Castle Dale City moving forward with city hall

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Castle Dale City council met for its March council meeting. Thad Morris approached the council concerning the Sewer System.
“My sewer system requires a pump to get the sewage to the city system. The sump and pump are not on my property. The line plugs up regularly and I have sewage backup in my basement weekly. I have replaced the pump three times. When the power goes out, I get sewage in my home too. I want to put in a septic tank, or have another solution to this problem. The CVSSD has not helped me with this, except to clean out the line.”
Councilman Brad Giles said, “I recommend that you have a company survey the line with a camera to see if it is crushed or has another obstruction. I will check with the CVSSD about the nearest sewer line, and see if it is feasible to route a sewer line downhill another way from your property. I will call you this weekend.”
Laurel Nielsen drew a map of her system. The meter is on Hwy 29, the line goes across a blue hill to a tap on Hwy 10. We fixed the leak as soon as we noticed it, but it was not noticed for some time because of construction in that area. Laurel wants to pay off the charge in monthly installments. Councilmember Julie Johansen made a motion to give relief of $424.06 on the Nielsen’s water bill.
Joe Begay also had a water leak problem on his property. “I noticed my automatic waterer for cattle was empty, and found a leak in a corral I don’t usually use. The leak is repaired now, and I am asking for relief on the bill.”
Councilman Giles asked if he was getting a stock watering line. Joe said yes, but not yet. Julie Johansen made a motion to give relief of $81.85 on the Begay’s water bill.
Carl Jacobsen asked for Clarification on a Letter of Agreement “I want to clarify the numbers that were different than what was discussed and agreed to in January’s Council meeting.”
Councilman Giles stated that we agreed to certain numbers in that meeting, and if the agreement is changed he would want to go with a one to one payment ration for connections.
Jacobsen stated if that was the case, he would go with the original agreement, and adjust his letter to those numbers.
Debra Dull from Rocky Mountain Power spoke at the meeting. “I am the Regional Manager for Rocky Mountain Power, and am here with our our operations manager Jesse Barker to give you information about the recent extended outage in Valley View Subdivision.”
“We notified the Sheriff’s Office when we knew the outage would be long. They did a notification call to affected residents. We also used Facebook and other social media to notify customers.”
Barker discussed the power outage starting on Feb. 18, the complications due to other power emergencies, and the underground lines being improperly labeled. Rocky Mountain Power eventually had to lay new cable in that area. They remapped and relabeled the entire subdivision to make sure they wouldn’t have the same difficulties in the future.
The council held a public hearing on raising garbage fees. No comments by the public were made in the public hearing.
The City Park across from City Hall is leased from the LDS Church. The pavilion needs a new roof. The Church declined our request for funding to install a metal roof. They did not want a metal roof. They also noted that the City did not get permission to install the big toy.
Kerry Lake proposed selling the pavilion to the Church, Mayor Van Wagoner wanted to move the pavilion to the Rodeo Grounds. Councilmember Giles made a motion to table this for a month.
Councilman Doug Weaver discovered from the lease document, that all improvements belong to the property owner, so the City can’t move the pavilion.
Councilman Giles said, “We have 18 street lights that are burned out. We can have Rocky Mountain Power replace the sodium vapor lights with LED heads for $300 each. They will have a $1.50 per month electricity savings, which is 16 years to recoup the cost.
Debra Dull from Rocky Mountain Power stated they have a better quality light, last longer, and save energy. She didn’t know the cost of replacing the decorative lights in front of City Hall. This item was tabled.
The council discussed the High School Water Allotment. Kerry Lake said, “We can’t stay with the 20,000 gallon for two months allotment. It is not reasonable, and we are being punished paying higher rates for the excess. The Junior High in Huntington has a 55,000 gallon allotment and is charged $48.92 per month for that.
We want a reasonable figure, and are willing to pay for an increased allotment each month.”
Councilman Giles noted that the High School does not pay property tax to the City and has a better rate than the out of town water users. They will meet together this month, and come up with a solution.
In the Land Use Committee report Lake said they discussed the rezoning for Carl Jacobsen’s property and will have a public hearing on it next month.
On Code Enforcement, Doug Moreno reported, “I have been working with residents who have trailers parked on roads. There was an incident where the large hay bales were left on the side of the road, but they were moved when I talked with the owner.”
In the Council Reports, Councilman Giles reported they had a pre-bid meeting with many contractors and the bidding is now open for the new city hall. The bids are due March 24 and will be opened then. On April 5th is the proposed notice to proceed. By Jan 2, 2017 the building will be substantially done, and completely finished on Feb. 1, 2017. The City will waive the building permit fee. Any charges from the building inspector will go towards our buy-in share.
Council member Johansen reported. Many people have talked to her about moving the sewer lagoons. I would like to have the city hall staff able to reserve the Arena, instead of everyone having to go through Joel. Joel said he would show Jackie how to do that.
Councilman Weaver talked about having High School shop students make the shelves for the Welcome Center. We would have to hire them or pay for the materials if they want to do this as one of their projects.
Mayor Dan Van Wagoner said, “Nosh and I went through the City Employees Handbook. I want all the council to read it and note any proposed changes or corrections. We will vote on it next month. I got a letter from a woman concerned that all the flags left flying at night in the City are not lit up.”