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Show Panguitch City Council Discusses Issues Panguitch City officials met on Aug. 25 to discuss the Social Hall, 1 percent tax, industrial park, baseball complex, and several sev-eral other significant issues, including in-cluding important personnel matters. mat-ters. Official minutes of the meeting meet-ing show the following actions: Three city employees were approved by the council to attend the Utah Rural Summit, which was held Sept. 9-11 with a $250 per diem stipend for the registered participants attending the Utah League of Cities and Towns meeting, set for St. George Sept. 16- 18. The registration and motel mo-tel rooms were authorized to be . paid by the city. Social Hall Janet Oldham explained the subdued color scheme suggested by the paint specialist for the social hall. Although more bids were sought on rain gutters, windows, and the stucco on the front of the social hall, one actual bid was received. Also received was one bid on the rain gutters only and on the windows only. The phone bid at $25 over the Smart Enterprises bid, for the rain gutters was to be ' faxed, but never came. The council accepted the bid from Smart Enterprises at $1,875 to do the rain gutters. Public Hearing 500 S. Resolution 1998-10 The resolution establishes, approves, ap-proves, and accepts 80.5 feet as the width of the city's right-of-way on 5th South St. in Panguitch. Pan-guitch. Present besides the city council coun-cil and employees, were Laura Mosdell, Ray and Caryl Engle-stead, Engle-stead, Bennett Josie, Richard Church, Tamara B. Houston, and Bruce Fullmer. Fullmer asked for clarification on the reason for the resolution. It was explained that if the road : were to be the standard width of 99 feet, it would encroach on private property of resident on 500 South. The boundaries will be determined by the old fence lines. This resolution is to also let property owners know that Panguitch City will not, in the future, encroach on their property in order to have 99 feet of roadway. The resolution makes ; the existing street legal. ; It was recommended that in : the paragraph that reads : "WHEREAS," Panguitch City has previously established 99 feet as the accepted width of the city's right-of-way on all city streets that the word "accepted" be changed to "suggested," The public hearing was closed at 7:10 p.m. and the resolution was passed with the word change. 1 Percent Tax Richard Church and Tamara B. Houston represented the business busi-ness people in Panguitch. Church, expressed concern with the focus. He said he is not opposed to the baseball complex, but that the business people feel a golf course or equestrian center should have been considered more seriously. He stated that the master plan should have dictated the direction the council should go. He also said that as a member of the golf course committee, he was disappointed that the golf course study was dismissed so quickly and that the baseball complex was put on the fast track to get it approved. He asked the council members to read, with an open mind, the information that was put together by the golf course committee. Mayor Jon Torgerson explained ex-plained that the baseball project will also receive $100,000 from the Garfield County School District Dis-trict for construction and that if a golf course could get the financial support from another source, as the baseball complex does, it would be more feasible. The mayor said the golf course and the equestrian center are still being pursued. The council members mem-bers are looking at other sites for a golf course, since Kaibab withdrew their offer of the former sawmill property. . The council has given verbal support to the county in their efforts to pursue an equestrian center. Houston expressed the need for more night time events for tourists, such as plays, concerts or festivals. Church also expressed concern with the amount of money he and other motel owners have to pay out for sewer charges. It was explained that the rates were dictated by the lending agencies and the amount collected goes to pay off the loan for the sewer project. Craft Fair Denise Dastrup asked if the city would help with the $50 fee the county requires for table rent for the November Craft Fair. It was suggested that if the Main Street Program sponsored the craft fair, the $50 fee would be eliminated. The item was tabled until the first council meeting in October. Janet Oldham will present the craft fair sponsorship proposal to the Main Street committee. Industrial Park Questar has said the total cost to take the natural gas from its present end to the entrance to the tire recap business, a total of 2,427 feet at $5.15 per foot, would be $12,499. Merle Prince asked Jim Cook if they would pay some of the cost to get the gas line to their leased property. Cook told him he thought they could do that. The city's portion of the total would be between $8,770 and $15,000, depending on how far the line was taken and participation partici-pation of others who would connect con-nect to that line. It was noted that Questar' s people had said the city would probably be able to get this done less expensively if they waited until after the initial installation by the Tempest Company is over and that the city could probably hire a local contractor to do the installation. The item was tabled until Sept. 22. Personnel Matter Martin Nay The following people asked to speak on behalf of Martin Nay: Marjorie Davies, Rick Burning-ham, Burning-ham, Otho Bulkley, Rick Birch, Bennett Josie, Beverly Crosby, Pat Oetting, Caryl Englestead, Sarah Kay, Neil Foster, Tom Hatch, Frank Houston, Kay Hatch, Bruce Fullmer, Maloy Dodds,- and Nay himself. None of the remarks made by the above-named individuals were included in the minutes. Mayor Torgerson stated that the city is advised by its handbook hand-book and by legal counsel that when they deal with personnel issues they do so in executive session for legal reasons and, more importantly, to honor and respect