The Malad City Council met for an extra session on Tuesday, Jan 28.  

The agenda was largely devoted to a discussion of the City ordinances related to Planning and Zoning.

Tyrell Neal gave an invocation.

JUB

Two contracts from JUB related to the Wastewater Treatment Plant were presented to the council.  The second involved the contract with the city as engineers.  A screen at the WWTP was in the original grant, but then taken out, but then added back in when funds through the grant became available.  The screen comes from the grant funds, and will not cost the city any additional money.  The screen is self-cleaning, according to City Superintendent Tyler Webster. 

A leaking pipe has been fixed.  JUB had to verify that the fix had been made correctly.  

A motion to approve the JUB contract was made.  EX K was one vote, and the Professional Services Agreement was another.  Both were approved.  

Grant Administrator

An administrator for FEMA grants was required for the application process.  SICOG was present at the council meeting to accept the role of administrator.  A motion to approve SICOG as the grant admin was approved.

Shelly Williams

City Attorney Brett checked the statute to see whether appointing Williams, who serves as the PZ Chair, to PZ Administrator would present a conflict of interest.  The statute states that such a conflict only exists when the party has an economic interest in the particular matter before the PZ commission.  The council was interested in appointing an Administrator for PZ, and Williams was suggested to fill the role.  Tyrell Neal noted that a job description for the position was a necessary step in moving forward with the creation of the position.  The job will involve verifying that building projects that come before the city are within the guidelines of the city code before they are approved.  Tory Richardson is the Building Inspector, but his job is to verify the state building code is followed, rather than specifically the city’s ordinances.  

Brett Evanson recommended formulating a job description before the appointment was official.  He mentioned that he would also check to ascertain whether a job posting period was required for a new city position.  

The issue was tabled until the next meeting.

Water and Sewer fees  

The council discussed the need for a rate increase on utilities.  The idea of making the raise an annual occurrence rather than wait until it became an onerous increase was discussed.  The fees have not been raised in the past on a consistent schedule.  

Anticipated water revenue for the year, based on the first quarter of the discal year, will fall about fifty thousand short of the needed funds.  Terrill Schwartz noted that expenses for the city utilities were increasing in a number of areas.  

Lance Tripp noted that the water meters are currently not accurate, and are measuring lower than actual usage.  Five new water meters have not been running long enough for Tyler to determine what the difference in efficiency is at present.  

Susan Wittman stated that in the past, during freezing weather meters have broken and needed to be replaced.  

Lance stated that he would like accurate meters before making a decision on raising the rates.  His concern was that people may be using more water than they think they are, and an increase on that basis might not be fair.  

The mayor noted that they had been advised to raise the rate .50 a year to try to avoid any massive rate jumps.  

The issue of how raising rates might affect those in fixed incomes was raised.  The mayor noted that it would be less strain on people to raise the rates a hypothetical $2 more often that $40 all at once. 

Tyler thought that the 5 new meters should be able to provide useful data in the near term.  

John Williams

John also shouted out Tyler Webster for the fire insurance ratings changes, which lowered the rating from 9 to 5, resulting in savings to the city. Williams also spoke to the city about zoning as it relate to the hospital.

Business License

A business was seeking a license for a “small firearms manufacturing business” was discussed.  Members of the council were unsure what the state laws were regarding small businesses involving firearms construction.

Sheriff Williams  

Sheriff Doug Williams presented a December report.  Incidents 113.  3 in school.  2 citations in city, 2 in county, 13 warnings in county.  

“New sheriff, busy boy,” Williams said.  “I’ve got a pretty good game plan going on.  I gave everyone a self-evaluation.  The results are eye-opening how they graded themselves and the training they need.  Now I need to prioritize the training that people need.”

First dept meeting last week.  “Training, training, training is my goal.  We’re going to have training every month.”

Jenny Hawkes has been promoted to chief deputy.  “This was based on an evaluation of skills, their incident reports, and thoroughness.  Who’s out there hustling and doing a good job and giving out citations.”  

Williams explained that meetings were held with members of dispatch, civil, and patrol in order to make sure everyone was on the same page.  

The mayor would like to sit down with Doug Williams and John Christophersen to talk about what they expect from the city regarding their roles.  

Brett Evanson extended the offer to the deputies to reach out to him with any questions about the city ordinances.   “We know that you have a city ordinance officer, but we also know that he’s one guy who can’t work 24-7.”

City Council asked for Williams’ cell number.  “It’s 911,” he laughed.  

EMS noted that the deputies have been increasingly supportive with regard to medical calls.

