Smithfield City, Utah City Council Meetings, Wed, March 11, 2026

Welcome, everyone. Public notice is given that the Smithfield City Council will meet in a regularly scheduled meeting at 96 South Main Smithfield, Utah, on Wednesday, 03/11/2026. The meeting will begin at six p. M. Sharp. I'd like to turn the time over to John Engler for the Pledge of Allegiance, thought, and prayer.

Please stand and join me in the pledge. Pledge of Allegiance to the flag

of The United States Of America,

Our father in heaven, we're grateful to gather together as a council tonight or on behalf of the city, and we pray that as we meet and discuss that we might speak with kindness and respect for one another and in the best interest of the city and its citizens. We're grateful for a country of freedom, and we pray that we might always seek to protect and defend that freedom in all the ways that are necessary. So grateful for Thy many gifts to us in the name of Thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

You want me to talk? No. Oh, then it goes back

Item number one, approval of the city council meeting minutes from 02/11/2026 and approval of the city council minutes from 02/25/2026. I'd entertain a motion.

I'd like to make a motion, Mayor, that we approve the City Council meeting minutes from 02/11/2026.

And also,

approve the minutes from the meeting held on 02/25/2026.

I think we can approve both of those in one, correct? Thank you.

I second.

And how do we vote? Jay? Yes. John? Yes.

Chris? Yes. Jen? Yes. Todd?

Yes. I'd like to make just a quick a quick statement here. I want to address the concerns we've been hearing regarding the sidewalks near Sunrise Elementary. The city is aware of the concerns of the residents, especially with the recent changes in the school boundaries and the lack of bus service in this area. Sidewalks are something we will be reviewing as part of the upcoming budgeting process. However, it is important for the public to understand that installing a sidewalk is not always as simple as pouring concrete. In many locations, the city does not currently own enough right of way, which may require land acquisition. Projects can also involve tree removal, impacts to existing landscaping and develop properties, and possibly utility relocation. We hear the concerns and understand why this issue matters to residents. It will be reviewed as part of our budgeting process, and we will evaluate what options are feasible moving forward. I'd like to at this time invite, Brooklyn Evans and Maddie Smith to give us their s u y c

update. Hi. My name is Brooke. So I'm just gonna start with what we've done in the past and then Maddie's gonna cover what we're going to be doing. So, on March 6, we had our last meeting. And then we filled all the Easter eggs for our next activity in April. And then we is that better? Okay. And then we started we handed out our exec sign ups for next year, and then we started filming video to put in the video announcements at Skyview just so we can recruit more people for next year. And then we had our exec capital trip. We were all able to take the executive council down to Salt Lake City, and we met with our representative Peterson. And we were able to go on the floor of the house. It was a really cool experience being able to see kind of how the legislative process works. We also got to go and open see the new open building that's, like, directly across from the Capitol Building. It's going to be the new, like, Utah Museum, and then that was just really cool to see. And then March 11 was the America two fifty event, and we helped with setup and cleanup. And a lot of people said that they loved that there was the elementary kids art and the professional art, they loved seeing that like mixture, and they said that there were a lot of people there and it was a good community event, so, yeah.

Awesome. Hi, I'm Maddie Smith, I'm on the Executive Youth Council as well. So this weekend, March 13 through the fifteenth, we're going to go to the Leadership Council, Conference at USU. It's always a fun experience. We get to listen to speakers and then go have a nice dinner and a nice dance. So we're looking forward to that. It'll be Thursday, Friday, and then in morning, Saturday. And then April 4 is going to be our Easter egg hunt at Skyview. We did it at Skyview last year and it was a lot easier to there's more space and it's better for everyone rather than trying to squeeze it all inside somewhere or at Macbork. So we're excited for that. Like Brooklyn said, we filled up the Easter eggs and we're prepared for that. We have no meeting during April because of spring break. And then our closing social will be May 5 and it will be at 04:30 and we'll be serving Costa Vida and just playing some fun games, getting prepared for next year as well. So yeah. Thank you.

Thank you very much for much. Thank you. Congratulations. Thanks, Maddie and Brooke.

So at this time, I'd like to open for public comment on items that are not on the agenda. So that opens now at 06:08 p. M.

My name is Michael Nichols. I've lived here since 1997. I live on Canyon Road. Bright moon and some extracurricular activity, apparently. Opened up my window at 09:00, we sleep with the windows open, looked out and saw a flame in the sky. The moon was lit up. You couldn't quite see what the distance was or the scale or anything else. I thought I was seeing things. I got my wife out of bed and said, come look at this. She said, yeah. There's something there. And we didn't know what it was. So I went down and got my binoculars, went out. The the the thing that I saw was really flaming. It wasn't just a candle burning in the sky or anything else. It was really flaming. It finally went out. I had my binoculars. I followed it as it went down over the houses going down Canyon Road, and it disappeared. The next morning, coming back from town, I found one on in the road out by our house. And later in the day, I found another one. I brought the first one down here to the city. No one was in the in the police department at the time. I left my number and explained to the receptionist here what was going on. She said fine. I, later that day, went for a walk, found another one about 50 yards from our house on Birch Creek Road going up around the corner from us. And so that would have made four, the one I picked up from the road, the two in the sky. And well, anyway, this is number five. This was about 15 feet from our house today. It's probably from last Tuesday. My guess is how it got there, I don't know, except that they come from the sky. And when you live in a hill against the hillside that has cheatgrass on it that goes poof if you spit on it. This is not a good thing. When I talked to a policeman finally up here, they sort of looked at me incredulously like, well, what's the problem? I asked them if anything was illegal. They couldn't say anything was or wasn't really definitively. But I think this I understand what it is. Somebody wants to celebrate something or announce a birth or celebrate or whatever it is, but it's gonna come at somebody else's expense. And I would hope that if the city doesn't have something in place to be able to deal with this, we should. The problem may be, in part, that these are these particular ones were probably launched from above above Lloyd's Place, Lloyd Facer. And since the pay since that road's been paved up there and there's sort of a parking area, the traffic has increased about 4000%. I only exaggerate by about 2,000. And it is a it's a it's a zoo. There's an awful lot of stuff going on. But this one, you know, I looked online and they're supposed to be flame proof, etcetera, etcetera. The one that was in the sky all lit up was not flame proof. I mean, it was burning. I thought there was a plane on fire in the sky because I had no sense of distance, no sense of scale. I couldn't judge that. But this is pretty scary for those of us who live in that zone, if you will, along Summit Creek where we've got a lot of stuff that could burn. The hillside behind our house could go, like I said, in no time at all once that cheatgrass turns. We were fortunate to probably have some rain the week before these things went up. We haven't had any sense, really. And the forecast isn't good, is it, for much of the rest of the year. So I would like to call this to your attention. I think it's something that needs to be looked at. I've never heard back from the police on any matter in this regard. I I asked the policeman, as I said, whether it was illegal or not. He illegal or not to send burning materials up into the sky. If it's sort of like the way that fireworks restrictions get enforced, I don't have much hope. So I would hope you might address this. I won't leave this or should I not?

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for your information.

