Soda Springs City Council Report—August 7 meeting
Adapted from the official minutes recorded by Andrea Haderlie
Councilman Hart opened the meeting a 6:00 p.m., after which he gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor Robinson was excused. The minutes from the July 17 meeting were approved.
Debbie Dumont spoke to the council on the survey being conducted about Enders. So far, about 300 people had completed the survey, which was expected to be closed on the 15th. She reported that she had been contacted by many people wanting to express their opinions on the issue. The council questioned the inclusion of a question on the survey asking respondents to quantify their confidence in the council, which some members felt was inappropriate. Dumont explained that she had not written the question herself, but that it could provide some utility to the process.
Ordinances
Councilmember Worthington introduced Ordinance #703, entitled “An Ordinance to the City of Soda Springs to reflect a change in Zoning from R-1 Single-Family Residential Zone to C-1 Neighborhood Commercial Zone; Providing a legal description for the property reclassified; providing that the clerk shall cause an amended zoning map of the city to be prepared to reflect said classification; waiving the rule that the ordinance be read on three separate occasions; repealing all ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict with this ordinance; and providing an effective date for this ordinance.” It was moved by Councilmember Carpenter that the rules requiring ordinances to be read on three separate occasions be dispensed with and the ordinance be read once in its entirety, which was approved.
Clerk Haderlie then read Ordinance #703 in full, after which it was approved unanimously.
Councilmember Worthington introduced Ordinance #705, “…Amending Section 12.12 of the Soda Springs Municipal Code regarding excavations within the city; repealing all ordinances in conflict herewith; waiving the rule require [three readings], etc.”. After Clerk Haderlie read the ordinance in full and was also approved unanimously.
Excavation Permitting
The council then reviewed and discussed the Excavation permit form and associated fees. Engineer Skinner explained that the excavation permit now requires a $50 inspection fee and a $6,500 bond. The inspection fee is nonrefundable. The city would refund half of the bond or cashier’s check upon completion and half after a year for the warranty period. The maximum completion time is 30 days from when the road is cut. Eliminating winter excavation should solve some of the associated problems. Compaction tests are required. The one-year warranty period is the standard—if anything sinks within a year, the contractor is required to fix it. Some of the specifics related to the fee schedule and the increase from the prior bonding requirement needed further discussion, so a motion to defer the discussion to a later date was accepted.
Engineer Updates
Engineer Skinner updated the council on a number of projects. He mentioned a letter from DEQ; they have approved the PRV Project as it was designed. This allows the Sunrise Engineering to move forward and the city to begin final design and financing.
The council was advised that Maverik had installed all four polls and modified their schedule for a first of September finish date. The large fiber optics should disappear as they will be buried. Sewer and water should be ready to go. Power will be hooked up when the transformer is set and the lines pulled.
The floor in the high school shop has been poured.
The Main Street project was stated to be at around 50% completion of the sewer line installation. This tracks with the scheduled timeline. There have been a few water shut offs
for repairs.
Land surveys were done on Tosobia Falls, and Engineer Skinner is waiting to get a cop tog the report. They’re preparing to make a presentation to apply for a zone change to a commercial zone. The four-plex housing is on hold right now. They lost their project superintendent, so they’re working on getting a new one. The foundations have already been poured. They’re ready to put up walls on one of the twin homes.
Councilman Gritton asked for an update on boring under the railroad tracks. Engineer Skinner stated that they are working on it and coordinating with contractors.
The status of the property water rights from Nutrien was discussed. Name changes on the water rights are in the application process, pending the statutory claim being recognized as a water right. The rights are part of Nutrien’s donation of 600 acres to the city earlier in the year. It will be a multi-month process. Gritton asked whether the right could be used for irrigation water, which would be determined down the road after the rights are established. The next step would be changing the point of diversion and the place of use, and then it might be used for irrigation. The process for adjudicating and executing the water rights associated with the former Nutrien property was discussed in more detail.
Garbage Charges
Councilman Hart opened a discussion on the garbage rates and presented a spreadsheet. Clerk Haderlie and her staff had worked with the council to examine the actual costs. Hart explained that the city has been charging roughly $300 a month for their work on garbage billing etc. The city does all the billing for MR&E and collect the money “and for all our efforts, there’s a pot of money that we collect each month, and then we can write a check to MR&E to pay for those services. We deduct roughly $300 a month from those efforts. The question was asked, is that the actual number?” After looking at all the processes involved beyond billing, the cost was determined to be closer to $500 a month. Councilman Hart suggested that instead of a fixed fee or percentage, a dollar amount equivalent to 1,365% of the total collected, which equates to about $500 a month at present. The amount would fluctuate as rates increased or decreased. The council agreed to move forward by acclimation to a motion.
