Castle Dale City plans for 2009 at meeting

By COREY BLUEMEL Staff writer

Castle Dale City Councilman Brad Giles, acting as mayor in the excused absence of Mayor Neal Peacock, opened the regular Castle Dale City council meeting and welcomed Shane Baggs from Precis Communications. Baggs was requesting a termination of the franchise agreement with the city due to the sale of the company to Emery Telcom.
Baggs explained the purchase agreement with Emery Telcom cannot be finalized until all franchise agreements are terminated. “We are aiming for the end of January to finalize this purchase,” said Baggs. The council approved to terminate the city’s franchise agreement with Precis Communications.
Kerry Lake, Castle Dale City’s planning and zoning administrator, reported concerning the transition on Main Street due to the purchase of Castle Country Auto by Black Diamond Auto, LLC. The transition process has already begun and Lake updated the council of the progress.
“Mark Peters, owner of the Village Inn Motel, has given his permission for temporary storage of the cars from the lot at Castle Country Cars. In the planning and zoning meeting, we talked with all the business owners involved plus many interested residents,” said Lake.
“After consideration of all the input, planning and zoning has come to agreement with everyone involved. Ethan Hurdsman, from Black Diamond, will have until March 4 to do the renovations to the property while storing the cars on the motel property. Ethan will clean up the property and remove trees and the old shed. He will then haul in fill dirt to level the lot. If weather becomes a problem and an extension is needed, Peters can request a one month extension,” added Lake.
Hurdsman stated his goal is to clean up the lot and reopen for car sales the first part of March. “Many of the existing cars will go to a lot in Orem which is operated by the current owner. Some of the others will be put back on the lot when we open. We will haul off all the trash and any unnecessary items. We will also do some work to the existing building to bring it up to code,” said Hurdsman.
Councilman Giles explained to Hurdsman a bond will need to be secured before a business license can be issued. The new owners of the property will not be required to have a zoning clearance if the footprint of the existing building is not changed, but a building permit will be required.
The issue of penalties which may be incurred if the deadlines are not met was discussed. Lake told the council those penalties are in the existing zoning ordinances.
One concerned resident was present with his comments. “You have covered most of my concerns with this discussion,” he said. “I am excited to have my concerns addressed. I want to see some follow through by the city on this project. As long as there is follow through, I will be pleased.”
Zoning enforcement officer Richard Herring told the council he will begin to pursue the property owners who have not responded to his letters concerning clean up of their properties. “Most of those who have not responded do not live in the county. They are out of town or out of state. But I will begin to make sure those properties get cleaned up,” said Herring.
Herring also told of the fire department’s responses in 2008. They responded to two fires, three outside city limits fires such as helping with a fire in another community, three accidents where extrication was required, 12 accidents where they performed traffic control, nine grass fires, seven grass fires outside the city, three car fires, 12 pageant duties, nine fireworks calls, three cancels, and 11 miscellaneous calls.
“This was a total of 74 recordable responses for our department,” said Herring. Herring added the department has participated in 570 man hours of training. Herring stated the fire department currently has seven volunteer firefighters and is licensed to have 20. If anyone wishes to join, he requested them to contact city hall.
Castle Dale City council meets the second Thursday of each month in city hall at 7 p.m. Their next meeting is Feb. 12.