Smithfield City, Utah City Council Meeting, Wed, April 8, 2026

Good evening, everyone. Public notice is given that Smithfield City Council will meet in a regularly scheduled meeting at 96 South Main Smithfield, Utah on Wednesday, 04/08/2026. The meeting will begin at 6PM sharp. I'd like to turn the time over to Jen Staker to for a welcome pledge of allegiance, thought or prayer.

K. Thank you so much everybody for coming. If you can stand and say the pledge with me.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Give a quick prayer. Our heavenly father, we're so grateful for this opportunity that we have to meet on this beautiful day as a council and city members. We're thankful for this beautiful valley that we have to live in in this wonderful city. We ask a blessing to be with us tonight that we will be able to have open ears and minds, and that we can have good communication, and that we will keep the residents in mind, and remember that we are here to serve them. We're thankful for this last week that we had celebrate Easter and the reason that it is that we celebrate it. Bless us when the time comes that we can return home safely and find all well there. Again, we're grateful for all that we have, and we say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. And I do have a quick, thought. I came across this quote, and I'm just gonna read it, and I'm gonna let you sit on it. Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. I really like that.

Very good. Thank you. Item number one approval of the city council meeting minutes from 03/25/2026. I'd entertain a motion.

I'd like to make a motion that we approve the City Council minutes from 03/25/2026.

Hey, Todd, I got you. We'll second that.

How do we vote? Jade? Yes. Yes. John? Chris? Yes. Jen? Yes. Todd? Yes. That passes. Item number two, public comment on items not on the agenda. I'd like to open that up at 06:04.

My name is David Forrester. I'm here tonight to, it's hard to say to concern of the the museum. I'm excited for that because I'm really interested in the history of Smithfield. And so twenty some odd years ago, we have made some donations to the historical society on things that was one of a kind, never seen before. And I'm very frustrated on how they were preserved. And I have a picture over here what it looks like now, twenty some odd years later. And do you have that as a picture? And this is a picture of my dad actually running a machine. It's a grain cleaner. It cleans it out. And it's probably been in my family for a hundred years. And when we sold the farm, we donated it. And that's the way it was donated. And you saw what it looked like twenty some odd years later. And if we're going to spend all this money for this museum and then that's the way we do things. I tried to address this three or four years ago because I'm a woodworker. I could fix it up and put it in there, but all I've got is just the runaround. And my family's about fits with it because we donated it, and this is the way it was treated. And so what I'm asking tonight is if the museum doesn't want it, I'll take it back. Something has to be done because it's within my family for a hundred years, and this is the way it was treated. And so I'm just excited for this museum. You know, I've got more things I can put in there, but I'm questionable about donating them. I've got all kinds of old stuff, the history of my field, but I don't dare donate it because this is the way this has been treated and it's just I don't know. I'm just frustrated. So thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, David.

Good evening. My name is Marty Robinson, and I live on 600 East, also known as Crow Mountain Road. I'm here this evening to take a moment to introduce our group officially to the city council. We are the Crow Mountain Park Neighborhood Committee. We are using that name, Crow Mountain Park, for now since the park to be constructed at 600 North in Crow Mountain Road has not officially been named. We appreciate Councilman Angler's efforts in getting our committee members together, and he was kind enough to come to our meeting where we got together. Our committee is completely voluntary and is made up of community members who are extremely interested in seeing this park constructed. We came we come from various backgrounds and experience, but all with one goal and purpose. How can we best inform the city of the importance of this park and to not just our neighborhood, but to the city as a whole? And how can we assist in the design and funding needed to bring this project to fruition? To that end, we have, as I stated, met together as a group and currently have a couple things in motion. One, we are close to having a small website about the park ready for publishing to the public. The purpose of the website is to one, provide information about the park through the use of a FAQ page, an FAQ page, where basic questions about the proposed park are answered. And two, the opportunity I'm sorry. And two, the website will contain a survey committee members can take where they will have the opportunity to provide input on what they would like to see in the park design. Our intention is to get the community excited to get the community excited about the park and to provide a place where park information and updates can be accessed. We will be accumulating the results of the survey and providing them to Councilman Angler for the city to use as planning and design for the park. City to use as planning and design for the park moving forward. We feel it is important the community have this avenue to provide input and we are happy to assist in this effort. Third, we know the main obstacle to the park's construction is funding. We have been advised construction costs started, We understand that reality is, of course, very different. We appreciate this project as one of many items the city considers as it wisely uses city funds in behalf of the residents. But our committee of volunteers wants the city to know how important this project is and are asking that this project be given the attention we believe it deserves. We do not have time at this moment to discuss all the ways the amenities of this park will benefit the residents of Smithfield, but Councilman Engler has assured our group the City Council is very much behind this project. Now we just need to find the money. And how can our group help with that? Grant funding is an important source of funds, which to date our understanding is remains unexplored. We have contacted a Smithfield resident who lives in the neighborhood of the park and is a professor at Utah State University. This individual has extensive experience with grant writing and has offered to assist us with this effort. Tonight, we offer that assistance to the city council along with all other ways in which our group can be of assistance in moving this project forward. Thank you. And councilman Angler has been wonderful working with us so far. And there's a number of your group here tonight? Oh, yes. I should have. There's a couple of our group members. I'm not really a single member committee. There a couple of them were able to make it tonight. Most of them were busy with kids and soccer and other things. But we are just basically asking that, especially as budgets are moving forward for next year and so forth, that the City find a way that we, as a City, find a way to put money aside to fund this project. We obviously would like the project to be something that we can imagine in two, maybe three years, as compared to a project that's more like a nine or ten year type of project. And so anything that our group can do to assist moving forward would be wonderful and and appreciated. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Brooklyn. I serve on the city youth council, so you've probably seen me a couple of times, but I'm also the senior class president at Skyview. And right now we're, the end of the year is coming up and so we're looking into different senior gift ideas. And our year has already picked one and we're finalizing it, but we were looking into last year's and they actually didn't finish it. They did a lot of work with the roundabouts, so they put in landscaping and they put in the bobcat statue, but they don't have any lights on the bobcat, and the bobcat is completely dark and so you can't see it at all. So we're looking into lighting solutions and we can put solar in but I was talking to the teacher that put in the landscaping and he said that the city's already put power out to, the roundabout and that all we would need is a plug just so we can plug in the lights and then we can have, like, directive programmable landscape lighting. So, my question is just, is there someone in the city that I can talk to to see if I can make it happen to put a plug out there so we can light up the bobcat? Or if is that gonna be, like, a hard definite no just to be put solar lighting out there? Or Or if you don't have a certain answer right now, I can reach out in a couple days or whatever works best. But, yeah.

Chris, you work with the youth council, right? Yes. Mhmm. I think that might be a good kind of way to run this through. Help help them think about ways to do that and work with Justin.

Probably no. We would like to see a proposal and then we need to see if it's going to fit with traffic, signage, lighting, all of that. So if we could get a proposal, then we could start the process of review, but we need a proposal first, like a written design. It can be very simple, but we just need to know what it is and then we would have our city engineer and others look at it and see what we can and can't do in the roundabout. Are you looking for a contact in the city to do that with work with? Yeah. Sure. I'm happy to work with you like the last president of Brooklyn. No problem. Sounds good. Do you want me to just email the city and then reach out to you? I'll come out with you and get you some information. Sounds good. K. Thank you. Good idea. Thanks, Brooke. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.

Any other comments? I'd like to close the public comment section for now and move on to item number three, introduction of the 2026 royalty. I'd like to turn the time over to Jen.

Okay. Last month, we had our pageant. There were 17 contestants, and we have the winners here tonight. I would like to introduce them. If we can have them come up and just stand right in this open space. Get right there and then turn and smile. Okay. We have Zelly Barson, Desiree Jo Andrew, Jackie Woodruff, Madeline Smith, and Emily Hanson. And then Coraline is our Miss Congeniality. We'd like to congratulate them. We're so excited to see them during all of the health days events and other events throughout the city and parades. If we can get a quick picture, Justin, does that work? Give them a round of applause.

I know where you live.

Thank you all for coming. You guys did an awesome job.

Thank you, guys.

Okay. Item agenda number four discussion and update on historical society. Oh, I'm sorry. Youth Council members like to invite Emily Hanson and Lily King. Sorry.

Hi. We're representing the Sniffle City Youth Council. This last April, we were able to fill up all the Easter eggs for the Easter egg hunt in April, and we were able to set that all up. And it had amazing attendance both by our members and by the community, and it was a great event we were able to put on. And then for the rest of the year, we just have our closing social, and we're also working on getting new members for next year. Thank you.

And as secretary, I've done attendance for the entire year, and I just wanna say the council we have this year has had the best attendance as long I've been on Smithfield City Youth Council. And they've just been really great at showing up and everything. And we're finishing strong. Sad it's almost done. Thank you.

Do you have any, what's the cutoff to apply? Do you know? I wanna say it's May 1? Yeah. I think? Yep. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I saw the sign out here and there's a QR code that I saw. So

if anyone's interested, May 1. I'd advertise for that other than the yard signs. We have a video we're doing at Skyview on video announcements. Perfect. And I think we were also maybe doing something in the comments during lunchtime, so they could sign up there as well. K.

Thank you. Thank you for all your hard work. Thank you. The Easter eggs. You guys are awesome.

Thanks so much, you guys.

Alright. Agenda item number four, discussion and update on the historical society and the renovation of the Douglas Mercantile Building. I'd like to turn the time over to Jeff Gittens for that.