Yes. Yes. I just got here. Sorry. I'm late. But my name is Mikael Heckle. I am from the Stonehaven neighborhood, and I was here last month about sidewalks with for the kids. I just wanted to update you on how things are going. So last night, we had a meeting with the person that's in charge of buses from the district, Jaren Gunnell, as well as the school resource officer, and the school principal, and the school safety coordinator up at Sunrise. And things are really not looking in our favor to get a bus. And the main reason we're looking for a bus is because right now there's not a safe walk from any any of the streets South Of 600 South and then going up towards Sunrise, we're still missing. So we were just wanting to get maybe some updates if that's been talked about or, maybe enlist your help if if sidewalks can't be put in for this upcoming school year, if we can get maybe some more push towards the school district to help us with a bus until we can get a safe walk. So I just wanted to let you know how that's been going.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks.

Any other comments? I'd like to close the public comment section at 06:15 p m. Moving on to item three, discussion and possible vote on the request by Rigo Shapiro for approval of the final plat for the Birch Creek Business Park phase 2, a two lot unit subdivision located at 475 West 600 South, zoned g c general commercial. Brian? Sorry. I'm sorry, Brian.

I have been asked to represent Rio and Jesse on this. Essentially, they're doing phase two. They've met all the code. They plan on starting construction, if approved, at the April or the May. But if you can see behind you that, essentially, they've met all of the standards and they're only doing two buildings rather than more subdivision because they don't have a through road, which keeps them and limits the number of units they can break that into. So that's why they have two full buildings rather than smaller subdivision as in the first phase.

Any questions? That was my question. Yep.

You answered it. Yeah. The the planning commission went through. They they asked additional questions. The planning commission sent this on as suggested approval. So that's now in your hands to debate and discuss.

Remind me just a little bit, I know that in one the areas over there, there was a little bit of concern of water pressure, and I don't recall

whether or not that was resolved or if it applied to this particular site. So They did in the very beginning. Okay. And they clearly resolved it by one, rezoning to an entirely different zone, and two, building about a half a mile worth of mainline pipe in the city streets. So Excellent. Thank you. Didn't they loop that water line so there's plenty of water down there now? Yeah. They've made it. In fact, they've extended it, so now I think there's four or five other lots on the way that are gonna benefit because of the increase in the water line. Uh-huh. And they pay they also paid for it to go under the tracks that enlargement. So Right. All to make it so that they'd have the correct amount of water pressure and size needed for that development.

And I was here when the Planning Commission met and so any questions that I had were answered then. So I don't have any questions.

Well, I know that on the West Side that Go ahead. Residents are there, are interested in maintaining as much agricultural land and atmosphere as possible. But in my recent meetings with a number of Westside residents, they understood that this kind of South corner of town, the very, very South Corner 6 South and south of that was probably going to be commercial development. And so just in interest of representing their voice I think they would be in support of commercial development continuing along 6 South. Maybe not further north than that but along 6 South certainly. I think they would at least the way I understood their point of view, they would be in support of, in favor of that. Sorry to interrupt you, Jay. Nope, I interrupted you. Sorry.

You're good.

Everything around it is zoned commercial. So Yeah. I think it has been for some time. Other than the Hansen Dairy right there.

Any other comments? Entertain a motion.

I would like to make a motion that we approve resolution 2026Dash02. Oh, nope. Sorry. Wrong one. That we approve the final plat for Birch Creek Business Park, Phase 2.

I'll second that.

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

Yes. Jen? Yes.

Todd? Yes.

That passes.

Item number four discussion and possible vote on Resolution twenty twenty six dash zero to a resolution appointing Jay Downs as Smithfield City trustee on the Cash Mosquito Abatement Board of Trustees.

I was so excited to get you on that abatement.

What's all the buzz about? Right.

I thought Jen was going to argue with you about having not pretending to do that instead.

You can have mosquitoes. And

position bites.

Ouch.

I'd entertain a motion.

I make a motion that we support Resolution twenty twenty six dash zero two appointing Jay Downs as city trustee on the Cash Mosquito Abatement Board of Trustees.

I'll second

How do we vote? Jay? Yeah.

Yes.

John? All in. Yes. Chris? For sure. Yes. Jen. Yes. Todd.

Yes. That passes. Agenda item number five discussion and possible vote on Resolution twenty twenty six dash zero three a resolution to inform the state of Utah Water Quality Board of actions taken concerning the municipal wastewater planning program. MWP report for 2026. Turn the time over to Clay.

So every year, they do send out this report, and they want you guys to approve it. So you know how we're doing as far as sewer. There are communities that don't keep up with the expenses, don't keep up with technology. And so they have sent this out and require every council to approve this report. As you look through it, there's a lot of numbers and we were able to keep up with we do have a plan. We have a emergency plan if there's a if there is an emergency. So we've checked all the boxes. As you guys, our council members, you know that no one likes paying their utility bill every month. But right now, we are covering our maintenance expenses with with those bills with those, utility bills. Plus, we are with our impact fees preparing for expansion. So we are doing pretty well as you read through that. I believe that should become evident.

It was interesting to read the questionnaire and learn more. It was awesome. Yeah. What is the sinking fund?

So if, basically, it's a big fund that as we use it, it depletes it. So for the projects, we have our impact fees that we collect and of course we have to spend within seven years, but we can use those impact fees for improving. We can't use it for maintenance, but we can use it for improving or paying for upsizing to to meet that. That's a pretty good explanation if Justin wants to chime in. And but a sinking fund is basically that we have the money put in a fund and then we can use it, because it is supposed to be depleted. That's the word sinking.

Okay.

Thank Okay. That's something new. I love it.

Clay, are there any rules or regulations for places that are not tied into our sewer, but that are part of our city? You know, like places that have got lift stations that are taken care of by an HOA or things like that? Yes. There are. In fact, when

out north and west put theirs in, they did have to meet the state regulations for a lift station. So it has to have things like a openings or or outlet so they can hook up an emergency pump if they have to. They have to have a maintenance crew. It has to have an alarm. So there are yes. There are for that lift station. And even in your home, it should have some kind of a alarm if you have one that like a grinder or something that lifts it when it when you don't have enough, gravity flow. There's not very many of those in town, but there should be that they are regulated by the ones in your home are regulated by the building inspector, and then the one out there is regulated by Department of Environmental Quality.

Very good. Thanks. Yeah.

Seems like we're doing pretty good work, Clay. Thanks. Oh, I I think the city does do well. I I appreciate you guys allowing to us to do the studies to update the impact fees when we need to and and watching the utility bills that we don't get behind. I I know it's never easy to ask for a utility bill to be raised, but it I I appreciate you guys making sure that we do have enough capital to run and have the equipment if there is an emergency. I mean, it's kind of a big deal. Right.

If we don't get this right, we're going to hear about it, right? Yeah.

First from the state, and then I'm sure the citizens will. Job number one almost. Yeah. And there are just I don't know why I'm going on, but we do it does list all the employees that have the certifications to to work on the sewer and their rank with the state because they have passed those those tests.

Great.

Any other questions? Any other other questions? Ready for a motion, Mayor? I'd entertain a motion. Yes.

I'd like to move that we approve resolution twenty six twenty three, resolution to inform the Utah on water quality as written.

