Alright my peeps, I have 5 pages of notes from tonight's
meeting. I tend to like details, but some people want it to be quick so I never
know how much or little to say!
We had Judge Memmot sworn in and I am happy to have a judge here
for our city. Our Youth City Council was also there to be sworn in. I thought
it was pretty cool the YCC takes the same oath the judge did. If anyone is
interested, the YCC is for kids 14-18, they will be accepting applications in
the fall. They have done a great job! They were a great asset to our breakfast
with Santa, the Easter Egg hunt and Country Fair Days. I think it's awesome we
have this in our city. Our Judge said that he was also a YCC, which I thought
was cool.
We had about 31 people join us out our meeting tonight and had
10 comments. Huge thanks to Jeffrey Ray
Judkins who live streamed this meeting. It is on the South Weber
Citizen's United Facebook Page if you would like to watch it there. I encourage
you to listen to the audio of this meeting that should be available tomorrow.
Most of the public comments centered around concerns about South Bench Drive -
namely the slopes, the contamination, the traffic and the noise, increase in
crime, reasons for the feelings of disconnect and lack of transparency, and
concerns about 475 and the stop sign.
Some of the council wanted to address some items before closing
public comment. Angie Hyer said the sensitive lands and easements is being
looked into. Kent Hyer wanted to let the citizens know he shares of lot of our
concerns. He said that as many people were at our meeting tonight is how many
people he has had tell him the opposite of what we are saying. He wants us to
focus on connectivity in the city. He was in the upstairs room of the fire
department when the fire happened and saw what a mess it was having everyone
trying to get to the elementary and he really feels strongly we need to look
into connecting our roads especially by the elementary. He praised the mayor
for all her hard work and dedication to the city and wanted it known how many
grants and good things she has done for our community. She works very hard. He
said a lot of this are projections only and we will go through things with a
fine tooth comb probably even better than we would have if we hadn't gotten
involved and thanked him for that. Blair asked us to just be patient for a
couple more weeks (when they can discuss the general plan) so they can prove to
the citizens that we have heard you. Mayor Jo said that officials are elected
to put a plan into place and give it to the public. The process is working
(that of public comment). She asked us to please know she has no agenda.
The next item on the agenda was the line for Cottonwood Drive
line. For those who don't know this is located in Uintah on the other side of
84. It's about 1/2 mile of road that is actually in South Weber because it is
on the south side of the river. This line needs to be upgraded from a 6"
to an 8" per state code. It was recently found to be deficient for fire
flow and with the development coming in, will actually need to be a 10"
for adequate fire flow. It is on our capital facilities plan (the budget for
large expense items that only happen once) but not until 2026. Because of the
development coming in (Riverside RV Park) it was bumped up to be addressed now.
There was a lot of discussion on this. I personally feel the city council was
very thorough at understanding the issue and the concerns about the amount at
hand and gave it a great deal of thought. It is something that needs to be
done, and it is something that was budgeted for up to a point, but doing this
upgrade now means one of the other upgrades we had planned to do this year
won't happen. In the end the council decided to table this for now until we can
get bids back. The developer will work with staff and will pay for the
engineering of the line upgrade. The council will come back to it beginning of
December and see if the bids are close to the estimate The one important thing
to note is that this development is a little bit unique because we will see the
impact fees come in at a lump sum when the building permits are issued since it
will all be done at the same time. This will be a significant amount of money
for the city as well. (we get impact fees when building permits are issued, so
a subdivision won't come in a lump sum because some lots may sit for years
before impact fees are set - hopefully that is. correct - I clarified it with
Brandon Jones after the meeting. )
Mayor Jo said she went to a meeting for more grants in
active-ness...(is that a word?). Grants for lots of cool things like
bouldering, hiking, kayaking, rock climbing and such. I told her we need to put
a kayak park at the fisherman's access with these funds! I think that would be
awesome!!
Merv has requested an analysis from Davis County Sheriff's
Department for crime rates over the last 5 years. They will compile that and
present it soon.
Angie wanted it put on the agenda to rename the part of South
Bench Drive currently under construction to help alleviate confusion.
Wayne wants to address the stop sign on 475 asap. He suggested
moving it up closer so people can see it or putting a double stop sign on each
side. He also said that he is a VERY firm no on SBD and will not now or ever
vote for a road up our slopes.
There was so more discussion about next week's meeting. Audio is
a problem outside of city hall. They are. still working on that. They are also
working on an agenda of sorts because there is so much information needed to go
over.
Phew! Hope it helps! Let me know if you have any questions! #swmorethan20
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