Thank you, mayor, council. If I might have the privilege to address mister Forrester's concerns first. I think he is owed an explanation. When I became involved with what you saw, that's not how it is now. We went in with the help of the city youth council and a lot of historical siting volunteers, and we cut back all the volunteer trees, including those leaning on the building at the time. We cleaned up all the weeds and grass and things that have blown inside. We we took tarps, we bought special tarps and wrapped all the outside items. Those are items that can't fit in the little building and never could. And we had hoped, I had thought this, and I need to back up what David Forrester said. There's no finer family in the City Of Smithfield than the Forrester family, and what they've contributed and what they've done. They're truly good, good, good people. We bought tarps. We covered all the outside items. We have nowhere to store them. They're just too big to have indoors. The wind, the northern wind had blown debris in. When the skateboard park and the splash pad were built, they put up a chain link fence, and that just kinda made things worse. We couldn't get into the stuff. But we did we did strap it down real good. The picture you saw was taken much earlier. It was not before we got involved. So, we've done what we could to stabilize things. The, all that stuff is now covered and tarped to protect it from the north wind. We hope to sometime get a wind barrier up on the north. And I'd hoped to get that out to bring to David. He'd requested to fix it up. And he is a handy person, he's a good person who would like to do that. But they were building the pavilion to the east. It limited our ability to get into it. So again, we covered it. Now, if you go down there right now, you'll see that it's the wind from the north has blown a little bit of the cover that we put on this particular item. I couldn't get it out. The Northeast gate is too close to the cabin now to get it out there. So, we've tried to stabilize the situation on those things. And, we maybe can get with the Public Works people and help us a little bit to get that out, get it down to David to repair and stabilize. But, we do need to keep it better, and we recognize that. But, it has been, and we did a lot, a lot of work. If you go down, it's a different situation it was, but it's still hard. So, to my my apologies to the David, to his family. That was never our intent. But that's what I inherited. We tried to stabilize it the best we could with what monies we have. For the good man who stepped up here and said the grant writing thing is a yeah. It's time consuming. I know about it. We've been twelve years in writing grants and waiting for responses, and we don't always get what we ask for. You know, it's a shot in the dark. So it's going to take time. But there are there is help to with some of that stuff now, and I'm grateful for that. First thing I wanna say upfront is I am so extremely grateful for the good people of Smithfield, especially for the staff, public works, Josh, and his guys have been remarkable. Justin Lewis is the best. By far, he is the best city manager we have ever had. I make no excuses for that. He's good, and he's thoughtful, and he's considerate, and he's very, very supportive and helpful. Justin, thank you. Likewise, it is with our society. We are volunteers and there's a limit to what volunteers can do, but we're doing a pretty good job. You have counsel, I am informed that you have a list of our new assignments and new positions. We don't put that up for the public because it has private contact information in there. But please be aware, and again, you can find me. It'll work. We won't have a lot of our people here tonight. I had short notice and I had a little time to work with. But nonetheless, we've had an election for Smithfield Historical Society. They've asked me to be the president for another five years. I've accepted as long as I wake up in the morning. I'll do it. I'm anxious to see this project through. We're making such good progress. Today, we had five groups or contractors working at one time over there, including volunteers from the historical society and public works people. You ought to see these guys, they're heroes. They're quite a group too. Good natured and smile. They deserve a lot of credit. Mike Harris has consented to serve as vice president again for another five years. He reminds me often though, that we don't have a choice. And so what we've done, we've created a new post, we'll say. It's unofficial, but James Anderson, who couldn't be here tonight, he had a previous appointment, He's a little bit younger than us, so he has a better chance of not graduating as fast. And we've asked him to act as a second vice president, in trainee, if you will. So he'll be here. And he has been very, very active as a volunteer. And he's been very, very supportive, both with his actions and with his means, him and his wife, Janice. Janice spent probably three hours today with Linda working on some of our exhibits. Whitney Loveday has consented to be our secretary. Many of you may know, excuse me, Whitney as the secretary at, Preston Watts Auto Body. So she's very, very efficient. And, her and her wonderful little children helped me for two hours last night in setting up exhibits and sweeping and cleaning and getting dirty, and refused to take any compensation for it. Todd Orme, thank you for what you do for us and how you support us and help us. We appreciate you. He is our advisor. On the general board, we have 15 people. Is that right, Linda? That's what the bylaws call. That's what the bylaws call for. It's 15 people on our general board, governing board it's called as well. And it's Janice Anderson, Jeff Barnes, Eric Bingham, Linda Gittens, Darcy Hardman, Sharon Johnson, Craig Nielsen, who has been the secretary. But he's been dealing with family health problems and some of his own health. He won't complain, but he's got a lot of experience. He can give us a lot of good counsel. Yet, Kelly and Sandy Pitcher, who are of great help, Robert and Liza Reed, Russell Smart, Jeff Strait, Steven Tuscher, and John Wells. We recently had a CLG training meeting by SHPO, State History Preservation Office, and it was held in Logan. The last time we had such training, Linda and I had to go to Price. That's a different place. They're very proud of it, and they have a downtown thing going in their community. And they're doing a good job, and they've made great strides. I think we had a good group represented, didn't we Chris? Yes. And we learned some things, and we had a lot of good questions. I was really proud of the group representing Smithfield. We had seven people representing Smithfield, including a couple from the planning commission, correct?

Yeah, we had Jim Marshall there, yep. Yeah.

And I think that went really well. So I'm grateful to those guys. And thank you, Chris, for the time you spent, the extra time. One of the things we learned about there, and I'd heard it before, but federal tax exemptions. Did I word I didn't word that right. Federal tax credits. Excuse me. And, Chris will have some information that he can present, John, to your committee on that. And, we'll help any way we can. Linda has been collecting, and she'll downplay this, but Linda has been collecting information on Smithfield's downtown history for quite a while. And, it might interest you, we have around 15 or 16 buildings with downtown presence still standing that are over 100 years old. And, by the way, they've changed that to qualify for federal tax credits. They only have to be 50 years old now. So, I wanted you to know that. We had a good group, good group. In addition to the governing board and the executive board, we have another 27 member, committee members that serve on various committees. So, people are very interested and very helpful. We appreciate each of them. I brought a few things real quick to share with you. Linda, do you wanna hold that? We've been making some new exhibits as we go, A lot of them out of foam board. We enlarged we've had this before, but we've enlarged it. It's Smithfield Yellow Brick Homes. You can snap a a shot with your phone on these, and it will tell you when the home was built, who built it. And you see a lot of the yellow brick buildings are covered with lavender paint or blue paint or siding or so on. It'll tell you when it was built and what brick was used and who was the original. Brick was produced here. Yeah. One of the interesting things that we learned in that CLG training was historic districts can be set up not just by downtown presence, but also by where a series of older homes are built or industrial or agricultural buildings. And we have one of our members assigned to the industrial, like Del Monte, one thing, and like the Lloyd Facer's office, He uses his office now. That was the the Williams Deppie Brickyard, where they fired brick and glazed it. So, he's going to start covering that and get some more in-depth information on that. Now, as far as the building, it was a busy day today. Did you have some pictures, Justin, that you wanted to show? I shared them. Oh, okay. You got pictures. Mhmm. But we had, like I said, up to five different groups just today in there at one time. And so we're making really good progress right now. We, our goal still is to have it opened by health days. In fact, we hope to have some sort of preview, a sneak preview, maybe even a small dedication service for dignitaries like you guys, and for the many good people who donated and gave service. Lee and Amber Draper are an example. They donated all those bathroom fixtures and the fountain and the the electric water heater, and the wash sink, and so on. I think that's just really generous of when we get people like that. That. We are having an increased number of people step forward and say, my family just moved back to Smithfield. My father is buried in the cemetery. My grandfather is buried in the cemetery. My parents are here. And, they want information. I'd like you to know that one of the services that we give to people is we have individual histories and photos in our files, and we have family pictures and histories in our files. And it's always fun to watch somebody come back to town and say, say, what do you know about my grandfather? And we pull out the file and, you know, we might charge him a copy fee or something, but that's it. We want the services to be available to the public. So I'll entertain any questions or things you have. Linda, will you show them that little medal? This is one of the neat things we find accidentally when we're cleaning. And Linda and I have inventoried. Yes. Go ahead. Tell them what it is. The Utah honor just This is a medal of honor for the Utah Indian wars. The name is It's a Swedish name. Hans,

Olin, Hanssen.

So we we find these things just accidentally when we're start we're cleaning. But I wanted you to see that. We also found the plaque that sat on the first city office. It was called the courthouse door. It was located at 108 104, excuse me, 104 East on Center Street, just east of where the, the, Cash Valley Bank is now. And we found the plaque to that nailed on the wall behind the 1820 saddle of Peter Nielsen, who came from Sweden. He's been there all this time. And we found that, so I kind of wanted to share that with you. But we have a the one disclaimer I need to ask is patience. Our exhibits aren't going to be complete immediately. It's gonna be an ongoing project. It's a big job to inventory all the stuff and to move it over and to get it up. So it'll be ongoing. We have a a training exhibit, model training exhibit that's been donated to us. It'll be finished up within a couple weeks at the most, and it'll be a temporary exhibit right now in the middle of

the floor, but we have a lot of things in store. Please be patient with us as we develop these exhibits

because it's a lot of work. Any questions you wanna drill me on or anything I can answer?

Well, just to clarify, Jeff, the the plan is to bring all the memorabilia and and

exhibits you have in the cabin museum over, or No. That is not the plan. That is not the plan, okay. We couldn't hold them if we tried. But we do, we are, and I thank Justin for this. He's kinda given us a go ahead to pursue seeing what the cost would be to finish the upstairs. They're in there. I think they pretty well got all the camera boxes and wiring done today for there will be, nine cameras inside, outside the building, and, we and we'll relay the information over here to the city office, and we have the capacity to do that over here. There's been an upgrade on the system, so just it's been good to say, you know, look ahead and let's start start seeing what the actual costs are gonna be as well as we have one contractor come in to give us a a bid on things or an estimate. We have them look at that too, so we know where we're going in the future. But that will double our exhibit space when we if we can get the upstairs done.

So the plan is longer term to have both buildings functioning as museums, or do they different functions? Yes. What's what's your vision for them? My vision.

But what's I've been your vision, the historical society Yeah. Is it all the same? I've been very careful not to get the cart before the horse because we need the building over there needs some updating, and some of the information we will have to duplicate and put some of it over there. But we're trying to bring most of the real original stuff over to this museum. And my vision is to make that pioneer living museum, and run it more like a DUP relic hall, and give the DUP people an opportunity to help with that. Because we inherited Smithfield Historical Society, inherited all their stuff at one point. All the relics belong to Smithfield City. Okay? And so, that's in close proximity to the school. The kids like to go over there. And, we'll take up the DUP era. Basically, pioneer living. Basically, from 1847 when the Mormon pioneers came here to about 1860 the Again, I urge patience. We can get it done. We just need a little time, and there's some work that needs to be done over there. We know that, but I think we can keep it to a minimum. Justin did ask me to report on the cabin down at Forrester Acres. I went and looked at it. I haven't had time. It was one of the original cabins in the fort. It's basically a 14 by 14 foot building. And I did have somebody go with me down there. I have two and is go in with some treated two by fours. It can be as simple as two by fours. And go into where the good logs are and lift that up. We'll nail these two by fours on the inside to take the weight off of it. And then we need to have a few of the bottom logs, measured and cut. This would be a very similar situation that they did with the Senior Citizen Center in replacing the bottom logs, but on a much, much smaller scale. It's not real costly. I think we, you know, to have the bottom logs measured and cut, we would maybe be, you know, a few $100 at the most. I've got one guy that says he'll probably do it for us. He helped John before. John Wells has been out of town for six weeks. He's visiting family, and I haven't been able to get in touch with him yet, but he'd be a great help with this, if he'll help us do that. And it wouldn't take long. So, that's what I would suggest, and it can be done. I'll do a little more research on which cabin it was, but that's what needs to be done. And it can be done quite easily,

and Yep. Quite inexpensive. Yes. Really quickly back to the building over here. Just, and I know there's a lot of people that discuss this building over here and it's become known by multiple, multiple names. Yes. I'd like to request that we figure out a way to unify that naming nomenclature

to Well, if I might address that. First of all, you guys are the geniuses. I think you you can figure this out. I haven't tried to rename it. It's just, affectionately, I know it as the rock store. And so when I'm in a hurry and I generally just I'm going up to the rock store. Let me tell you why I do that. Three different families, well, more than that, actually, but the the the Douglas Mercantile building, which is what it was originally, was really under three different ownerships as a Mercantile store. I don't wanna offend the Douglases or the Cantwells or Wynn and Toults when it was the union mark. And so I just generally just refer to it because they're all great people. They're all great people who did wonderful things for this community. So I think here's what the name needs to contain, and you guys can work this out. We need to make it clear that it's the Smithfield City History Museum. That needs to be in the name. If you wanted to name it something like the Smithfield City Rock Store History Museum, then it's a little clearer. But most people, I grew up knowing it as the rock store. Right? But those are the things that need to contain. It needs to contain and be clear that it's the Smithfield City History Museum. If you, and if you can slip rock store into it, then it it saves all of us trying to figure out which family we mentioned.

Where did we get rock store? I guess I'm trying to make the connection.