I will second.

How do we vote?

Jay? Yes. John? Yes. Chris?

Yes. Jen. Yes.

Todd. Yes. Resolution passes. Moving on to item number six, public hearing for the purpose of discussing the 2025 general plan update. Open that public hearing at 06:27 p. M.

Come on, Jeff. I know you got something you wanna say.

Any comments, suggestions? Close the public hearing at 06:28 p. M. Moving on to item agenda number seven discussion on cemetery plot availability. I turn the time over to Justin Lewis.

Okay, counsel. Cemetery. We we have a problem that we have to address. We are now down to less than a 140 available plots in the cemetery, for purchase. Most of them are singles. This is not when I would talk about available, available for purchase, not available to be buried in. There are literally thousands of plots, that that are that have been purchased by families over time are still available. But as far as in the existing grounds, we're less than a 140, like about a 130. What does that mean? That means we have to look at we have a couple of different options. We have talked, a few years ago about expanding to the East. If we expand to the East, we can add 3,048 regular burial plots and 1,350 cremation plots. That sounds really great until you get the current engineering estimate of $1,068,000 a return on investment of probably one hundred years, not a great return on investment. We don't have a $1,100,000 to expand to the east. Okay? So, what other options do we have? There is one section down the middle, that has not, been developed, that we looked at, plotting out. When you go up, it's kind of down, basically, right in the heart of the cemetery where the tree line is. You can see the trees, on this. We went out and on this. We went out and looked at, had that plotted, what would that give us? That would give us approximately 602 lots. Here's where we have to have a discussion. The 602 lots is not a lot when you figure we're burying on average, probably two and a half to three people a week. The second we open this section with cremations, two regular burials and one cremation, so two and a half or three regulars. No. So, with that being said, so what we have though is when we open this section, we already know that we will have a mass influx of people coming in to hurry and buy those up. They wanna buy around their family there. They wanna buy for their kids. We're not prepared to go down that road because of the number of burials that we will do. That will sell this section out really fast. We're asking you to consider a few different options before we open this up. In order to if you're burying, you know, if we're if we have that many if we have that many burials, burials will only increase as the population increases. So what are our options? We open this section. One item we would ask you to consider is, do we go that you cannot buy a burial plot until till you or your spouse passes away? We would allow you could consider doing that, but you would allow, if they're married, that you would allow them to buy two at that time. That would help slow the flow for burial plots and keep them open for, you know, by a long time, by several more years. You could consider not selling to a non to non residents. Non residents are defined as basically those that to be a resident, you pay property tax, you have a utility bill, you live within the city limits. Because you live in Amalgam and have an 84335 zip code does not mean you are a resident. Because you live on the outskirts of the city and are not a registered voter, you are not a resident. This is only residents. You have to pay property tax. You have to have a utility bill. You have to live in the city to be considered a resident. So would that help slow it down? We do have a lot of non resident burials. We actually charge more, you know, the fees are higher for, for non residents than they are for residents. It doesn't seem to be a deterrent in any way. People want to be buried here. They want the cemetery. They want the work. We spend a significant amount of time and money on the grounds. The cemetery is not something we make money at. You pay basically a one time grave plot purchase fee, you pay a one time burial fee, and we're having to cover all the expenses outside of that forever. When you look down the road, if you if you if we go with this section, there is one other possible north between the sidewalk and the road we can consider long term. We have not plotted that out. We have not looked at that as an option, but it is not nearly as big as this area. So council, we are now down to, like I say, a 130 plots. We're asking for your guidance of how you want to move forward with this, because we know based on all the inquiries, based on the calls, especially when the agenda posted last week, and as soon as it came available, people wanted to know, what are you selling? What do we have the ability to buy? We've been waiting for years. If we just turn it open, we are going to blow all these out. We have not had the ability in a very long time to purchase plots almost by each other. There are very few left. So we have to have some guidance as we plan and move forward. This section is not available for purchase yet because we have to get your approval first. And so we need guidance though of how you want to deal with that and handle that moving forward, where our long term solution is a $1,100,000 problem that we don't have the funds to pay for right now. This is already platted. We can go with it. I mean, there's grass. There's some tree problems. We as you can see on the map, we've blocked out the trees. Those plots would not be available. As long as those trees are there, those plots would not be sellable. We we've had the staff go up and measure around to make sure we're covered. So, we don't want to kill the trees if someone buys one right by it immediately. So, Council, we're looking to you for what options you'll consider, what you want us to do, because we would, even best case with this opening, is 602 plots.

Interesting. So, on your ROI, on the expansion, that's calculating. You're just using a residential number.

So if you went 600, if you went six fifty, throwing out the cremations, 3,048 at the current rate is 1,900,000.0. But the problem is is the decades it would take to cover that because it would not I mean, thankfully, we wouldn't fill that up really fast. I've been asked, can you split this up and do it in sections, that big area? It would be really we wouldn't save a lot of money. Could you do a north and a south? You could. But would we save very much money? No. Because the road still got to go in. There's still sprinkling system, like our costs are still if you add 50%, we're probably still spending 75 percent. So we're not gaining a lot by splitting it into different into different phases. If we had to, we could. We feel that the 602 lot option or the 600 lot option is a better option right now, just from a financial standpoint. We already have it. It's there. It's a matter of some corners, plotting it out, having a plan of how to do that. But, yeah, long term, would it cover, but short term, no. And the other thing that we would have that we would ask you to consider long term, we're not asking that tonight, we don't wanna hire more employees, to deal with the cemetery. If we add that section of grounds, it's going to take more time and effort. One thing to consider is making it in ground headstones only. Controversial? Yes. Would it save us a lot of time, energy, effort, trimming? It takes a lot of time to hand trim, a lot. If you have in ground and they're mandatory, like some other cemeteries, maintenance decreases substantially. People get mad. That's the that's the offset. People want them out of ground. They want to be able to control them. They want I get it. I have my my family on, like, you know, with some very nice headstones and stuff, but that's another dynamic that we would probably look at is, we can't afford you would have the expansion if you're going to allow out of ground, are we going to add more bodies up there? I don't want to add more employees.

Justin, just a couple of questions. How have those fees been stable for some time, or what has been the history of the fees that we have there? And also, how have we done any kind of a comparison to other cities throughout the valley

as far as our per lot or per plot pricing? So we updated non resident. I would have to look at the time. Within the last couple of years, non resident has gone up. We have not updated the resident for quite a while. If you compare it to other cities, it's about right in the middle. Okay. We're not the highest, we're not the lowest. I would be totally good, I don't know what we'll probably recommend. I think you could significantly increase the non resident because they aren't bringing I'm not trying to be disrespectful to anyone when I say this, but the residents pay utilities, the residents pay property taxes. Non residents, it's a one time in and I'm out. Now, if you live on the periphery of the city or just out of there, are you considered a resident in your mind? You know, you are. I hear that all the time. But as far as from a cemetery perspective, no. Like, you are we are not getting any long term benefit financially from that. So could we raise the fees on that 100%? Some some cemeteries, their non resident fees are substantial, like, way more than than what we're proposing. There's one there's one poor little cemetery outside of Cache Valley. They have such a burial problem. You have to pass away before you can buy a plot and you cannot buy one for your spouse, because they are out of space. And in our case, like if you lived in Smithfield, you go to a nursing home, we still treat you as a resident. You know, when you come back, they don't. They are so limited on space. We don't want to get to that point. No. And right now, we kinda have some flexibility of what we can do. We're trying to hit this off off before they're all gone, rather than after. But when you start looking at costs, yeah, we it's expensive and cemeteries are all emotion driven. They are a 100% emotion driven. You know, we had a lot of people come in this week. Why doesn't the cemetery look stellar? We've had a lot of burials over the winter. We can't we couldn't get sawed if we wanted to. It certainly wouldn't do any good to put any grass seed down. They'll all be great by the time Memorial Day runs around. Right now, cemetery doesn't look great. Grass is dead. Graves are sinking. So that's a work in progress and always will be as you build to Memorial Day. But, yeah, as far as the fees go, you'd certainly certainly look at the non resident side for sure.

