City Council Minutes 1-21-25

TREMONTON CITY CORPORATION
CITY COUNCIL MEETING
JANUARY 21, 2025

Members Present:
Wes Estep
Beau Lewis
Bret Rohde
Lyle Vance
Blair Westergard
Lyle Holmgren, Mayor
Bill Cobabe, City Manager
Linsey Nessen, Assistant City Manager
Cynthia Nelson, City Recorder

CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP

Mayor Holmgren called the January 21, 2025 City Council Workshop to order at 4:03 p.m. The meeting was held in the City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Holmgren, Councilmembers Estep, Lewis, Rohde, Vance, and Westergard (via phone), City Manager Cobabe, Assistant City Manager Nessen, and City Recorder Nelson. The following Department Heads were also present: City Planner Jeff Seedall (arrived at 5:35 p.m.), Assistant Public Works Director Carl Mackley (left at 5:18 p.m.), Police Chief Dustin Cordova (arrived at 6 p.m., left at 7:11 p.m.), Sergeant Skyler Gailey (arrived at 4 p.m., left at 5:20 p.m., back at 6 p.m., left at 6:47 p.m.), Officer Greg Horspool (arrived at 6 p.m., left at 7:11 p.m.), Emergency Manager Nate Christensen (arrived at 5:45 p.m., left at 6:47 p.m.). Also, in attendance were Attorney Dustin Ericson (arrived at 5:46 p.m., left at 7:11 p.m.) and Finance Director Curtis Roberts.

1. Discussion on Strategic Planning/Budget for upcoming fiscal year

Councilmember Rohde took the City’s mission and vision statements, and the pillars to create ideas on strategic goals. He said I would like to establish goals for the next five years. This will give department heads and other employees goals to work on. We should also put this out to the public for input. Councilmember Lewis read pillar one. By 2030, establish a family, friendly community by implementing initiatives that create at least 10 new recreational opportunities, five neighborhood connection programs, and three large scale annual events. These efforts will foster a safe, welcoming environment where neighbors feel connected. Veterans and their contributions are honored, and residents enjoy life while preserving small town charm and supporting thoughtful growth. The City will maintain an 80% resident satisfaction rate measured through surveys, ensuring all initiatives align with residents’ needs and values. Manager Cobabe said the Riverdale police department created precincts and threw block parties through the summer. They grilled burgers and hot dogs, while everyone brought a side. It was well received, and hundreds of people came. Councilmember Rohde said remember these goals are not things the Council are doing. These are things the department heads would do. Our goal is to set the bar for everyone to work toward.

Councilmember Vance read the next, enhance public spaces for connection and relaxation. Develop three multi-use parks featuring walking trails, splashpads, and family-friendly activity areas to serve as hubs for community connection and designate quiet zones or nature preserves for relaxation and mindfulness. Mayor Holmgren then read, foster vibrancy and enjoyment. Host three large-scale annual events, such as farmers markets, festivals, outdoor movie nights that connect residents and celebrate the City’s vibrancy. Councilmember Rohde said we would partner with local businesses to create unique, family-focused activities that enhance enjoyment and connection. We already do six farmers markets a year and movie nights. I think we should count what we are doing already and add one or two more. Next is community gratitude. Establish an annual community gratitude day with activities that highlight Tremonton’s values, growth, and heritage, reinforcing the City’s welcoming feel and encourage residents to share what they love about their community through interactive campaign events.

Councilmember Estep read, balance, growth, and connections. Implement zoning policies that prioritize community focused development, ensure new growth integrates green spaces and walkable neighborhoods. Maintain small-town charm by avoiding overcrowding and promoting thoughtful, long-term planning. Manager Cobabe read, honor veterans and celebrate their contributions. We want to maintain and enhance the downtown square and memorial as a place of reflection and gratitude. Host annual events that recognize veterans and invite visitors to celebrate our unique heritage. Partner with schools and community groups to create educational programs and exhibits around the sacrifices of veterans. Councilmember Rohde said by fostering a sense of gratitude, connection, and enjoyment Tremonton will create a family, friendly community where residents and visitors feel a deep sense of belonging and pride. These efforts will sustain the City’s small-town charm while supporting growth and preserving its heritage.