Because one of the reasons it made it onto the National Register of Historic Places is it's made out of three different kinds of rock. I was right. And actually, it's more than that, because if you look at the transom at the top, it's rubble brick. But brick, basically brick and the sandstone from the quorum up in Franklin, and the rubble rock on the north side of the wall, and a lot of that's fossil rock if you go look at it close. I'd like to know where they actually picked that up off the ground in in Smithfield Canyon, because there's a lot of fossils in it. So that's why it was affectionately known as the Rock Star. That was actually one of the qualifiers to be on the National Historic Register. It's so unique that way. Okay? And those rock walls are three feet thick. And if you get a chance, go over and look at the new blinds that got put up today. They're beautiful. UV blinds, that'll really protect things. But those are the important ingredients. If you wanna call it the Douglas Mercantile Building, you can, but be ready to hear from the Campbell family, or Toulson and Wynn, or whoever else had ownership of it. But that's why it's referred to that. Okay?

You bet. When do you think you'll have an answer on the cabin as to what that what's that's gonna entail? And do you need our help with that? What's the where can we go? Where can we support you?

I think the best thing to do is and I'm not Josh's boss or manager, and Josh is a great guy. Can't say enough good about it. But I asked him if he could go in and take some two by four treated two by fours and just lift that up and stabilize it for now. And then, as soon as John gets back, John Wells, I'll get some measurements, and we'll get some milled. But I I think that would be the best way to handle it. But that best represents the the first permanent cabinet in that was built in this community in that area. It was actually west there when they built the first one.

Obviously, you know, a big concern is that we don't want it to fall over and hurt anybody, so. Correct, correct.

So, the sooner we do something with it to stabilize it, that would stabilize it. I agree with that, mayor. I'll be willing to get in it if if Josh will be there with me. But

I think one of the things that we're thinking about, Jeff, is how to manage these historical buildings and artifacts and, you know, historical buildings and artifacts and keepsakes Right. Such as David mentioned. Right. And I yeah. It just feels like we we ought to get a really good plan put together for how are we gonna tend to these things that we don't have an indoor space for right now that are if they're gonna be left outdoors, they're gonna only deteriorate further and how are we going to maintain this cabin in this park, a cabin that is a really great historical marker for us, but is kinda tucked away and hidden and not used for much. And then we've got the cabin museum and now we've got the store and we've got all of these pieces. And I think it'd be really great if we had kind of a a five year plan, a ten year plan for how to kind of

get this all buttoned down and useful and and productive. Yeah. It I I don't disagree with you. And and that's what we're here for is to to advise and help. And so I've given you the best advice I can today, but if you won't think I'm a real jerk, that really wasn't supposed to be a recreational park either. But all of a sudden, we have, you know, people like it's a nice setting. It's beautiful. So I'm not totally against it. But I wasn't planning on dogs running around chasing frisbees and taking their dump in the park either. And, you know, it was supposed to be a memorial park, not a recreational park. But I I'm okay with it. If people can enjoy it that much more, I think that's good. So,

somehow, that got put in. Well, we just invite the the historical society to kind of really take that under advisement and and and come to the city council with some recommendations on kind of what's the long term plan for maintaining these

artifacts that we have. We have we have a long term plan for that pavilion. We just don't have the money. Right? I mean, it's it's something that takes money, and I'm looking at something to see if we can get some help that way. I try to get as much as far as personal donations and contributions,

and we do have some people that are interested in some things, you know, I'm I'm working on those, but I'm not at liberty to talk about them. No. No. Nobody's done more with less already, Jeff, and we are really grateful and appreciative to the efforts of you personally and John of the society and all the members

and it's it's been remarkable, honestly. Justin and I had a good laugh the other night in the parking lot as he told me all the the Requirements that were placed on the city with an aging infrastructure and aging buildings. He said. All of our buildings are getting older, and I said except one. That one over there is getting new. And just was good enough to even laugh a little bit with me about it, but he knew what I was saying. Yeah. I agree with you, John. We we need to do the best we can to have a plan and put it up front. We're a little overwhelmed right now, but we'll get it. We'll get it. We'll stick in there. And did did you say that we do have some initial

estimates or recommendations for the cabin out there? Yeah. Okay.

And does Justin have those or? No. Can could we get those so we can at least see As soon as John gets back. Okay. As soon as John gets back is what I'm telling you. We'll get some some costs on it. But I don't expect it to be more than a few $100. And I'll find the money one way or the other, so the city doesn't have to come up with it.

So, a lot of us are new here on the council. Is there an inventory of historical items that, you know, you say there's lots under tarps, things like that. Like, what Yes. I guess my request is there, what type of space? Like, what how big would that need to be to to get some of the stuff out of the weather? And

Well, we just need a we need a windbreak from the north more than anything. Because when that chain link fence came up, all that does is catch stuff.

It's limited our our room. We've got a half dozen to a dozen items out there that are not going to be able to put in a building unless it is a warehouse with a roll up door. Yeah. Just due to size.

Yes. Due to size. But to answer your question directly, mayor, yes, we do have an inventory. We have a record, and everything has a number

to it, and we can refer to it. I mean, if we could just magic wand here and say, we need this big of a space, you know. I realize that's a maybe not a reality yet, but if we had a a vision as to where to go and what to do with it, then

If any of you have a minute or two, I'd be more than happy to take it and show you the inventory, the records that have been kept. And they're pretty thorough. Everything's marked on the back with the number, tells its age, where it came from, or if it doesn't. And that's what Linda and I were sorting out the other day, inventory till after 10:00 at night. So that's how we were able to move those display cases and put the significant things in them now. K? So when the pioneers came here, they initially had a 17 pound limit of what they could bring as far as personal items. As you know, the stories of the hand cart companies and others, when hard times hit, they had to dump even more than that. Leave them behind, bury them, hope to come back for them, whatever. But anyway, we do have a good inventory. He did leave us that. I appreciate you very much. Thank you to each of you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Really appreciate you.

Agenda item number five. Public hearing for the purpose of discussing ordinance twenty twenty six dash zero three an ordinance amending the Smithfield City Municipal Code Title 12 Streets, Sidewalks and Public Places. Chapter 12.24 City Trees Sections one two point two four point zero one zero Creation and Establishment of a City Tree Committee. Twelve point two four point zero three zero. Term of office, twelve two four zero four zero. Duties and responsibilities of the tree committee, 12 dot two four dot zero five zero. Definitions, 12 dot two four zero six zero. Landscaping, 12 dot two four zero eight zero, park tree care and maintenance, and 12 dot two four zero nine zero, street tree care and maintenance.

Mayor, thank you. This ordinance is a housekeeping ordinance. The tree committee had been had looked at it for approximately three months, came back with some suggestions about a year ago or so. Significant changes were made to the tree, to the tree committee code. They went back and did another review. I would like to change, add some verbiage, change some verbiage. And it's this is all at their recommendation. This is at Jack Jack Green and his staff are amazing as Todd will attest. Todd's been in those meetings. This is their suggestions just to help clean things up, make some changes and tweaks as the they've gone along the next year. It was such a revamp last year that I think they wanted to see it. A couple of members came back with suggestions of some wording changes. So tonight is all about housekeeping changing. They asked for a couple of places to be moved around, such as the definitions. They asked that it be in a higher section for ease of of finding. We've have an arborist. So basically, mayor tonight is all about housekeeping at the recommendations of the treaty committee themselves.

I might just add to that. The only the only thing I think is a major significance on that really is beyond the bits of clearer definitions, would be that we did make some changes to the organization of the Tree Committee, taking it from five members to six members, having five appointed members

with one permanent City Council who does not vote. So we've just clarified that in the

who does not vote. So we've just clarified that in that in that sizing.

Curious why, Tom? Why? Why they went from five to six, or was it just a permanent council member on that? Is that what they're looking for?

What is it? Yeah. I I think so. They wanted, you know, we want to be able to stay with five voting members, so that it's easier to do a vote and not wind up with a split. Okay. But still have a City Council member that is in an advisory position, but is not voting so that it stays with the committee. Cool.

Thank you. So the amount of people haven't really changed, it's just more of a Yeah. Just a little bit clearer.

Yeah. I mean there was some desire to either not set a number or possibly set a higher number, but then that becomes a problem at times on being able to get a quorum for certain necessary decisions. So we decided it was a good compromise to decisions. So, we decided it was a good compromise to be able to stay with five, instead of, well, the committee being six members, instead of five. But it used to be that it was not designated whether or not the city, the representative from the city council was still a basically listed as a voting member, what you would assume to be a voting member. So we took that out of it, leaving them in the advisory position. Smart having an odd number.

Discussion and possible vote on ordinance twenty twenty six dash zero three. I'm sorry. The hearing there. Oh, I'm sorry. I close the public hearing for the purpose of discussing ordinance twenty twenty six zero three at 06:56 fifty eight. Did you open it? I'm sorry.

It's okay.

It's been a day. Thank you. I would like to open the public hearing, discuss discuss this public hearing, purpose of discussing ordinance twenty twenty six zero three. Wow. Any comments? I'd like to close the public hearing for the purpose of discussing ordinance twenty twenty six zero three at 06:59PM. Okay. Now, discussion and possible vote on ordinance twenty twenty six dash zero three.

I I did notice that there was a spot where there was some stuff crossed out, that allowed the tree committee to make some possible or had to go through the tree committee to have any kind of written consent for any kind of different trees. And I noticed that that has been removed. Not sure if there was a reason for that or just not wanting to have them have to worry about that. I don't know.

It does say earlier in the Yeah. Thing that only certain trees are approved. And so Yeah. It says right here and and we don't need it say don't have these trees because only certain ones are already on the list. Because it says in new subdivisions or developments approved by the city council, the developer shall only plant trees from the approved tree list as approved by city council. So So it already says it right there. So it's just redundant

redundant. Okay.

I like to make the motion that we adopt ordinance twenty twenty six dash o three.

I'll second it. How about that? I'm back to Floyd. How do we vote?

Jay? Yes. John? Yes. Chris? Yes. Jen? Yes. Todd? Yes. This motion passes. Yeah. Okay. Item number seven, continue discussion on the cemetery plot availability and resolution twenty twenty six dash zero five, a resolution amending the prevailing fee schedule for cemetery related fees. I'll turn the time over to Justin.