What are some best practices, Justin? I I'm not deeply educated on cemetery development, but in terms of only being allowed to purchase one when a spouse dies or resident versus non resident. Like like if it seems like we should try to fall in line with standard best practices at least regionally here. Are are we in what ways could we get better in line with best practices?

I think every I think that's a hard one because everybody's space is is different. You go north of us and the Richmond Cemetery District, which is Richmond and Cove, they have a huge cemetery and they have, like, 50 acres to expand. They don't have an expansion problem. They just have to do it a section at a time. My understanding with Lewiston is that they have the ability to expand. I talked to a member of the Cornish Cemetery District. He came in, we were talking about some things. I asked him how many burials they do a year. He's like, maybe one. And I'm like, okay, well, we're doing three a week. So I think, I don't know there's a best practice, John. I mean, there's like new cemeteries going in, there really aren't any. We have a finite amount of land up there. I have seen it. I mean, I've seen other cities that are resident only. I've seen some that the fees, like, there's no consensus, like, everybody's different. Like, everybody does what's best for their their grounds. You know, some, we have employees, some have no employees. They're looking at cemetery boards to to do it or they hire out the they they hire out the digging itself because they don't even have any employees. We do all of that in house. So I'm sorry, John. I can't really it's a there's no consensus.

What's what's the projected durability of it? I mean, how long is this cemetery gonna last? We open up the middle section. How long is that gonna hold? I guess that's partly gonna depend on if we set some of these guidelines or guardrails in. But what's what's our hope? What do we have like a a target timeline if we open up that second section? We want that to last us the next

five years, ten years. What what are we is there a a target there we wanna hit? Well, we think that if you went, that you had to have someone deceased only, that you would be decades, not years. Because you've got so many people that already have a plot. I mean, not everyone that that passes is is coming in to buy a plot. But if we turn these loose tomorrow, knowing right now, for like the last four or five years, trying to get a couple of plots by each other, really hard. Then you're gonna go in and go, and here's the one problem you got is okay. So John and his wife come in, and then you hurry and you buy two for you, and then you hurry and put buy two more for your son and daughter, or your, you know, them. All of a sudden, you buy, like, 10. They're all in different names, different families. You can't buy 10 under John John's name, but you could have some for you, your kids, their spouses. If all of a sudden, we could blow those out in a couple of years, especially when people know, because people are watching and asking, they are waiting to see what happens with this,

because they want them and they want to

by family. Everyone wants to be by family. Right? Like, I don't blame much now I am.

Justin, is there is there any other kind of regulations anywhere that would restrict how much we charge

people who are outside the city, non residents? No. That's totally up to the council to approve the fee schedule.

And then, it didn't get mentioned, but, you know, is there is there some kind of a middle ground where, you know, you had to be over a certain age before you would be able to buy a plot or pass away. You know what I mean? Saying, someone who's trying to, you know, kinda get things in order and they're getting older, you know, they're

I mean, we certainly push those rules in place. Five or You guys have to adopt all the rules. That's something to definitely consider if that's a road you wanted to go down. We just need you give us some guidance if you're like, you can't you can buy them if you're, you know, over 60 years of age or however you want to structure that. We can tweak the rules and bring something back there. We just need to know what you would something back there. We just need to know what you would support. Yeah. Because there is a lot of planning that goes in as people age, you know, trying to have all of that type of stuff taken care of before that happens.

Hate to say it, but would there be any possibility of age discrimination

that could come into play if you do that? I would have to ask legal on that. I'm not sure. Okay. Do we do we have any

option or regulation for over under burials for going to We have not stacked them. Okay. So we have not done any, do we have anything against that?

Is it an option for people or is it just flat out not an option to this No, I think I would have to visit with the staff and see their comfort level. You're starting to go a lot deeper. We may have to have some different equipment and stuff how we want to deal with that where that is something I can certainly visit with them about, but we have not talked about stacking them. I just, I know I've seen that in other more metropolitan

areas, California, different places.

Yep. Justin, is there any way that we have a I don't even know if this is a a question we can answer. Do we have a sense of what amount of residents taxes are going to support cemetery services? Do we have a sense of that? You know, if a resident lives in because, you know, a city is not here to make profits in any way. They need to cover all their costs in some form. And so I'm just trying to kind of understand to what degree are residents to any is any resident covering their own cost of a cemetery plot if they were to buy one or not, you know, if they live in the city ten years but never get a plot then they've contributed in some way but didn't use it and then other citizens move in. They're here a year and then they need a plot. I'm I'm just trying to kind of ask get a sense of how much is it covered by residents and how that might affect the pricing for residents and non residents. We just need to make sure we're covering cost here. This is we can't the city can't just give away cemetery plots or services that way. So right now, this current fiscal year, our budget is a 100 and

And that is basically paying for one full time employee, a part time employee, and then just the maintenance of the grounds themselves. When you come back and go, okay, burial plot sales. Burial plots, I mean, some years, the plot sales are all over if you have a lot of plots to sell. Like, if we turned this open, we would have one fiscal year that we would blow those numbers out of the water, like, because they're available. Like, right now, you just don't have as many. So this year, year to date sorry, I'm just doing a search while we talk.

A 171,000, that's a very small percentage of tax, city taxes, I mean, property taxes, right? I mean, are we So property tax itself,

so property tax is, property tax revenue is just over 2,000,000. When you look at burial fees, this year through February, we have collected just over just under $42,000 in burial fees. Like I said, the guys are the staff is very busy burying people, so. Burying people, so

Is this something you need an answer for tonight or is this something we can bat around a little bit longer?

We don't wanna open that section until you guys make a plan, so that's why we're hoping to get some input from you, so we could bring it back. Whether you wanted to change the rules, whether you wanted additional information, we're not comfortable opening that until we have a plan. And that's why we're Zero. We're Zero. We're we're Zero. We're we're Zero.

Yeah. It seems to me we need to open that section. But under some new guidelines and whether that's increased non resident fees and or other guidelines about not until a spouse passes or city residents or all of them. But it seems like we've gotta make some Right. I agree with the use that we have so we don't have to create more space.

Because I'm just looking at the sidewalk that we have. Then we set some guidelines. I agree. I don't know what else to do.