(Pillar two was the same as pillar one so they moved to pillar three). Assistant City Manager Nessen read, by 2030, establish Tremonton as a model for safety, security, and well-being by enhancing public safety services, fostering a culture of safety, and creating an environment where residents and employees feel secure and supported. Manager Cobabe read, strengthen the capabilities of the police and fire departments with state-of-the-art technology, resources, and ongoing training to ensure rapid and effective responses. Develop and maintain a citywide culture of safety through education, collaboration, and proactive safety programs. Improve emergency response systems to guarantee access to help whenever and wherever needed. Councilmember Lewis read, foster a welcoming and comfortable environment by ensuring public spaces, parks and facilities are well maintained, accessible, and safe for all age groups. Create five new affordable and engaging community programs by 2027, promoting healthy and meaningful lifestyles. Manager Cobabe said we are doing a lot of these things already, but by putting them in this format, it lends itself to ask residents, how are we doing? By keeping it as a goal, we are keeping it in the forefront of our minds and enabling ourselves to ask questions. Councilmember Vance read, develop neighborhood watch programs and safety workshops to engage residents in proactive crime prevention. Increase community outreach programs to strengthen relationships between law enforcement and residents. Building trust and transparency. Reduce crime rates by 15% through these initiatives by 2028. Councilmember Rohde said we have to work with the police department on those specific numbers, we do not want to set goals without working directly with them on those measures.

Mayor Holmgren read, economic stability and security. Support a healthy and varied business ecosystem by partnering with local entrepreneurs, agricultural leaders, and businesses to drive growth and opportunity. Promote affordable housing options and infrastructure that supports families and individuals at every stage of life. Councilmember Rohde said this takes in affordable housing. This is where we can do a lot of economic growth. Councilmember Vance said add a bullet point to highlight Main Street so we can continue to increase the viability, looks, and cleanliness of that.

Councilmember Rohde read, enhance workplace safety programs for all City employees. Build a culture of trust and security. Provide quarterly safety training for 100% of employees starting this year. Councilmember Estep read, sustainability and growth. Partner with agriculture and manufacturing sectors to support sustainable growth and ensure these industries remain pillars of our local economy. Integrate safety and environmental considerations into City planning and zoning to maintain a high-quality life. Councilmember Rohde said by fostering peace, safety, and security, Tremonton will become a model of communities, ensuring residents feel safe, supported, and empowered to enjoy life in a positive and thriving environment.

Councilmember Rohde read, position our City as the most connected, accessible, and innovative hub in the nation, requiring residents and businesses to thrive in a modern interconnected world. Next, develop and promote work from home resources, such as coworking spaces, community hubs, and remote friendly infrastructure. Build seamless connection across our City with integrated digital tools for at-home access to government services, healthcare, education, and commerce. Partner with reliable internet providers to maintain consistent high-speed internet access, urban and rural areas. Number three, transportation and travel connectivity. Strengthen ties to aerospace, railroads, and major transportation routes. Branding the City as the crossroads to the West. Enhance infrastructure to attract and support industries reliant on cutting edge transportation technology. Number four, economic and industry collaboration. Leverage connections in agriculture, manufacturing, and logistics to position the City as a hub for innovation. Partner with industry leaders in aerospace and technology to attract investments and develop next generation connectivity solutions. Number five, community and personal connections. Create vibrant community spaces and digital platforms to strengthen ties between friends, neighbors, and associates. Foster progressive and inclusive policies that build a welcoming environment for businesses, families, and individuals. Six, big city services with a small-town feel. Offer services such as healthcare, education, and recreation while maintaining an accessible community-oriented atmosphere. Promote the City’s unique identity as a forward-thinking northwest connection point with unparalleled digital infrastructure. Assistant City Manager Nessen read pillar four, by 2030, enhance Tremonton’s wellbeing by promoting health, transparency, sustainability, and community heritage ensuring residents experience a vibrant, welcoming, and connected environment. Manager Cobabe read, develop and maintain five new parks or green spaces by 2030 to increase residents access to nature and recreation. Implement annual health programs focusing on fitness, mental health, and nutrition starting in 2025.

