Recap! City Council 2.9.2021

Scroll down to see my recap for this week's meeting.  You can also watched the video below.  If you have other questions, be sure to check out the packet and the minutes for this meeting.

•I decided that 2 meetings a month is too much information and I can’t make them shorter – which is not my forte anyways. So, we are back to following each meeting!

•This meeting started with an announcement from Mayor Jo relating that two planning commissioners, Tim Grubb and Rob Osborne, have resigned from the planning commission. This resignation removed the need previous agenda item that was in the packet.

•Action Items: The award of a contract for blue staking the streetlight project was awarded to Stake Center and passed unanimously. The council was unanimously in favor of a mutual aid agreement with Weber Fire District. Additionally, an amended contract with Davis County Animal Care Services was also passed unanimously. The amendments to this agreement included extended the contract out (originally set to expire 12/31/2020) while they prepare a new contract as they research options for a new facility. They costs dropped slightly as they will no longer be offering wildlife services (services such as raccoon & skunk response, removal or disposal).

•Discussion Items: The council has decided to review the planning commission’s code and processes. This deliberation lasted for about an hour. Terms of service, length of term, number of commissioners were specifically discussed, but also included a discussion on to better help the council and the commission run smoother together. Ideas and suggestions included; increased training for PC members, by-laws/policy updates, roles and responsibilities better defined and communication regarding updating needed code changes to the council. These items will ideally be handled at the PC level creating their own policies and procedures with the approval of the council. Items that would be code changes would be length of terms, how many terms PC members can serve consecutively and how many members. The council discussed at length the option of 5 or 7 members and was split on an agreement. The majority ruled in favor of 5 members. Staff will bring forward a new code policy at our next city council meeting (Feb. 23rd). The council will continue to consider these options and will continue to deliberate. All on the council were in favor of finding a resolution by the 23rd so that the new seats on the PC can be filled immediately after and the PC can get up and running again.

New Business:

•Council members Petty and Halverson met as a committee to address a developer’s question about the Poll property next to Highmark Charter School regarding the cross-hatch marks on the general plan. They recommended this come back to the council as a discussion item to create a better process in place for those select few properties that have those cross-hatch markings.

Reports:

•Mayor Jo: Wasatch Intergrated Waste is nearly completed with the final layer of the land fill that is closest to South Weber. When it is done, they will move to a new spot within the land fill that is the furthest spot away from South Weber. The box culvert under highway 89 has had some issues come up regarding a gas line and the location of the gravel pits. The county and UDOT to figure out a new plan of action and the construction of the culvert has been postponed until 2022.

•Councilman Winsor: Code committee is trucking through (I feel like this report is a broken record!😁). The committee is going through all the uses of each of the zones and determining which is most applicable/desired for each zone.

•Councilwoman Petty: Parks are Rec committee met to establish a timeline for the Canyon Meadows Project for the RFP’s which were opened last Friday. They will meet the first week of March to finalize those choices.

•Councilman Soderquist: The Admin and Finance Committee did a great job getting a lot of items ready to present at the retreat that happened 2 weeks ago. All committees are preparing to meet and get ready for the upcoming budget reviews.

•Councilwoman Alberts: The YCC has been working on a lot of different items: they will be coming to the council to have approval on a new logo specifically for the YCC. March will start our new section of the city’s newsletter to include a “Citizen Spotlight”. They are also working on a service project for the residents at Petersen Farms and including the students from South Weber Elementary.

•Councilman Halverson: The public safety committee will meet later this week.

•City Manager David Larson: The Spring Clean-Up date has been scheduled for April 24th – additional details coming soon. The website migration is finished and the next step is making sure the information is correct and the new pages are up and functional. We are approaching the finish line to a new website!

•On a sidenote, I have asked the mayor to share her legislative updates on the city’s page and I will share them here, so look for those coming soon! There are LOTS of important things happening there, and I will continue to let you all know what is coming up and how to get involved. 😊

Please let me know if you have any questions!•

Recap! City Council December 2020

 December City Council Recap!

•The council awarded a contract to KR Plumbing. The bid included updating water fountains to touchless in all city buildings and parks with those amenities. The total was just under the $50,000 allotment used from CARES act funds.

