THE STATE OF UTAH
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
COUNTY OF SEVIER
CITY OF RICHFIELD
At the City Council
In and For Said City
September 22, 2020
In and For Said City
September 22, 2020
Minutes of the Richfield City Council meeting held on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of the Richfield City office building located at 75 East Center, Richfield, Utah. Mayor David C. Ogden presiding.
1. OPENING REMARKS
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
3. ROLL CALL
4. MINUTES APPROVED
5. HANGER SPACE LEASE APPROVED
6. ORDINANCE 2020-11 PARK CURFEW ADOPTED
7. AWARD FOR SEWER LIFT STATION TABLED
8. PUBLIC HEARING CIB SEWER LAGOON APPLICATION
9. SUBMISSION OF CIB SEWER LAGOON APPLICATION APPROVED
10. WATER AND SEWER RATES DISCUSSED
11. ORDINANCE 2020-12 CREATING CRA ADOPTED
12. CRA AREA DEFINED
13. CARE MONEY EXPENSES DISCUSSED
14. OTHER BUSINESS
15. EXECUTIVE SESSION
16. RECONVENE & ADJOURN
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
3. ROLL CALL
4. MINUTES APPROVED
5. HANGER SPACE LEASE APPROVED
6. ORDINANCE 2020-11 PARK CURFEW ADOPTED
7. AWARD FOR SEWER LIFT STATION TABLED
8. PUBLIC HEARING CIB SEWER LAGOON APPLICATION
9. SUBMISSION OF CIB SEWER LAGOON APPLICATION APPROVED
10. WATER AND SEWER RATES DISCUSSED
11. ORDINANCE 2020-12 CREATING CRA ADOPTED
12. CRA AREA DEFINED
13. CARE MONEY EXPENSES DISCUSSED
14. OTHER BUSINESS
15. EXECUTIVE SESSION
16. RECONVENE & ADJOURN
1. OPENING REMARKS were offered by Councilmember Gleave.
2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE was led by Councilmember Nielson.
3. ROLL CALL. Present: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson, Mayor David Ogden, Michele Jolley, Tyson Hansen. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
4. MINUTES APPROVED. The Council reviewed the minutes of the meeting held June 23 and July 14, 2020. Motion: Approve the minutes of the meetings held on June 23 and July 14, 2020. Action: Approved, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
5. HANGER SPACE LEASE APPROVED. The Council reviewed a Hangar Space Lease at the Airport for Steve Lester. He is running a flight school at our Airport, which is why he needs a space in the City’s hanger for his airplane. Motion: Approve a hangar space lease for Steve Lester, Action: Approved, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
6. ORDINANCE 2020-11 PARK CURFEW ADOPTED. The Council reviewed Ordinance 2020-11 setting a curfew in parks and recreation areas. A public hearing was held at an earlier meeting. Chief Lloyd asked the Council to consider adopting this ordinance so the police department could use it to help control the vandalism. Motion: Adopt Ordinance 2020-11 setting curfew at parks and recreation areas, Action: Approved, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Todd Gleave. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
7. AWARD FOR SEWER LIFT STATION TABLED. The contractors bidding this have requested additional time to evaluate some opportunities for some cost savings. Motion: Table the matter until the next Council meeting, Action: Tabled, Moved by Connie Nielson, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
8. PUBLIC HEARING CIB SEWER LAGOON APPLICATION. The Council held a public hearing to receive comments on an application to the Permanent Community Impact Board for 11.8 million dollars to reconstruct and repair the sewer lagoons. The seepage from the lagoons exceeds the allowable limits as discussed previously. Mayor Ogden opened the hearing for comments at 7:09 p.m. Hearing no comments, Mayor Ogden closed the hearing at 7:10 p.m.
9. SUBMISSION OF APPLICATION TO CIB FOR SEWER LAGOONS APPROVED. The Council reviewed the application to the Permanent Community Impact Board for funding of the repair and reconstruction of the sewer lagoons. Per the Council’s recommendation, the application requests a 50% loan and 50% grant. The total cost estimate for the repair and reconstruction of the sewer lagoons is 11.8 million dollars. Tyson Hansen explained that we will need to increase our rates to cover the cost of this project. Councilmember Nielson asked when the application is due. Mr. DeMille stated that the submission date is October 1, but we need to have it to Six County before that for their review. Motion: Approve an application to the Community Impact Board for funding of the sewer lagoon project requesting a 50% loan and 50% grant at a total cost of 11.8 million dollars, Action: Approved, Moved by Kip Hansen, Seconded by Kathy Christensen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
10. WATER AND SEWER RATES DISCUSSED. Mayor Ogden stated that the CIB is going to want to know that the City is increasing our rates to fund our expenses. Tyson Hansen asked Mr. DeMille to explain the MAGI. This is a formula that looks at the City’s median adjusted gross income for Richfield. Then they take 1.4% of that which is about $48 a month. That is the rate the State considers is affordable for the City to get to before we are eligible for grants. Since the money comes from mineral lease revenue, and Sevier is one of the highest producing counties so they do not always hold fast to the formula. If you do not ask, you will not get it so you might as well ask. They are essentially going to look at that and see how much loan the City is capable of taking on and then they will base their decision on that.
Mr. DeMille stated that we are going to include the lift station project and the pre-design that has been done in our application because it will show that the City has been committed to funding projects. Mr. Hansen stated that if we raise the rate for sewer soon, we still may have to raise it a little more depending upon what they tell us.
Mr. DeMille stated that they may just fund the project all up front, but they may have us space the projects over 3 years, but the construction will be completed over 2 years. The first payment probably will not be due for at least 3 years, so we would have about 3 years to get our rate up to where it needs to be.