Councilmember Lewis read, launch a public dashboard by 2026 to provide real-time updates on projects, budgets, and performance metrics. Conduct regular town hall meetings and publish progress reports to keep residents informed. Councilmember Vance read, emphasize sustainability and long-term vision. Adopt and enforce green building codes by 2025 to ensure sustainability development. Achieve 20% reduction in citywide energy consumption by 2030 through efficiency programs and renewable energy adoption. Mayor Holmgren read, establish a continuous network of five miles of walking and biking trails. Connecting key areas of the City by 2030. Partner with environmental organizations to promote conservation and education. Councilmember Vance said our focus should be on water. Another one we could add is a 100% adaption to secondary water, citywide. Councilmember Rohde said I will add a water conservation goal. He then read, support economic accessibility, increase affordable housing by 15% by 2030 to ensure housing options for all. Councilmember Vance said we have to define affordable housing. Councilmember Rohde said we also need a good baseline of where we sit. Also, develop local produce products and cost-effective services to stretch residential financial resources.

Councilmember Estep then read, organize a quarterly culture event celebrating Tremonton’s heritage and diversity starting in 2025. Implement a welcome program for new residents to introduce them to the community. Councilmember Rohde said there is some overlap, but this is a framework. I hope we take this and study it. We will add and take away, then move forward. He read the final one, achieve a 20% reduction in Citywide waste. By 2030 through enhanced recycling programs, composting initiatives, and public education campaigns. Implement an incentive program encouraging employees and citizens to propose and execute validated ideas that reduce waste and save money. Mayor Holmgren said maybe efficiency could be used instead of waste.

Finance Director Roberts said what I think needs to be in here are streets. What about identifying collector roads? A level of maintenance? A goal for a master road concept? Some of those concepts could be put in with connectivity. I see roads as a huge factor. Two things make a city, water in and water out. What do we have for goals as far as keeping our sewer treatment plant up to standard with growth? What would be acceptable measures and standards. How do we identify water sources so parks can be maintained, and people have adequate water? Think about the core services the City provides. Manager Cobabe said at this point, we should try to be as broad as we can so that we are catching as many of these concepts and ideas that we can and then we can fine tune them and weed out things that are impractical or do not fit with the scope of services the City provides. Councilmember Lewis said what types of economic development do we have. Who are we trying to lure in? That would dictate the amount of budget we have to work with. That allows us to decrease tax to the residents and increase amenities. An economic development strategy is really important to nail down over the next year. Councilmember Rohde said I will send this out. Go through and add notes and comments. I would like to get our goals going as soon as we can. Once this is set, individual employees and departments can work toward them. They will better know where to spend their money and as a Council, it is easier to approve things if they support our strategies.

The following items were discussed out of order

2. Presentation on marketing and social media services for the City – Brenden Blackham, Black Thorn Media, LLC

Mr. Blackham with Blackthorn Media introduced himself. He said we are mainly centered around video, photo and graphic design. I work a full-time job for a content production agency in Denver. I would like to bring those skills to help local businesses. The idea behind this is to be a resource for improving communication. Planner Seedall mentioned a potential series about your monuments, walking tour, and recaps from City Council meetings. These could be short, bite sized videos. This would provide someone my age or who is new to town the information without sitting through a two-hour meeting. The average young person scrolls about a city block and a half worth of short videos a day. Photos, videos, and personal histories are a big piece of what we do. Between my wife and I, we have nearly 25 years of experience. We work with families, and businesses, and create social content. Many cities struggle to produce high quality, engaging social video within a budget. We do not want to charge a rate that is astronomical. The types of services we engage in other places would cost more than I am bidding. We want to do something fair because we live here. There are a lot of neat things here and we can provide that education through videos, photos, editing, design, and graphic design. We would be your marketing arm. For this bid we would do a flat rate for all the creative services and roll out as much as we could. These would be in a variety of forms and templates for your team to post. We would use a dropbox of some sort and you would upload content for us to use. Once there, we will take it, edit it, and get it back to you. Anybody can download them, and they are ready for all platforms. Planner Seedall said we get a professional who makes the content, but at the end, there is a City employee posting and overseeing it. That ensures there is at least a second set of eyes before it hits the web. The Council agreed they would like to see more.