The burial fees, those can only be charged at the time that someone passes away, right? People can't pay for that in advance. We don't allow that here. No. Okay. I didn't think so. I just wanted to double check. No. We do not allow that.

I guess I don't Now, buying plots, yes. Burial fees, no.

I I guess that's what I'm saying. Do they need an answer tonight or is there some way we can bat this around and come up with guidelines?

Well, yeah, you can come up. I just need you just have What I'm saying? We want to know what you would support, not support, wanted us to consider what your thoughts were. We don't want to open that until we come back with a plan and you adopt something, and then we want to keep that and you adopt something and then we want to keep that section off limits like it is right now until the council decides how to proceed.

Obviously, we don't need to enact both a rule that only residents are allowed and raise non resident fees because we don't need both of those. Right? It's either one or the other. But I think we need to do one or the other there for sure. And I'd probably be in support of the known plots until a spouse passes. At least for a time. Let let's try it and see how it works is kind of what I'm thinking. And if it feels like we start hearing from residents that that's just way too restrictive then we can consider back off the list. See how fast they go and what that yeah. How that changes the flow. Yeah. I mean, I

What would be the estimated time that it would require for that to be able to be usable for that? Is it is it basically in a in a spot now where if we were to expand over onto that side on the north, how long would it be before that was

The the section, the the six of this section Yes. This middle section, we would tweak some maps, do some things, get some things printed and we're to go. Oh, okay. So very minimal. Yes. Okay. It's more, it's going to take us longer to get the rules and get them adopted than it is to open them. Okay. That's a different story for the East Side. Yeah. The East is a barren wasteland of weeds. Yep. And, yeah. It I'd be it's there's nothing over there. That is just nothing has happened there. It hasn't been developed, especially in the the Northeast Corner by the shop, by the main there's a little cemetery maintenance shop. There's a pit up there that we would have to deal you know, haul some dirt and stuff away. The east the East side would take we would be a year getting if if we wanted to develop the East Side, we it would take us a year by the time you did, you know, excavation, asphalt, sprinkler systems, that type of thing. We would probably be a year there.

Are we interested at all in this stuff opening up, making it into a place for the cremations? What's the?

Right now, I mean, we could. We could look at tweaking this map some. I haven't had a lot of support for that in the past, so we could certainly look at that and go back and tweak some of these into cremation spots only. It's not laid out that way, it would certainly create more. Right now, you can take a cremation and place it on top of an existing burial. So, if someone's buried and you will have a cremation, you could put that, we would, we allow that on top of an existing plot in the rest of the grounds. But if you wanted to have some dedicated cremation only in here, we could certainly take a couple of those sections. Now would be the time to do it.

What's the percentage or what's your thoughts on, has that increased as of recent more of the cremation type thing or or not? More cremations than ever because of cost.

Okay. Yeah.

You know a lot more cremations than you have before? Yeah. Like,

you're Yeah. Many, many more. I mean, I think you could take, like, one of those two one of those sections and make it a cremation area only, but dedicate the whole section. Like, take all of D 1 and make it you could go back and replot D 1 into or whichever one you were comfortable. I think you could go D 3. Any of those, we could make a cremation only area. But we would rather it be a whole area than spotted. And still allow top bottom.

Yep. I've just seen other cemeteries where they have that sort of a thing where there's a place for the cremations and I would think now would be the time we got, because you got some ultimate spots to do it with.

Yeah. I would I would definitely support looking at that as another option, in addition to some of these other things.

Are we thinking resident only? Is that or is the council a little reluctant to go that far? I just think if we're if we're gonna allow non residents, the the cost has gotta I was gonna say, I'm leaning towards the future. Non resident, we do need to But I but I don't want this to be a thing where this just benefits wealthy people who can come in and buy whatever they want either. Right? So I wanna be really cautious about that because a cemetery should be, you know, fair play for everyone. And to me, that's the way to make it fair play is, who's a resident? That's Mhmm. This is the place for them then. That's one way to make it fair.

That's easy when you're thinking of someone who's not living nearby. But if someone's just sitting just outside the city line, most of them probably think that they're part of the city, even though they are not technically Well, we just have to be hard boundaries, so there's no questions or arguments. There would just be hard boundaries saying Yeah. Yeah. Any idea of the numbers, resident versus non resident, what's

sold? Yeah. Just as a reference.

I don't right now. I mean, I would say the majority are I would say the majority are resident. But, I'll give you an example of my family. I know this is a fact. I have family that lives in Kent, Washington, suburb of Seattle. They have not lived here. My aunt has not lived here since she was in her teens, so we won't age her, but let's just say it was decades ago. Up there, everything's private mausoleum. She is going to come back and be buried Utah simply because of cost. She does not want to pay $12,000 for a place to be buried plus the burial on top of that. So she is coming back to Utah for one purpose only, to save money for her family. No one will ever visit her. Her kids do not live in Utah, but she's coming back simply because of cost. Because Utah is cheap when it comes to cemeteries and burials and plots.

What what other just and I'm just throwing out ideas just to kind of brainstorm a little bit. But for example, you know, what about saying, residents, but also people who, might fit in the future land area that could be part of the city. You know what I mean? Please don't do that. But that okay. I'm just throwing, like I said, I'm asking questions to kind of That puts the But but I would be saying that they would still be treated as a non resident and you would, they would have to pay more, but they would be the only ones that would be allowed as a non resident

to purchase one. Does that make sense? But the problem is now we're going on a map of maybes. Yeah. It may annex Too much of a grade. Yeah. I guess staff, I would really prefer not to put the staff in that spot. Yeah. I need a hard line that it's just right now, it's not questionable.

Yeah. Like,

you're in the boundary or you're not. Yeah, I was gonna recommend

similar, have city, county, and then outside of county. Cache County boundary isn't gonna change if they're outside the Cache County, but that allows you to get others that are still county residents that this is still home, but they weren't in the city boundaries. So like a three bracket page word. Right, city resident, county resident, out of county.

It was just a thought. And then I would be okay with the out of county not being allowed, but something in the county, yes. And but then that's a higher price.

Yeah. But you think raising the prices would really deter that much? No.

Well then, charge enough to be able to get your million and let's build.

Is there any way of knowing, I mean, I know, I do know that there's people who have in the past have bought big plots years ago for their whole family. Now they've died off, they passed on, sorry.

They've moved on, so to speak. Graduated. You must be talking about some of the downses.

And no, we're good. Anyway, is there any way knowing

if if are some of these place been abandoned? So we went through that process about a decade ago. Uh-huh. State State Code, I believe it's sixty years. We got them in contact and we went through that whole thing. We ended up gaining a few 100 plots came back. We bought some back. And right now, we are not in the ability I mean, in fact, this week, we actually bought like four back. If people want to abandon them, this They can't transfer them. If you own one, you can't sell it to anyone else. We run into that problem all the time because some cemeteries allow that, we certainly don't. But anytime someone wants to sell them back, we're happy to to buy them back and then resell them. But there are some that have not had burials, especially down on the West Side, for decades. But there are names, they've been updated and I don't know that I'm prepared to start calling families and guilting them into trying to buy burial plots back.

