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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997.03.05 CITY COUNCIL MINUTESDATE: (030597) City Council 3/5/97 7:00 P. M. State of Idaho) County of Madison( as City of Rexburg) Present were: Mayor: Nile Boyle Councilman: Kay Beck Farrell Young Glen Pond Nyle Fullmer Bruce Sutherland City Clerk: Rose Bagley Finance Officer: Richard Horner Engineer: Joe Laird Attorney: Stephen Zollinger arriving at 7:45 P.M. County Commissioner, Brooke Passey attended the meeting. RE: TREE TRIMMING DISCUSSED TOPIC: (21,36,,, TREES,GARBAGE) The mayor asked the council what they wanted to do about trimming trees? We have problems with tree limbs in the way when they dump garbage. The council felt the people either needed to be willing to trim trees or we could not pick up their garbage. Pledge to the flag. A motion was made by Nyle Fullmer and seconded by Farrell Young to approve the minutes. All Aye RE: REPORT ON REVOLVING LOAN FUND TOPIC: (21,36,,, REVOLVING LOAN FUND,BUSINESS PARK) Dave Ogden, representing E.C.I.P.D.A. was at the meeting to report on the Revolving Loan Fund. (he gave the council a handout with the report on it (on file) and explained) This report is for the last fiscal year. It is identical to last year report. They have not been accepting new applications on the fund because of the the city's desire to use these funds for the Business Park and other projects it has. There is some capitol in there now, so we would have to decide if we want to accept applications or if there are some other things the city needs to do with it. RE: ECIPDA CONTRACT RENEWED TOPIC: (21,36,,, ECIPDA,CONTRACTS) Dave stated that they would like to have the council renew their contract for next year. The contract has been cost plus $2000 fixed fee not to exceed $9000. They would like to ask for the same for this up coming year. Last year it was about $8000. A motion was made by Nyle Fullmer and seconded by Bruce Sutherland to approve the renewal of their contract for the next year. All Aye RE: FINAL READING OF ORD. 793 CONTRACTORS LICENSE - NOT PASSED TOPIC: (21,36,,, CONTRACTORS LICENSE,ORDINANCES) Final Reading for 793 for Contractors License. There was a group of contractors at the meeting. La Mont Merrill, President of the Building Contractors, acted as spokesman for them. Joe came to the Builders Meeting and reviewed the ordinance. Most of the comments he got were negative. Out of 27 contractors present at the meeting, 15 voted against it, one voted for it and one voted for it on condition that it would be modified. Most of the opposition you have already heard. Some of the points that did come out of the meeting: (1) It seems that there is very little relation between quality and licensing of work, nor is there any relationship between licensing and integrity. (2) He suspects that if the licensing Ordinance is passed, that there will be the exact number of people doing business as there was before the licensing Ordinance is passed. (3) The best thing that has happened in the last few years is the requirement of quality plans. He would even think it should be a stiffer requirement. He had a license in Idaho Falls and the bond for several years. In all of the work down there he never heard of when a license was ever revoked or their license tested. He felt that if the license was working there would be some testing of the license. He had never heard of a Bond being exercised. It seems that the Bond only does two things increasing the cost of building and the incumberness. He talked to a plumber that does plumbing from Pocatello to Henry's Lake. He told him the poorest homes are built in the city of Idaho Falls and some of the best homes were in Rexburg. (4) Licensing of itself is not what makes quality. When he took the test in Idaho Falls it was an open book test and took 2 1/2 hours to hunt through the book and before he was done he thought what a joke it was. It was 50 or 75 questions and about 75% of them were on fire. The questions were silly trick questions. He thought a test should be for knowledge and experience. (5) In place of the license and bond we need to make sure the builders carry Workman Compensation and Liability Insurance. There are some houses in the city that need work done on them. They have been in some houses that are not really up to standard, yet they have an occupancy. Some when you grab hold of the hand rail, you can tear the hand rail and everything right off the floor. These are new homes. In the inspection these things should be written up and corrected. In Idaho Falls through the licensing they did mail out a list of deficiencies which helped the contractors to correct them. (6) In the State of Idaho, licensing is coming up at the Legislation. The mayor stated that we didn't want to make it more expensive. Maybe everything is under control with good inspections. Nyle Fullmer stated