3. Open and Public Meetings Act and Municipal Officers Ethics Act Training – Attorney Dustin Ericson

The Council watched a video on this training. Attorney Ericson then said these are things that we know intuitively and things the Council has learned over time. Councilmember Rohde said it was a little confusing when it came to replacing a councilmember and we will be going through that again in a few months. Walk us through that process. Attorney Ericson said applications are submitted. As you are going through that process of choosing a new councilmember to fill a midterm vacancy, it cannot be done in closed session. It needs to be done in open session, including the voting.

4. Discussion on the BRAG mitigation study – Nate Christensen, Emergency Manager

Manager Christensen said the Bear River Association is updating their plan and following up on the strategies we have listed from 2020. He asked about any progress that has been made since the plan’s inception. I need an update on the things that are assigned to the Council. Councilmember Rohde said as far as I know, nothing has been done on any of these for the Council. Manager Christensen said would it be appropriate to update these with the current timeframe or how would you like me to proceed with the mitigation study? Councilmember Rohde said you ought to put them on the agenda for a future discussion. Manager Cobabe said we are looking for a revised timeframe. This is an ongoing process of constant renewal. He needs to be able to report back that we are still aware of these things and if we are planning to work on them or not. Councilmember Rohde said the seismic for facades could be checked off. We are going to add it to our plan for facade grants with Main Street. The Council spent some time discussing buildings that would need to be updated or could be a problem during an earthquake. Mayor Holmgren said we have spent a lot of time working through secondary water. We have done a lot with flooding. Let us further discuss this at our next meeting in February. Manager Christensen said I will just bump the dates on these projects that are listed as current, and we will leave them as current projects.

5. Review of the agenda items identified on 7:00 p.m. City Council Agenda

Director Roberts said we are one of the few cities in Utah, especially small cities, where we draft the financial statements and the auditors audit them. The auditors came in December and have issued their reports. They are all clean. When we look at our business type funds (water, treatment plant, storm drain, and sewer collection), we have our standard operating revenues. These are charges for services, connection fees and miscellaneous income. We have our standard operating expenses, salary and benefits, current expenses, and depreciation. That is what it takes to run everything. We have assets to replace what will eventually wear out. We are constantly investing in these fixed assets. Each has large amounts of capital assets. If we compare our net income and capital assets, that tells us how much we are getting for a return on our assets. If that amount comes out at zero, we would not be setting aside any money to replace things. We need to have some rate of return. We are recovering the cost of the assets plus 2%. Historically, I have said inflation is somewhere between 2-4%. We had a year of 9%. Now when we sit at 2.2%, we are on the very low end, which is not going to impact us next year, but could 10 years from now when we have to replace equipment. This is not expansion. This is just replacement. Since we are on the low end, you could be setting up a future Council to face a fairly large rate increase. At what point do we take measures to bump that rate of return and how much do we go? We have watched it over time and we are now on the low side. We are to the point where we have to consider action. Councilmember Rohde said if we can work toward finding efficiencies could we bring that number up? We may be able to buy a year or two? Councilmember Lewis said when was the last rate increase? Mayor Holmgren said 2018. Councilmember Rohde said and we have raised it a couple of times since then. Manager Cobabe said the questions you face and the decisions you make have long lasting repercussions on revenues that are impacted for many years. Future generations will not thank us for kicking the can further down the road and putting off a rate increase when we know we have a deficiency. It is going to catch up and instead of being a 2-3% increase this year, it is going to be a 10-15% increase in five years. No one is going to thank you for that. We need to be careful about how we evaluate these things. Councilmember Rohde said I just do not want to react when we are still in the safety zone. I am concerned on being conservative with people’s tight incomes. Director Roberts said I do not think inflation is at 2% anymore. That bottom number should be higher. Things have changed in the last few years. The way these funds are set up is that the revenues generated should cover operating expenses. We are solely focused on what does it take to operate this system? In theory, these individual businesses should have a rate structure that pays for all of their operating costs, and generates the ability to replace those assets, plus inflationary pressures. The two major ones I have a worry about are the water and the sewer treatment. Storm drain is sitting a little bit low due to its nature, but I am not as concerned. We have to get our hands around the capital situation and build up a reliable capital. We are going to spend a lot of time building those. Other than that, the City is in pretty good shape.

