Castle Dale City adopts snow removal policy

By By

Castle Dale City met for their council meeting. Ignacio Arrien introduced the written Snow Removal Policy. Some changes on the Snow Policy: The routes have changed. When there is a small amount of snow, sanding will be on the intersections, hills, the cold spots, and where ice has built up.
Mayor Van Wagoner wanted to know how long one man can be in the truck. Nosh stated the CDL law states 12 hours, then there is a mandatory eight hour rest period.
Brad Giles asked how long it takes to plow every street. Arrien said, “It takes two men eight hours to plow all the streets, and two men two hours to plow the bus routes. On a school day they start plowing at 4 a.m. If the temperature is going up they would stop at that.”
It was decided that plowing would happen when the snow accumulation is above one inch. The council approved the new snow removal policy.
Arrien gave a meter update, “I wrote a meter report in December and Jackie has been working on it. There has been a problem with new meters being entered into the system. They are not showing up as read, and are charging the homeowner the minimum amount, which may not be correct. We have corrected some of these, starting with the high volume accounts. In April, I will start a physical inventory of all the meters so the three different identity numbers are put in correctly. It will take about two weeks.
Arien gave the fire department report, “The Burn Window this spring is March 1 to May 30. We need to send out a flyer with that information, and a reminder about the Dog Tags due this month. We have tested all the Fire Hydrants. Seven hydrants failed critically. They cannot be used. Ten meters failed with a serious rating, but can still be used. I will give this report to CVSSD, and they will fix them. We are going to test all the hydrants next year. The valves to open them are very stiff because they haven’t been opened in a long time. After next year, we will test one-quarter of the hydrants every year. In March, I have a crew from Drug Court that will paint the fire hydrants.”
In the next Fire Board Meeting they will place a value on the old fire truck. It is an F-150 with 10,000 miles. We want to purchase it. The Winter Fire School went well. We had nine there, and they won 23 awards. I will order flowers for planters in the next few weeks.
Doug Moreno from Code Enforcement said there is not much going on. The abandoned house we talked about last month was corrected. The horse trailer parked in a no parking space was moved, as was the semi parked across from the High School.
Roxanne Jensen from the Castle Dale LIbrary said, “We wanted to thank the Youth City Council for the Santa Letters. They were a bit hit, and we received a lot of compliments on them. We went in age up to the third grade and had several pre-schools also. Maybe next year we can have more than one night, if we can’t get more youth, because they had a lot of letters to write. The Library can also address the envelopes and help more. For Summer Storytime we are doing a Heros theme, and want to visit the Fire Station. I am returning all the pictures we borrowed to digitize. Twenty of them were selected from the City, 20 from the Museum, and 20 from the Archives. We will have a hard copy exhibit, and they will be on the website for national display.
Jake Jensen spoke on an Eagle Scout Project. “I am proposing painting the “Go Vote” and other signs for the City for my Eagle Scout Project.”
Joel Dorsch said,” Those signs are somewhat disposable, and we lose a lot at each event.”
Doug Weaver suggested a new sidewalk for the Senior Citizens Center. Lael White suggested putting house numbers on all the homes in the City. Margaret Fielding suggested painting the house numbers on the curbs to avoid liability. Mayor Van Wagoner said to knock on every door to let them know what you are doing. If they are not home, and don’t have a curb, leave contact information. Then give this information to the City so we know who hasn’t been done. We will get you a map by Tuesday with the house numbers from the County.
Margaret Fielding spoke on Economic Development for Castle Dale City. “We had a good meeting yesterday. For those of the council who don’t know what happened. We met with Delynn Fielding and Randy Johnson first, then had a meeting with business owners. One business owner has contacted me since, and is considering an expansion. We learned there is grant funding for an information kiosk on the San Rafael Swell and possibly for motels. There is a Main Street Grant to improve signage. Ethan is working on a two page handout of grants available. We have decided the county will have to do special incentives to get new businesses into the county.
A new business is Muse Coffee House. Angie Barton is targeting out of towners including the boulderers and has done a lot of research. Huntington, Green River and Ferron have had problems with owners of parcels who won’t sell to the city. They are buying suitable properties on Main Street as they become available. The next meeting is March 3 with the business owners.
Kerry Lake with the Land Use Committee said they have been discussing the General Plan and will have a proposal after their next meeting.
Giles said the City needs to create a Utah Market Recycling Zone, and also expand the Enterprise Zone to include the entire city, not just Main Street. We need to advertise for a Public Hearing at March’s City Council Meeting and put it on the agenda for the next Land Use Committee meeting.
Giles said, “We will reapply with Castle Dale City as the lead agency for the new City Hall/office building. We have an interlocal government agreement with the CVSSD and the Water Conservancy District to carry their part of the payment. The cost of building increased from $270 a square foot to $300 a square foot, with the total cost being $4.6 million.
“Castle Dale’s percentage is still 23 percent of the building and costs We are asking for a 20 year loan and hope to increase the grant amount so the payment for the city will be $10,000 a year. There were positive comments from those citizens at the meeting.
Mayor Van Wagoner discussed the rules for closed meetings, when they can occur and what the record keeping requirements are.
Dixie Thompson said she had reviewed Huntington and Orangeville’s purchasing policy. They both have a statement that allows them to award a bid to a local company if is is within 7 percent of the low bid for Huntington, and will match the low bid within 24 hours for Orangeville.
Mayor Van Wagoner questioned what constitutes local, and noted that the low bid process is very standard for many contractors and serves the citizens by saving the city money. The council decided to leave the ordinance as it was.
Thompson reported no Youth City Council showed up to her meeting today. “I’m not sure where we stand on this we have two projects in the future, the Easter Egg Hunt, and the Memorial Day Flags. Maybe I will just have them do special events like this.”
Beautification Committee, the house with the junk cars has improved and they will now look at other houses on the list.
Giles said he has submitted a list of street lights that need to be replaced to Rocky Mountain Power.
Johansen requested the office staff make the reservations for the League of Cities and Towns Conference in April, and reserve a hotel rooms for attendees.
Doug Weaver asked does the General Plan support businesses in making Castle Dale a place to come to? The answer was yes.
Mayor Van Wagoner said, “I have met with the County about the payments for the pool. We have renegotiated a payment of $5,000 per year for the next 10 years. They were pleased. I met with the health insurance broker. The premiums went up 3.5 percent. If we would have changed to a higher deductible, it would have decreased 13 percent.
The Forest Service is closing Straight Canyon to overnight camping. There may be a campsite up Cottonwood Canyon. This is a good opportunity for someone to open a hostel.