New Soda Springs City Recreation Director Appointed; Budget season begins

The Soda Springs City Council met for a regular meeting on June 5 at 5:00 p.m.

After and invocation by Ryan Carpenter and the Pledge, the council discussed a series of topics, including initial budget requests from the department heads as the budget season gets underway.

New Recreation Director Nikki Hansen

As part of that process, Nikki Hansen was introduced as the new Recreation Director.  “I’ve kind of been thrown in the fire—and trying to play clean up,” Hansen laughed, as she discussed some of what she saw as budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.  According to Hansen, “we have enough to continue kids sports, but also add to the adult program.”

One of the projects Hansen highlighted was the need for lights at Kelly Park.  The cost of installing them has been seen as somewhat prohibitive, at potentially over $100K according to some estimates.  However, as Hansen pointed out, the expense would likely be offset by events that could be brought into the community as a result. As Hansen asked, “Why are we sending our kids out of town, when we have phenomenal facilities here in town?”    She presented data about youth sports nationally, noting that 91.8 billion dollars nationally were spent on the youth sports industry, with average families spending between $700 to 1000$ a month on youth sports during busy seasons.  Hansen believes there are revenue opportunities for all kinds of things related to youth sports, and sports at night.  Adding lights would also allow more possibilities to host rec sports for adults, such as flag football, baseball, softball, and so on.  She believes it would provide a great chances to be creative with how the fields are used.

Hansen also would like to work toward the city’s construction of a rec center facility.  She has been working as a consultant with Seattle, and she thinks based on her experience that around $500K would be enough for the needs of the city.  There are ways to do it with steel buildings, shipping containers, etc, according to Hansen.  She would like to start exploring what might work and be possible.  It would be great for during school times when there is nothing available for adults.  “We have a very active community, we just don’t have enough resources for them to participate,” she said. “We used to host phenomenal tournaments.  How can we make it happen for our community?”

Alan Skinner has a bid for the lights from two years ago that he will look back into and discuss with Hansen.  She explained that as a youth, playing under the lights was something that was important to she and her peers.  “We kind of want to bring that back—playing under the lights is when you know you made it.”    

12U girls softball has 8 participants.  There are 12 participants on 10U girls.  49 boys playing on 10 year and 12 year teams.  “The numbers are so low.  They are high in Tball and coach pitch teams.  My mission is to keep it fun and teach these kids.”

Geyser Park bldg.

Councilmember Paul Gritton raised the issue of the Geyser Information Center and Public Restroom building, which sits on the south end of the Geyser parking area.  The building is visited by many tour groups and individuals who come through town during the summer when the building is open, and is the main contact point for visitors.  Gritton expressed the opinion that the building was underutilized and in a bit of a sad state.  HE reported that the building needs cleaning, carpets, painting, handrails cleaned, and exterior problems fixed.  Members of the public and other council members agrred with the assessment.  Gritton suggested that the building could benefit from steady occupancy, by possibly making it into an office for the Chamber of Commerce or other entity who might be willing to oversee its upkeep.  Someone being there during the day might help prevent some vandalism and other issues, according to Gritton.  President Mitch Hart said that the city would welcome someone taking it over and upgrading it.  It is a city building, and city crews mow and water it, as well as maintain the bathroom facilities.  Hart asked where to take the idea from there.  Justin Hansen agreed that it does need repair, and should be dealt with somehow.  Alan Skinner stated that he thought it would take $35-50K to get it in decent shape as a rough estimate.  The matter was tabled for a future discussion.  

Soda Springs PD

It was reported at the previous city council meeting that Cash, the city’s K-9 unit, is retiring from most field work.  A feature on Cash will be upcoming in a future edition of the paper.  Chief of Police Scott Shaw says that he never wanted to discontinue the program entirely, but needs staff to catch up with training and experience. The process for dog and handler to be made ready for deployment is time-consuming, but the department hopes to have a new dog trained up by October.  Cash has officially been transferred to the ownership of his handler, CJ.  He can still do school events and other public-facing activities, but he can no longer perform active street patrols.  The number of people who have asked about the dog is large but not astounding, considering the valuable and visible part Cash has played in community safety over the years.

The council discussed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the county sheriff.  Chief Shaw stated that the MOU would be better if it was a MAA (Mutual Aid Agreement) so that it is more flexible and less stringent.  He would work with Sheriff Adam Mabey and City Attorney Tom Smith the work out the specifics.  Given that County Prosecutor Doug Wood has a lot of interests with the county and city (he also advises several cities in the county as an attorney) and Tom Smith works for the same firm as Wood, they agreed they need to be careful, and need an agreement stipulating a waiver of  conflict of interest concerns.

Nuisance Complaints were also raised with Chief Shaw as a current issue.  Nuisance complaints fall into a number of categories, including noise and property concerns.  Some reports have been received by both council members as well as the police about potential visibility violations related to brush or trees that need to be trimmed in order to create a more visible intersections throughout town.  Some of the these concerns have been reported near the high school, where students returning from lunch are sometimes obscured from the view of drivers in the area. Shaw explained that letters went out to owners, and at the end of 30 days, the SSPD will be issuing citations.  

A related issue raised concerned inoperable and potentially abandoned vehicles on streetsides.  A lot of the vehicles are unregistered.  City Code says that after a certain number of days of verified abandonment, abandoned cars need to be posted in paper and auctioned.  The department has picked up a bunch of them on the roads, but they have not gone onto property yet.  Shaw says that it will cost a lot of money to adhere to the ordinance, which is in response to a state statute.  

When asked by the council how the department is dealing with ordinance enforcement, Shaw explained that notifications and paperwork have been sent out by Chelsey Davids on behalf of the city, and the PD has been responsible for the actual enforcement.

City Cleanup

It was reported that the City Cleanup had gone well, with many residents commenting that the process had been quick and easy.  The City Shop area was opened for residents to bring their waste material for disposal and transport to the landfill.  During the event, city workers stayed fairly consistently busy with drop offs, and collected a large amount of yard and consumer waste.  It was reported that there had been some dumping of materials by visitors from outside the city itself, but that overall it had been a very successful endeavor.

Council President Hart reported that he had been approached by representatives from outside the city who were interested in disposing of wastewater and other possible materials.  At present, a tiered schedule for out of city disposal is not clearly delineated, and President Hart stated that a comprehensive fee schedule would be created.  

Movies in the Park

Councilmember Gritton reported that the first scheduled movie in the Park event had to be canceled due to rain, but that it had been rescheduled for June 10.

Misc

A number of other issues were discussed by the council in brief, including updates on Maverik and other local construction, the Main Street construction schedule, grants related to Ledger Creek trail development, and other business.