the confidentiality of the person with whom they are working. "We try very hard to honor that," he said. "If that is violated throughout this process, I apologize. apolo-gize. Apparently, It's nothing I had any control over." Executive Session After an executive session that included the mayor, all city council coun-cil members, Allen, Chidester, and Lee and which lasted from 9:15 until 11:40 p.m., the group returned into general session. (See PANGUITCH on page 3-A) Panguitch City Council Discusses Issues From Front Page Mayor Torgerson said, "Martin, "Mar-tin, it is the finding of the council coun-cil that you have been derelict in your duties in not responding to an appropriate official law enforcement en-forcement situation." The council unanimously passed a motion to place Nay on probation for one year, with a review set for six months. The motion further noted that a letter of reprimand stating conditions and terms of the probation would be placed in his file with a week. The minutes show that Merle Prince will be resigning from many of his duties. He will remain re-main involved w'ith the industrial park program until it has been completed. By motion, the council coun-cil set guideline terms of five hours per week at $15 an hour. After advertising for a school crossing guard, the council decided de-cided to hire Sandy Packer at $6.50 per hour. Garfield County Water Study Source Protection Allen Henrie reported on a meeting held in Kanab where the Garfield County Master Plan was discussed. They received a $55,900 grant to help defray the costs for the source protection study. Panguitch City can also do a master water plan. The city has already done the plan and may be eligible for a little reimbursement because they have already paid for it. An engineer has been hired for Kane and Garfield Counties source protection water study. The city already received a bid from Sunrise Engineering to do work on the source protection plan. It would benefit the city to hold off on that and wait for the county's study, which should be done by the end of the year. The county will be giving each community $2,500 and the state has a 50 percent grant to help with the source protection plan. The total cost could end up being $2,000 to $3,000 to get a plan done. The county-wide water system has been mentioned, which would have a county administrator who would work with the communities. That idea will be discussed and evaluated more in the future. Handicapped Employment Henrie also reported on the progress of hiring a handicapped worker for the city. Two positions were discussed and the council decided to have Erma Galloway work at the social hall cleaning the weight equipment and the rest rooms for one hour per day. The other, Brandy Klamert, from the care center, will work in the library. Both will be on a trial basis and their job coach, Shelly Benson, will be on the job with them until she feels they can work on their own. Both will earn minimum wage. Janet Oldham reported that she has hired a handicapped individual under the program and it has been a positive experience. Scholarship Criteria The criteria that was discussed in the Aug. 11 meeting was accepted by the council members. Baseball Complex The sprinkler system installation installa-tion was completed and the fencing fen-cing project was close to completion. comple-tion. The concession building construction was advertised, also. A decision was to be made on the hydro seeding of the fields. The city received two bids. The company doing the sprinkler system bid six cents per square foot for the high school field and the balance at four and one-half cents per square foot. The high school field will be done earlier than the remainder of the field. The other bid was four and one-half cents per square foot for the whole complex. Allen Henrie suggested the council consider working and negotiating with the first bidder because he was already al-ready there and could get the high school field done and do the rest when the sprinkler system was complete. The total square footage foot-age of the complex is about 400,000 square feet. The council accepted the four and one-half cent bid. New Fire Station Dodds and Talbot Construction submitted their first pay request of $37,002 for the work done on the fire station. Henrie received a verbal okay from the architect and the paperwork will be done. Because Dodds and Talbot have so much money invested in supplies, cement work and plumbing, plumb-ing, the architect authorized Henrie Hen-rie to pay the requested amount, which the council agreed to do. The council also decided to landscape a small area, instead of cementing it. Natural Gas Gas has been put in the line to charge the system and to check for leaks, etc. Questar will be trucking in the liquid natural gas until the BLM's requirements are met and they can run the line from Dog Valley to the highway. The line is already installed along Highway 89. Other Pending Business The council discussed the chip sealing of the roads that is being done. The job is not yet completed. comple-ted. The radiuses and the north . part of town haven't been done and they are expected to be completed this fall. Because of the natural gas construction at the north end of town, the roads will probably not get done because of , the cold weather. The ladies who asked about setting up a day care center will not be using the city room at the old fire station because there are too many requirements to set one up. Janet Oldham reported that Fern Morrison from Mt. Carmel told her that she has never seen Panguitch City looking as good as it does now. The minutes state "Appreciation "Appreci-ation was expressed to the council coun-cil for their composure during the remarks in behalf of Martin Nay. It was obvious most of these people did not have all the facts and were blaming the council for the events that had taken place. It was felt the council did the right thing and are to be complemented comple-mented for their actions and their professionalism." |