much. They did Cleveland this year and they usually do Elmo in the same year but the cost was too high. Emery will probably not get done until 2025 but Sundstrom said he will check on the timeline. 7.3 Big Ridge fire- Sundstrom said he has been watching what they are doing with the fires on the mountain. He is concerned that due to them burning so late in the year, the plant life won't have time to reestablish before winter and we will have flooding and landslide issues. He wanted to bring it up in the meeting so that they can plan for any litigation. 8. Councilperson Mike Christensen 8.1 Planning and Zoning-none 9. Councilperson Kim Hansen 9.1 Trunk or Treat- Hansen said that we are going to do kind of what they have done the last couple years except they added a costume and trunk decorating contest. They will have an award for the best costume and the best decorated trunk. She shared that the lights at the west end of the rest area were not working so it was too dark for the kids on that end. Edwards said she will have Terry look into it. Te trunk or treat will be held on October 28th. Courtney was asked if the fire department would be doing the haunted station again to which she replied this was the same day as the Rapid Intervention training so she didn't think they were planning on it. She said she would bring it up with Scott and see if they were planning anything. Hansen said even if they would like to take the trucks around to get more people to attend that would be great. 10. Mayor Jack Funk 10.1 Mayor's Report- Funk mentions that the council needs to decide if they are going to do a Christmas Light contest this year. Edwards mentions that the town has always had a contest. Hansen says that she would like to use some of the tires at the tire pile to make a snowman. Edwards said that he has been looking at adding new decorations each year. Funk says they need to decide what the criteria will be and what they will be judgedon. 11.Open Agenda 11.1 Old Business- Christine Watkins send Mayor Funk information on a training for grant writing. It is a T-Mobil hometown grant that awards up to $50,000 to towns with under 50,000 people. The paperwork for the grant will be due January 2nd. Funk suggests that the town send Annie to the training so she can learn how to write a grant. This grant may help the town with putting in new restrooms at the park. The grant class is in Beaver November 1st. The council agreed that this was a fabulous idea. Annie agrees to do the class and write the grant with the help from council. 11.2 New Business- Annie gives the council a paper from the county about the money we get from them going into a PTIF instead of them sending a check. The council asks the office staff how they feel about this. They tell they the council that they think it would make it a bigger pain to have it rut into a PTIF account but they would check with the states to see how it
would work. The council tabled the PTIF discussion until next month. Jennee asked the council what they wanted them to do with the old printer and was told to just throw it out as it no longer works correctly. Sundstrom told the council that someone tried to break into his truck to still his gun. He said that it would be a good idea to mention to the community that they may want to lock their vehicles and homes to avoid someone taking their valuables. Funk says that he has had an issue with someone coming passed his house setting off his truck alarm. Funk tells the council that he received a complaint from Marilynn and Garth Malan about the dog problem in the town. He then read the message to the council. 'we can't go for a walk in town without dogs coming up to us like they are going to attach. It's not just one place in town it's all over. We have a problem with stray dogs coming into our yard chasing cats and it is an ever increasing problem. Two weeks ago we happened to be going to the post office and witnessed when the chickens got attacked.' They are wondering what can be done to fix the issue because they don't feel safe walking in town. Edwards asks if they report it to the office and after so many complaints the animal control has to go check on it. Sundstrom affirms that this is the case. He lets the council know that he has been dealing with the main offender all summer long. Jennee tells the council that she has had a problem with a dog on the North side of town coming after her when she walks the town loop. Sundstrom says he will continue to do what he can to remedy the situation with the dogs. Hansen tells the council that she would like to bring to their attention that there have been a lot of complaints about the road that goes up to the cemetery and how awful it looks to the people that visit the town and go there to put flowers on a grave or visit a loved ones grave. She purposed that the council think about a solution to this problem. Sundstrom said that he feels that having curb and gutter along that road would help with some of that issue. He mentioned that maybe the council should make that road be the next to get curb and gutter. Edwards agreed that the council could make that a priority when they do the next curb and gutter. Sundstrom mentions that it would be 2025 before that gets done but the town can tell the district that the road to the cemetery is the next priority when they start doing it in the town again. Jennee lets the council know that there was a part of the budget that needs to be revised and that there will need to be another public hearing to approve it when it is completed.
12. Adjournment- Hansen makes a motion to adjourn. Edwards seconds the motion. Ayes; unanimous and the meeting is adjourned at 7:49 P.M.
APPROVED:
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B. Jack Funk, Mayor
ATTEST:
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Jennee J. Mangum, Municipal Clerk