SICOG

The recent Trump memorandum was discussed as a potential issue with regard to funding some of the programs that are administrated through federal granting agencies.  There are no specifics.  Nate from SICOG discussed the income survey which will be going out to the community.  There are about 835 households in Malad, so 183 out of 260 they send out will need to be returned to get a measurable result.  The survey allows for 5 years worth of clearance to apply for different kinds of grant funds.  The Rural Community Assistance Program works to apply for funds for water projects.  

Tyler Webster

Tyler had an update on the crosswalk project.  In talking with  someone, a bid for a crosswalk setup that is supposed to be 98% efficient was received which seems like a good value.  It will work for pedestrian pushing.  The quote of 6,00 covers the signage and apparatus.  This would be on 400 N and 100 West.  The city would like to cover 200 and 300 west in the future.

Brett Evanson stated that the notices on the posted agenda should be less vague so that people who potentially have a strong opinion about one of the action items were not able to claim that there had not been sufficient notice of the nature of those actions.  Evanson felt that the approval of the signage for the crosswalks should wait until the agenda notification was clearer, just in case.  

A quote for water testing was discussed.  Coloform tests were positive in one test.  That puts the city into a DEQ level 2 test.  Two hydrants were flushed to clear the system.  “We’ve never had e. coli come back positive.  But it does tell me that there’s something in this system.  At first I thought it was our sampling equipment.  My first impulse is that we should probably start at the top of the system.  Our system is a single point source,” Webster said.  He would like the FD to flush the hydrants so that they can be checked.  The 4 point drop in the rating was that GIS access, a map of the hydrants in town, and the water modeling.  The tanks need to be cleaned.  A bid for a full OSHA dive into the tanks was presented.  

Webster suggested that a CIP be created to begin funding the replacement of elements of the water system.  “We really need to start focusing on these water things.”  “We have some turbine meters that are easily in its 60s.  They last about 10.”  We need to do something that’s going to start to recoup this cost.  

Webster feels that the source is the most important place to start with problems in the water system.  The issue will be saved until the Feb meeting for approval.  The tanks need to be cleaned, according to the DEQ.  

John Christophersen—CE

A grant for the dog pound is underway.

 Christophersen is making progress on the yards that have been discussed in the past.

“My concern is that we’ve followed all the steps in the ordinance.  Once the city removes the vehicles in question, it becomes the city’s responsibility to store and deal with them”. He wants to make sure that the city is not on the hook for bills related to the impounding of
the vehicles.

JC is back to work.  His movement is a little restricted, but he’s mostly back in action. 

No dealings with vicious dogs.  He has gotten his traning in, and he is learning the best way to use it.

Brett Evanson 

Update on Water attorney and the Bear River Adjudication.  The council continued an earlier discussion about water rights and what the city needed to do to maintain the ones that it currently has.  A map of updated city boundaries was requested by Evanson as well.  

PZ

The Planning and Zoning commission spoke with the city council about changes, additions, and updates to the city ordinance regarding Development within the city limits.

The discussion ranged across the next several hours, with many aspects of the city’s regulations on building covered, including the concept of twin homes, ADUs (accessory Dwelling Units), AirBnBs, animal restrictions, and a number of other things.  The process of revising the ordinance has been a long one, with PZ taking on the task of examining the language for redundancy and conflicts.  Many portions of the ordinance have not been updated for decades, and the existing language does not always account for changes such as the widespread prevalence of short term rentals (Air BnB type arrangements), as well as twin home construction.

Twin Homes are relatively new to the valley.  Although some do exist, they are not substantial in number.  A twin home has to have a common wall shared by two residences.  Some of the specifics of dimensions, access, and other concerns still need to be clarified in the ordinance.  

AirBnB units will likely be permitted in Commercial and Residential zones, with a required SUP in a residential zone along with a business license.  The issue of a parking stall for any ABnB rental was also discussed.    

One odd issue in the existing ordinance concerns the number of people living in a single dwelling.  Language permitting a larger number of related individuals was designed to prevent unofficial sub-letting or fraternity style overpopulation of properties, but resulted in some odd unintended violations.  The language will be further discussed.

ADUs were one of the biggest issued covered in the discussion, and one that the council and PZ all felt needed to be dealt with moving forward.  An accessory dwelling unit is a structure on a property that is not the principle dwelling, but can be used for habitation.  This includes things like a “mother-in-law” house, a utility furnished outbuilding, a “barndominium” and a number of other more contemporary dwelling ideas.  The ordinance as it currently exists presents multiple points that contradict each other when applied to these types of structures, including what constitutes and ADU, and what requirements for setbacks, utilities, etc. will go into permitting their construction.  The issue is whether the city wants to allow multiple dwellings on single lots.