•The city gave recognition to city planner Barry Burton who is retiring. The council and others gave their thanks to him for all his work and dedication to the city for over 30 years.

•The conditional use permit for the soccer complex came forward again. In September after a lengthy meeting with the council agreed that owner Kelly Park could come back to council after having the opportunity to revisit costs associated with the CUP created at that time. A committee consisting of council and staff along with Kelly met to review his findings. The committee made a few changes and brought to the council which was approved unanimously.

•The council accepted an agreement with new city planner Shari Phippen. Before coming to a council, a committee consisting of council members and staff interviewed the top two candidates that applied for the position. Shari comes with 12 years of planning experience in other small cities and a master’s degree in Public Administration. We look forward to working with her!

•The council needed to amend funds that to match FEMA grants funds for a BRIC planning grant. This was originally done back in November but an error in calculation required the council to change the amount to $17,000 rather than the $15,000 granted back in November.

•The Parks and Rec committee brought forward some amended plans for Canyon Meadows Master Plan. The committee requested the city to consider using funds that are now available since some costs that were already budgeted were covered under CARES act money. After some deliberation, the council agreed to allow the parks committee to use first, park impact fees; second, funds now available through displaced CARES act money; and any other costs associated will come from capital funds project money - if needed. This motion allows for the construction of 4 pickle ball courts, basketball court, paved parking lot and tactical bicycle track to begin. This will cover phase 1 of the park, with future amenities to include grass, pavilions, 4 more pickleball courts, 1 more basketball court and concrete walking paths. There is also a fund from private citizens that is being collected to help cover the costs of the pickleball courts if anyone else is interested in contributing. 

•Paramedic Service Transfer: Currently paramedic services are licensed by Davis County. In the near future Davis County will disband their license and require municipalities to cover these services either by providing their own or contracting with neighboring cities to pay for them. This has been an ongoing conversation of over a year and the council was brough up to date. Currently, the county collects taxes from citizens to help supplement these costs. When this license is transferred, the county tax will be redirected to their respected municipalities. South Weber is in a position to be able to cover their own ambulance licensing without needing any additional equipment but will need to bring on 3 additional firefighters as required by law -one to stay at the station, one to drive the ambulance and one to assist the patient in the ambulance. The difference of these costs against the income the city will receive from the redistribution of taxes was discussed. No final decisions will be made at this time, but it will be an ongoing conversation.

•Crossroads & Speed Limit Signs: There has been a few different requests for flashing speed limit signs throughout the city and crosswalks on South Weber Drive in a couple different locations. These concerns were brought to the public safety committee which brought it to the council to weigh in on. Where South Weber Drive is a state road approval from the state is needed. The council discussed flashing speed limit signs and deliberated the flashing speed limit signs. It was agreed the city should cover those funds but a process would need to be in place to evaluate requests. It was also deliberated whether it would be appropriate for private citizens to place the flashing speed limits on their property. Staff will begin working behind the scenes to come to a resolution.

Reports:

Mayor Jo: She has met with the county regarding property acquisition to discuss the trail that will connect the Bonneville Shoreline trail to the Weber Pathways with Staker Parson’s and will be meeting with Geneva soon.

Councilwoman Alberts: The PR committee was able to finalize our choice for a new website design. They will begin migrating the data from our old site to our new site beginning of January and should be up and live by the middle of January.

Councilman Soderquist: He met with the gravel pits to discuss ways to measure dust travel and other dust mitigation

Councilman Winsor: Code committee met and finalized all the definitions of uses for city code. We will meet at the end of December and review and send it to the Planning Commission for their approval. The code committee will continue to start applying the uses to the appropriate zones.

City Manager Dave Larson: The council had a discussion last month regarding a grocery study for the Stephen’s property at the corner of Old Fort Road and 475 E. Ultimately a 3 way split was agreed upon by all interested parties including the city. The cost for the city will be approximately $2100.00.

Just a reminder we do have a position that will become open for a new planning commission member. Applications are on the city’s website and are due by January 6th. This position is available to anyone who is interested and has been a resident for at least 12 months.

And that’s a wrap! Happy New Year everyone!! Here's to tightly crossed fingers 2021 is better than 2020!