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Show Page Two - The Springville Herald EDITORIAL It takes everyone to make a city a great place to Hue Springville Mayor Frilz Boyer has written an article on the state of the city for this week's Springville Herald. We commend him for taking the time and effort to inform the citizens of this community commu-nity about the city. Mayor Boyer has been doing double duty since he was sworn in as mayor, performing the tasks of mayor and city administrator after both resigned in August. But a new city administrator has been hired and will start his job Feb. 1. Major Boyer has been very available for citizens to talk to. He says that he receives many letters asking questions about the city to winch he personally gives answers. Boyer took office at the height of the problems the city had last summer with high energy bills. That problem has continued with the cost of power skyrocketing not only here but throughout the nation, liist summer it looked like Springville was the only one having problems, but we now find that every city is fighting the high of cost of power. In his article, the mayor talks about other problems, but he also talks about the great things about our community. And there are many. At the end of his piece, he issues some challenges that he feels we should all accept and accomplish, as a citizen of Springville or a city official. We hope that everyone will carefully read the things he lias listed and do all that we each can do to make Springville an even better place to live. State of the eity Continued from page 1 I know that my predecessors felt as passionately about the nuisance issue as I do. In fact, they assured completion of nuisance nui-sance ordinances that are well written and capable of meeting the intended purpose. But, they did not clearly assign responsibility responsibil-ity or allocate the necessary financial resources to accomplish the task. In order to preserve the beauty, beau-ty, character and appeal of our community even more effectively, effective-ly, we need to support more stringent enforcement of Springville's Spring-ville's existing nuisance ordinances-Public Safety: Springville has ' always placed the highest priority on public safety. We provide exceptional emergency services and pride ourselves on prompt and efficient response to both emergency and routine calls. Perhaps the most significant accomplishment of the Springville Department of Public Safety during 20(H) was the response to the June 10 fire that ravaged the growth along the mountains and threatened many citizens. The Wing Fire required the coordinated coordinat-ed actions of the local public safety elements of dispatch, fire, . police, ambulance and Communi-' Communi-' ty Emergency Response Teams. This action was augmented by assistance from many nearby "entities in Utah County, Utah State Lands and Forestry, the k U.S. Forest Service, and a re-. re-. gional fire-fighting element from t the Boise Interagency Fire Center. Cen-ter. J ' To the credit of all involved, I there was no loss of life, no serious injury, and no structural . damage to those who lived in the f fire's path. We all learned a great j deal about emergency preparation and response. While we generally think of j Springville as a quiet and safe (USPS 513-060) Published Weekly by Art City Publishing Co., Inc. 161 South Main Street Springville, Utah Publisher Editor Periodical Postage Paid in Springville, UT 84663 Postmaster send change of address notice to: The Springville Herald, 161 S. Main, Springville, UT 84663 Subscriptions in Advance per year $20 ' Out of County Subscriptions per year $23 Per Copy 50C delivered by carrrier, per month $2 jt ; Member Utah Press Association - - January 24, 2001 bedroom community. During the year, the Department of Public Safety responded to over 14.000 calls for service, including calls for rape, armed robbery, arson, suicide, gang activity, drug labs, aggravated assault and domestic problems. As Springville and the surrounding sur-rounding areas continue to grow, the frequency and severity of public safety events and criminal behavior will increase. We will monitor and improve the capability capabili-ty of the Public Safety Department Depart-ment as we grow and ask that everyone take a more cautious approach . Jo . ensuring personal and family security.' Electricity: - The!-lectricity crisis had a major impact on us beginning in June 2000, escalating escalat-ing through the summer months, and remaining to some extent even to the present time. Whether or not Springville was fortunate, or unfortunate, to have experienced experi-enced the problem early is debat- ., able and will only be accurately evaluated with historical perspec- live. One of the political issues that divide us is whether to continue as we are doing by securing contractual sources for most of our power needs and generating our own electricity to a limited extent, or to divest ourselves entirely of local generation and seek only contractual sources for electricity. Late in the summer of 2000, after covering a loss, of $1 mil- -lion, the City Council adopted the . Power Cost Adjustment (PC A) to fairly assess all consumers for the ' actual cost of producing and delivering power to your home or business. The PCA was selected instead of a rate increase for two reasons, one to meet the volatile and fluctuating price of generation genera-tion and supply, particularly the price of naturar gas, and two, to cover the actual cost of continu- Martin W. Conover Patricia Conover ing uninterrupted service. We are closely connected to power sources serving other Western States. And, according to utility officials, we are not in imminent danger of electricity blackouts. But, the generation of electricity (supply) has not kept pace with the requirements of an increased population (demand). Basic economics indicate that when the supply