Malad’s City Council had a rare second meeting during the month of October. These notes were taken from the meeting. 

Sheriff Doug Williams

The Sheriff indicated that last year they let the school handle vaping issues, but this year the Sheriff’s Office will cite all kids that are caught vaping. 

Bus Arm violations – Citations are being given. On South Main people seem to think that the center turn lane is a driving lane. Buses have a camera system. “If we can catch, we are giving citations,” Williams said.

The Sheriff reported 178 total incidents for the city and county, with 86 in the city and 10 at the schools.

Total citations for the city for September were 40 and 13 in the county. Total warnings for the city were 19 and 6 in the county.

Williams reported that there was a heroin and fentanyl case a few weeks ago.

Sheriff has interviewed two new candidates for officers. Haven’t had polygraph yet, and that’s where problems usually arise.

SICOG

Nate Mortimer and Amanda Collins were present from Southeast Idaho Council of Governments (SICOG). SICOG is the grant administrator for both the Forest Service grant and the FEMA grant. Nate provided a break-down of the payments made from Phase II, which leaves $661,000 for Phase II. He provided a pay request that had been changed by the Forest Service. Regarding the FEMA grant, he said that Phase I has all been reimbursed. Everyone is waiting for the order from FEMA to start Phase II, which is the construction phase. Phase II of the Forest Service grant is tied to the FEMA grant, so it can’t be started until we can get the construction of the stormwater drain completed.

DEQ Financing. City engineers from JUB, Alan Giesbrecht attended by Zoom and Jon Farrell attended the meeting in person. They explained that the DEQ funding would be a $3.92 million dollar loan and a $1.14 million dollar grant, for a total of $4.17 million in funding. The grant portion is a forgiveness that DEQ provides cities based on their median household income and other factors. Approval for the funding will come from Malad City citizens in a bond election to be held in May, which requires a 50 percent plus one approval. (I have provided the LOI from JUB that explains what the funding would cover). The funds have to be used for whatever was detailed in the Letter of Interest. Council voted in favor by 3 for and 1 against.

The council also approved that a new LOI be provided to DEQ for next year, in case the bond does not pass. That would give the city another chance for the funding.

P&Z, Shelly Williams

Williams asked if the contractors could apply for Phase III on the Townhomes if Phase II was not completed. Regarding the development on 100 West, the P&Z Commission would like to see the plans for the entire project before they approve Phase I.

Regarding amendments to the Zoning Ordinance that are being made, Williams said that the county requires that when a property is divided, a description has to be provided for the parcel that is not sold, so there is a legal description for both parcels. Attorney Brett Evanson recommended that the city follow that same requirement. The council agreed to have that change added to the Zoning Ordinance.

The council also approved that every residence have a separate sewer line. In the case of a twin home, each separate residence requires its own sewer line. This will also be included in the new Zoning Ordinance.

Malad City Recreation 

Melissa Firth, representing Malad City Recreation reported that they had a good soccer season, even though numbers were down. They acquired new equipment in the spring.

Tyler Webster, City Superintendent of Public Works 

Tyler presented two bids for North Main from Idaho Materials. The first was for $197,050 and would provide a saw cut and remove 15’ wide of asphalt from the east side of the road and asphalt paving 3” depth. The second was for $355,600 and would provide saw cut and remove 15’ wide of asphalt from the east side of road and asphalt paving 3” depth, plus remove concrete “over the gutter” approaches and replace with cut curb approach, new curbing, remove existing, prep, and install new. It would require that the city obtain three bids, so the cost could be even higher.

Different approaches were talked about for this project that would repair the approaches for approximately 10 homes. The council considered a three-year project, saving for two years and completing the project in the third year. However, after much consideration, the council felt that the cost was too high. Instead they agreed to have the city crew continue to patch the areas each year as needed, starting with this year.

Councilman Tripp asked that Public Works place a barricade around the new sidewalks that are being poured at City Park.  

Code Enforcement

John Christophersen, Code Enforcement – John provided a written report as he was attending a funeral out of town. 

