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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001.09.19 CITY COUNCIL MINUTES MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL MEETING September 19, 2001 7:30 p.m. STATE OF IDAHO) County of Madison)SS City of Rexburg) The following were present: Mayor:Bruce Sutherland Council Members:Kay W. Beck Paul Pugmire Nyle Fullmer Marsha Bjornn Donna Benfield Glen Pond (8:00) P.F.C.John Millar City Attorney:Stephen Zollinger Excused:Marilyn Wasden, City Clerk Richard Horner, Finance Officer Minutes:Janet Williamson Pledge to the flag. Nyle Fullmer made a motion to approve the minutes of September 5, 2001. Marsha Bjornn seconded the motion. All voted aye, none opposed. Resolution 2001-06 - Anti Terrorist The Mayor read Resolution 2001-06 concerning Anti Terrorist activities. Paul moved that the Council approve the resolution. Marsha seconded the motion. All voted aye, none opposed. Recreation Issue: Mike McKinley - 453 Yale Mike is a part owner of the Sports and Fitness Club. He has concerns with the spending of the $40,000 for recreation plans. He is aware of the committee’s work and findings but he doubts there is that much support in our community for such a project and his doubt is based on the outcome of past elections for both the swimming pool and the recreation district proposed a few years ago. He proposes that it be put on the ballot. He feels the community is handling ours needs. Free enterprise is also meeting our needs and he questions our need for a multi-million dollar facility. His club operates at only 50% capacity and he feels the club meets the needs of the size of this community. They have the facility, they are half full, their prices are reasonable, and he doesn’t believe we have the population base to support a multi-million dollar facility. We can’t compare ourselves to Salt Lake or Jackson and Pocatello runs their pool 3 months out of the year. Idaho Falls aquatic center 1 is supplemented by the City at $100,000 a year. Is our city willing to supplement this center? He feels his children’s recreation needs have been very well met by the City. put it on the ballot and let the people decide. Doug Stutz - 162 K Street At the last meeting the Council decided to raise the Mayor’s salary to $40,000. They also decided to give $6,000 to Dama’s Dog Foundation. Why is Council not capable of making a decision on this issue. If you took these other issues to a vote of the citizens it would not come out as cut and dried as it came out with the City Council. The City Council is here to make a decision that they feel is in the best interest of the community. You’re here as a City Council to make decisions and we’d like to see you make a decision on this tonight. Steve McGary - 915 Hillview Dr. Steve asked to have them look at the role of government. Two of the 5 functions of government is 1) to maintain competition in the free enterprise and 2) to provide for the public welfare and we bring about the issue of providing for the public welfare in the sense of recreation and recreational facility. The question was brought up why did the people vote down the swimming pool and he thinks the vote was that we should maintain the current swimming pool which was old and needed to be replaced. The vote on the recreation district was mainly to vote for a new agency within the government which we already have an adequate agency within our city government. The facilities that the committee have looked at across the state and in the state of Utah are operating in the black for 2 reasons: 1) they built within their means 2) they did a survey to find out if this is what the people really want and if they would support it. We are looking at building within our means. We are not doing this just for the children but for all ages, children on up. The money is in the budget. It is established to do a business plan to determine the initial cost and what the proposed cost would be for this facility. Any business man would prepare a business plan and spend the money on the plan before he decided to invest in his business. If we spend and allocate this money we will be able to develop a business plan then we can make a more sensible decision whether we want to build this facility or not. He encourages the council to make a decision tonight and not put it before the public. It has already been put before them. Bill Miller - 1730 S. 1000 W. He appreciates the work the committee has put into this but the people he is around are not for this and he feels it should be put to the voters. Also, he feels that what keeps these things running is people that are signed up on contracts, not the day passes. th Ted Hendricks - 375 S. 5 E. He feels that the question at hand is the study, not whether or not to build the facility. He would encourage the council to gather more information, consider a one time assessment to fund the study. A long term investment concerns