City Council Report Soda Springs 1/8

A regular meeting of the City Council of Soda Springs was held on January 8, the first meeting of 2025.  

Payroll and payables

Council President Mitch Hart noted that 5% overtime had been accrued by city workers, which is less than it might have been as a result of less snow early in the season.  Fewer people than Hart had expected took advantage of PTO buyout.  

Justin Hansen reported that the Road Scholar certification was moving forward for members of the crew.  

Citizen Input

Some clarification about the location of the Hooper sled hill was made during the citizen input section of the agenda.  It was clarified that the hill is over the red access bridge in the southwest corner of the park.  

Project Updates

Engineer Alan Skinner gave status updates on projects underway in the city.  A contractor is reportedly lined up to repair the ground/cover of the building at Hooper Springs.

A Wastewater planning study is in the works, and  a PRV study conference call is coming up.

President Hart informed the council that he and Engineer Skinner were talking and they’d like to schedule a work meeting to define the scope and schedule of a bunch of projects like Ledger Creek, 2nd S, the highway, and a number of other things that he thinks need to be scheduled to allow Alan to clarify his priorities.  The meeting was tentatively scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on the 15th.  Because the meeting may end up having more than a quorum (all of the other council members indicated they’d like to attend), it has been posted.

Chamber of Commerce—Kent Loosle

Kent Loosle, CEO of CMC, spoke to the council on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce.  He introduced Emma Walton as the HR director of the hospital.  Erika Dannelly, communications director, was also present.

On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, Loosle invited the city to join the organization.  The chamber, of which the Enterprise is a member, was officially reconstituted last February.  “One of the reasons a city joins is to be a part of smart growth, to promote growth, and to make sure the city has a forum for business growth.  Sometimes small businesses join the chamber for different reasons.  We’re not asking you to house or run the chamber or have it be a component of the city—we’re just asking you to be a part of it and help commerce in the area of growth.”

Councilman Paul Gritton asked Loosle, “how does the chamber utilize the dues?”

Loosle explained that “What they’ve been doing is creating education opportunities.  5-6 times this year.  That’s been the biggest expense.”  Over the course of 2024, the newly formed chamber held a number of training session covering topics of interest to local businesses, such as social media, employee retention, and others.  “We still have some other things to do—website, etc. there’s still a lot to do,” Loosle continued.  “We just want to have critical mass so it doesn’t just dissipate.  We felt like being a significant employer we should join at a $4000 level.  If you’re smaller, you’re thinking about ‘what am I getting out of it?’ Larger businesses might think about what they’re giving.  There are opportunities at a lot of different levels.  The chamber as a whole financially will be ok.  From a funding standpoint, we’d like to get someone working at the chamber.  Right now it’s all volunteer, and we don’t want to fatigue people.”

Councilman Gritton noted that “The Chamber of Commerce is an important part of the community.  I would ask that we table this until next time and look things over for the next meeting.”

Somewhat jokingly, Mayor Austin Robinson asked whether there were any plans to resurrect bingo, to which Engineer Skinner noted that the chamber does has a lottery license for bingo.  Councilman Ryan Carpenter noted that “the last two bingo events I’ve been to have been very well attended.  I think we have a hidden bingo faction among us.”  Be careful what you wish for!

Tamara Henesh, member of the Chamber of Commerce board, noted that “We were able to donate a tree to the Festival of Trees.  We also did a ticket promotion for local businesses.  We are trying to get out there.”

Loosle informed the council that “Buy local is our motto for this year.”

Stephen Simmons

Simmons is an EMT who works at the mine, and expressed an interest in serving on Planning and Zoning for the city.  Mayor Robinson recommended him for the board, and his nomination was voted on.  “Do I know what I’m getting into?  Absolutely not,” Simmons said.

Simmons’ appointment was approved.

Enders/Event Center

At a recent city council meeting, the idea of a community center was raised.  The idea was born out of the possibility of selling the Enders property, as well as a few other city holdings, and using the proceeds to finance a separate community center.  Optimistically, the center would house facilities for indoor sports, meeting and event rooms, and possibly a Fire Station, or storage for other city departments. 

President Hart undertook a cost estimate for such a center, at $250 a square foot based on conservative estimates, at an area of 17,000 sqft.  The total cost in that case would be 7 million.  By adjusting the space and the number of amenities a price tag of between $2.5 million and $7.5 million was given, with a contingency of 30% bringing the upper end possible total to $9.5 million.

Appraisals for the Enders building in the past have placed its value around the $1.5 million range, so any community center would require significant additional funds.

Continuing the thought exercise, Hart posed the question of where the center could be placed.  Kelly Park West was one idea.  The City Park was another,  maybe coupled with City assests like the library and firestation.  

Other ideas were to locate it on the Hooper School site, the old Maverik location, the block where Caribou Jacks is, and other areas, though those properties themselves would have to be purchased by the city.

For reference, Engineer Skinner noted that “The [planned Event Center] building in Grace is 18K square feet, but 12K is to cover basketball court/fire engine.  So 2/3 is open space at a cost of  $3.7 million.”  The majority of funding for the center is coming through remaining ARPA funds allocated during COVID, which would not be available to the city.  

President Hart stated, “It’s doable but expensive.  And we’d have to find some buried treasure.”