Complaints for dogs: 18, two citations, 8 warnings, 8 not found

Complaints about weeds: 9, notice issued

Complaints about vehicles: 5, notice issued

Complaints about horses: 3, tried to catch did not happen. responsible party located.

Complaints about water: 3 warning given

Complaint vendor permit:2 advised to purchase permit. 

Cows:2

Phone calls: 41

Phone calls after hours: 22

Letters sent: 10   7 Responded and are taking action. 3 referred to Brett for 2nd letter

Dogs in the pound: 0

48 hour parking notice: 3 Owner moved vehicles

Christophersen wrote that: “I am going to try a new system for notification of ordinance violations. It will be a three step letter process. I will send out the first letter giving 10 days to comply. The second letter will be attorney involvement and a 7 day period to comply. A citation could be issued at this point or a third notification could be sent notifying of city clean up and billing 5 days after the letter is received.”

Attorney, Brett Evanson

Mayor Hawkins had presented some issues to Attorney Evanson before the meeting. He researched those issues and reported as follows:

Deed for the Library – A deed has not been presented to the City for signature for the portion of property being donated to the library. Brett has talked with Jeni Sperry and she will have the deed prepared. The council has already approved deeding the property to the library. City Park Zoning is currently commercial. Evanson said a city park can either be zoned commercial or residential. He recommended that the park stay zoned as commercial. Annexation of city properties – The city has several properties located in the county, including the City Cemetery, the Industrial Park, and the property where the new stormwater drainage will be located. Evanson indicated that cities can annex such properties, but it is not required. His recommendation was to wait and do all properties at one time.  

Treasurer, Terrill Schwartz 

Terrill indicated that September was the end of the city’s fiscal year. The city ended the year meeting their budget. 

America 250 celebration

Oneida County is planning the America 250 celebration. Trissa Nesbitt and Candace Broadus presented to the city some of the changes the county is considering for July 4. However, the council indicated they do not want to make any changes because the July 4 celebration has always been very successful. There are times during the day on the 4th where the county could add some additional activities, or even during the week, if they would like to make it a week-long celebration.

Playground

Original bid was $268,000. The new bid is $242,519.33. The city is partnering with Omnia so they do not have to obtain three bids for the project. Councilman Tripp indicated that the Playground Committee has worked hard to raise funds for the project and currently have $150,000 raised and additional amounts committed. The city has committed up to $100,000 for the project. 

In order to keep the price that was submitted, the city will need to pay the supplier, Great Western Recreation now. The council approved the payment, as well as to pull out the old playground equipment and install the new equipment in the spring. Most of the old equipment will be moved to the west end of the walking path, near the Pickleball courts for a place for children to play while parents are playing Pickleball. 

The sidewalks that will go around the playground have been donated.

Impact Zone

The Impact Zone, which was just changed and approved by Malad City and Oneida County last year, has to be changed again. The council went over the map and made the changes that would be required in order to conform with the new law. The map will be provided to Oneida County by Councilwoman Jamie Olson at the County Commissioners’ meeting on Monday, October 27.

Life Flight Insurance

The Life Flight Insurance that the city has provided to employees, mayor, council and some citizens, is no longer pertinent for Malad City as the company does not cover this area. The council voted to not renew Life Flight Insurance with Lifeflight Network.

Business License

A Business License was approved for The Magnetic Mint owned by Makinzie Shandrew located at 352 Bannock Street, a retail/wholesale business.

MISC

Councilman Larry Thomas asked that the flowers planted at the cemetery entrances be pulled up by the city crew, and that a piece of the vinyl fence be replaced.

The council talked about putting out to bid the spraying of the cemetery and Malad City Park.

Councilman Tyrell Neal asked about a fire hydrant located in front of the elementary that is not working. 

Councilwoman Jamie Olsen asked if the flowers at the cemetery entrances be removed and that a rail on the vinyl fence at the cemetery be replaced.

Councilman Lance Tripp reported that the city will wait to seed the grass for the north half of the field around the walking path where the new sprinklers were placed. This area needs crabgrass killed, and it needs to be leveled. RS Jobbers have not compacted the area where the lines are. This can all be completed in the spring.

Motion to pay bills totaling $121,999.61 passed.