Motion by Councilmember Estep to move into closed meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Vance. Vote: Councilmember Estep – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Rohde – yes, Councilmember Vance – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

The Council moved into a closed meeting at 6:47 p.m.

6. CLOSED MEETING:

a. Strategy session to discuss the purchase of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms; and/or
b. Strategy session to discuss the character, professional competence or physical or mental health of an individual; and/or
c. Strategy sessions to discuss pending or reasonably imminent litigation; and/or
d. Discussions regarding security personnel, devices or systems

Motion by Councilmember Rohde to return to open meeting. Motion seconded by Councilmember Estep. Vote: Councilmember Estep – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Rohde – yes, Councilmember Vance – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

The Council returned to open session at 7:11 p.m.

The meeting adjourned at 7:11 p.m. by consensus of the Council.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

Mayor Holmgren called the January 21, 2025 City Council Meeting to order at 7:15 p.m. The meeting was held in the Tremonton City Council Meeting Room at 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton, Utah. Those in attendance were Mayor Holmgren, Councilmembers Estep, Lewis, Rohde, Vance, and Westergard (via phone), City Manager Cobabe, Assistant City Manager Nessen, and City Recorder Nelson. The following Department Heads were also present: City Planner Jeff Seedall (left at 8:17 p.m.), Police Chief Dustin Cordova (arrived at 7:33 p.m., left at 8:17 p.m.). Also in attendance was: Finance Director Curtis Roberts (left at 7:21 p.m.).

1. Opening Ceremony: Prayer – Councilmember Rohde, Pledge – Manager Cobabe

2. Introduction of Council

3. Declaration of Conflict of Interest: None.

4. Approval of Agenda:

Motion by Councilmember Vance to approve the agenda of January 21, 2025. Motion seconded by Councilmember Estep. Vote: Councilmember Estep – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Rohde – yes, Councilmember Vance – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

5. Approval of minutes – January 7, 2025

Motion by Councilmember Westergard to approve the minutes of January 7, 2025. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Estep – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Rohde – yes, Councilmember Vance – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

6. Presentation

a. Audited 2024 Financial Statements – Curtis Roberts, Tremonton City Finance Director & Matt Geddes, Squire

Director Roberts said these financial statements represent information we discussed over the last year. We spent time in the workshop talking about enterprise funds and where they stand. We are going to spend time in the upcoming months discussing capital projects. The biggest thing I want to present is that staff have prepared all of these amounts in accordance with the required accounting standards. We present this information for the Council’s consideration so you know where the City stood as of June 30. Overall, the City is in solid financial condition. Everything else will be discussed in the upcoming months. Last year, we went out to bid for the audit and selected a different auditing firm. This is Mr. Geddes first year doing the financial statement audit.

Mr. Geddes said the City prepares a financial report and you engaged Squire and Company to perform an audit of those financial statements. The opinion we issue is the financial statements present fairly in all material respects the financial position and activities of Tremonton for the year ended June 30, 2024. As you utilize the information in these financial statements, you can reasonably rely that they are accurate and can be used to make decisions. Since you are a government entity, we are required to perform our audit in accordance with government auditing standards. That requires that we evaluate your internal control over financial reporting and compliance. This report does not identify any deficiencies or cause for concern. Within that state compliance audit guide, there are specific state compliance requirements they request, we perform an audit of your compliance. We issue an opinion of compliance. Our opinion is that the City complied in all material respects with the compliance requirements outlined in the state compliance audit guide. This is a testament of the dedicated time that your staff put into this to ensure they are protecting the assets and ensuring compliance. The Council thanked him for his time and Mayor Holmgren said I would like to second what was said about our employees. They have done a great job keeping everything in check.

7. Public comments: None.

8. New Council Business:

a. Discussion and possible action on adopting Resolution No. 25-02 reaffirming, amending, and enacting new fees and fines in a schedule entitled Tremonton City Consolidated Fees and Fines schedule including, but not limited to, lot split application fees and Governmental Records Access & Management Act (GRAMA) request fees

Planner Seedall said we have been working with software called Civic Review to digitalize our applications for all City’s applications. Recorder Nelson said the fee for GRAMA is was a requirement we learned about in training. We need to have a fee associated with the grammar requests. This is just putting that into our fine schedule. You cannot set an amount because it is hourly rate of the least qualified person who can complete the grammar request. It depends on the department who would complete it, which rate would be used. It just depends on what the grammar request is for. This is an hourly rate. Most of the time, there really is not a rate, but if there would be someone that came and wanted a huge grammar request, it would be nice to have this documented so we could charge them. The first 15 minutes are free.