So, Mayor, Council, after last month's discussion, we went back, asked for a revised map to come back. Tonight, we won't be doing any voting. It's up for consideration. We hope bring it back for a vote next month. When you look at section d, d one and d two, we would like you to consider opening those sections, next month. D one would be for full size burials. It would result in a 112 new plots. There are 19 that would be encumbered with trees at this time. So it would open up 93 new plots for regular burial purposes and then d two would be strictly for for cremations. As you can see, there'll be a lot of cremations over time. So wondering if you have any questions. We did have the staff go back and review. We feel good about the areas that are blocked out that they we would not sell those at the at this time until those trees go away. But when those trees go away, we would not replace them. They're just in this kind of weird and bizarre random place. But that is what we would recommend. We don't want to recommend opening any other parts of it at this time to keep them segregated to this area so that we're just not spotty through that whole section as we open it over time. Another part of that discussion was we talked about fees, we talked about non residents, we talked about if you should if when we open those up, we do know. We have had a lot of inquiries since last month. If we have a free for all and open that up, those plots are going to be gone. We have people waiting for you to make a decision on whether they can buy them or whether they have to be deceased before you can buy them. If you don't have to be deceased, those spots are going to be we'll be opening probably three right behind it. We have people waiting and watching to see how this plays out. We you would ask to go out and see what other cities are doing, what they charge. We went to we looked at Lewiston, Richmond, Logan, Brigham, Providence, Hiram, North Logan, Tremonton. In Providence, you must be deceased to purchase a plot. Currently, that's how their rules read. I'm gonna ask you to consider when we open those two new sections that you do the same thing. Not so much whether you decide whether I we think that you should keep nonresidents, we think that with a change in the fee schedule, keep nonresidents, have that as an option to them, but have a different pricing schedule than we currently have. But we would ask that if we are going to open d one, that it be those only be able to be sold if one of the if one of the two people has deceased because we just know that they're all going to be gone. We know that we cannot afford a $1,000,000 plus problem to the east of there at this time. Long term, we looked at it again, we really can't split that down into several quadrants. We could maybe split it in half, but we know our costs just don't pan out. We simply don't have a million dollars for that. So we will ask you to come back with opening d one, but we would like the restriction that you have to be deceased in order. And then you would be able to buy one for your spouse, so we would limit it to two when one of them passes away, but we're going to ask that. We looked at our fee schedule. Going back, the last time that we did any changes to cemetery plots as far as the fee changes was in April 2020. The burials were in August 2022. We looked at our schedule. You'll see we would love your thoughts. We need to know what direction you wanna go with this. We looked at resident versus non resident. One item we would like to add is the plot buyback. Right now, we offer when you want to sell your plots back to the city because you cannot sell them to anyone else, we would you would sell you sell them back at the cost that, they were purchased at. So if they were purchased for $25 a hundred years ago, you got $25. No one wants to give them up for $25, let's be honest. We would try to incentivize that. We obviously can't pay, what we're gonna turn around and resell them for, So we had wondered about going either $400 or if you paid more than that, we would if you paid this $650 from today, we would obviously reimburse you the $6.50. But we wanted to go with, like, a $400 minimum, trying to see if we can't get some of those plots that are just sitting, to come back to the city to just simply give us more space. So that's one item that we're gonna ask you to consider long term. But we would love to know your thoughts on what we're proposing. You know, when you look at other cities, I'm not sure that it really matters what they're charging other than to know where we're at simply because they're not out of space and we are. So we have to address it. Do we want we absolutely want to be fair. We want to give an option. But we would love your thoughts, counsel, of where we go with this only not only from the opening those two sections, but also what we do with the fees. It has been a long time, twenty, you know, six years and four years. So we feel like no matter what, there needs to be a change there. We feel that residents should pay should pay less than non residents simply because they're already here paying property tax. They've been here. But we also are looking at we don't want

cemetery plot shoppers. Let's be honest. We want them to go somewhere else. This is with a finite amount of lots.

Shopping and going to the cheapest place. They can do that in another city with that cemetery. So trying to find a balance of where you guys wanna go with this. We would love your thoughts on what you wanna do with this after thinking about it for a month.

I like the buyback option because if there there's enticement. If they know they can get some money back, we might have a lot more plots open up, and that will help our problem too. I like that idea. I forgot what I was gonna say. It'll come to me.

I've got some input on that as well. Don't mind. Talked to multiple residents who are not at all in favor of the death requirement to be able to purchase, simply because that's one more burden that people don't want to have to worry about. Okay, when that happens, is there going to be an opportunity for me to be able to then buy at that time. They want to be able to have some security with that, especially as they get older. And they know this mortal life is approaching. They don't know whether it's going to be one year, two year, five year, ten years, but they don't want to wait and then have a one week time period to try and be able to make a decision of where they can wind up burying their loved one. I am all in favor of, and I will say that I agree with that one. I'm I'm becoming part of that older generation. And certainly, it is something that I would consider right now of being able to buy and be prepared. I do still like the idea of one cost for resident, one cost for non resident. And then out of the Valley, I don't have a I don't have a problem nor did any of those that I discussed it with, or that came to me, have a problem with an out of the valley purchase, being restricted. But in the Valley, people living here that have been here their entire life, but they can't assure that they're going to be able to be buried here unless one of them dies, which is unacceptable to

them.

So Todd, you were kind of saying possibly having a restriction. Is this a possibility to to make it so that for residents that wouldn't apply. But for non residents it would require them to be deceased first before they would even have the option to pay a higher price.

I certainly think that would be an an amenable option. If it's somebody from outside the Valley, now, we did discuss last time when we discussed, we discussed just not even selling a plot to anyone outside of the Valley. I'm a little bit mixed on that one, as far as personally, on whether we do that or put the requirement of it must be a death that has happened to be able to buy. I can still see that. If you've got somebody that spent sixty years here, moved out of the Valley five years ago to live with one of their kids, and then they die and now they can't come back because they went out of the Valley to get their final year's care, that's certainly something that I think in the consideration of our hearts, we have to realize.

Right. The more I've thought about it. Well, that's what I was thinking is what's the definition of a residence? I mean, you you have people who have that. They go and they live with a into a with their son or daughter, or

then they come back after they pass away. They want to be buried here in Smithfield. We would still honor that. Right, Justin? We have, yes. Yeah. If you're in a nursing home, you guys just gotta give us some guidance because I know when we open them, they're gonna be gone. Yeah.

Yeah. I I thought of the same things, you know. You have some of these mixture of things where people could have lived here for thirty years and been paying proper taxes and then left for like what has been mentioned. You could also have someone who's been here for six months and passes away. And now, they haven't really put anything into it. They've been away for the rest of their life, but they've been here for six months and then they get resident prices. So, I don't know. Are there is there even such a thing or is there even any places that have some kind of a committee that can evaluate some of that kind of stuff on an individual basis?

Or is that I don't know. I would sure hope not just because when someone dies, we gotta do something

like literally like You gotta be able to know. Yeah. Go time.

We're open to your thoughts. I mean, do you wanna go with the restriction as a non resident? Is there a set of rules for this, Justin? Is there is there a set of rules that's Every cemetery has their own rules. You guys set the rules. That's why I Where's our rules now? You want me to pull them up? I mean, they're on the website under cemetery.

Maybe we have a and one more which is one more thing. I don't have a problem really for somebody like for some of these people that do come in from out of the community and and really, I don't wanna say jack the price up, but make it significant. I mean, right now, what are we at right now? We're at 16. We're at 16. You know, 2 or even $3,000

to me is not out of it. As far as the proposed. You know. I think the proposed schedule looks reasonable to me. And I, you know, I I agree we need to have some compassion for the unique situations. I also think we need to be really mindful about the limited space we've got and we've got to make sure that we're just opening it up and letting these just go willy nilly either. I I think I'd be probably in favor of residents can purchase it anytime but a non resident, we'd have that death restriction on it. And I I think it's I don't know that we need to limit it to Cache County only, but anyone outside, anyone who's a non resident could purchase, but only on death. I think that's at least one way to add one level of restriction.

I'm supportive of that as well. I know at one point in time we talked about possibly even having three different schedules. I I don't know. Me thinking, okay, let's say I am just on the outside limits of Smithfield, but I'm really feel like I'm part of Smithfield. So right in Smithfield, we've got different precincts that are incorporated and some that are unincorporated. And so, I think some of the people that are in the unincorporated areas, they're still close here to Smithfield.

If you talk to them, they're they're from Smithfield. Oh, they call me all the time about it and we argue about resident versus nonresident. Right. They're convinced that because they have an 84335 zip code, they're a resident. Yeah. They're not a voter. They've never paid a dime of property tax. They live on the periphery. They wanted to be treated like a resident. But being harsh, which I'm not intending to do, would throw out the emotion, they're no different on the edge of the city than someone that lives in Paradise from a what they've done for the city, paid to the city per for perspective. For a staff perspective, that city boundary means everything to us. It's cutting it's cutting dry. It's clean. Like, you live outside the city boundary or you don't have a utility account, like, I've gotta have something definitive for the staff, like a voting districts and stuff would be beyond brutal. Like, how would I, like I I need something pretty set so that it's easy to pull up on a map. It's I would hope that we would stick with what a resonant is that you live within. I mean, you're always going to have people you could have someone move in tomorrow and they set up their utility account. Are you always gonna have those one offs? We're gonna have one offs on every situation we have or someone leaving. We've tried to work with those. I don't wanna get down in deciding how someone's how long someone's lived in the city whether over the cemetery plot. I don't think that's the road you guys want to go down. You're either a resident or you're a nonresident. Here's the fee. And so being I don't wanna be harsh, but I know I'm being harsh. I get it. But I need something to protect the staff. And it's just cut and dry. This is what we have. This is what we do. You know, you the nice thing about only opening up, like b one, we can see how fast it sells. If you guys go if you're like, let's go with resident residents come by them, non residents can't unless it's someone's deceased. We can see how they how fast they fill up. We can see if it goes as fast as those people that said they wanna plot really go. We're not opening all D 1 through D 7. We would open D 1. What I'm gonna know immediately, I might be back in a couple months to say, council, we're ready to open D 3, just to see how it goes. But that's up to you. But I I would hope that we would stay something resident, non resident. Great. Allow the non residents. I think it's problematic to go outside the Valley and try and distinguish between that because you've got people that have that they move in with their kids as they get older or something. I think it's pretty simple with a resident versus a non resident no matter where they reside. And here's the fee. And you guys decide what you wanna do in that regard.

Well, it's a point of clarification too. We're not a district. We are a city cemetery. Correct. Where if he was a district, you would have to take in people that are are all part of your district or geographical area. Our geographical area is the city of Smithfield. Is that correct? Yes. And it's funded like, we don't cover costs. We're losing money in the cemetery.

Like, the grape plot purchases and sales do not cover the cost of operating the cemetery. The general fund is subsidizing that difference. And that's Smithfield City tax. The Smithfield City. That's why I'm so adamant about a nonresident versus a resident because they are already subsidized. You are already you are already subsidizing the cemetery. You should be have a benefit over a nonresident that is not subsidized that is not subsidizing that or paying anything to the city. And if you aren't a resident or have property tax or pay utility bill or anything, you are not paying anything to the city. You are using all the city's benefits

and not paying anything in return. Well, and that's part of the justification to charge the higher rate of a non resident.

Yes. And it's a one time fee. That's the other thing, like some places they charge perpetual, we don't. This is a one time collect it and moving on.

How big of a how impossible of a challenge would it be just for our mind to wrap around to find out, say, in the last five years, how many plots have been sold to out of state? Out of state?

I'm not sure honestly, Tom. I would have to look. We track them mainly by name, not location. Like, we really don't we really don't have I mean, we have a lot of plots that have bad bad addresses, honestly. Like, and we're waiting to to hear from someone. That's the problem. We have thousands of lots up there that aren't used, but they're sold. So we're like, what do we do? I don't think you have a lot about a state overall. We do we have some,

but we don't have a lot of shoppers.

But we also wanna make sure we don't have any shoppers. Like, I just really don't want people cemetery shopping that have no tie to the city.

Is there is there any way to reclaim some of that over a certain amount of time if you created some kind of code that, for example Actually, and we already did. We did it a few years ago. Bruce Jorgensen helped us do that. There's like a

and I would have to look, I can't remember Chris, but it's like a sixty year window of not being contacted. It's super hard to do. It's super expensive. We we did it. We did not get a lot of plots back. A lot of family members actually got them transferred into their name because they could prove that that was my grandpa, grandma, and they proved that and they and that's great. They got the plots transferred. We know where they'll go. It's a really it is dictated by the state and it's a long tedious process. And having just done it a few years ago, I don't really think we'd pick up many. Don't really think we'd pick up many. But I'm pretty sure it's a sixty year window. It might be longer than that. Just for being contacted, all you have to do is call and say, those are still our family plots. We're good and we can't touch them.