Sewer and Water Rate discussion
Councilman Hart opened the discussion to the water resolution. It would be a 5% increase. “The $39.38 base rate we have, we've included in the budget a 5% increase for water, and the reason behind that is that, as we've been talking about this whole meeting is that we've got lots of work ahead of us to do projects, and so that little extra every year, the 5% every year, helps us to roll forward with those capital projects. If we do a 5% increase up to that, we don't have to hold a public hearing, but he is recommending we do something that will also require a public hearing on the formation well. If you go on to the left-hand side and look at all those, there is a variation in the percentage of the formation well, going from somewhere between 19% of the base rate to 40% something percent. Some will go up. Some will go down as we standardize and normalize the formation well; the percentage will be 32% of the base. That standardizes things basically for one year, because we will have that internal loan for formation well, the money we borrowed from the power company, it should be paid off this coming fiscal year, 2025, and we do that for a year. It won't move the needle, but it sets the stage for what we will discuss on the sewer side.” He is recommending that we implement the proposed base rate. It is 5% and 32% of the formation well of the base rate. He explained that for every single rate, whether it's reduced or vacation or big line, small line, everyone's going to pay 32% of the base rate for the formation well, he thinks it's fair that everybody pays the same, and it makes it uniform and recommending that we apply this proposed section into the resolution.
Councilman Hart explained he did not include the current rates on Sewer. The sewer resolution and sewer rates would be a 5% increase, and we standardize the bond at 42%. It's a standardization of the vast majority on the water side of things; the vast majority are the three eight-quarter-inch lines. The single-family dwellings bear most of the heavy lift on all of these. He is recommending the same on the sewer side that we included the resolution for the sewer, the 5% increase, and a standard bond payment of 42% of the base rate. Councilman Carpenter asked Director Squires how many outside of Caribou County septic tank dumps we have had. Director Squires replied to the individual who wanted to dump when he told him the city was capping it at 3000 gallons a day, which steered him away. His truck was 5000, and he was going to bring it full. Councilman Hart explained that the city can update the resolutions, have them ready, and then act on them. Council did include in this next fiscal year's budget a 3% increase in power, but there will need to be a hearing on water and sewer. The fee schedule will be updated.
City Recreation Update
Nikki Hansen, Recreation Director, updated the council on the status of recreation. In May into summer, for baseball, she worked hard to improve the fields. “Thanks to Justin's crew, we brought in some sand and dirt, tried to level them out, keep them tilled up, and drug the fields for games and chalked them. We have a weed problem that we're going to continue to try and work on. But for the most part, it was pretty successful. We got a lot of compliments for making it better and not so pitted out, and we had close to 100 kids in T ball and coach pitch. Slam Jam on the Fourth of July had a good turnout. We have some great ideas to help improve it for next year, such as getting more activity and feedback, and there's always room for improvement. We have soccer going right now. We have 75 participants from Soda and 20 from Grace. We had 95 participants overall. We were going to try yesterday, but Mother Nature canceled us out; we will start it up tomorrow. We'll start flag football next month. We're putting some new divisions in. We're starting a girls' powder puff league to get more girls playing between the grades of 5th and 12th.” The city has had requests for an adult Football League, but Hansen has to find a referee before that can happen for safety reasons, and work with the hospital to make sure there are medical providers for injuries.
There are grants for equipment for outdoor recreation activities, and then the Nutrien land. “Once we develop trails, that will also open up a lot more. Still, we have great avenues for kayaking, paddle boarding, and mountain biking, so it's ensuring we have those resources in here that we can use to help those kids. Our goal is to reignite the emphasis on the Development Fund in those rec programs; we're targeting the K through 4th groups because that's where we can get them excited about being active. This year, talk to Rod; we're doing back-to-school bags. As we were inventorying, we found 300 and something water bottles and 300 something cinches bags in our inventory. I've added a fun little t-shirt with a Cardinal on it, and then we'll put a pamphlet in there of all things that are coming up with recreation. This is an educational community here. Members of the rec board will be there to pass those out.”
She has rearranged the rec schedule. The goal is to get the weekends back to the parents so they can participate during the week and reduce the travel to other towns to play. That's been big feedback. We don't want to leave Soda. Why are we paying so much for this and traveling every weekend? She had reduced the overlap of seasons. Volleyball will be moved to spring to coincide with Pocatello and spring club volleyball season. The goal is to open more opportunities for activeness. But we are doing the return of the races. She talked to Lorraine Myers this week. She gave her all of her race maps and all their ideas. We will return the Soda Screamer and rename it the Haunted Half. We want to look at doing winter cross-country ski races as well, as well as anything to bring revenue in. That's the whole goal. She has talked to a couple of people about being a possible Special Olympic Winter event site with our ice-skating rink, and those trails are a great spot to do it. And then we have more races and more events in 2025.
City Works
Director Hansen advised that the chip and seal is complete, at just around 95,000 Square yards. The crew is continuing to try to keep parks green on a very hot and dry summer. He stated that there comes some responsibility on the city’s part to be good stewards of water and to limit the amount of watering, because over-watering is as harmful as under-watering.
Director Squires relayed some bad news right off the bat. Sunday, there was a sewer backup on more 2nd East, which was the city’s fault and resulted in a flooded basement. ICRMP has been notified, and Andrea's working with them. That process is moving. He called DEQ. He went hydrojetted the sewer line. He pulled back probably a 75 to 100- pound root ball out of the main line. Tomorrow, they will see if they can camera where the roots are coming from and if it's an easy fix and see what need to happen to ensure this doesn't happen again.