Motion by Councilmember Vance to adopt the resolution. Motion seconded by Councilmember Rohde. Vote: Councilmember Estep – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Rohde – yes, Councilmember Vance – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

9. Calendar Items and Previous Assignment

a. Review of calendar

Mayor Holmgren said our next Council meeting is February 4 at 5 p.m.

b. Unfinished Business/Action Items: None.

The Council agreed that public concerns should be a part of the agenda with a “Public Comment Follow-up.” Councilmember Rohde said then we can go through and make sure people got their answers. Mayor Holmgren said those concerns would be in the minutes, but maybe it would be good to have a section on the agenda.

10. Reports & Comments:

a. City Administration Reports and Comments

Manager Cobabe said I work with the best human beings in the world. I am grateful every day to come to this office and associate with these incredibly motivated, professional, dedicated, and selfless people. He then reviewed the food pantry numbers for November and December. 320 families were served in November and 307 in December. The individuals were 1,052 and 1,022 respectively. Volunteer hours we had 270 in November and 330 in December. Almost 40,000 pounds of food was donated in November and almost 46,000 in December. We live in an amazing community that takes care of each other. My favorite report goes to the library for December, at the bottom it says the number of children making crafts was 278. Those attending the Christmas Festival was 250. Story time had 114, and amazed patrons were unlimited. Thanks to all of our fantastic department heads.

b. Development Review Committee Report and Comments

c. City Department Head Reports and Comments
a. Planning and development procedures – Jeff Seedall

Chief Cordova said we had a missing and endangered kid. That is a full-scale process and you need a lot of people. Officers came in on their day off and firefighters showed up, along with other volunteers. It was pretty amazing. We were able to find the kid quickly. Weather was a concern. This definitely touches your heart to know how much the people, who work for the City, care about Tremonton. Not a single one of them was worried about getting paid. Other than that, business as usual. I have two people who are likely to be hired for our secretary position.

Planner Seedall outlined for the Council the procedures he will be implementing. We are going to go through some common definitions that will be used. First, is a development agreement. These have been common practice in Tremonton and are simply a contract between the City and developer. This outlines what both parties are doing. Manager Cobabe said a development agreement allows greater flexibility. State code allows for all kinds of things in a development agreement that they are not allow in code. A development agreement is a powerful tool for the City to use to make sure developers are developing according to what the City anticipates. Developers like them because it locks them into a business contract regarding the development of the property. This protects their interest and makes them feel much more comfortable. It allows them to have peace of mind. A lot of the parameters of a development agreement get worked out between the developer and staff before the Council ever sees it. The Council is the ultimate arbiters of what comes out.

Planner Seedall said a concept plan is within the land development as an optional phase but is one the City likes using because it allows us to start conversations for high level capital improvements that developers may go through. It is the most flexible spot to start the conversation. Preliminary plat is the first stage and when vesting rights start. This is the first time something will be submitted to the Development Review Committee (DRC). Once the development makes it through preliminary plat, we start going through final plat at a phase-by-phase basis. A concept plan is optional, that is why it is dashed. They are able to review concepts with City staff. The first stage is preliminary. Once through DRC, the Planning Commission reviews it. That kicks it back to final plat review with DRC. This gives us plenty of time for negotiations. I normally send things to our attorney to make sure he is okay with it. Finally, once the developer has signed the agreement, I bring it to the Council for ratification. Once finalized, we go ahead with the preconstruction meeting, and they get moving. Manager Cobabe said it comes to the Council once, only if it is a development agreement. If they are not seeking a development agreement, you may never see it. Utah is an early vesting state, which means they are vested at the time of application. We need to make sure our codes are dialed in. I am not worried about it, but if someone comes in with something crazy and the code allows it, we also have to allow it. We cannot go in after they have applied and say, no. Our codes are in a constant state of revision. Once we have accepted a complete application, we have 14 days and four rounds of 14 days to get those reviewed and back to the developers, engineers, and architects. They do not have any time constraint. If it takes over a certain period of time, then you can start all over again. We are under the constraints. The developer is not. If it takes forever, which is always the complaint, they need to look more closely at their own engineers and how fast they are turning things around. Planner Seedall said we like to permit time for prompt reviews. That first revision normally takes longer because we are trying to go through with a fine-tooth comb because any comments we add on after have to fall underneath what was already commented on. If things are not addressed, we can bring those up, but we do not get to add new comments later on.

