Huntington City to complete projects

By GARY ARRINGTON Staff Writer

At the August meeting of the Huntington City Council some City residents were out voicing their concerns over the transfer of money from the City’s Utility fund to the general budget for curb and gutter along the City’s Main Street from the current ending to the corner of 400 East. The City proposed moving $200,000 to cover the cost of the curb and gutter project, a new truck with a snow plow, an ADA compliant restroom in the City park and a new cemetery fence/wall.
The residents, many of them former council people, questioned the fact that the City would use funds to possibly match a grant from UDOT to build a sidewalk “that nobody would ever use. We have a trail on the other side of the road.”
After some intense comments, Councilman Mark Justice voted to pass the budget change with the exception of the curb and gutter project.
Councilperson Laneea Cowley seconded the motion but it then died 3-2 as the other members didn’t agree. Councilman Lamar Guymon then made a motion to move all the money over for all projects and that motion passed.
In other business, the Council approved buying a new lawn mower to use in the parks. Three bids were received from three businesses in Huntington and upstate and S&G Irrigation submitted the low bid for a 52″ Walker brand lawn mower and that bid was accepted.
The Council also voted to change the parking ordinance. The ordinance will now say that there will be no trailer, camper, boat, motor home and any other RV product parked on Huntington city streets for longer than seven days. They also changed the ordinance so that no truck with a gross weight of more than 15,000 pounds could park in a residential Zone for longer than two (2) hours.
After having some of those speakers state that “Huntington is the worst looking town in the county and that we should look more like Castle Dale or Ferron, Randy Jones stood up and commented that contrary to others opinions, he thought that Huntington was the best looking town in the county and he thanked the Mayor for that. The City will also get much stricter for those that abuse the water bill policy of Huntington. Right now some put off paying the bill monthly and amass a balance. The City will now cut them off much earlier.
UDOT was at the meeting and they talked about a project that is coming up in Huntington. If the weather supports it this fall, and if not then next spring, they will roto mill up the first six inches of asphalt of Main Street from the junction of SR-10 and SR-31 to the city limits on the south side of town. They will replace it with a new mix plus three inches of new hot asphalt. This job is scheduled for late fall.