So no contact for sixty years? Yes.

And that's why we had a ton of families reaching out. They're like, oh, that's our family. Because you advertise the names, like, it's a process and then the families come in and can prove that's so and so in the family and we transferred them and moved on. Right. But I I might be wrong on the 60. It's it's decades though. Right. It's many, many decades.

Kinda makes sense though.

My thoughts are we make a decision and try it, readdress it if we notice some things are not working or if they're going too fast. And this wouldn't be an issue if we were running out of room, and that's the whole point of doing this. So we've gotta figure something out. So

So are we okay to bring d one and d two back next month for approval to open? Yeah. Okay. What about fees and any restrictions, if any?

I feel good about those. Yeah. I feel good about the fees. Yeah. I think we wanna put the restrictions for non residents on death on death only. Okay. And then for citizens, for residents They're just good to go. They're good to go. Okay. And see what happens. I agree with that, Jen. I think that's a reasonable approach. And if we see that there's a mad rush on cemetery plots.

I'm so curious to see how many get sold back. And if you advertise, you get money back. I'm really curious to see how many plots get sold back. Non city residents or non Valley residents?

Because one of the ones that I've talked to that are very concerned about this literally live 30 feet outside the city limits. They have lived either in the city or in that home for forty plus years. And they would like to be able to figure out what they want to do. And if they have to wait for a death because they're on the wrong side of the road, you know, I I would wanna put the death only restriction outside the Valley.

I don't know if I'm in favor of a death restriction.

I don't want this to come across like it's about the money, because it's not. What if you had a peace of mind fee?

You guys tell me how I mean, you guys just you guys set the fees I'm not trying to complicate Me too. Anymore. Like I wanna make sure I have a plot

purchased. It doesn't matter where I'm from. You increase that by a certain amount. Oh, okay. So it's instead of $825,100, peace of mind, I can buy it anytime, any place, any location, wherever I live, $3,000,

something like that. I don't know. The deceased price being less. Right.

Just an idea. I'm not trying to complicate it anymore. But I don't know what you guys said to be scared to, like, we're all I think that's getting a little too complicated. Alright. I'm more leaning toward, like, let's just cut and dry. Let's just do it, make it simple, see how it works, and then we can readdress it. But Yeah. Because like you said, it's not about the money. We're already losing money on it. This is just a security thing, like, and just paying the men to dig the grave and everything. So

Well, let's just talk about Todd's thing real quick. You know, because how how would you tell the staff on that individual that there's technically a non residence because they're not in the city of Smithfield. How would you tell the staff to deal with that individual? How would how would we how would we even I'm not fully following here. Well, you said you had a gentleman who was like 40 years, lived 40 feet outside the Smithfield city limits for forty years. Technically, they would be a non resident. Right.

At least half of that time, they were city residents. They later moved just outside the city limits. So they they were, they're not now. I mean, I I have no problem with the increased price Right. You know, the nonresident price, but to make it a death requirement, because they are on the other side of the road Oh, I get what you are saying. I think is too far. Okay. I get what you are saying. Thanks for the clarification, appreciate it. Yeah. The non resident price,

I don't I think is a reasonable understanding for anybody that's paying city taxes. Right. Yeah. Well, and that's how you justify it, is you're not paying city taxes. You should be be taxed more to pay for the the, you know, and that's what I said. I I really think it should be a little bit more because, you know, 500 or whatever or even a thousand over time would certainly pay it off. You know what I mean? Yeah. So I'm gonna think even more because you gotta justify some of our our cost somewhere.

So do we increase the nonresident amount to maybe try and defer people from coming? And then we don't say you absolutely cannot be buried here if you're not a resident.

Do we increase that? I would say either we do the at death or we increase it for the non residents. That would be my thought process. For sure. Something to

mitigate the the purchases. We we've gotta slow that down. I mean, we don't wanna keep people out. Right. But we can't just let these plots go too fast. We've gotta gotta manage this for the benefit of the residents primarily. Like, that's the goal. Right? That's what the city cemetery is for is for city residents. And so I really think we've got to give preferential treatment in any number of ways to residents.

And are we, at this time, I can't remember if we've talked about it or not, limiting it to only two, not allowing, you know what I mean, people to buy multiple

Yeah. You can only buy it for two. I mean, you can buy your kids can have them as be in their name, but you can't come in and buy just randomly, like, by four. Yeah. Yeah. We already have that restriction. Is that is there an age limit on it, like, 18 or anything? No. No. Because you just buy them for your kid. They're in the kids' names. It just is what it is. Oh, I get what you're saying. Yeah.

But if you have three kids, only two can get one.

If you're only allowed to buy two. Sorry. We didn't get two as well.

Two for every kid.

So I mean, honestly, if somebody's purchasing it, if there's a death on death only restriction, it's not a huge amount of hassle to just come in and say, we've had a death, I wanna purchase a plot, and there's we get the next plots and, you know, here's the ones you can purchase. It's it's it's, you know, it's slightly different than yeah. I mean, it's it is a personal and it's a emotional time and I understand all that. But let's not make it out to be, you know, if there's a death only restriction that somehow this got

infinitely complicated. It's not that complicated. Yeah. We I mean, we sell a lot right now that are people a lot of people don't have them. And someone unexpectedly passes and they come in and they buy a plot and they make the funeral arrangements on the same afternoon and move on. Yeah. It's I I think it's a pretty straightforward process. So I I don't wanna make it something like it's

such a a burden to not be able to purchase one until death.

Yeah. I agree. I I don't know.

I I I like Jen's earlier proposal because that gives us a kind of a window into, okay, there's some without a death restriction, some with a death death restriction, we're gonna see what happens. And then in two or three months, we come back and we revisit that. And if we need to make a change, one way or the other Yep. That change could happen. But

I I think we need to take a really prudent and cautious and Right. Thoughtful approach to this. Well, this isn't a common thing everywhere. I mean, there's plots available in every other surrounding city. We just have a unique situation where we're really kinda running out of plots. So Right. We don't really know till we try it. So

So to be clear, what are where is the boundary line we're talking about a death restriction?

Or are you not with d one and see where it goes? Don't put a death restriction in because you're not opening up all of the d one through seven. Change the pricing, see how this plays out the next few months. And if they all blow out in d one immediately, we have to we know we have to put a death restriction in place. That's exactly what I mean. Let's let's not restrict it so much. Let's try it.

We'll readdress it and see where we are. If we're not gonna restrict as much, I would actually increase the non resident a little more than what we're asking right now. As I say, that's what I was going to come back and say, what would you be comfortable with as opposed to 2,500?

Well, I mean you've got Richmond who is quite a bit smaller than us and they charge 1,700. Brigham City 1,800. So I don't it's not something we wanna be competitive with because it's not something you compete about but No. We don't wanna be competitive.

Yeah. Please don't be competitive and we want it to be the last choice. I'd bump it to at least 3,000 or 3,500.

So would you support 35?

I would. If we're not gonna have a death restriction, I would. Yeah.

I would too. I I just think that we gotta recoup some of our cost somewhere but and I I do like the idea of Jen's idea. I mean, if we're not gonna do a death restriction, do it that way, then put on the calendar ninety days from when we let it go, we come back and do come back and say, yep, we work great or

Well, the staff is gonna keep you updated. We're gonna tell you how many plots you have or don't have. And that's that's part of where I don't feel like I have a good feel for how quickly they're going. So I I think that'd be helpful. You've got all these people asking, are they really going to go through with it? Or are they going to okay. Fine. There's no restrictions. So now I don't have to worry about it again. Yeah. Oh, there's a restriction. I better hurry. Yeah. So go thirty five? I would. Let's do the The resident at 800

or you wanna do something different there? I think leave it at 800.

Yeah.

They've been paying in for a while. Right? I mean, they're They go from $6.50 to 800. Yeah. I think that's reasonable for the resident. Okay. Jen and Todd, are you thinking 35 is workable?

That's quite a bit more than what I was thinking.

It it does put us way out of line with every other survey. Absolutely.

Double or more. Be intentionally

so that because we're trying to dissuade Right. Purchases. Right? That's the goal here. But we don't wanna

lock people out. I know it's it's it is unfair in the sense that some people have the money and some people don't and that's I wish I better understood how many,

historically, what our non resident, pardon the word traffic, has been.

Right. So I can look. I mean, I can come up with somewhat of a number. Yeah. Maybe You guys are gonna set this next month. Yeah. I'm trying to ask you. Maybe you can find that out before our next meeting. That would be helpful. You can bring that information in because you can amend it to what whoever you want during the meeting. Yeah. Because if it's five percent, that's one thing. If it's 40%, that's a whole different. We'll we'll bring some of those numbers to next meeting.

What what just the intro what what are you comfortable with, Todd and Jen? What do you what are you thinking?

Even at the twenty five, we are $800 it looks like over the next highest anywhere in the valley. Almost.

I don't know that we have to really compare ourselves to anybody else though. I mean, we're dealing with our own

situation. So I wouldn't get too worked up about how high or low we are compared to other people.

Expand. Kudos to them. I guess, if you look at it that way, I mean, they've just got a bunch of undeveloped land. We simply don't. At it that way, I mean, they've just got a bunch of undeveloped land. We simply don't.

Yeah.

So, we'll bring it back with some numbers next month. You guys can tweak it. We'll get something drafted, if that's okay.

Sounds good. Thank you, Joe. Thanks.

Well, we can look at it and if we don't like it, we can adjust it then too. Right? Yes. You can amend it that night. Yeah.

So it gives them it gives you some direction where to go with it. Yeah. We'll draft it, bring it back. You guys can have some numbers and if you wanna

tweak it from there, you're more than welcome to amend the resolution and we'll trudge on. Okay. Okay.

Agenda item number eight, discussion and possible vote on amendments to the employee personnel manual.

Honestly, counsel, I'm tired of looking at this after looking at it since last September. It's 77 pages, a major revamp. We hired we hired a company, we hired a law firm to help us with things like FMLA, Family Medical Leave Act, medical marijuana, a bunch of those things that we are out of date on as we had not had a major update to the personnel manual for a very, very long time. So it went to the law firm, it came back to the department heads, to the counsel. We tried to incorporate well, we have incorporated all of the legal items that the law firm that specializes in this. The law firm out of Salt Lake, they this is one of the things they do as a specialty, would be to help us get in compliance. They were highly recommended. They went line by line, like this is a complete revamp, of the of the manual. We went to the department heads. We asked them for their thoughts of where they struggle, where they didn't, well, after, you know, thoughts of where they struggle, where they didn't after, you know, going through that. So there are some changes. Does it affect the council and mayor? No. Does this affect the residents? No. Does it affect the the employees? Absolutely, positively. That's why we wanted to we had some items that the department had suggested from their employees. Some of those are not incorporated. We didn't feel like they were a good fit for what we're doing, but we're bringing it to you, council tonight after six plus months and asking for your for your approval. Doesn't it this has no effect on wages, anything like this. This has everything to do with personnel and moving forward. If it's adopted tonight, council, I don't know when I'll have it online, I'll be honest, because it's going to take some time to completely remove our existing online manual and replace it with this, like it's big. So it would go to into effect immediately. So if someone had an issue, we would reference the hand document till we can get it online. But it will be a task updating that line by line, page by page, number by number. The department heads, you're more than welcome to ask them. They've been involved in the process all along, trying to tweak it and change it and modify it. Like some of our things like PTO accrual, still less than other cities in the county. Carryover on hours, still less than the city and the county. We felt like we wanted to strike a balance of what's best for for the city. And but at the same time, we can't be like the county and offer unlimited carryover of hours. That's just financially not feasible. We could not budget for that. We could not plan for that. I'm not supportive of that. So we tried to we we do have a cap on there where those where those hours roll off for the department heads and myself that seem to like not use our hours, not very smart on our part. So we lose those each year. But that's where we're at council. That's how we got here was basically, we knew medical marijuana, maternity leave, some of those things needed to be addressed, they weren't addressed. They helped us address them. Now, here we are to you.