Planner Seedall said annexations will become very common as we continue. I wanted to outline the process I am hoping to follow. We will work with the developer for the annexation and prepare the petition. We will make sure the legal descriptions are good and everything is in order. We will bring that to the Council. You can review the petition and accept it. That kick starts the public notice window. Once that is done, we would bring it back to the Council for approval and then record at the County. It would then go to the Planning Commission to have its zoning assigned. A public hearing will be held at Planning Commission where we accept public input. If it passes (a recommendation from the Planning Commission) I will prepare an ordinance and bring it to the Council for review and discussion. If adopted, we post it as an updated land use code.

Planner Seedall said as for our impact fee schedules, there are tables that show we could increase those. I can prepare a presentation on what the changes could be. I found a couple that could change, but I have not gone through all of them. I am happy to go through and do an analysis in the next couple of weeks to see what some of those look like. If we want to do a formal analysis, we would have to go through an entity.

Captain Andy McBride spoke on behalf of the fire department. We have our new fire engine. We are working on outfitting it. We will do a push-in ceremony on Friday, January 31, at 4 p.m. The public is invited. At that point the truck will be in service. We did have a structure fire last Saturday on Iowa String. Crews arrived quickly. During a fire we do a quick risk assessment to decide what we can or should not do depending on how far along the fire is and what hazards there are. Due to the age of the home and remodel, they decided to go defensive, which means nobody goes inside the structure because of the dangers it poses. We do not risk anything on our end as far as sending guys in to get hurt or killed if the only thing we are saving is wood and furniture. They went defensive immediately. They were there for several hours and worked very hard to get the fire out. They did have to tear the home down. We thank all those who helped. They were able to save some nearby structures.

d. Council Reports and Comments

Councilmember Estep said the cardboard at the treatment plant is becoming an issue. They are supposed to break down the cardboard. Somebody brought a whole truckload and people are not obeying the signs. The neighbors across the street have complained. It gets in our system. Also, after two more meetings I will have no more conflict of interest because I am retiring on March 1.

Councilmember Rohde said thanks for the presentation and for all that City employees do.

Councilmember Vance said thanks to the public for coming. It is awesome to see people who are interested in what is going on. Hopefully you can see the effort and discussion.

Councilmember Lewis said I am helping with financial oversight. I met with Director Roberts to review that and I hope we realize the assets we have. We recognize the amount of effort that goes into the audit so thank you. We have very clean books. To have an audit come through like that is a huge feat. The library board met last week, and things are going well. There is a lot of discussion to be had around our strategy for economic development. I look forward to seeing things come to fruition.

Mayor Holmgren said I wanted to reiterate everything that has been said and how much we appreciate everyone and everything you do. He then reviewed the secondary water system and its progress over the years. I wanted to show that our water supply is healthy and as more secondary is being used that line will flatten out. Tomorrow during the legislature, the Governor’s Office will rename Highway 102 to the Borgstrom Brothers Memorial Highway. Everything is on track for that declaration to be made.

11. CLOSED MEETING: No Closed Meeting held at this time

12. Adjournment.

Motion by Councilmember Rohde to adjourn the meeting. Motion seconded by consensus of the Council. Vote: Councilmember Estep – yes, Councilmember Lewis – yes, Councilmember Rohde – yes, Councilmember Vance – yes, Councilmember Westergard – yes. Motion approved.

The meeting adjourned at 8:17 p.m.

The undersigned duly acting and appointed Recorder for Tremonton City Corporation hereby certifies that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the minutes for the City Council Meeting held on the above referenced date. Minutes were prepared by Jessica Tanner.

Dated this day of , 2025.

Cynthia Nelson, City Recorder

Archives