him. Wade Bowman - 1011 Westwood Dr. He would encourage the Council to go ahead and spend the money for the study. We send 2 congressmen and senators to state and federal government to represent us and if they came back every time there was a decision to be made on how to spend the money he doesn’t think anything would ever get done. You have been elected to represent the city and given the authority and he would encourage them to use that authority to gather the information that they need. Jack VanHouten - 243 Cornell Maybe we can’t afford a recreation center but we need a swimming pool. Lee Terry - 584 Maple Lee feels that $40,000 is excessive. Bill Johnston - 271 Randy Dr. He has been to the water slide, there are tiles falling off the pool and the dressing rooms are disgusting and if we can’t keep that up how will we keep up a million dollar facility. Janet Crawford - 526 Gemini Dr. Janet expressed her concern about the price of everything and our ability to maintain it. Jill Anderson asked the Mayor to explain where the figure of $40,000 came from and where that money was coming from. The $40,000 was just an estimate prepared by our engineer, John Millar. The money is in the contingency fund, not part of any taxes. John Millar explained the cost that was generated was to determine what type of facility is needed by the community. That would put together a basic layout of the facility; look at economics in cost both in initial capital expenditures and also in operation of maintenance costs and would then give the voters a better idea of what they are voting for. The figure $40,000 is really an arbitrary figure, there is no fixed formula. It is really what level of effort, what level of detail do the residents and Council feel like they need to make an informed decision. nd Jed Newman - 141 E. 2 S. He concurs with the study. He would like to see them put forth the money and give the people something to vote on. Mitch Niebaur - 3685 W. Hwy. 33 He feels the process is backwards. He feels you should budget the funds and then decide what you can build. He is concerned that as the new wears off, how will it be supported and maintained. Marsha talked to 4 different firms and got a wide variety of answers. (explanation of answers) Basically the more detail you want the more money you have to spend. Kay expressed the need for money for the streets. 3 You can put out an RFP (request for proposal), professional services cannot be bid. You do not have to choose the low proposal. Paul said that this is the Council’s decision to make. (Discussion). Paul moved that we instruct our in house staff to prepare a request for proposal for a study to determine the design and the feasability of an aquatic/recreation center in Rexburg that would come back before the Council for approval. Nyle seconded the motion. All voted aye, none opposed. Request for Skate Board Contest - October 13 Kevin Swiss - BYU Idaho Student Body Officer He gave the Council a handout explaining the Skate Board Competition. (Handout attached) The funds earned would go to United Way. Stephen said that the competition would require some type of insurance waiver to be signed by those participating in the event. The City is not being asked to co sponsor this event. They discussed the rules and would like to maintain BYU Idaho standards - no swearing, smoking, drinking, drugs, etc. Stephen said this can be done if the Council approves exclusive use of our facility for their organization during the time they request. The only things we are prohibited from allowing them to do on a public facility, if we grant them exclusive use, are protected classes: no gender, age or race discrimination. Kevin said they would have a band and a D J and would control the noise level and abide by what ever the City asked of them. Glen asked if this fund raiser could be used for the skate park debt. Kevin said they were also considering the funds going to help with the victims of the terrorist attack. Paul asked to hear from Greg West to see if it would be possible to combine two events. Request for Skate Board Park Celebration - September 29 Greg West - 576 Park St ndth Greg explained that he wanted to have this on the 22 but would like to change to the 29. He would like to have a skate board competition to celebrate the 2nd year anniversary of the skate park. His competition would include the same divisions as the college and also a best trick and half pipe competition. He has talked to bands in Utah that would come up and play. With the small amount of funds they would collect he was considering several possibilities: 1) a donation to the St. Anthony skate park 2) lights for our park 3) help for the skate board park debt 4) or for the victims of the terrorist attack. (Discussion of the pros and cons of combining the 2 events) 4 th Paul moved to approve Greg West’s competition on September 29 and BYU-Idaho’s on October th 13. Donna seconded the motion. All voted