I went through it and and I really liked what they did with the peer support and the critical incident stress and stuff for individuals. I mean, that's that's really a big step forward. I really I really like that.

Dustin, you're comfortable with where this sits?

So all of the department heads and myself, yes. Because the best part is, if we wanna adopt it or amend it next month, we can. If we realize there's a flaw, it's just like the code. It comes right back to you guys. Do I think it's perfect? No. Do I think it's big and long and that we're gonna have to change it? Yes. Would I like to adopt it now and then just know that there's things we're going to experience and I have to update and change over time 100%?

I I don't think it there's really nothing that really is really standing out bad. I mean, it's Yeah. Just like any other policy, you you go through it and you tweak it along the way. Yeah. Clay, what do you think? I was but I was serious with it. I I you have a unique perspective on it and I I really appreciate that. Yeah. I just appreciate the attention to detail which is why it's so long. I mean, it really doesn't leave any room for questioning

from what I can see. I mean, things always come up, but this is a really good policy. I'm Yep. I'm actually really happy with it. Yeah. I think there's been some great clarifications.

I think there's been some

some I still feel like I don't have a handle on on comparing it from the older, because there is a lot. But I I, you know, like I said, I think we can make changes down the road if we need to. The more pages you have actually, the harder it is to to keep it without having problems. So

I think it's leaps and bounds from what we used to have. Yeah. And as it's over the years, it just keeps getting better and better, but it's there to help the it's there level the playing field between the employer and the employees and the and it is the it's the what do you lack for better words it's the game plan that we have. Right. Length isn't the issue it's it's quantity or quality over quantity Mhmm. In my opinion.

It's better to have it referred to it. It's guideline.

I like it. I think it helps our department heads too because it gives them direction on how to handle. And in today's world with human resource and concerns and problems and everything, it it it gives them direction on what they need to do. Yeah.

And it hasn't it's it's helped them not have to be personal interpreters Absolutely. Because it's been cleaned up. And if they run into a problem, you just go to legal, clarify, and we add it in. Which overall lessens our liability. Correct? Absolutely. Yeah.

So So it sounds like the sooner we implement it The better.

Lead a motion. Yeah. If you're good. I'd entertain a

motion. I'd love to make a motion. Make a motion that we where is my number? Right there. 20 yeah. 26. We sorry. It was just the Oh, that's right. That's right. Why not? That we accept the amendments as currently written for the employee personnel manual. I will second.

How do we vote? Jay? Yes. John? Yes. Chris?

Yes. Jen

passes. Thanks, Clay. Yeah. Comments, you know. I just wanted to wake you up. Okay.

Let's now move on to agenda item nine, city manager report.

Just a few things, Mayor, before we talk about the budget for just a second. We're super excited that our 100 plus year old spring line, phase one, which is the county side, actually is going out to bid this week. The bid opening will be next month. We are looking forward to getting phase one of that project done in this calendar year. Super excited for that. The general plan, had a few of people inquire about why where we're at on the general plan. No, it was obviously not on tonight's agenda. We're getting that final document. It will be on the May 13 agenda for your review and possible approval. So that will circle back. Clay's right now in the process of gathering the final bids for the 925 South, the new road from on 925 South from 100 to 250 East, that project, will also finish, will be done, in this calendar year. So we're excited, to get that going. Water that'll have water sewer. That'll have every all in all infrastructure, and including the road, so at 925 South. In regards to some comments made earlier about parks, let's talk about parks for a second. The Tubison property that the staff calls it, that about 11.71 acres on Crow Mountain Road, we finally got it paid for in this fiscal year. That land alone was over $1,000,000, so we're currently collecting impact fees that the council will decide where they go long term. I know previously, we had decided we would be keeping those impact fees to help with the development of that park. And unless you guys tell us different, that's what we'll trudge towards. No, there's not a plan, in writing yet, but that will be something we work on with the council, the staff, the residents. But right now, we simply just don't have enough money, and we don't want to do, that park in, like, tenths. Like, it's just not feasible to do, like, an acre at a time. I mean, maybe we can do a third, maybe we can do a half. We know it's priority to the council, obviously, a priority to those living in that area, but we are collecting park impact fees that will help go towards that project long term. Okay. Sorry. I'm just skipping through. As far as the budget goes, a few minor tweaks since last month where we only met a couple of weeks ago. One thing I mentioned last month is I said there was no planned utility increases. That is for the city side. There is an increase in the central dispatch fee. In July, it will go from $3.30 a month to $3.40 a month. So I just wanna clarify that is not a city thing. That is a pass through fee, but the utility bill will increase by 10¢, the base fee in July. So just wanna be clear about that. That was adopted by a resolution twenty twenty five zero three back on March 2025. As far as the budget goes, we got our latest, the rural transportation investment fund road money. We got our current basically, our update for next year. Tweaked that a little bit on the expense side. The expense and the revenue side equal each other. We've tweaked that to $300,000. URS, the Utah Retirement System, gave us their new numbers for fiscal year twenty seven. Basically, tier one went down half percent and tier two went up half percent. Pretty negligible difference when you look at, but we actually have a lot more employees on tier two than we do on tier one. But there was a small change there. We made a mistake. I made a mistake in the streets line item. In physicals, 100 $4,000 rather than 400. So we've corrected that down. They don't need $4,000 for physicals. So we'll be thankful there. We did add in in the golf in the golf fund that tag marshal system that we talked about last month, we've added that in moving forward. We went out. I need your thoughts, counsel. The one that we went out, we went out and got bids on the roof for the historical cabin, as well as the lean to is not the right word. I don't know what we want to call that roof that's behind it to the east. Mhmm. The roof for the cabin would be $9,200. The roof for the overhang was $8,007.75. We're considering adding the cabin because we feel the cabin can't have a leak and ruin everything inside it, where that other building, I simply just don't know that we're gonna have enough funding to do that. But we do know for the future what the approximate would cost would be. I think, council, you guys have to decide if long term if we're keeping that. Like, I think as a staff, we're okay if that I don't even know what to call it. I don't know if pavilion is the right word. I don't know what we wanna call it. Canopy. Canopy. We'd be totally okay if it went away, but we would obviously need to store those items somewhere else. But as you can see, they're not really being stored well there right now anyway. So is it serving a purpose? Should we be removing them somewhere else? So, I'm not really comfortable including that roof when we need to make decisions on what you guys want to do with that thing long term. But we are worried about, I believe I had sent some photos about the with the cabin roof. The cabin roof is in really, really bad shape.

So Justin, is there any way next month to have an agenda item where we specifically talk about these aging buildings? What they're gonna cost? What that looks like?

We've got so many different ones and it's just I think our hope would be, Jen, if it's okay with you, is we I would go back to all the department heads and tell them to create a long and short term plan on each one of their buildings, that we could bring to you guys long term. You know, what we've done recently, what they need to do in the next, you know, one or two years, five years, ten years, they have a lot better feel. You know, I mean, like Chief Hunt, they've been doing so much work down to the fire station. Chief Allen's overdoing some improvements right now on the interior of the PD. If it's okay with you, I will ask them to circle the wagon on their buildings and we'll come back with a long term plan.

That will include the cabins and the youth center and all of these touchy feely.

Council, I'm struggling on the the heritage cabin. Like, what do we do with that? That is not completely historical. So what is the value? What it doesn't have the original roof is my understanding. Door. I'm struggling that it's just as simple as putting some two by fours in there. I'm not sure. So I'll look to your guidance for what you would like me to take back to the staff. I look at the cabin and go if we're keeping stuff in the cabin, we have to put on a roof. Right? Like, we have to keep that. What is what is the goal of the little tiny cabin?

You have to tell me. I don't I don't know. And these are things I'm meaning, like, that would be nice to be able to have a discussion about these specific things. The old

cabins, the old buildings, and We can certainly bring those back. I think there's a difference of opinion on, for example, the heritage, the little the little mini cabin. The others, I think, is pretty straightforward. We'll come up with a plan and bring that back for your guys' consideration. But there's just some of those we simply don't know what to do with. The Heritage one being one of them because it's not a usable building. Like, it's never used. I don't know how any other way to say it. Has it ever been used? Clay, you've been here. I don't Not since it's been moved.

I mean, it hasn't been moved that long. It was used over there for a as yet.

So other than storage, what was it used for before that? It was even before my time. Okay. So It was moved pre thousand Moving to the point that it's been some time.

Yeah. It was It's been pre 2000. But I don't know why, like, it's kinda hiding in Heritage Park, almost which is a blessing. That's so that no one tries to use it or but Tell me. Tell me. That's why I just don't know that that building right now is a liability. I don't know any other way to say it.

It is bad. Like, it is really bad. To answer your question, it's a shed in somebody's backyard. Yeah. Then they donated it to the city and they moved it over there. So it was, you know, it was Someone probably built it for their shed. Well, they probably built it for well, according to them, it was a part of the one of the old cabins. There's still old cabins that are around that was built with the old fort years ago and they moved them into sheds. I mean, there's two or three of them I can think of right now that are still in the city. And according to mister Gittens, that's what he was told me that was one of the old cabins that was in the old fort at one time. But then as people moved out of the cabin, they made it into their shed, moved into a house, and that's how it became a shed in somebody's backyard. Okay. It was right over here, wasn't it, Clay? Yeah. By the canal. Yeah. Right there by the canal. One what? One fifty South first East plus or minus one fifty East plus or minus. Yeah. Behind the Roscoe. Dave?

Yeah. I don't know, King. When you talk about these cabins,

underneath that

I guess my question to you, Kevin, is that when you look at David's, we already have historical logs from one cabin. How many logs from historical cabins are are you wanting to have? Like,

Like Well, it sounds like the ones we have aren't even being cared for. So

And I mean and I was told by I was told that the the heritage cabin was disassembled, hauled down there, and then it didn't even though the logs and stuff were numbered, it didn't come back together like they had hoped. So I can't speak for the historical value of that cabin, but I wonder just not normal roof, not the sun front door. Guys, I the the the liability alone on that building scares me more than any other building in the city. Yeah. You've seen the over exaggerating it.

You're you're talking about the one by the down on 1st West.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Not the little one down at Heritage. Right? We had church house on the corner. Right.

And then that was part of the church. It was the boy scout.