he was not in favor of the licensing and felt that our inspections are doing good. Most of the builders are getting along with Joe and Blair. A motion was made by Nyle Fullmer to not pass this Ordinance requiring a Contractors License. Seconded by Kay Beck. All Aye. RE: WASHINGTON SCHOOL - BROULIMS NEW STORE - MOTION TO GO TO PUBLIC HEARING TOPIC: (21,37,,, MADISON SCHOOL DISTRICT,DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION, URBAN RENEWAL AGENCY,INCREMENT TAX,SAFETY,MADISON JR. HIGH,BROULIMS, WASHINGTON SCHOOL) The mayor referred to a letter from the Madison School District No. 321 which was in the council's packet. (copy on file). Carl Pitts, Associate Foods out of Salt Lake City. He is in the store development department and is working on this project. (Handout on file) The plan he showed was for the block where the old Washington School is. The plan reflects the retail driven project to take place on this block. They currently have all the property under option to put this project together which includes the school district piece, two homes located on Main Street, an apartment located behind the two homes, and the restaurant which are all now under option, under contract. They feel this will be a vital project for the City of Rexburg. They think there will be a 15% increase in volume in the grocery sector that they are representing that is now going outside of the county limits that will be brought into the city market. They had already met with the city and discussed the ability to capture Redevelopment or Urban Renewal Funds from Property Tax increment to assist in doing some on site improvements to these blocks that would occur. Joe discussed the cost of doing construction and type of improvements and gave a handout. (on File). (discussion) Brent Orr from the School District was at the meeting to discuss the issue. The thinking of the board is they felt they did not want to build a school on that property, not downtown. It is prime commercial property. They have accepted the offer from the Boyer Company and Associated Foods to purchase the property. Because the Junior High is still there it will complicate the safety issue. Mr Orr stated that as the city addresses the safety concerns, there will be funds and money involved. On that basis the board shows willingness to forego the incremental tax for an appropriate period of time so the city council, Boyer Company, Associated Food Group will have the ability to go ahead and make whatever corrections and improvements that is needed so that will become a very viable property and make it safe for the students. There are people who say we won't have that money from taxes on that property, but you don't have it right now it is school property and you don't receive tax from it. Because it will be on the tax rolls it will generate a good tax rate eventually. The mayor said there will be some increase there, because they won't r take that in as a "O" value. Farrell asked about the future of the Junior High. Mr Orr stated that the Junior High is probably going to be there for another 30 years. Why increment? Carl Pitts gave examples that happened in Pocatello. They are faced with somewhat the same situation in Rexburg as they were faced with in Pocatello. The cost to do this type of project on this side of the state downtown is equal or if not more than they are experiencing in Salt Lake City for raw ground costs. They are in this ground in excess of $5.00 a square foot in order to procure the ground. Beside the cost of the property there will be a high cost for the demolition of the buildings. The preliminary figures coming in for demolition is in excess of $100,000. They have not asked the city or redevelopment for any money for that. They looked at the intersection and felt any improvement would be valuable. It is one of the most traveled intersections in the city. This project will keep a lot of dollars downtown in retail sales and will keep the downtown vital. They met with the city officials about using increment funds. Some issues are safety, improvements to main street, sewer lines are adequate for what they need to dump in with what is existing, but if we are going to tear all the dirt up now would be the time to replace lines for future development. They discussed 1st West and Main and a stop light for safety issues. Explaining there would be approximately $71,000 a year of increment funds coming off the rolls. They are asking for that they would take a net value calculation against the increment screen over a period of time and use as a bond instrument to fund it up front. They propose that the city approve a 20 year term increment. It could be a 10 year payback at a 8% rate which puts us at a value of $480,000 or at 15 years puts you at $612,000 in net present value today. That doesn't include what could happen in phase 2. (explaining) They think they can save some of the