aye, none opposed. Request for Charity Concert - September 28 st Ken Stowell - 135 S. 1 E Ken asked the Council if he could have a live band concert at Smith Park. Originally it was planned as a fund raiser for the live band organization but now he would like to have it be a charity concert for the victims in New York and Washington D.C. They will be charging $2.00 per person and it will all go to the Red Cross. He will have people there to help with crowd control. They would like to be able to rope off a section of the park. He would like to have people selling food with all the proceeds from that going to the Red Cross also. This would not be a BYU Idaho event but they would want to uphold the same standards. The concert would be from 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. th Nyle made a motion to approve the concert at Smith Park from 4-10 p.m. on September 28. Donna seconded the motion. All voted aye, none opposed. thst Request to close 5 West for auction - September 21 th Bill Kunz of Targhee Pawn was present to request permission to close 5 West from 8:00 a.m. to nd 6:00 p.m. on September 22 for an auction he would like to have. This would be for the safety of th the crowd, he would also like to use City barricades. It would be 5 West from old highway 191 to th about 5 South. It would only effect 3 residents and they would be granted access to their homes. This is an inventory reduction sale. (Discussion) th Paul made a motion that the council grant his request to close 5 West from Old Highway 191 to half thnd way up to 5 South from 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. on September 22. Residents will be allowed access to their homes. Nyle seconded the motion, all voted aye, none opposed. Plat Revision - Linda Eames - 610-680 Vallinda St. thth Linda explained that she had a plat for property on 6 South off 5 West. She had an opportunity to buy Stella Chambers back yard, her request is to incorporate that additional property into the plat. This was approved by Planning and Zoning. John Millar said that when this development was originally proposed it was done with a private road with the concept that there would be 8 lots that would have 8 houses and a privately owned street. In light of what has been brought to his attention he would like to look closer at this to make sure there were no commitments made at the original platting. Nyle made a motion to table it for 2 weeks to allow John to research the original plat. Paul seconded the motion. All voted aye, none opposed. Lease of Police Department Building Nyle moved to authorize Mayor Sutherland and/or Kay Beck to sign a lease/purchase agreement on the police building upon approval and recommendation of council. Paul seconded the motion. Glen 5 Pond abstained from comments and voting because of a conflict of interest. Those voting aye: Nyle Fullmer Kay Beck Marsha Bjornn Donna Benfield Paul Pugmire. Glen Pond abstained. Update on Projects: The primary project they have going on now is the reconstruction of several streets. Contractors th started on that work this week replacing curb and gutter on So. 5 West and moving through the various streets over the next 20-30 days. Zollinger Construction is doing the work. They will begin th paving on Bear Street, K Street and So. 5 West next week. They will be finishing the East side of the airport road, putting in curb and gutter by the golf course, doing a reconstruct for half block by th 4 East and Main. Marsha reminded John of disabled parking by the Snow Building. Donna asked if they were putting in disabled parking at Porter Park. John said yes. Stephen said that during our last Planning and Zoning it was brought to our attention that there are still a number of places in the City that have grandfathered parking across our sidewalks. Upper nd Valley Resource Counseling Center at 36 No. 2 West has expressed a willingness to allow the city to participate with them in some decorative way to do away with the parking in front of their building. They do not need the parking. (Discussion) Nile moved to authorize John to deal with parking issues as they arise. Kay seconded the motion. It was asked that John would keep the Council informed. All voted aye, none opposed. Marsha talked to John about a stop sign at the corner of Aries by the Evergreen sub division. thnd Kay asked John to look into posting 7 South by 2 East as a no parking area. Marsha reported the Mayor had asked her to be on the United Way committee. Volunteers are way down. Because of lack of interest they would like to hand it over to the City. If that is not possible they would have to disband the Upper Valley United Way. If this happens the money being administered here would be administered by Idaho Falls. The Council felt that they did not want to assume the administration of it. Nyle moved to pay the bills. Kay seconded the motion. All voted aye. Paul moved to adjourn. Donna seconded the motion. 6