is low, and the demand is high, the price will increase. In California public officials are weighing every possibility from taking over the entire electrical elec-trical network to implementing a crash construction program for new power plants. The states two largest utilities are reported to be $9 billion in debt and losing $40 million each day because of a state-imposed freeze on wholesale prices preventing them from passing cn the actual cost to then-customers. then-customers. Closer to home, Logan entered en-tered the summer months with an $1 1 million surplus and now has only $2 million, for a loss of $9 million due to electricity woes. Logan increased its rates by 25' and still needs another 10 to break even. This instability has made it difficult for Logan to sign short-term contracts for electricity and has left the city at the mercy of the open market with three months of winter still ahead. There are no simple answers, but I believe we would be unwise to abandon our current position of having a variety of sources1 from which to meet our growing electrical requirements, including' the much maligned . Whitehead Power Plant. All of us need to take conservation conser-vation seriously and make real attempts to reduce our electricity usage patterns. Springville City will continue to seek fixed contracts con-tracts as our primary sources of power, including contracts for natural gas, and to improve our own generating capability for use . in peak demand times. That reasoning allowed us to sell power during periods of peak demand in December and reduce the total cost to the city by ap-' proximately $200,000. ' Financial Condition: The, general financial state of the city ; as of December 30, 2000 is' healthy and improving. The audit' report for the FY 2000 budget , ending in June 2000 gave Springville Spring-ville City an unqualified opinion that it had adhered to generally' accepted accounting standards. ' The city's funding problems created by the electricity - issue ' were adequately addressed by the introduction of the PCA in July. Resultant cash flow problems may have been more significant without cooperation between the city administration, the department depart-ment heads and the city council, e.g. where feasible, capital purchases pur-chases were delayed beyond the original planned purchase dates and over $600,000 in capital purchases was removed from the FY 2001 budget. The city's available cash resources, a total of unrestricted and restricted funds, is summarized summa-rized as follows: At the end of FY 2000 (June 30. 2000), the total was $2,398,853 of which $955,046 was unrestricted and $1,443,807 was restricted. At the change in city administration caused by the resignation of the former mayor and the city administrator admin-istrator (August 31, 2000), the total was $1,224,356 reflecting a temporary accounting shortage of $405.332' in unrestricted funds and $1,629,688 in restricted funds. And, at the end of the most recent complete accounting period (November 30, 2000), the total was $2,250,892 of which $233,332 was unrestricted and $2,017,560 was restricted. Restricted funds are available only for the specific purpose for which they were collected, e.g. impact fees. Public WorksWater: A considerable con-siderable amount of time during 2000 has gone into planning and engineering for streets, solid waste removal, wastewater treatment, treat-ment, and for future water needs including ensuring adequate culinary water supply and distribution, distri-bution, storm drainage and irrigation, irriga-tion, and the cost evaluations and financial planning for secondary water systems. The goal of the Public Works Department is to develop and use available water resources in the most cost effective effec-tive manner possible. To accomplish accom-plish we have established the following objectives: - Develop a secondary water system, beginning in the West Fields area, and include secondary second-ary water piping in all new developments. devel-opments. Phase construction of secondary water systems in the already developed areas of Springville. Sprin-gville. j Implement a more effective water conservation program through improved public educa tion and media coverage, an incentive based water rate, annual water audits, and encourage more water conservative landscapes in the building process. - Construct and implement additional culinary water supply sources and associated structures to prepare for buildout, i.e. 5 new wells, additional storage for 6 million gallons of water, and upgrade distribution of transmission transmis-sion and distribution facilities. These objectives are included in our most recent water master plan. Based on the current rate of growth and demand for building, we anticipate completion of the projects over a 20-year period. The intent of the Springville Public Works Department is to refurbish 25 to 30 miles of streets annually, including chipping, overlays and total rehabilitation. The department also maintains an annual plan for sidewalk repair and replacement. In both cases, streets and sidewalks, the main concern is to eliminate traffic and pedestrian hazards. Currently, the department is looking to improve the process for applying chips and keeping them in place after the final rolling thus reducing the potential damage. A complete rehabilitation of the digester system at the wastewater waste-water treatment plant and polylin-ing polylin-ing some sections of the collection collec-tion system were also accomplished accom-plished in 2000. ' The compost facility near the treatment plant has been in operation opera-tion for about three years and the quality of the compost produced is exceptional and available to Springville citizens. Facilities: Many of the facilities facili-ties currently housing elements of the Department of Public Works, Springville City Administration and Library, Public Safety and other