Yeah. Especially How does that how does that work if if if someone passes away, they were the ones that bought the burial plot, but now they've passed away, does that get handed down to someone in the family? It does. And is there any way to create some kind of a rule that

that can't happen, that that would have to be sold back to the city? So the state code is basically, it's this big light, this big chain of it goes, you know, the buyer, then it goes to their kids and their grandkids and then it flares out. It's really problematic that it actually defaults a lot to the to the past, not to the city. Mhmm. That it goes down. They can as long as they can prove that their family and have permission from the other siblings or other grandchildren, they can end up with them. Almost like an inheritance then. 100%. Mhmm.

See, I'm covered. I don't know. Turned my time over, actually.

Would we like to create a cremation only area in one of those six? I I think so. I think so. Yeah. I mean, I would be supportive of that, personally.

How much how much area does that take? I mean, I guess Yeah. I was gonna say, what how big of an area are you talking?

Well, I would like like D 1 or, you know, I mean, even even the small one, we could do D 2. D 2 is a little bit smaller if you look at the map. You can see the boundary for D 2 right here. That whole thing would be cremation?

Yep. Okay. Does that go four to one,

eight to one? Two. Two to one is all. Because you still got it all we'll still have headstones and stuff. Well, that's true. All you're doing is shortening the grave. That's true. Mhmm.

I think it'd be a good idea. I mean That's a good start.

And we could go with a little section and see where it go. Well, I mean, the d two is just not as big as those others, others when you look at the map. It'd be interesting to see if they do

if it goes.

How does the council feel about the not until a spouse passes rule? Is are we reluctant to go that far? Or are we wanting to try that say for three years and see what happens?

It would definitely give you a scope as to volume.

Anything we decide is gonna have to be a practice. We're gonna have to just see what happens and then go from there. Yeah. I like the city county, outside county

option. I like the cremation section option. Mhmm. And I might be in favor of just put some tight guardrails on it for a little bit and see how it goes. And then if we need to revisit this and come back and reconsider, I think we're open to that. But we have a limited we have a limited size cemetery and we've got a big a bigger and bigger city all the time. And it's just getting bigger. And I think we need to be really cautious and and prudent about how we plan for the future with that space we've got and especially with the coming cost because if we don't do this $1,100,000 improvement now, we're gonna have to do it in ten years. Which is And then it's gonna be $3.03, $3.03, 4. Right. 8,000,000,

you know, what whatever it's gonna be then. So Yeah. The other thing you could do too, don't open the all six. We could open like D 1 and d two and see how it goes. Tweet the rules, have you approve the opening of D 1 and D 2. We leave D 3 through D 6 alone at this time, and see what happens with that section. Still open one for cremations or D 2 would be cremations, D 1 would be sold burials.

I like that idea. I do too. Just open it up all the way, not for spouse only or whatever?

No. With with the spouse only. With restrictions. With the with those tight guardrails on it Yeah. And to see how it rolls. There still are other plots available that would not have those restrictions.

So I was gonna say the other option you have, we have the other 130 plots. You could leave them open. But in in order to go into d one or d two, you would have to meet that criteria.

Okay. Either be cremation The question I was gonna ask is can you impose different limits on different parts

of the cemetery? It's up to the council, a 100%.

You could say, like, spouse only on d one, then on your cremation, just leave it open. Because I don't think they're gonna fill up as fast. And d two won't fill as nearly as fast as d one? No. But you could do it. Leave it like normal, then lead to d one. You know what I mean? Yeah. I do. I I like that.

I'm I'm open to that.

So just for clarification, the 130

that are available now

would comply to a different set of rules? If that's what you wanted, you could leave them under the current rules and draft a new set of rules for d one and d two.

Is that just get confusing? Consistency. It would get it could get confusing. I think we need to be consistent. My personal opinion is we just every open d one, d two, and then the 130, let's just

have the same regulations.

Yeah. Because then you'll you'll you'll you will see a difference. The the existing ones will get scooped up real quick.

Is there a reason to limit it to just D one, D two, and not split down the middle, go D one through D three?

I'll support whatever you

This is just a trial. We could do half of it. Open it, you know, figure it out. This is just I mean, the rules can apply to everything if we wanted to, but not necessarily open those others up immediately.

From a maintenance standpoint, it would be a lot, it's a lot better having them crammed in an area, but you trim them all side by side by side, rather than have two plots in d one and three or four plots in d three. So there's some advantage to not opening up all at the same time. I can see that. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. I like the d one d two, to be honest with. I do too. I do as well. Yeah. So is this something that you write up and then we come back and bring you back to you next month? Like, up to 2%. Right now, We would bring back some changes to you next month. Okay. Okay. And then approve it. But we wanted your thoughts on it first. So if I get understand correctly, we're gonna look at opening d one and d two. We're gonna make d two cremations only. We are what about this? Are we going nonresident, nonresident, nonresident, death only? What direction do you wanna go there? City County. City County.

City

County. Non Not out of Not like Out of county. Not allowed. County. Mhmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. I was saying not allowed? Are we increasing

I think not allowed. Not allowed. Out of county. Not allowed. So we're

allowing residents in county, but then nobody outside of county.

It's kind of a trial run here for Yeah. Say three years and see how that lands.

The nonresidents is anybody not living in Smithfield City proper. Correct? Mhmm. Correct. Yeah. So Yeah. They fall under the county. Same. If you're a renter, if you live in the city, you have utility bill, you pay property tax. Mhmm. Now we do have so, like, there are people that pay property tax in the city that do not live in the city. But for for cemetery purposes, we have treated them as a resident where they pay property tax.

So we would need to clarify that. Maybe people who are paying property tax or something like that. And that's where we're currently at. Yeah. I mean, that's We don't really wanna change that. So that would include business owners.

You could live in Logan, but pay property or business tax in Does

that qualify you? It does and it has in the past as to as of today.

I think that's It's tax. Okay. Right? Because

those taxes are supporting the cemetery and that's kind of what we're trying to protect here. Yeah. Well, if that's what you're using your basis for, yeah, your taxes are paying for that. But you have to keep so you'd be going against what you're saying if you do the cubicle against that. Right.

Yep. And I personally think we we need to increase the outside, what we charge for the, what we consider the non resident in the county. I don't think we're charging that much. I I think it's I think it could be significantly

increased. What do you guys wanna consider there? Do we want to increase

these?

One It's 60.

How long has this pay schedule been in effect? It's at least a couple of years. I could add I could get you the exact date, but we had we adjusted nonresident a couple of years ago. We haven't done that quite a while. What is other senators' charge in nonresident? It's so hard The sky's the limit. Do you want to? The same as a resident to Where's Logan? 10 I'd have to look. I don't know. No. Hiram, same thing. They're all different. Richmond. They're they're a lot more Richmond is? That's what I'm saying. If we keep that open Twice? Yeah. They don't so some cemeteries, when it comes to resident nonresidents, they'll openly admit that a resident a nonresident should pay significantly more because they've never paid anything to begin with, and the property tax and everything else kinda helps trump that. So they're

I I tend to agree that way too, though.