Yeah. He's talking he's talking central part. And I know Dave Warner got him, you know, in the same restaurant with

Would it be any benefit, Justin, to put, like, you know, we got some of that old orange fence, fence that thing off so people

aren't even getting around it somehow. Would that be any benefit or is that more of a liability? I think we need to do something. Like, right now, we only have caution tape around it. I think we've got to do something till a decision could be made. Like, I've sent you the videos, you know, my concerns. Right. I'm not gonna harp on it anymore. Yeah. Right. We'll get something around it. We'll come up with a plan for the buildings to bring back to you guys long term for each one of the buildings. Some of those, you know, we'll do that. As far as the budget goes, council meeting with the insurance broker next week, we'll get an update there of where our building insurance and auto insurance comes in. I'm also meeting with the health insurance broker before probably the next council meeting. We'll have should have some some numbers there. So we're slowly trudging along on the some updates there and it'll just keep coming back to you. Unless you have any questions, council mayor, that's all I have for tonight. I'd just like to ask the council if

to what degree we we want to try to squeeze some money out of this budget towards this park or parks in general for the development. We heard from the rec center last week how they're kind of at capacity for their space and this park would definitely help with a lot of those outdoor programs. You know, if the park's gonna be 10 or $11,000,000, we've got to come up with, I'd say, at least $4.05, 6,000,000 ourselves as a city and if we can find a 50% match on grants. But that means we've got to come up with several million dollars ourselves eventually and, you know, I I don't think it's it's probably right to sit on that and wait six, eight years or more to get that part developed. I don't think we need to do it right away either, but I'm just interested in thinking about how do we kind of anticipate and build towards that impact fees will certainly keep accumulating and that's a great resource. Will that be enough to get us to the No. 4 or 5,000,000 that we need to get?

So I think a couple of things. So we're always watching grants. There are grants available. I think the one thing that we have to know though or do that I if you ask me what our most what we should do right now, we need a plan for that park. Now, can we do that in conjunction with the USU vision project? I'm I guess, I'm hopeful that it could be done with their because in order to apply for the grant, they need to know what the park's going to be and we need to know what the park's going to cost. For sure. And I think so if we could come up with a plan in the next year, I think that would be really big so that we know what because we come up with a plan, we can get an engineering estimate. Like, we can know plus or minus where that thing's going to really be, how many phases that we could do that park over. I think the plan is the key for now. And then we could start looking at grants and coming back on council. There's this grant, but just know, you know, there are opportunities that are like a $50.50. But we already know, are we prepared for a 7 figure match? Not this fiscal year, but, like, we just need to I think we have to have a plan because you have to put in the plan exactly what you're building, why you're doing it. You know, I think you can put in there it's got this amenity, this amenity, this parking stall, this bathroom and here's the estimated cost because right now, we simply don't know. And I will defer to you, John. Do do you think that the vision

part with USU, we could include the design of a park or a park? I think that's up to us. If we want to make that a priority as part of that visioning. We tell them that's one of our priorities and they'll that they can do that. Right? And I look at like those what an awesome opportunity for those kids to possibly design well, they're not kids. Young adults.

To possibly come back with some options for

a 12 acre park. 100%. Super cool. Yeah. And I I agree a 100% with you, Justin. And I think that's one of the next important steps. The only thing I'm thinking about is we're looking at the the coming fiscal year city budget is knowing that a plan is gonna be in place, say, a year from now. Hopefully, we'll have a much better idea of what that park is gonna look like. Do will we also have set aside some money that we can start looking for grants? If we have zero in the in the next year's budget for park development, then we're gonna have to wait till the next year to even start thinking about that. If we set aside some, a quarter million, a half million, 1,000,000, I don't know what we could squeeze out of this budget in order to facilitate that or if that's enough of a priority to set that aside so we can be ready with some additional funding or if that's gonna make any difference at all. So right right Having that conversation, I think, is useful now. So

you here's what I would say. You don't include anything in the budget. Here's why. We just keep accumulating impact fees. So right now, we have about 400,000 set aside. That's up to you where you wanna put those. If you guys already know, like, we're going to rathole keep ratholing those impact fees, they're just gonna keep accumulating. That's a restricted fund. They don't go away. They have a specific purpose. Like, that number is going to come is going to keep climbing with every new building that comes in until you allocate those fund to a project. So right now, we already have 400,000 in the park impact fund that's accumulated this year after paying the land off.

Well, and that's great, but we're gonna need 2 to 3,000,000 before we can even start looking for a $50.50 match to do half of the park. And so 2 to 3,000,000 is a bunch beyond 400,000. So how are we getting from 400 to 2 to 3,000,000 is my question. Are are the impact fees gonna get us there say in a year or two or accumulating slower than that or quicker than that? Do we wanna set aside an extra 200,000 or 300,000 out of this year's budget so that we're squirreling that away and ready for park development when we've got a plan in place.

That that's the question I'm just posing to the council. I'm I'm not sure I'm comfortable with where that 11,000,000 number came from, which I wanna make sure that it doesn't

So the 11,000,000 is when we when we talked to we talked to several other cities about just trying to get estimates of what they were doing with their new parks. And they all came back with, you better figure about 1,000,000 an acre. And so that is where that came from was just talking to what Layton and some of those other cities spent on their parks with parking lots, bathrooms, infrastructure. Now, could it be a lot less of that? It could, but we are just going by the estimate that came from other cities on their new parks. Now, if it is just new parks. Now, if it's just fields, but asphalt is expensive, are you is it gonna have an asphalt path, pathway all the way around? Is it going to have sprinkling system? So, that 11,000,000 came from like four or five other cities and they're telling us what they spent. Some spent 250,000 an acre and it was grass only. Some spent well over 1,000,000. So we're like, okay, like, where's that number? But it's hard to come up with a number too not knowing what amenities are going in that park Yeah. Other than we had talked to pickleball courts, parking lots, bathrooms, fields, walking path, biking path. I mean, there's a lot that can go in there. Can we get it off of that number? We can go out and put in grass tomorrow. That's where the plan needs to come into play. And that's why we're like that's why when we just talk to other cities, they're like, where did you come up with? A million an acre sounds a lot. Yeah. But we also know when you go up and look at the when you look at that property, we have a terracing problem. There's gonna be a big excavation impact on that property, terracing it, like, to make it usable. As one might think. It's kinda crazy actually when you look at it. So we know there will be a lot of excavation up there. We wanna make sure there's infrastructure up there, water and sewer. So that's why I think we're like, we would love to get a plan to then go, okay, what's the real truth? What's the real engineering estimate on this project? What if it comes back at 5,000,000? Perfect. Hallelujah. We it's a lot easier to get 2 and a half than to 5. But if you guys come back and say, we just simply want fields. We don't want amenities. That changes everything. We go go in a hurry, but you've got to have parking.

Yeah. And see, I'm just thinking about the impact that it would be for the people there. Are they are they worried that they're are they interested in having all 11 and a half acres developed right now? Probably not. Would they be happy with one small little corner having a start of a park? I think they probably would be, even if that was just a start. So I think using USU to try to get a plan, but put it in a way where we could actually do a little chunk of it that wouldn't need to be the whole thing, could be done over time, then we're at least helping the people up there be able to utilize that area.

I'll follow you guys' lead council. I mean, if like, but are they wanting playgrounds or are they wanting fields or I mean, it sounds like they're doing a John knows. Like, sounds like they're doing their own survey and that type of stuff. What I don't wanna do is go in and go, I wanna appease people and do a half acre park and then it sets us back on 10 and a half other acres. Like, we gotta have a plan, like, that, okay, we can do it in a third or we can do it, you know, because I know the fear of some of the people I've talked to up there is they're like, my kids are getting older every day. By the time you have that park bill, all my children will be gone. Yeah. I get it. So their needs are changing. Today, they want a playground. Ten years from now, they want pickleball courts because their kids are aging. So I our feeling is that we have to have a plan so we can see how it can be divvied up, what cost will actually be. But we haven't played that a priority too because the land wasn't paid for. Now the land is paid for. Land is paid for. Now we are raffling money to be used for that. I understand John's comments about setting side of money because 7 figures is a lot. We already know that project is 7 figures. It's how many 7 figures is that project. Right? And then it's also too, you guys have to decide there's gonna be a million well, there's gonna be 17,000 opinions, 16,000 opinions on what that part should really and what should be included in it and what amenities you guys are gonna have to decide that because playgrounds are expensive. If I recall, the Forrester Acres one was like quarter million dollars. Moly. Do we need a Forrester Acres playground up there? We're gonna need a really nice one just for the number of people that use it. We're not gonna want a little tiny one.

Is it also worth considering the rec center needs to have some more to expand? I was under the understanding that we were going to utilize this land for soccer games or softball or A 100%. So I mean we need to keep that in mind too. Yep. And do the residents understand? Yeah. They know.

Okay. Yeah. Well and and they know that that their input matters. They also know they don't have the final say. Right? That's the city decision on what that design is gonna look like. But that's part of what the USU project is gonna be is helping us figure that out. We'll have input, of course, Justin, Clay, the whole gang is gonna have some say in that. One of the things we have to remember is that we can't probably just go in and build a half acre park cheap and be done for what because all of the infrastructure that's gotta go into that. Right? The water, sewer, parking. Mhmm. And so you've gotta put a lot of money in upfront just to get all of that built in, the terracing, everything else that's gotta happen up there. Right. So it's not like we can just plan for a million and say Right. Let's Well, you can't phase it because you can't get some parts done and have kids playing while you've got construction going on for the next phase. Like Yeah. We might be able to phase it, Justin was talking about, in half or maybe in three parts, but that that'd be the most we could phase it. But Right. Which might be the way to go. Right? That helps us keep things moving along. But

Yeah. The way you would phase it too, if you have like a playground, you'd put it on the other end of where their construction would be so that you keep the kids away from that. That'd be more like what your fields and stuff would be, I would assume. That's just what I've observed in the past.

But I think we're probably at the point where I mean, and this will all be part of our conversation. It's it's not just gonna be fields only. This is gonna be, like, kind of one of our jewels in the city. Right? Along with Forest Rakers and Mac Park. This is gonna kinda be a third major kind of thing. So it's it's gonna be not not the cheap end of the the price estimate.

How long did it take to do Forrester Acres and was it done in phases? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Things like continuous.

Yeah. I think I mean, 12 acres is a lot. Can we do it in phases a 100%? It's just gonna be coming back to parking. Like, if the if you put fields in first, we have to have parking for those fields. Fact. Like right? Like, I mean, you know, Brett's envisioning, like, let's say, Forrester Acres too, other than it's gonna be Toonism Park. Like, we need fields up there, but also we've been hearing paths. We want a biking path. We want a walking path. We want pickleball courts. You wait and you put into 16 rather than eight because we were thankful to go from zero to eight. You know, so I think that the goal of that is I think is to include an amenity for everybody in that park. Right? Like, it's not just fields only. It's going to include playgrounds and and anything that we can in there. But we gotta have a plan. I think until we have a plan, we simply have nothing. Just be wasting money if we don't have a plan. So maybe that's John, that's where we go is where we're going to allocate funding to design that park.

Get the momentum going and keep it

going. But I just wasn't sure. Yeah. But you assume vision, like, how if we could how much we could get them to do part design wise. That'll be a good question when they're here.

In a few weeks. They can do a full part design. Sorry about that. They can do a full part design.

They were and sit design. They were pretty detailed when they did Millville's. Yeah. Last October. They did a great job. Very detailed.

Could it be some kind of an internship for all of those students up there that they get credit for it? Do they set up a design project?

So that so we actually used the interns before we used the department up there with a design of another park, and they actually came back with, like, 20 different designs. Each student did their own. I just was waiting till I hear what the USU vision plan is first and how we can incorporate that before we looked at like the intern goal. Because if we can incorporate this all into one, that would be awesome. Like, but I'm still a little hazy on what they want to do or can do and that was one of my first questions is can we make that park a priority or the design of that park along with everything else they're doing? Absolutely.

