Recap! May city council meetings

 How is it the end of May already?  Time sure is flying.  I think May is when South Weber is the absolute prettiest.  Love this cute, little city of ours!

Below is the recap for the meetings of May 11th and May 25th as well as a special hearing that took place on May 16th.  For May 11th, you can find the packet here, May 18th's agenda is here and May 25th's meeting is here, here and here.  You can also watch these meetings on the city's YouTube channel here.  It is worth noting that the May 18th meeting was not streamed to YouTube, but the recording of the meeting is available to listen to here. 

Alright, let's dive in!

 

•RV PARK AGREEMENT AMENDMENT: The owner of the future RV Park requested changes to his landscaping plan to save on water.  These changes include using a more drought resistance grass, fewer shrubs and plants and other minor changes to the type of gravel rock and bark.  You can see his proposal in the packet linked below.  The council all agreed to the changes of grass and other minor changes, but the vote was split 3-2 in favor of a 15% reduction of plants and shrubs.  The motion passed to have the agreement modified.  

 

•2021-2022 TENATIVE BUDGET: The tentative budget was passed unanimously by the council.  The public will 3 weeks to review the budget before the next public hearing to pass the budget.  This is expected to happen the June 8^th meeting.  I would recommend everyone looking over.  Pages 5-11 are particularly informative, but if you are short on time or attention J pages 13-16 have a simplified breakdown of what changes will be taking place, where funds have been distributed and for what purposes.

 

•ELECTIONS: There are three seats up for re-election, 2 council member positions and the mayor position.  The time to file for candidacy begins June 1-4 and the 7^th at city hall. 

 

•LOFTS AT DEER RUN: The final approval for the Lofts development came before the council on May 25^th.  The council reviewed the recommendation from the planning commission both the preliminary approval that took place in December of 2020 and the final approval which took place last month.  Two commissioners were present and gave comment about the final approval because it was a 2-2 split vote and therefore no recommendation was given to help give the council perspective.   After asking questions and reviewing the plans, the council passed the motion unanimously.  

 

•COBBLESTONE SHORT TERM RENTAL HEARING: The council had the unique responsibility to act as the appeal authority in response to staff denying a business license for Cobblestone Resort, a short-term rental within the city limits.  This was set up much like a court where the council listened to both the arguments both for and against overturning this decision from their legal attorneys.  The council unanimously agreed to uphold the city’s decision to deny the business license.  Cobblestone Resort is also appealing the judicial court case regarding their need of a business license – that process will be ongoing.  

 

•CITY CODE CHANGES: The council reviewed code changes to the CH zone as well as updated definitions.  The code committee, comprising of the mayor, city manager, 2 planning commissioners and 2 city council members, made these changes which updated the specific uses that will be able to come to the commercial highway zones and beefing up the definitions to better align with the city’s desires for development following the feedback of the general plan survey results.  The was recommended to the council from the planning commission.  The council passed this motion unanimously.

 

•CANYON MEADOWS PARK WEST: Due to the rising costs of material, the plan for Canyon Meadows Park has had to be altered to fit within the budget, but still lacked the needed funds to complete a portion of the project.  It was requested of the council to allow a transfer of $182,194 which will be earmarked to pay back into impact fees to allow the project to start moving forward.  While 4 pickleball courts were budgeted, the Pickleball Community has successfully raised enough money to put in 4 more pickle ball courts for a total of 8.  After a lengthy discussion, the council passed this motion unanimously.

 

•REPORTS: Mayor Jo relayed the new digital screen for the city’s sign has been a huge update for staff as far as looks and functionality.   She also reported she met with our new Region 1 director for UDOT and discussed the I84/89 corridor, the box culvert, and the potential of future bike lanes on SWD.   She also said the LPC met and discussed the ARPA funds from the federal government.    

•Councilman Halverson stated the RAB met and OU16 will have a new ROD, new technology and better ways to test all types of contamination.

•Councilwoman Alberts reported the PR committee is working on ensuring all data has been successfully migrated from the old website to the new website, but it is slow progress.    

•Councilman Soderquist relayed the Admin and Finance committee continue to work through the budget and finalizing all the details.  He also reported our sales tax revenue for this quarter hit a new all-time high, which is good.  

•Councilwoman Petty reported they will meet with the contractor for Canyon Meadows and to get started on the work for Canyon Meadows West. 

•Councilman Winsor reported all 52 streetlights city owned streetlights now have power (after giving the rep for Rocky Mountain Power at the ULCT conference a run for his money J).  He requested information on an annual water report from staff and reported the Municipal Utility committee is working on bringing forth all high-speed internet options for citizens and council to review. He also reported the mosquito abatement is hiring for drivers if anyone is interested (at least 17 years old preferred).  Code committee is finishing up new code for internal ADU’s and moving on to cleaning up our conditional use code. 

•City Manager David Larsen reported the dog park grand opening will sadly need to be postponed due to issues with the grass not taking to root well.  He also reported information on use of the ARP funds from the feds will be presented to the council at the June 8^th meeting.  