Well,

it'll have to come back as a Prevaille ski It'll come back to you next month. I see some direction of what you Well, and here's the other thing we have to think about too is we'd still know we're gonna have to develop that east section eventually. Absolutely. And so as a city, we need to be thinking about how are we preparing for that to happen because that's gonna be a big bill when that lands. Yeah. So maybe we need to be increasing all the fees now for future

development. Not that it's a huge increase, but I was just looking at that thinking, you know, what if those went to $7.50 in 2000?

Sorry, Richmond is not soon actually more. It's another city. Oh. So Richmond's so I'm not thinking about so Richmond's resident 600, non resident 17, open, close six and eleven. They're basically plus or minus a $100 of these. There's another city down south that charges

So we gotta look at probably your the plots and the opening and closing to raise those fees on both that. Right? They're 17. 2,000 is not far out of the ballpark then.

Yeah. If we haven't raised these fees in years and we've been seeing two, three, 4% inflation, you know, in the in the economy, we've got to be thinking about Repeatedly. Yeah. Yeah. Repeatedly. We are way behind on Well, the non resident was just a couple years ago, he said, but the resident's been a while.

But that,

to me, that's a that's a modest increase, but it would give you some additional Good start.

And what what what were you saying? You were saying $7.50 in 2000?

What if we give them some direction to the staff to do that? And then also, if Justin can maybe give us some comparisons to compare from us to make sure. We can always change it before next in the next meeting where the fee schedule schedule could be. Oh, yeah. You guys could adopt it. We can gather some At least we've got a good direction. That gives him a number where to go for. I mean, does that sound alright? Mhmm. Would this open for public input next month, if it were If we're voting on it, I think. The agenda? So it would be a vote? It would probably be availing fees don't, unless you want it. Availing fees don't require a public hearing. That would be your discretion. Oh, okay.

Thinking we'll gather some info on the fees and I I would love to I I would still want to have people have an opportunity to give input on it.

My personal opinion. Yeah. I'm thinking that all of us sitting here tonight didn't realize how much time we could possibly spend talking about cemeteries tonight. But but it it like it's complicated. It's really complicated and and and important. We all feel like we wanna treat those with respect but we also have

practical concerns here. We'll bring back a proposal for next week. Great. Can we also, you know, get some information on stacking? I mean, guys could talk to your staff about that and see what they're thinking. Don't you think? Yeah. Yeah. Because that'd be hard to see. I think it's worth looking at. Yeah. Because I'm sure there's some guidelines on how deep they would go when they'd be up about 10 feet. Let me see if our staff can do it. Yeah. Okay. We'll gather some info for next month. Because if that happens, that that's gonna open a whole new guideline.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Thanks, Justin. That's pretty much what's on top.

Yeah. This is, like, this is something that we don't take light. Like, this is a hard subject. Like, it's What else for sure? I mean, it's it's a lot. It's dying. It's hard.

Any other comments, questions?

While we muddle through that one.

Okay. Moving on to agenda item number eight, the city manager report.

Just a few items, council. We're super excited, that the 3,000,000 gallon tank project is underway. They are moving dirt. They are moving mud, I should say, but we're super even though it is mud. That project's underway. Substantial completion should be by November. Clay and Josh are working with them basically daily. Appreciate Clay, Clay's help on that. That's, that's a big, monumental task. Clay's also this week. We're excited. Quinn's here from JEB. I I sort of felt to recognize him. Quinn and his staff and Clay, stormwater, tenth South Stormwater Project phase one from basically the high just side off the highway down to the railroad tracks is out to bid. I believe that's April 2 is the bid opening on that. We're super happy about that. That first phase we'll be looking at getting done before the end of the fiscal year, with phase two being, in the next fiscal year. Marcus is finishing up, some comments from the County on the on the waterline, the spring water the waterline project. We'll be looking at getting that out to bid, quite soon. We're excited about, that project getting closer and closer to the first budget meeting will be on two weeks from tonight on March 25. All the department heads will be here. We'll talk about we'll introduce the budget and then we'll start going through that in over the next three months as we look to adopt that in June, bring up, talk things about, especially of things such as sidewalk and some of those other concerns. Planning Commission meeting next week, they have a request for a multifamily rezone at about about a block east of here that they'll be considering and reviewing. The golf course, we have the golf course officially opened on February 27. It's the earliest opening ever. Their previous earliest opening was March 16. They opened on, they opened on the twenty seventh. They had a full house on the twenty eighth. They are scrambling to get staff back. Big thanks to Dana. Dana is bringing through a lot of seasonal and part time employees that we weren't expecting for another month, trying to get them all in here and get them prepped, and full steam ahead because the golfers don't care. They wanna golf. And we need staff. So, when you look at the course, we have I look at the pro shop, we have one full time employee and then the rest are seasonal. When you look at the turf staff, we have three full time and the rest are seasonal. So, that course is out and doing really well. And they're full steam ahead. They are officially open, and away we go. And that's all I have tonight, Mary, unless you have other comments. Thank

you. So we'll now move on to agenda item number nine, council member reports and mayor reports. Anyone like to go first?

Sure. I will. I'm shy in Bassville, but I'll go. Couple of things mine, being the here's the buzz about mosquito abatement. Alright. There's a couple of things. I didn't know this, but they're teaming with the university on their drones, and they got some drone things that are coming on board. And thanks, Chris, for how sending in for me last meeting. Just so there was announcement also made by the mosquito abatement district that anybody who has horses out there, now's the time to vaccinate them. That the West Nile virus is in the northern end of the state, and in the springtime is the best time to vaccine their horses. So if anybody's got horses out there, make sure to do that. We haven't had any county fire meetings since our last meeting. There is one coming up in two weeks. So we'll have maybe some more information on that one when it comes through. Other than that, I'm good, Mayor. Thank

you. John? The Chamber's busy getting ready for that Easter egg hunt on April 4. Thanks to the youth council for their work stuffing those eggs. That's 9AM at the Skyview Eastfield for the Easter egg hunt on April 4. We're looking forward to that. Met with the county trails group a couple weeks ago and plans for the extension of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail coming north are moving along nicely. In short, they're planning to essentially complete the North Logan and Hyde Park segments of that this summer and are aiming to do the Smithfield portion next summer in 2027. So that's kind of the the rough outline. They're in the process of looking for a company to take that on and manage that and and build that trail out. So, that's coming along nicely. That's it for me.

Well, we spent a few hours filling those eggs the other night with the youth council. But they had a fun time. They were just, they're they're a lot of fun to be with. It was fun to be with them at the Capitol as well. Had an opportunity to to take a tour with, with one of the interns there for for Mike Peterson, and he did a phenomenal job on on the tour. He explained all sorts of great things. And so anyways, but looking forward to, I think John Engler said something about he was gonna be in a bunny costume or something like that for the Easter. I thought I heard something about that, but I don't know. Maybe I've taken that wrong. You can borrow that from your neighbor.

You can buy your custom from your neighbor.

