| Emery Mayor Gary Petty administers the oath of office to Pam Adams. Adams is the town treasurer. |
The first order of business for the Emery Town Council was to administer the oath of office to Pam Adams. Adams was recently hired to be Emery’s town treasurer. Mayor Gary Petty administered the oath of office to Adams.
Mayor Petty informed the council of a letter recently received from the Emery County Commission. This letter states that the $500 amount budgeted for elections in the Town of Emery was to be sent into the commission for payment of the upcoming school voucher election. Mayor Petty said he has reviewed the budget and no such amount was budgeted. “We knew we were not having an election, and nothing was budgeted in that area,” stated Mayor Petty. “The school voucher issue is a state issue and we felt the state should pay for that.” The council tabled the issue.
Mayor Petty then opened a discussion concerning the application procedure for the Permanent Community Impact Board funds for improvements to towns impacted by energy extraction. The PCIB board meets quarterly and awards communities funds to make improvements. Each year a short list and a medium list is compiled by every city that intends to apply for funding.
For the town of Emery, the short and medium lists were reviewed and projects that were already completed were removed from the lists. Other items were prioritized and added to each list. The project for the construction of a new diversion for the water system was listed as number one on the short term list.
Mayor Petty discussed with Mistie Christiansen the town’s community center. The construction of the center is complete and is awaiting a final inspection from the county’s building inspector. With the remaining funds, Mayor Petty instructed Christiansen to assemble a list of needed items and move ahead to acquire those items.
The user guidelines for the use of the new community center were next on the agenda. Christiansen has researched how other towns handle private use of their centers. She also stated the Emery Youth City Council has requested a public hearing to gather input from the residents of Emery for the direction of the community center. This public hearing would take input on the fees to be charged for the use of the building. The council approved to hold a public hearing to determine policy for the community center.
Councilman Patrick Sundstrom announced the project to demolish the building just east of the town hall/post office building has been approved. The details have been agreed on with the county and the demolition of this building will start as soon as possible.
In other business conducted by Emery Town, the approval was given to order and erect a pole near the monument in the park for lighting. Also approved was to order more signs for the town’s streets, such as children at play to alert motorists to watch their speed. Another approved item was for the youth city council to host their own youth summit. That summit will be held in November.
Councilman Eric Anderson stated his appreciation for the support of the town at the miner’s benefit spaghetti dinner held in Emery. The benefit raised $1,553 to be given to the miners’ families. The council also approved to appoint Anderson as the responsible party for organizing an emergency response team in the town.
Councilman Sundstrom announced the fire department has set up a trust fund for Gage Phillips, the son of miner Brandon Phillips, who was killed in the Crandall Canyon mining accident. Brandon Phillips worked for the town, and left for the better paying job at the mine. He left the employ of the town just two weeks prior to the accident that took his life. This trust fund is set up at Wells Fargo Bank and anyone can made a donation.
The next Emery Town Council meeting will be held Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. at town hall.