I think we can and should. I mean we're gonna get hundred and hundred plus pages of designs and drawings and so let's dedicate a good chunk of that to that park. I think we can for sure plan on that happening already. So my only question, I guess, in all of this conversation was, is there any interest in setting aside some money from this year's budget to start building towards that. That was that was where this all started. I didn't wanna have a whole conversation on the part, but other than to say, we know this money's gotta come from somewhere sometime. And if we don't set it aside in this coming year, there's nothing until the next year.

I also have to come back to you with the number if we if we balance and right now, I still have a few unknowns of exactly where we sit in the room. Just wondering where we come from and how much.

You got three big projects going on this year.

And maybe that's something we evaluate over the next month and come back and say, well, no, we'll have a better picture.

Yeah. Maybe we'll know better in a month for sure. Yeah. But Yeah. And that just comes down to the council's priorities. Right? We heard from all of our all the departments and everything that all those departments is asking for. It's useful and need

and but this wasn't mentioned by any of the departments, but it's also useful and needful. Well, as we go ahead, sir. No. No. I was just gonna say rec center did mention that this is a growing need for them. So Well, I think as we progress with the budget, I mean, that was just a presented budget, a preliminary budget. Right. And I think that in our next budget session, we can start we can actually put that in at any time and and see where it goes. I think, I mean, and then we can come back and once we start narrowing it down, we go through that process.

I mean, there's nothing from a all of us from doing that. For sure. And I understand the park is not number one priority in the city. We've got lots of other priorities too. So just pitching it out there since it hadn't been mentioned before.

But we'll certainly be talking about it again next month and in July and June.

Alright. Now we're gonna move on to council member and mayor reports.

Anybody anxious to go first?

I can go first. Nothing else to report on the royalty. We just met them tonight. The Arts Council registration is still ongoing for the Chalk Art Festival. We don't have as many applicants this year, so if I could ask you guys to spread the word. I I don't know if you follow the art city council on Instagram or Facebook but they've got their posts that they have that we could just forward on. We've got a lot of room for a lot of entries so we would like to see it be more than last year. I don't know why last year we had to turn people away. There were a lot, but this year there hasn't been. I don't think people are thinking health days yet. We're not in that mode. So hopefully, we get more, but if you guys could just help me. And I can even forward you guys their post, their graphic or whatever. Jen, can you send us that? We haven't posted anything. Like, we haven't put out anything on that at all. Yep. For sure. I'll send it to you guys, and we can just get it out there. Summer concerts have been filled. The dates are June. We're excited we've got three new acts coming. The fourth one is on the twenty seventh is Jerica Jamieson and that is going to coordinate with the July. That's gonna be a kickoff for that. So we're excited to have her and that will just be very patriotic. She'll have her whole band, not just her, so it's gonna be really good. So, I'll send that stuff to you guys and you guys help me get that out there too. It's something we want to keep alive and grow and we're trying to figure out how to get the word out. It's free. It's a fun way to spend an evening. Good music. It's local talent. So

Absolutely.

That's all I have to report.

Thank you.

Would you like me to go next, Mayor? Yes, please.

We're so excited about mosquitoes. Oh, boy.

They are out. I went to the mosquito meeting, an abatement meeting and everything. Just they like to know all know the mosquitoes are out, in case you haven't noticed. But however, take note that they're not carrying the West Nile virus at this time. So but however, they're they're actually out doing their prevention and measures with them and everything a lot sooner than they would like to be, so they're kind of a little bit concerned with that, especially if it keeps going on for a long year and stuff. They're putting out notices. You've seen some of those notices on some of the things you should do around your your house and stuff with like standing water and stuff like that. So there'll be more information coming out as this thing progresses on during the summertime. Kudos to those who did the Easter egg hunt, the Youth Council, the Chamber of Commerce, everybody involved with that police department were there and everything. Travis got his exercise in, but kudos to that. It was really a great event. There was a lot of people there. It seemed like it it amazes me though how fast that thing goes down. I mean, go find the eggs done. And I and I had to kinda laugh. I've seen a thing on a Easter egg hunt in in Minnesota where they put the Easter eggs out and then it snowed 15 inches. So at least we weren't like that. So and then also you guys all noticed that Chief Allen has his lieutenant position open and so we're on the recruitment thing with that and and hopefully we'll get some good candidates for that as well. And as far as the fire side of it, there's been a lot of meetings have it, but I'm gonna defer to the mayor on that one because he sits on that the fire board and he's got some information that he would he'll share with you. Correct, Mayor? Correct. So other than that, onward or an upward?

We got some awesome video of that Easter egg hunt there.

We got some drone footage there, Justin. That looks great. Any idea how many people were there by anybody's estimate? A lot? Bunches. Bunches. But it was good. Good activity. Good city. Good city activity.

Yeah. And the chamber was grateful for everybody's support. I'll just jump in and go, mayor, if that's alright. Yeah. So another success, huge success, and so the chamber is really grateful for all the support on that. Their next event is the golf tournament coming up on May 6. I think that's kind of a smaller crowd, but also an equally enthusiastic crowd for that. And so the local businesses are excited for that coming up. The trails committee, recently, the countywide Bongo shoreline trail committee met and a decision was made on an engineering firm to make an offer to an engineering firm to manage that the trail construction over the next couple years and so that is proceeding. The Smithfield segment again is not planned for development until twenty twenty twenty seven, but they'll be working on the North Logan segment moving towards Hyde Park this year. So that's coming along well. And we got the update from the library last week. They're doing great things. They are working to fund a lot of their things through grants. Like, they're digging up their own grants. And I know they're one of the smallest departments in the city, but I think they're kinda doing outsized efforts in terms of their work because of all the grant money they're getting. They are growing and they're already pushing at the seams of what a lot of us feels like a new library, but already it's not new. And so they're already pushing at the seams and they're probably that's not too far down the road we're gonna need to think about what we wanna do in terms of expanding their facility. Their outreach is really great and keeps growing by leaps and bounds every year. It's just more and more people getting involved, and that's doing in great part to to Sean's leadership there and their development of their program. So things are going great. That's all I've got, mayor. Thanks. Justin,

do you by chance have that letter that I forwarded to you? I know I'm putting you on the spot up from the library, the Utah library. Oh, yeah. That that award.

Yeah.

Yeah. Thanks for mentioning that, Mayor. The state of Utah library group has recognized the library as a quality library. And I understand there's a number of factors that go into that, but that's just the level of work that they're doing at the library. So Doing an awesome job. Thanks for reminding me about that.

Alright. I'll jump in. We had a great showing of the Youth Council at the egg hunt. That was a lot of fun. Happened quick. And currently, the Youth Council advisors are currently reviewing applicants for Youth Council and the Executive Council. There's been about 25 applicants so far, and those applications will continue until May 1. So anyways, great things happening there. The seniors are doing well. It's fun visiting with them. Every time I've visited with them, I've at least had one or two people that have just told me how grateful they are for the interior upgrades that happened there. So they definitely wanted me to let you know. Thank you, City. Thank you, Rec Center. Thank you, Justin, for making that a priority. They're really enjoying that. So they're super grateful bunch and they have a fun time. So we also, as Jeff Gittens mentioned, we had a great presence at the recent training by the State Historic Preservation Office. I was able to attend Jim Marshall, and then four of the people from the, for the Preservation Commission were there. And that was kind of fun. One of the reasons for going to that, and thank you to John Engler for kind of bringing it up, and that is there is a Utah Main Street program that helps cities revitalize their older and historic commercial districts. And so that's something that I think we're interested in doing. I think it's something that could help Smithfield City and I think it's something that could kind of work in conjunction with our little developing relationship with with the USU as well. And with the combination of those two things, I think we can accomplish some great things. I asked I asked Jeff Gittens what he thought and he was very, very supportive of that. And I think that's been something that's been brought up in the past, but we just didn't have people that were pushing that through. And so, with the blessing and encouragement of Mayor Rudy and City Manager Justin Lewis, John Engler and myself have created the Planning and Community Engagement Committee. So we'll be focusing on some of those things. We'll be working with the USU group, working with the Utah Main Street group, and and working with the community. So that'll be kind of a fun, fun opportunity, I think. We'll be meeting for our first time this next week. And we've got a couple people from the planning commission that'll be involved. And then down the road, we're hoping to have some presence with different residents that will help us kind of represent their part of the city. So, good things there. I foresee some great things happening there. It was also good to see the America two fifty committee was able to get a grant cost of some of the activities. That was a good thing to see. So anyways, that's most everything that I had. As far I know we talked about the name of the we talked about the Rock Store City History Museum. My personal preference would be naming that the Smithfield City Rock Store Museum. When you say Rock Store City History Museum, sometimes it might be Museum. When you say Rock Store City History Museum, sometimes it might be confused with Rock Store, you know, thinking Rock Store is the city. But by putting Smithfield City Rock Store Museum, I think it would work better, or just calling it the Rock Store Museum for short. So that's everything that I've got. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll go ahead and get mine. Historic Society wise, I think we covered that one really well earlier. Just as far as the Tree Committee, appreciate everybody's, support on making the changes that we were able to make in the, in the, documentation that we had for them. We will not be having, either in April, that day has already passed, but then also in May, unless otherwise they do not plan on having a tree committee meeting April or May, but things are progressing well and are fully planned for the Arbor Day poster committee. First of all, beef before that even happens on April 25, they will be fully supporting the hand handing out of trees from the Smithfield Library on the twenty fifth between eleven and three for the for the the trees that are being handed out for Earth Day. Then for Arbor Day, the poster art contest judging will happen on April 27. It'll be happening at the LDS Church 200 South 75 East, 6PM that night. So they'll be judging the the posters that have come from the grade schools. We'll be taking care of that in preparation and prior to health days. Then obviously, health days on the ninth, they will be fully equipped with a booth, and therefore health days. And then they will also be participating in and asking for anybody that wants to be available to assist with it for the May 20 planning or planting of trees at Mac Park that is going to be going on. So mark that down if you're available. They will certainly take any assistance that would help with those, tree plantings as well. So I think that's all I've got. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

First, I want to recognize the upcoming day of service on Saturday, April 25. This is an effort in partnership with America two fifty. I've asked Barbara Kent to kind of spearhead some of those things. So if you guys are looking for activities to do, I'd like to refer you to the Just Serves. So it's gonna be highly that's the most effective way to kinda understand what's what the needs are. So they're gonna be collaborating and putting that. So if you if you could look at the JustServe app, please reach out to me or Barbara Kent or Lisa Schmuel, if you guys have any other questions with that stuff. So I'd also like to Chris mentioned this briefly, but I I wanted to congratulate the two America Two Fifty. I know Justin spent a lot of time helping Lisa apply for this grant. There are some headaches there, but they did get a $2,500 support for the city for the events connected to America two fifty. We appreciate their continued investment in our community and the partnership in helping us make these events possible. I know we've talked briefly about health days, the leak this week long initiative. I also wanted to touch talk about the Cinco de Mayo celebration planned in the library grounds on Tuesday, the fifth. And then that all collaborates up to the May 9. Let's see. Jay mentioned about I wanted to provide a brief update about the fire district. There's new conversations concerning a voucher system that each municipality will receive monies, to fund that system. This is a evolving process and there's multiple cities working through collaborative and development to find a consistent approach to how that fire district's gonna occur. If not, additional information as that becomes clear and defined, I'll share that more with you. But I think that's all I have. Anything else?

I don't think anything.

I'd entertain a motion to adjourn.

I will make a motion that we adjourn.