But, yeah, looking forward to helping the Youth Council with with that upcoming fun opportunity there. Also, I have had an opportunity to visit with the seniors. They're a fun bunch to be around. They're exciting. I got a chance to meet up with Tom and kinda go through what they do with our food pantry that they do out of the old Armory Building. And anyways, they do a really, really good job. None of those guys will toot their horn, but Tom and Dick, Dick, I think, has been doing it for He's he's probably been involved with the food pantry for over twenty five years. And then I know Tom Karen has been doing it for over twenty years. So anyways, there's been Yeah. Yeah. She's she's been involved for a long time as well. So sorry, I've got Brian laughing over there.

You left that Harry. I

have kinda looked at a couple things there. They did mention in that area and they're very appreciative that in the past, you know, a freezer had been bought for them. They use that a ton. Both their fridge and freezer pretty much stuffed each time. They do this once a month for the for the seniors. But they did mention that the there is some carpet there that's pretty sad. It's just kind of a flat commercial carpet. And they were thinking, if it was possible to do something like tile or just take the carpet out, it might be easier. I don't know. Just something to think about for the future. There's a lot of carpet stains and and because we've got a little shelves in there with the food, it just stuff gets on the carpet. It's probably better just being tile or something like that. Also, the senior center, apparently, their old faithful clock is not working anymore. And according to them, it's not fixable. So I don't know what we do to go about, you know, getting a replacement for that. Yeah. I was one that they have on the wall. So and and for some of them, that's a big deal. That not all of them, you know, look at their phone or things like that. And so there was a few getting confused because the clock was wrong. So anyways, yeah. I think that's I think that's most everything. But, yeah. Fun, fun

group. Thank you.

Okay. We had a meeting with the Arts Council the other night. They talked about the sidewalk chalk art festival. They're gonna have sign ups starting in a couple weeks. Last year they had to cap it out, so this year they're looking into how they can expand space to get more applicants because it's really popular. They're going to have different age levels because last year they were all on the same playing field. They don't think that's fair, so they're going to have different categories, whether it's family, teenager, adult, they're still working that out, but Hey, Jen, excuse me, where did they do that at? The library. Not library. Okay. In the front? Back. Back? Cool. Yep. So there's a lot of sidewalks they expand, but each person, they get a section and they can come and draw. But this year, we're gonna encourage some patriotic theme where it's America two fifty. So we'll see what kind of beautiful art we get there. It's really exciting. And Awesome. It's amazing how it's grown in just two years. We went from just like 10 applicants to we had to cap it out at 30. And this year we're expecting more, because people are already reaching out. So it's just exciting. Things are just growing.

What's what's the date that they normally do that? So they are planning

on that. They're wanting them to be done the Thursday of health days, whatever day that is. Okay. Seventh? '8, '6? I think it's the Thursday of health days. They're hoping to have them done and judged on that day, and then they just leave it rubbed off for people to come and enjoy the rest of the health days and just hope that the weather holds out. Last year they were getting washed away even though they were covered and it was I felt bad. The summer concerts, we're gonna have them in just June, like I said. We only have two solidified. The first one is June 19, and then the other one is June 27, and that will be with Jerica Jamieson, and that is going to tie into the America two fifty July fifth, neighborhood picnic. So she'll be doing a patriotic concert that night that is going to be wonderful. So, when we get more details we're gonna have banners and flyers and all the things, so hopefully we can get word out about that. The other two are still being solidified like I said, and I'll let you guys know when those are planned. Plans are underway for the storybook festival. They're already meeting. Things are moving right ahead. And the Healthy Ambassador Pageant was on Saturday. It was a huge success. We had 17 girls. We had the patriotic theme. We had some fire department. We had a veteran and a active military company escorts. The girls were able to hear from a female, what's her Yeoman. Yeah. Petty officer first call. So she's in Alaska. So we did a Google Meet with the girls and she just talked to them. They had a Q and A. They learned a lot. Anyway, it was a wonderful evening. It could not have gone better. I'm just amazing committee. We just have some awesome committees and they're doing great. So we will have them come next month and introduce them and they're ready to serve and participate and do all the things. So we're excited.

Awesome. Thank you. From mine, the tree committee is continuing to do a lot of great work. They're prepping for the health days Arbor Day, Arbor Day poster contest that is continuing to go through. Former committee member Jeff Kao was able to provide some great artwork that we were able to put out to the schools. So they're already well underway on their poster contest that'll be associated with that. Jeff Barnes here in the audience, is continuing to support that very heavily, help us help us out with that a lot. So they're continuing to prepare for that Arbor Day combination with health days. As far as the historic society, a lot of great work that's been continuing to go on. We've had painting pretty much finished up in the lower grand room that's in the rock store, and they're in the middle of the floors right now. Floors are actually looking really, that they will look really impressive when they're done. The potential is, I think, far greater than any of us expected for it to be able to look. So that's looking really well, and they had the opportunity to submit for some potential additional reps tax money for this next year. So they're they've really stepped it up going into the spring. They've increased the activity that's going on over there to get the lower level ready, so that we'll be able to use it, hopefully, in combination with, if not health days, then at least later on in the summer. So it's looking good. Oh, thank you.

So I'll do the mayor's report now. I'd like to begin by highlighting the success of the America two fifty art show. The event was well received, and it was great to see a strong community participation and appreciation for the local talent and art that was showed. Thank you for everyone who helped organize and support this wonderful event. We've also been contacted regarding some concerns about the signal light on 600 South And Main Street, particularly about how the East West traffic cycle operates. Because the signal is owned and maintained by u dot, we have reached out to them and asked that they review the timing and operation of the light. We've had some feedback from them. They also just I don't know if everyone knows, but there's been a turn signal light also installed on 100 North that'll be operational in approximately two weeks. I'm assuming that that's probably going to have a similar operation to how the 600 South light is. So we're having them review that and see how it works. But the way that it was initially explained, it's designed as traffic flows from east to west, it tries to meter that light. So that's why it's so frustrating that sometimes it's a yield light, sometimes it's a very quick red, green, yellow. So we're we're asking that they look at that, but just so everyone's kind of aware. The city has recently submitted three wraps tax applications, like Todd said. The first is for a safety netting project at Birch Creek Golf Course. The second one supports the youth theater present the presentation plan for 2027. The third application is continued renovation of the Douglas Mercantile building. We expect to hear the results of these applications around the May. As the weather continues to improve, our parks will begin opening gradually. Our park restrooms will remain closed until we are consistent past the freezing temperatures. As long as freezing conditions continue, opening the restrooms could result in frozen pipes, etcetera. We are excited to report that a couple of new businesses will soon be coming to to to load to downtown. Jiffy Lube has began construction on a new building at approximately 1100 South Main. In addition, Taco Bell will be locating in the city as well. They have recently submitted their plans and paid the required fees, and construction is expected to begin soon. Their location will be in the same same general area as Jiffy Lube. City staff and volunteers are also busy preparing for health days, which continues to be one of our community's favorite annual events. The main health days activities will take place Saturday, May 9. Additionally, the America two fifty committee is planning some exciting, activities for Cinco de Mayo. That will be on Tuesday, the fifth. On that. What I understand, it will be from about 11AM to 8PM. I would like to thank all the staff, volunteers, and community members for your continued work to keep our city moving forward. Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. Unless you have any other comments, I'd entertain

a adjournment. I make a motion to adjourn our meeting tonight.