Soda Springs City Council Report 12/3

A regular meeting of the City Council was held on December 3.  The agenda was fairly light, with two public hearings and department reports.  The final meeting for this year will be held on December 17, and the next on January 7.  Significantly, the new city government will move into their positions next year, with current mayor Austin Robinson and current City Councilman Rod Worthington taking their leave and mayor-elect Paul Gritton and Councilwoman-elect Paige Byram taking their new positions. 

Public Hearing on MARSHE parcels

Two contiguous parcels on the western edge of town were the subject of hearings for the city council.  The properties have been in discussion for a number of meetings at the city council, and a final decision was due.  

There were no comments, either for or against from the public.

One of the parcels is inside the city limits and the other is in the impact zone.  The city parcel was under discussion for a rezone, while the impact zone parcel was under discussion for annexation and rezone.  

A motion to approve the rezone was made by PG.  The motion declared that the rezone will be to C2 from R1.  The motion passed.

A separate hearing was held for the annexation of the parcel and rezone of the property inside the impact zone.  The impact zone is a legally required area surrounding the city limits that represents an area where the city and county share planning and growth responsibilities.  In impact zones, residents can request annexation into the adjacent city, but they cannot be forced through this process to do so.  

In this case, the property will be annexed into the city.  “The only real requirement is that it be contiguous with the city,” Attorney Tom Smith noted. It borders property owned by the requester.  

The City boundary will need to be resurveyed to include the boundary, which the city can require the owners to do.  City Attorney Smith suggested that they include language to that effect in the motion.

Council President Hart motioned to annex the parcel into the city limits and require the owners of the property to provide a licensed surveyor to survey the new boundary.

A motion to rezone the property to C2 was made to match the adjacent prop.

Public Input

Former City Services Director Justin Hansen spoke to the council.  He wanted to express his thanks to Rod Worthington and Austin Robinson for their service to the city as the look forward to their next chapters.  “I appreciate the relationship we had when I was here,” he said. He also gave a shout out to the city crews.  “There are a lot of good things going on Soda Springs.  We can be proud of where we live.  As a taxpayer and a resident, I just want to offer my thanks to the city.”

Project Updates

Engineer Alan Skinner spoke about the outlook for grants, which is somewhat up in the air at the moment. 

The 3rd East sidewalks are done, a thanks to the weather, have already been shoveled.  

Councilman Worthington noted, “I get to be crossing guard this week, and it’s nice to say to the kids—‘walk on the sidewalk, not the street’.”  He noted that there has been good support from the community.

Dept Heads

Library

Hope Hansen reported on the Festival of Trees.  Friends of the Library President Beth Cheirrett was not able to be at the meeting to present the report alongside Hansen, so she opted to wait until the next meeting to present the financial results of the event, which went very well.

“We had the Memorial Tree put up,” Hansen said.  The Memorial Tree is not a project run by the Library, but it is hosted by the library.  The tree is a place where peoplecan hag ornaments to commemorate loved ones.  It is open to anyone to hang ornaments on.  A program was held inside the library prior to the outside ceremony.  “We had around 50ish people,” Hansen said.  Rich Evans was the speaker.

SSPD

Chief of Police Cejay Golightly spoke to the council briefly, stressing one main message: “This last week we handed out 30-40 letters about city parking.”  City crews need to steetsides clear for snow removal during the winter, as plowing around cars can create safety and traffic hazards.  It can also cause residents’ cars to become snowbound.

City Services--Jeff Young

New lights have been put into the new city shop building, and “It’s nice.  You can see.”

They should be getting the substation inspected soon.  One of the transformers is leaking oil.  

Councilman Gritton mentioned that the lights on Main 2nd South look really good, and he thanked Young for his work on them.  

Fire/Water--Dan Squires

A discussion about whether to have the Fire Extinguishers in the kitchen checked in Enders was had.  It was decided to continue to delay that.

A contractor hit a line on Soda Creek.  Squires believes the city will likely need to replace it with a better one. 

Clerk Haderlie

The clerk explained that the office had started to receive calls about the recent increase in utility rates.  She said that once the staff explained to most callers what the purpose of the increase was and the state of the infrastructure, the necessity was understood.

Recreation

Director Jessica Thurman mentioned that Basketball would be held this Saturday.  Quite a few 1st and 2nd graders signing up.  

The department built a small shelter at the ice rink, which is up and “will do what we need it to.”  They will be building up ice layers for the next week.  It’ll be about 9 inches at the highest, and 4 or 5 at the lowest.

She said, “there is a lot of excitement” among many locals about the rink.  “They have pickup games planned and it’s going to be really cool.” 

There are a number of skates and sticks that need to be sorted for rentals.  

Election Results 

It is required that the city accepts the certified election results from Nov. 4., which they did.