A regular meeting of the Malad City Council was held on October 8.  For October, the City Council decided to hold two meetings.  The first was devoted to a public hearing on utility rates, as well as a number of action items.  The second meeting will involve department reports and other business.  While this is the result of some specific scheduling issues, there has been some interest expressed in holding two meetings during the month rather than the single meeting that has been held.  This would allow for less downtime between issues presented to the council that require an action item before they can be voted upon.

Hearing on Water and Sewer Rate increase

Ordinance 501 was discussed.  This ordinance involves a rate increase for sewer and water.  The new rates will be increased at the base rate from $36.50 to $40 for water, and from $47 to $50 for sewer.

There were no public comments.  

The hearing was closed, and the first two readings of the ordinance were waived. The rate increase passed.

DEQ Water Funding

John Farrell, representing JUB, spoke to the city council about the current status of DEQ water funding.   

The city’s application for funding assistance from DEQ was under consideration.

“About a year ago, we finished the facility plans for the collection and drinking water systems…Every year DEQ asks communities to submit a letter of interest in projects.  Malad submitted one for the drinking water system,” Farrell explained, by way of context.  Malad ranked number 2 on the list for awarding these funds.  The DEQ would like to know whether the city will accept the loan.

The planning study that was conducted by JUB found the following:

Malad has an aging infrastructure and significant water loss in the system.  In 2008, a lot of the mains were replaced.  There are still a number that are leaking, including one right by the city shop.  There are wooden pipes in the city, it has been reported, though they are not in service as an active part of the system. 

Farrell suggested that identifying leaks and repairing them would be a high priority item.  

Another plan would be to look at redundancy in the wells.  There were some deficiencies noted in two of the town’s wells, which are not running right now.  Wells 2 and 3 are not ready to take over in the event that 1 and 4 go out.

Meter reading is another thing that could be funded.  

The loan would entail $4.17 million for a 20 year term at 2.75%.  There is also a grant offer for $1.137 million.  It was unclear whether that was part of the $4.17 mill or not.

The scope of the project would include leak detection, repairs to water mains.  There is usually a significant water savings as a result.  The bulk of the $4 million would go to repairs, with a small amount to detection.  From the info in the survey, the city will be able to determine what the best approach to repair is, and whether the city would then hire a contractor or not.

“We all understand that our system’s aging,” Terrill Schwartz noted.

The loan would potentially lead to a $17/mo increase over 10 or so years.  

Council asked Farrell what would happens if they don’t accept the offer.  Farrell explained that it’s on a year to year basis, so ideally nothing would be different.  He advised the city that next time they might hold off on applying for funding from the federal government until they had a specific project in mind.  Whatever else happens this year, Farrell noted, the city’s water system is definitely something that needs to be attended to.

Farrell stated that he thought it would take 0-3 years to do the project.   

Webster noted that “We have more than enough water line to replace” to use the money on.  

Farrell recommended that if they took the loan, the city prioritize the leaks.   

The Council is inclined to accept with the condition that a bond is passed, but they would like more time to look into a few things. 

“We need to be serious about getting accurate readings,” Lance Tripp said, regarding metering water.  

Council will make a decision at their second meeting of the month on Oct 22.  

If the amount includes the grant, it would be a much smaller amount borrowed.  

Trevor Robbins—North Main Trees 

City Arborist Trevor Robbins spoke to the council about the trees on North Main street.  He has been looking at the trees near the Veterans memorial.  Susan Wittman also noticed that the trees there may have insects or other issues.  These are on Court street on both sides of the road.  

Robbins then discussed the park.  He has talked to many community members who he said have been loving the attention to the trees.  He has performed a soil analysis of the park, as well as a foliage analysis.  “It’s not something we can fix right away,” he said.  Deficiencies in the soil take time to correct for and replenish.  The nutrient applications and root drenches have been helping.  “The trees are getting better.”  All the trees have been mulched since the day of service.  “The mulch that I do is not for aesthetics,” Robbins said, explaining that the purpose was practical rather than for looks.  “We need to maintain that mulch.”  He discussed that he meets people walking around taking pictures with their phones and asking questions about the trees, which shows him that the efforts are being appreciated.  Some of the identification stakes have been pulled out, but overall it’s been good. 