vita! public services are scattered, unsafe, inadequate or obsolete. As Springville prepares for the future, the city council and the city departments must develop a consolidated facilities plan, one that will clearly define the facilities requirement for all departments and services and establish a construction priority for consideration now and in the future as funding becomes available. avail-able. The newly procured Maxum building will aid in providing the necessary flexibility to accommodate accommo-date construction and renovation of these facilities. City Administration and Polit-. Polit-. ical Changes: In' January, Craig Conover, Jim Reed .and myself, were sworn in as new members . of the city council joining Dianne Carr and Keri Gordon. The first challenge faced by the new council coun-cil was to stop the increasing illegal sale of beer to minors. ' Major challenges met by the council since that time include implementation of the PCA to meet the increased cost of electricity, elec-tricity, approval of all ongoing community development,, and participation in the on-going annexation of the West Fields. The city council passed 28 ordinances ordi-nances and 51 resolutions. The council completed two Special Improvement Districts (SID 26 and 27) and began another (SID 28). The Re-Development Agency Agen-cy (RDA) approved by the council coun-cil to the budget stage in 1999 for development West of 1-15 has not progressed as hoped and expect-;ed. expect-;ed. " Restructuring of the city council was necessary to replace Mayor Hal Wing and City Ad-tministrator Ad-tministrator Cameron Gunter after their resignation in August 2000. In September, I was selected to serve as the Mayor and in October, Octo-ber, Jay Knight was appointed to fill my seat. A very thorough search was conducted for a new City Administrator. Admin-istrator. Layne Long, a highly .qualified and experienced professional, profes-sional, with a masters degree in public administration from BYU, will assume the position on February Feb-ruary 1. A Youth Peer Court began in 2000 and received formal certification certifi-cation from the State of Utah in June. Through the end of the year, only two cases heard by the Peer Court eventually had to be referred to the Juvenile Court System. Springville now has a web page, springville.org, that will become more and more useful as it is improved and enlarged. Springville City obtained and implemented a new computer based performance evaluation system for city employees during 2000. Based on the relative rankings within departments, merit pay increases were awarded in July. In December, performanceincentive perfor-manceincentive awards were issued to employees for the first time to recognize specific accomplishments accom-plishments and improve morale as an incentive to work for the city. Business licenses in Springville Spring-ville have increased from 300 is 1988. to 668 in 199. to 779 in 2000. Of these licenses, about 40 were for home occupations. There were four annexations completed, and two begun, including in-cluding the West Fields annexation. annex-ation. The West Fields annexation annex-ation could add about 1600 acres to the city, the largest annexation in the past 25 years. If approved, it will be the last major annexation annex-ation possible, based on current boundaries of surrounding cities. Quality of Life Services: During 2000, Parks and Recreation Recre-ation were combined into a single department leading to more efficient effi-cient use of employees, a clearer assignment of responsibilities, and a consolidation of effort for reduced costs. The cooperative relationship between Springville and the Nebo School District in supporting recreation activities is still strong and effective. New trails are under construction construc-tion and playground equipment is planned for Spring Acres and Spring Creek Parks. The Spring Creek Park has been graded and will be completed in 2001. Needed Need-ed improvements are planned for the city's swimming pool. Of high interest to many in our community is the construction construc-tion of a Youth or Family Recreation Recre-ation Center. The basic idea of having such a center has great appeal and is generally supported. support-ed. However, the entire concept needs to be given careful analysis and definition. A plan must be developed that will answer questions such as. What type of recreation facility do we want? What recreation programs will it support? What will it look like? Where will it be located? Who will manage and maintain it? And most importantly, important-ly, What will it cost and how will we pay for it? With a satisfactory answer to these and other important impor-tant questions, I feel there would be sufficient community support to see it completed. Springville City's Library provides current, high interest materials for persons of all ages for reading, viewing and listening. listen-ing. During 2000, the library converted their catalog and circulation circu-lation software to a new vendor, completed an inventory, and began weeding out unneeded materials. In 2001, the Library plans to purchase a firewall, create a home page, put their public access catalog on-line, hold Spanish language story time, finish establishing a Spanish language , collection, and hold training for the Library Board. The Hobble Creek Golf Course received deserved national nation-al recognition as one of the finest inexpensive courses in the West. Our goals are to give every golfer golf-er a memorable and positive golf experience in both operations and playing conditions, improve each year in every way we can, maintain main-tain our status as the number one public, golf facility in Utah, and to make our course completely user friendly. During 2000, the golf course became familiar with effective use of the new irrigation system installed on the front nine and over-seeded the entire area, which will create better