And that’s a wrap!  You deserve a candy bar and a drink for reading this all!  

Contamination from HAFB, Our Plumes & Development: How does it impact us?

I attended the Hill Air Force Base RAB (restoration advisory board) meeting on Thursday October 24th.   This is a comprising of many different board members including city council members from neighboring cities, representatives from the EPA and UDEQ,  community representatives, and other entities.  Here is the agenda for this meeting.  

The contamination in our city is something I have been trying to understand better.  I am no expert in it.  I am still learning and I don't have all the answers.  However,  I have been asking a lot of people a lot of questions, and I can say I have a better idea of what is going on than I did a few months ago.  I am hoping sharing what I learned can help you better understand as well, and together we can all be better informed and thus better involved.  These are just the answers I have received from some of my questions.  

Okay so for starters: Where did the contamination come from?  Most of the contaminants happened before the 70's when the base would dispose of chemicals by burying it in the lands.  Most of these dumping sites were on the slopes of the base's boundaries, and over time that contamination spread.  There are several "plumes" around the base's boundaries; Layton, Clearfield, Sunset, South Weber and Riverdale are all just some of the community's that have plumes.  South Weber has three, though one, OU4 is technically located mostly in Riverdale.  You can see these plumes on our sensitive land maps in yellow.  OU2 sits above 475 E and OU1 is located near where the proposed Knoll's development will be.   

How do they determine the size of a plume?

This has been a huge question of mine.  I've been told many things when I ask this question.  I learned from this RAB meeting that HAFB has wells all over these communities.  These wells monitor the ground water and look for contaminants, specifically TCE and recently newly founded Benzine.  TCE is a potential carcinogen.  The Base was charged with cleaning up the contaminant from groundwater following Hill's designation as a Superfund site in 1987.  It remains on the U.S. EPA's National Priority List.  They use these wells to determine the boundary of the plumes.  Some wells have had clean reports for a significant amount of time so the boundary is re-adjusted.  When this happens, the plume is considered to be "shrinking."  Other plumes haven't moved at all due to complexities in the soil making mitigation difficult to happen.   No contaminants have ever been found in our drinking water. 

How does mitigation/clean up happen?

The contaminants are similar to radon.  They are dispersed when they hit oxygen.  That means when they come to the surface, they are able to be broken up and distributed to the atmosphere in a way that is not hurtful to humans or animals.  However, if it never hits oxygen, it will stay there for a great deal of time before it is naturally broken down.   The efforts of contractors, hired by the base to do the cleanup/mitigation, have yielded varying results as they have used different methods of cleanup.   The latest contractors used a method of vegetable oil and what they called "bugs", microbes that are injected down into the plumes.  These bugs consume the contamination and break it down.  At some of these sites, this process worked very well.  At others, not so much.  This was thought to be from the amount of clay making it difficult for the bugs to "travel" through the soil and consume the contaminants.

Are their homes threatened by the contamination?

While other areas like Layton and Clearfield have 500-600 homes that they feel would need a vapor system to address these contaminants leaking into their homes (similar to how radon happens), according to HAFB South Weber doesn't have very many homes that have been built in the plumes boundaries.  The first time this will happen is with the Knoll's property, which is a cause for concern and why HAFB recommended those homes have a vapor intrusion system installed.  According to the Base, if you have a home they recommend to have air testing done, you should have been contacted by the Base via door to door visits or through a mailer.   However, if you are concerned about it, the Base will come do an air sample in your home.  

What's Next?

 The Base is getting ready to renew a new 8 year contract with contractors to continue to work on cleanup on these plumes.  These new methods may be different than what the current contractors have been doing, or they could continue with the new ways.  The RAB meets 4 times a year and is a public meeting.  Currently Blair Halverson is our city council member who is a member of the RAB.  If you would like to be more involved, he is who you should talk too.  Because of the nature of the election, things may change after new seats are taken up in January so stay tuned to the city's website to see if the council members for the RAB changes.

The news actually did a short segment of this meeting.  I will attach it here for you to view.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.  I can't promise you I will know the answer, but I will do my best to find out for you.  One thing I have learned about this contamination is there are polar opposite views, it can be a very controversial conversation.  Sometimes it is hard to know where the truth actually lies.  However, the more I study, the better of an idea I think I am getting of it.  Additionally, HAFB has come and done presentations to our city a few times.

For more information on groundwater monitoring and air sampling:
https://www.hill.af.mil/IAP/fbclid/IwAR1HD7pozrKZQI0OOPuqwRiU_YcxcybNcbZZU7hym4_KwuRskBPz0a5EsJw/

HAFB Presentation to city council February 12th, 2019:

 http://southwebercity.com/file/2016/11/02-12-19-CC-Meeting-Minutes.pdf  

Fox 13 News segment: 

https://fox13now.com/2019/10/24/push-to-sample-air-in-homes-above-chemical-plume/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Trending%20Content&utm_content=5db290c94c15b8000148caba&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2g4YqXkpTj65nv3KSKMx_NvdegxVwH-q1T68IixzIvHEmuCVr3sbENePE