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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000.10.18 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES DATE: (101800) MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING October 18, 2000 7:30 p.m. STATE OF IDAHO) County of Madison) SS City of Rexburg) Present were the following: Mayor:Bruce Sutherland Council members:Paul Pugmire Nyle Fullmer Marsha Bjornn Glen Pond (Arrived Later) Donna Benfield City Clerk:Marilyn Hansen Finance Officer:Richard Horner P.F.C.:John Millar City Attorney:Stephen Zollinger Excused:Kay Beck Pledge to the flag. The Mayor had the scouts introduce themselves and their troop number. Nyle made a motion to approve the minutes, seconded by Paul. All voted aye, none opposed, Marsha abstained. RE: REPORT ON COMMUNITY CAMPUS COMPLEX MEETING TOPIC: (24,15,,,COMMUNITY CAMPUS COMPLEX,RECREATION COMMITTEE, RECREATION,SWIMMING POOL) The Mayor reported on the meeting for the Community Campus Complex held last week with facilitators. Discussion concerned what the facilitators would provide, the level of service that would be provided and that the cost would be shared 40% for School District, 40% City of Rexburg and 20% from the Library District. Paul made a motion to hire the consultants for the full package, Nyle seconded the motion. The Mayor will be meeting with MEDCO next week, since it has to do with economic development, in hopes they will also sign on. Paul made an amendment to his motion, to add that the City be subject to no more than 40% of the cost, amended motion was seconded by Nyle, all voted aye, none opposed. RE: PURCHASE CARD FOR EMPLOYEES TOPIC: (24,15,,,EMPLOYEES,PURCHASE CARD,PURCHASE ORDERS,CREDIT CARD) Richard stated that a couple of years ago the Council approved employees to use purchase cards but after the approval an undiscovered fee surfaced so the program was not used. What he is proposing at this time is for employees to use a credit card for City purchases to eliminate the P.O. process for small purchases which will save a lot of time and paper work. The employees are limited to a $200.00 purchase at one time and the card has a $2,000.00 limit. Paul made a motion to approve Richard’s recommendation to use credit cards. Motion was seconded by Marsha, all approved, none opposed. 1 RE: AMENDED ANIMAL CONTROL PROPOSAL TOPIC: (24,16,,,ANIMAL CONTROL,ANIMALS,DOGS,DAMA’S DOG FOUNDATION, LICENSES,LAFOLLETTE*KATHY,DOGS) Kathy reviewed the times she had appeared before Council with an Animal Control Proposal and reviewed the present amendment she is proposing. She requested the input from the Council as to what is liked or disliked with the present proposal. Marsha stated she was in favor of licensing, she felt this proposal was such a big program another person would need to be hired to track all the paperwork and the City is not in a position to accomplish this. She was somewhat against the immediate neutering and spaying of a dog that is picked up but she does like the idea that pets not be given away at the stores of local merchants. Paul asked for a response from Kathy as to the feelings of giving a Police Officer a dart gun. After some discussion she felt it was all right if the officer was trained. Paul then requested to hear from Dama Wirries with Dama’s Dog Foundation. Dama reported on the progress since she had been appointed to the animal control project and among her discussion was she feels the licenses should be given away for free, without a license there is no way of identifying the dogs. She also feels these licenses should be given away for multiple years, from this the foundation will develop a data base so they can find the owner. If the owners have been offered free licenses, there is an ordinance on the books stating you have to control the animals but it is still an habitual offender, then there needs to be a penalty imposed. There was discussion concerning the charge or lack of charge for licensing. Kathy feels there should be a license fee as a penalty for unaltered animals because unaltered animals are the cause of the problem. Paul LaFollette - 106 Birch He suggested boosting the fees to get a dog out of the dog pound. Because of the paperwork involved and there being no computer facilities at the pound, he is in a position to donate to the City an old computer that could run a data base that is simple. He was informed by the Mayor there is a program for transferring hardware for computers and this would not be a major problem. nd Alan Dunn - 340 W. 2 South Alan expressed appreciation for the LaFollettes for the work done even though there are items he does not agree with. In listening to Dama he feels her suggestions make good common sense. He feels that the Council is not getting many complaints about dogs and that tells him there may not really be a problem. He has no complaints about the way the ordinance has always been, is there really a problem, will this new proposal place a burden on the City that we don’t really need? His recommendation is that the City do nothing about the ordinance except to give Dama a round of applause for the help she has been. Roy Marlowe - 142 Elm He explained his association with animals for his entire life and he fails to understand what the problem is. He has read this proposal and is disturbed that it is such an overkill for what is needed. There may be some problems but he feels if this is adopted it would create many more problems than there are now. He feels this ordinance should be left alone. Mike Tatum - 522 Linden He wanted to echo the remarks of the last two speakers, leave the ordinance alone. th Bart Linderman - 241 S. 4 East He likes the rules the way they are, he likes the way Rexburg is now. He does not like reading in the newspaper all the time about big city ideas, that we have everything wrong, and must change by government regulating everything we do. He would support the last three speakers in leaving this policy alone. 