The budget for the project  was $100K at the beginning of the grant funding.  Robbins suggested that they had made most of the largest investments early, and as of now, $57K has been spent. 

“The community really enjoys the loop,” Robbins said.  “They ask ‘how are we going to take care of it?’’”  After the two years that Robbins is contracted for the project are over, it is up to the city to take care of it.  “If we fail to plan to take care of these trees, we plan to fail,” he said.  He discussed some of the specific trees in the park.  Honey locust bores.  Sunburst honey locust by the vet memorial.  Bark beetles in the cemetery.  “My point with bringing this up is that we need to have a plan in place.”  

Robbins said that he  would “like to be Malad’s tree guy” whether contracted or not.  He would like to work with a committee of people.  He is also interested in an ordinance to promote good tree management.  He is licensed as an applicator, an arborist, a UI master gardener, and he has a trade skill in automation and robotics.  He is also working toward an ISA credential.  

He is looking forward to the longer term.  “The money will be gone, and we need to take care of the investment. The greenbelt is a highlight of Malad, among other things.” 

A motion to treat the two trees on Main was passed.

Robbins thanks the council for listening to him, and laughed about how he’s not” a tree fanatic, but just wants to take care of what we have.”

Employee Raises

Terrill Schwartz had written the raises into the budget, but they were not passed in the budget meeting in time.  They can do 3%, which is equivalent to Cost of Living increases.  A motion was passed.  

FCS Capacity replacement fees

FCS stands for Facilities Cost Replacement.  A study would be undertaken to determine what kind of fee should be charged for new hookups. This is a way to recoup infrastructure costs.  FCS for $29K to pursue this study.  “It’s scary to move forward.”  

Old Shop

The property behind the bank has the old city shed on it.  The owner of an adjacent property has asked whether the city would be willing to sell it to them in order to make the second property easier to sell.  The old shop is used by the city for storage of different things.  

Elm trees on the property were also discussed.  The city is not likely to sell, as it’s a good place for storage.  A possible trade for property in the future might be something that the city is interested in looking into in the future.

America250

The city pays around $4-6K for the 4 th of July event, exclusive of the fireworks, which are around $15K on their own.   

America250 is planning a number of events leading up to the 4th of July next year, and the city will speak with the county about what the two entities might do in observance of the event.  A larger-scale, combined 4th was one of the ideas discussed, as well as some others.

Park Sprinklers

The way that the sprinklers are set in the park follows the plans that were given to the contractor, but it turns out that the plans put water on the pickleball court.  

This is a problem due to the wear on the court surface, and will need to be adjusted.  The Council believes that protecting the court is a necessary priority given the investment in it, so they will need to pay around $5K to have the spriknlers reset.

Co-op

A visitor to Malad who refurbishes old buildings stopped by and wanted to see the Co-op.  He wanted to know if the city was interested in selling it, or being a partner in whatever ends up happening to it.  

Separately, DL Evans bank has informally said that they might come to Malad if they were able to establish a base of customers.

The mayor wanted to know what the council’s temperature was on the issue.  

Melanie Coleman and Becky Cox, who decorate the building, wanted to make sure that they were in the loop.  There is concern about what is going to happen with it.  There are a number of other stakeholders in the future of the building, and the council discussed a number of possibilities for financing or finding partners for repairs that need to take place, even in advance of selling the building were that to happen.  

The council seemed to agree  that the building is so iconic to the town that the risk of letting it go to an unknown party was difficult to tolerate.   

A meeting to discuss what can be done with regard to the coop building was raised as a possibility, and by the end of the session, it was agreed that a public meeting will be planned in the near term about the future of the building.