trees, if they can't they will replace them. The mayor explained that in the past we have talked about doing a downtown revitalization and getting a $500,000 grant that would not be used in that area but would be used from 1st West on up to 2nd East to do some of the things we want to do to make the downtown more vital. He stated that rather than form L.I.D. or a B.I.D. like we have tried before, we could take the tax increment financing money and use it for a match. With this much match we possibly could get an additional $500,000 to spend on the Downtown Revitalization. Jeff Sommers, E.C.I.P.D.A., explained what the city does with the Urban Renewal is to take part of that to use as match funds to get the Block Grant. Glen asked Brooke Passey if the county would be amenable to doing something like this if the city moves forward on it? Brooke said they have not talked about it as an agenda item, but they would be willing to look at whatever proposal is out there. They have not had an official proposal given to them. A motion was made by Bruce Sutherland to go to Public Hearing with this proposal. Richard Horner suggested that we not stretch it out to 20 years, only 10 years. With that we could do about $500,000 worth of construction. We could also find alternate financing. Jeff Sommers stated that we need to move right along, they need to open December 15, if they want to qualify for the 1997 money. All Council voting Aye to Motion. Introduction of the scouts & students. RE: PUBLIC HEARING FOR ZONING ORDINANCE CHANGES TOPIC: (21,39,,, ZONING ORDINANCE,PUBLIC HEARINGS) 7:45 P.M. Public Hearing pertaining to the proposed changes to the Planning & Zoning Ordinance. These changes are house keeping changes that have been voted on by the Zoning Board during the year. These changes are attached. Stephen Zollinger explained these changes are re -codification of the ordinance. He read the changes. A motion was made by Bruce Sutherland and seconded by Nyle Fullmer to approve the changes. All Aye RE: FIRE DEPARTMENT JOINT USE, OWNERSHIP & OPERATION AGREEMENTTOPIC: TOPIC: (21,39,,, FIRE DEPARTMENT,AGREEMENTS) Spence Larson was called out of the meeting before he could present to the council some changes. Richard Horner explained, the Fire Department would like to amend the joint Use, Ownership, and Operation Agreement. Number 5 says "If in the event either party wishes to terminate or withdraw from this agreement they must give the other party three years advance written notice." To make it more solid over time they want to change it to five years instead of three years. The county fire district will have to approve this change as well. They feel that is important for the longevity of elected officials. That way there could not be a big turn of events on just one election. (discussion) A motion was made by Kay Beck and seconded by Nyle Fullmer to make the change as listed above. All Aye RE: FIRE DEPT. REQUEST APPROVED TO DISSOLVE THE HIRING BOARD TOPIC: (21,39,,, FIRE DEPARTMENT) The Fire Department are requesting to dissolve the hiring board that was in place to hire full time fireman and to clear the slate of potential candidates. They will start from scratch. A motion was made Glen Pond to approve this request. Seconded by Nyle Fullmer. All Aye RE: SMOKING NOT ALLOWED IN ANY CITY OWNED BUILDING TOPIC: (21,39,,, SMOKING,CITY BUILDINGS) The mayor referred to the minutes of the Department Head Meeting. We have one area in a city building where we have still allowed smoking in a break room. We have had a couple of complaints on it and our legal council says under Idaho Statute the law is clear that you cannot allow smoking even in a break room. You cannot allow smoking in any buildings. The council felt we should go ahead and not allow smoking in any buildings as provided by law. RE: GOLF BOARD DON NOT WANT TO BE INCLUDED IN RECREATION DISTRICT TOPIC: (21,39 ... GOLF BOARD,RECREATION DISTRICT) Nyle Fullmer reported that the Golf Board met on Monday night. It was unanimous that if a Recreation District is put into place, they want to stay out of it. They do not want to be included in as part of the district. (discussion) The mayor felt we should leave them out. The mayor stated that the council needs a meeting with the County Commissioners and a few key people on the committee to make some decisions. A discussion on the meeting time. It was decided to leave the meeting time at 7:00 P. M. for a while. Farrell Young reported there will be a Young Artist Festival tomorrow night in the Tabernacle Civic Center at 7:30 P. M. They will be honoring Ann Zollinger at that Festival. He invited all the council to attend. Mayor Boyle reported on a meeting today with the Civil Defense regarding the possible flooding. A motion was made by Bruce Sutherland and seconded by Nyle Fullmer to pay the bills. All Aye Meeting adjourned. LV`' Nv Mayor, Ale L. Boyl i City Clerk, .R66 j gley a