Councilman Gritton expressed the opinion that “We need to set a target up downrange that we’re aiming for to get this decided so we’re not kicking this down the road.”

President Hart laid out the issues: “We either keep it or we sell it.  The two appraisals have averaged 1.5 mil.  The replacement cost is in the neighborhood of 9 million.  Are we willing to accept something less than the appraised value?  The artifacts that came to us [the museum holdings] are a gnarly issue.  They were donated, but there’s no accounting of who gave what.  The Maughan family instructed that everything came with the bldg.  They are now the city’s.  We would have to decide what to do with them.  If the bldg. is kept, what do we do with it?  Do we co-locate city hall with other businesses?  Is the PD interested?  One idea is to move them here.  Do we lease out unused portions out?  Do we lease out café/ballroom?  All of that is fine, and noise we have to deal with—once we decide whether we are going to keep or sell, the rest will fall into line.  We can dive deeper into all of these issues.  We can have a work meeting, etc.”

The council agreed that a fixed time for making a decision was important.  It was clarified that the current cost of maintaining the building is around $2000/month for utilities, radiators, water, etc.  to keep it maintained. 

It was decided to hold a work meeting on the 12th of February to hash out the possibilities and gather all the relevant information, and then to formally announce a decision at the March 5 City Council meeting.

Main Street

After a long process, the city received approval to bore under the RR tracks on Main Street.  The work will most likely occur in April or May.  

Dept Heads

Library—Hope Hansen

Library Director Hope Hansen spoke to the council.

She is working with the rec dept on an outdoor summer adventure program.  It will combine library activities with outdoor activities like geocaching.  The goal is to get families out and doing things together.  She’s working hard to complement but not interfere with summer reading.  

Beth Cherriet of the Friends of the Library told Hansen that they had an event coming up—family mini golf.  There is no firm date yet, but the event will likely take place some time
in March.  

SSPD--CJ

Newly sworn in Police Chief Cejay Golightly reported that things in the department were going well.  “We’re working on getting the canine program up and going again.  One of the officers went and met with the working group/ISP/Blackfoot/Power County, and I’ll provide more info as it becomes available .  A new dog will not be free, but at a reduced cost.”

“I think a dog is a valuable asset to the town,” Councilman Gritton noted.

Golightly agreed, and noted that “We do have drugs in our community.”

The SSPD has only received one application to date to fill the position opened by Golightly when he was appointed Chief, but more people have picked them up.

A DUI grant for the holiday season ended on Jan 2.  During the heightened patrol and apprehension period, an increased number of DUIs were cited.

Justin Hansen

“We’ve been plowing snow, slush.  Now we’re dealing with ice.  New trucks are working well.  Overall, they’ve been good,” Hansen said. 

His crew has also been working on the flooring at the restrooms at the Geyser, where they ripped out the old carpet and the baseboard trim has been replaced.

Hansen reported that Rick Hill, city mechanic, has been requesting new diagnostic scanner to check our equipment.  They run between $4K and $7K.  The current one we have is old and not able to perform many advanced scans.  This would give the city some sense of what repairs were needed for equipment before contracting for them.

Citywide

The issue of hiring guidelines for city jobs was raised.  It was noted that there might be some inconsistency in the application of the practice of requiring city employees to live within the city.  The exact nature of that rule was discussed, and the council as a whole agreed that something specific was needed to clarify the city’s position on the issue so that it could be applied fairly across the board.

Clerk Haderlie

The City Clerk noted the need to work on updating the city’s asset list, which hasn’t been updated for more than 15 years.  

Attorney Tom Smith

The County is working on Area of Impact plan, which will be presented at PZ next week, then presented to council.  The change is not expected to be very much, other than to potentially adopt some of the city’s regulations.  The county does the ordinance and has jurisdiction and they do the inspections.  

Mayor Robinson

BPA rate increase.  This mostly obtains to 2026.  4% increase in power and transmission.  The rates should go up at that time.  The city pays two bills to BPA.  $92K and $7K for transmission.  Should end up being 5-6%. 

Chief Dan Squires

A gas leak call in the morning at Enders was resolved with the assistance of Intermountain Gas.

The Fire station is painting the office and building.  

The Wastewater Treatment Plant is a 3 level plant, but now needs a 4 level admin and operator.  They have been listed as a 4.  “My gut feeling is that they see the future coming that we can’t see.”  “I knew eventually this was coming, so I went out and got my 4.  This doesn’t change anything, except the time it will take everyone to get up to 4s.”

“The other problem we have is the ops have to split their time between water and wasterwater.  So they only get hours half as fast.”

Misc

President Hart thanked Justin Hansen for coordinating getting the power back on the other Sunday during an outage.

Councilman Worthington also thanked Hansen and the city crew on behalf of Thirkill.  “We had an unsafe situation on 4th S at the school, and they came by with their bobcat and snowblower and they took care of it.”  

Councilman Gritton also commended Hansen.  “Shout out to Justin for keeping the shooting range open.  There was a New Years Day shoot that had 17 shooters at the event.  That range is proving to be quiet a resource for the community and even economically.  Some even come from outside the state.”

A discussion about the most effective call routing during power outages was discussed.  Often the dispatchers with the county are overwhelmed with calls essentially asking when the power will be back on.  Because Rocky Mountain Power is only contracted to repair the network, updates are not accessible through their website.  The issue was tabled for the present.