grass and turf for 2001. The Springville Museum of Art Association has now raised 80 of the funds necessary to complete the Centennial Wing Project and is on track for completion com-pletion in 2001. The museum's education programs have received statewide recognition and have achieved line-item status in the State's budget for cultural activities. activi-ties. The State considers the museum as the source of the most significant out-reach education program for children in Utah. Over 18,000 children from every school district in Utah visit the museum annually. During 2000, the Art Museum Association added 74 works of art valued at $307,550 to its permanent collection. This aver- ages $4,156 per work of art added, well above the association's associat-ion's average of $3,264 per work. The museum hosted about 61,000 visitors for the nearly 30 exhibitions held during 2000. The Hafen-Dallin Guild has committed commit-ted to fund furnishings for the Volunteer Center in the new Centennial Wing. During 2001, the museum will complete preparations prepa-rations to become a cultural venue for the 2002 Winter Olympics Olym-pics in Utah. Art City: I have heard challenges chal-lenges to Springville's designation designa-tion as Utah's "Art City." Contrary Con-trary to those challenges, my opinion is that Springville still deserves that historic designation, regardless of our faults, not solely because we have an. art museum but because we have so many other art related activities, services and programs to offer. Springville has more artists per capita than any other city in Utah with a population over 5,000. Springville has two foundries found-ries for casting sculpture, several prominent art related businesses, and professional and amateur theater groups and facilities. In June, the Musettes, a locally founded women's musical group, celebrated their 50th birthday. Springville has the Sculptures to Live By program of the Arts Commission, piano and dance studios, an Arts Park which hosts the annual World Folkfest, and much, much more. Rather than criticize the designation, desig-nation, I feel ' that we should capitalize on it and use it to attract like minded people and businesses. We should feel pride in citizenship in a city that offers so much to Utah's children, teachers and artists. Without that designation, and all that it represents, repre-sents, what would distinguish us ' from other cities in Utah as our . boundaries collide? What would be Springville's contribution to Utah's quality of life? I am proud to represent Utah's Ut-ah's "Art City" and proud of Springville as the city that bears that title. I hope that many of you feel the same way. Conclusion and Recommendations: Recommenda-tions: I have tried to give you a snapshot of the State of the City. I have addressed the thoughts that came to me and the thoughts I received from the city's departments, depart-ments, if only in brief. I know there are voids in this message that should have been included or covered better. I will conclude with some challenges that I feel we should accept and accomplish as a city official or as a citizen: - We should establish more effective nuisance enforcement and realize that litter is the child of nuisance; - We should carefully plan for internal growth and for annexation, annex-ation, and accommodate our new neighbors by going out of our way to welcome them into our community; - We should ensure a regular scheduled meeting of our city planners with' planners from neighboring cities, to prepare for the impending collision - long shared boundaries; - We should deliberately consider preservation of selected historic homes, buildings and areas in our city, and establish guidelines for compatible development; devel-opment; - We should accept more individual and personal responsibility responsi-bility for conservation of electric-- ity, water and ocher natural re- " sources; - We should plan for, encourage encour-age and support residential, commercial and industrial development devel-opment while adhering to the recommendations and objectives selected from Envision Utah, Nebo Community Vision and our own capable planning staff; - We should develop a facilities facili-ties plan that accommodates all city services and establishes an order of priority for construction as funds become available; - We should continue to invest in infrastructure to accommodate community growth, and to seek additional sources for electricity and water; - We should establish more opportunities for citizen input and volunteer community service, and restore neighborhood advisory committees; - We should prepare to accommodate ac-commodate growth with all its hazards by being more conscious of risk and the potential for criminal behavior; . - We should elect officials in 2001 with wisdom, vision and foresight to represent and lead us in accommodating even more dramatic change, and, - Finally, we should listen to the Meadowlarks, and teach our children to listen and work together to-gether to ensure that "Springville is a pretty little town" in our minds, the minds of our youth, " and as the ideal community we ' would like to build for the future. SHS teacher to be honored Beverly Burdett of Springville High School is being honored by the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching. Bev is re- . ceiving the SWCOLT Incentive Award. This award is given after evaluating many proposals. It is ,: awarded to the presenter of a session that promises to be of great interest and value to conference confer-ence attendees. Mrs. Burdett will be presenting present-ing in San Francisco on March 15-18. SWCOLT serves the world language teachers of eight states at all levels of instruction. The Incentive Award is designed to support and encourage talented teachers to present their ideas at regional meetings. She receives a cash award and special recognition recogni-tion at the conference. |