Councilmember Nielson asked what Mr. Hansen what his recommendation would be. The best-case scenario we would only have to raise is $.75 now and a total of $8 over 3 years. If CIB gives us a 100% grant we would still have an $8 increase coming in 2023. If they do not give us any grant, then we have a $13 increase right away and an $8 increase in a few years.
Councilmember Nielson asked when we would need to raise the rate. Mr. Hansen noted that we would like to raise it before we go before the board so that they can see that we are serious and that we are not kicking the can down the road.
Councilmember Nielson did not think that $3 is too much for most people and that would probably be accepted. If we are just going to raise it $.75 and then have to turn around and raise it again, she would rather go a little bit more and be safer than having to come back in another few months and raise it more.
Councilmember Hansen felt that we should raise the sewer $5 now so that we do not have a great big increase in 3 years. Councilmember Gleave wondered what would look the best going to CIB.
Councilmember Hansen stated that $5 might be a little arbitrary, but he thinks somewhere in the $5 range would be the responsible place to be. It was suggested that we could increase it by $4 now with an increase of $1 per year thru 2024.
Councilmember Christensen would like to implement the increase until people have quit watering their lawns. The resolution could state that it will not go into effect until November 1.
Mr. Mogan stated that we need to increase the water rate as well. He noted that we have a lot of old cast iron lines in town that date back to the 30s and 40s. We have a lot of old fire hydrants that are not in the best of shape. We have about 1,000 valves that do not work so when a service has to be repaired we might have to shut off 5 or 6 valves. Mr. Hansen asked if we could make it until 2024 because we have about $88,000 in bond payment maturing in 2024. Once we are not making that payment, it would help with these repairs.
Councilmember Hansen noted that if we increased the sewer $4 and the water $1 we would be at the $5 increase discussed.
The Council agreed that this is the direction that we should proceed.
11. ORDINANCE 2020-12 CREATING CRA ADOPTED. Consider adopting Ordinance 2020-12 creating the Richfield City Community Reinvestment Agency, and related matters. Motion: Adopt Ordinance 2020-12 creating a Community Reinvestment Agency, Action: Adopted, Moved by Connie Nielson, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
12. CRA PROJECT AREA DEFINED. The Council looked at creating another project area for the Community Reinvestment Agency. The Council approved a project area on the north interchange, but they would also like to have a project area in the south end of the City around 1300 South and 100 East. Councilmember Gleave noted that if we are trying to make the area too big or get too much property then the people we are trying to work with like the School District may not want to participate. It will be dependent upon what the development is and the impact it will have on the other agencies that we would be partnering with. Motion: Approve a second project area on the south end of the City for the CRA, Action: Approved. Moved by Todd Gleave, Seconded by Connie Nielson.
Councilmember Hansen noted that when this is adopted, the CRA does not have a built-in expiration. The projects have an expiration but the understanding is that the agency does not.
Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
13. CARE MONEY EXPENSES DISCUSSED. Mr. Hansen discussed the expenses for the CAREs money. The City Attorney reviewed the list the City had compiled and he approved everything on the list that the Council was provided. He provided the items that the City has been moving forward to purchase. One idea that was discussed was if the funds could be used for a capital improvement project. They can be used to establish temporary medical facilities and other measures to increase COVID-19 treatment capacity or improve mitigation measures and related construction costs. Mr. Hansen noted that Mayor Ogden spoke with Brent Schmidt from IHC and he supported the idea of the City making an overflow facility out of the Elks Lodge.
14. OTHER BUSINESS. Councilmember Gleave noted an article on KSL.com about Salt Lake City securing a nearly 350-million-dollar loan for a new wastewater treatment plant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The article stated that this is the first loan of its kind ever given in the State of Utah. He thought this was interesting since we have been talking about our wastewater treatment issues and he wondered if there would be possibly something there that we should look at. Mr. DeMille stated that they would have a federal requirement which would increase the cost of the project.
Mayor Ogden asked Councilmember Gleave if he had an update on the ATV Jamboree. Someone stated that there were 467 participants this year which is about 100 less than last year. There have not been any serious problems or accidents so far.
Councilmember Nielson wondered if the City should be saying something about masks or putting something about this as cases go up in Utah. She thought it might be nice as a community if we put our stance out there about what we feel would be safe and acceptable for our community. She thought that maybe Mayor Ogden could be something in the paper or something so that it does not look like we are ignoring it.
The improvements to the pool are nearing completion. The pool has been filled back up, but they still have to clean the pool and cannot turn the filters and heater back on for 48 hours. The lockers are in and the dressing rooms have been painted.
The Youth City Council has put together a community service project and has a lot of groups coming to help. The Council was given a list of the items they are planning to do. The only thing they have been given to do at the parks is weeding. Ms. Thompson was concerned because people want to do projects that they feel make our community better. She wanted to paint the bathrooms at the Rotary Park, and the north pavilion at the Lion’s Park. Councilmember Gleave said that Lion’s Club purchased a sandblaster to blast the old paint off the floor. If it is possible to track that down, then that might help them. It is planned for Saturday, October 3. The Council felt that these would be good projects and that they should be allowed to do them with proper supervision.
15. EXECUTIVE SESSION. At 8:30 p.m., Motion: Adjourn session and convene an executive session to discuss the sale of property, Action: Adjourned, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Kip Hansen. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
16. RECONVENE AND ADJOURN. At 9:02 p.m., the regular session reconvened. Motion: Reconvene and adjourn, Action: Adjourned, Moved by Kathy Christensen, Seconded by Todd Gleave. Vote: Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote (summary: Yea = 4). Yea: Kathy Christensen, Todd Gleave, Kip Hansen, Connie Nielson. Excused: Bryan Burrows.
PASSED and APPROVED this 1 day of December 2020.