2 Discussion concerning over population. The Mayor turned the discussion over to the Council. Donna feels that the City has a good Ordinance and likes what Dama is doing at this point. She has not heard an outpouring from the public that there is a problem. Paul has heard more comments in the last two weeks about parking in the winter than he has in the last 9 months concerning the dog issue and does not see that there is a problem. He would vote to give Dama at least two years to see how her program is working and feels that the licensing should be free. Nyle feels much the same way, if you can’t sell the dog licenses at $3.00 they are certainly not going to be sold for more. He feels the current ordinance addresses the issues and is pleased with what the City is doing with Dama. Paul made a motion that the Mayor appoint a committee made up of someone from the Police Department, the City Attorney, Dama and someone from the financial end and any others the Mayor wishes to appoint. The Committee should come back in a month with a proposal looking at what it would take to go to free licensing and an appropriate data base and review the citation schedule for violations. Motion was seconded by Marsha, all voted aye, none opposed. RE: REQUEST FOR FEE WAIVER FOR TABERNACLE TOPIC: (24,17,,,TABERNACLE,FEES,FUNDRAISERS,DONATION) Abigail Caldwell - 22 Carlson Ave #22 Abigail and a group of friends are scheduling a fund raiser for a Ricks College student that was injured last year, which injuries are causing an extreme financial burden on her family. There are a couple of bands they are working with from Utah, Colors and the Standards, that are willing to do a benefit for this event. The potential dates are either November 18 or December 1. She is requesting on behalf of the friends that the City waive the fee for use of the Tabernacle so they can raise as much money as possible and all the money raised can go directly to the family. They realize the clean-up will be their responsibility and are willing to leave the Tabernacle the way they found it. After discussion, it was agreed to waive the $100.00 fee for use of the Tabernacle for this fund raiser. RE: IMPACT FEES DISCUSSION TABLED TOPIC: (24,17,,,IMPACT FEES) The Impact Fees discussion was tabled for sometime next year. The Council meeting scheduled for November 15 was discussed. The Mayor, Glen and John will be out of town. It was determined to cancel the meeting unless something comes up that cannot be rescheduled then another date would be set. There has been a request from developers purchasing land by the Rexburg Stake Center for use of the Council Room for a neighborhood meeting. This will only be needed if they are unable to obtain another location. It was agreed this would be all right if it works with scheduling of the room. RE: REPORT ON WORK ON NORTH HIGHWAY, SALEM HIGHWAY TOPIC: (24,17,,,NORTH HIGHWAY,SALEM HIGHWAY,ARTCO) John reported on work on the North Highway/Salem Highway construction. The widening has been completed, they are now doing scrub coating prior to doing an overall repaving of the road from the railroad tracks up to the intersection at ARTCO, which is scheduled to commence on Monday and should be complete next week. RE: REPORT ON WATER SHOP TOPIC: (24,18,,,WATER SHOP,WATER) 3 The contractor has completed his work on the water shop, the last item on enclosing the building is installing the shop doors which will be installed later this week. It will be closed in, heated and ready to go next week, and the Water Department should be moved into that building the first part of November. RE: REPORT ON WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT TOPIC: (24,18,,,WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT) The Wastewater Treatment Plant project is complete from the contractor’s aspect, other than the new drying beds and those will be done shortly. RE: REPORT ON TENNIS COURTS TOPIC: (24,18,,,TENNIS COURTS,SMITH PARK,PORTER PARK,PARKS) The work on resealing of the tennis courts was weathered out but should be completed this fall. RE: REPORT ON SOCCER FIELD TOPIC: (24,18,,,NATURE PARK,SOCCER FIELDS) The sprinkler system is being installed at the soccer field. RE: REQUEST FROM GOLF COURSE TOPIC: (24,18,,,ASPHALT,GOLF,GOLF COURSE) There was discussion on the asphalt pile, what a good product it turned out to be and Paul questioned if there would be any excess to be used on cart paths at Teton Lakes Golf Course this fall. Paul will work with Bruce Blanchard and get back with John for further discussion. RE: REPORT ON BIKE PATH PROGRESS TOPIC: (24,18,,,NATURE PARK,BIKE PATHS,PARKS) The fencing has been completed for the bike path that isolates the west dike of the treatment plant. There will be a gravel bike path at this time down the east side of the soccer field and the north side to tie in so it will go around the Nature Park. Discussion was on having a ribbon cutting for the bike path so the public will be aware of where it is. Donna made a motion to pay the bills, seconded by Paul. All voted aye, none opposed. Glen made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Paul. All voted aye, none opposed. _________________________________________ Bruce Sutherland, Mayor ______________________________________ Marilyn Hansen, City Clerk 4