City Councilmember Jaime Olsen attended her last city council meeting last month.  Due to moving outside of the city limits, Olsen resigned from her position on the council, which she has held since 2022.  Melissa Firth’s name was presented to the council for approval to complete Olsen’s term of office.  Firth was approved unanimously, and after being sworn in began her duties as a councilmember.  She joins Councilmember John Williams, who took his seat at the beginning of the year, as well as Tyrell Neal and Lance Tripp.  For Firth it was something of a trial by fire, as the meeting was what some folks might call a barn-burner, but everyone could agree was nothing short of five hours.

Judicial Confirmation

The city held an informational meeting and hearing with the public several weeks ago to take input on the possibility of proceeding with the judicial confirmation process in lieu of a bond election to create the funding for a water project that will upgrade elements of the water system in order to create greater longevity for the infrastructure, reduce water loss, prevent catastrophic failure, and anticipate weather years like the present one seems to be.  Krystal Denney from SICOG spoke to the council regarding the decision to proceed with judicial confirmation for the water project, which would allow the city to pursue those goals while locking in a $1.1 million grant to reduce overall costs.

Councilmember Neal noted that the questions at the meeting had been thoughtful, and that he felt that the opposition expressed was to the process rather than the goal.  He reiterated the position that was was paramount was to provide “clean, safe drinking water to our residents.”

Mayor Hawkins and the council noted that not many people attended the meeting, despite Facebook, website, newspaper, and other promotional announcements.

A resolution to seek judicial confirmation passed a vote by the council.  

Senior Center

Commissioner Brian Jeppsen spoke to the city council about the senior center building.  He explained that the city and the county both own the building.  The county is happy to deed it to the city, but the city felt that it would be better to deed it to the county.  

Director Dave Colton had raised the issue, as it came up during discussions of selling a car that was used by the senior center.  

City Attorney Brett Evanson noted that the main issue is that both the council and commissioners need to approve actions to the building, which can make the process slow.  

Councilmember (CM) Neal agreed that it served everyone, and he liked the way that the project needs both entities to be involved.  

CM Tripp noted that sharing expenses is also a nice feature.

Brian Jeppsen added that they are both vested if something comes up.  

“It might be an extra meeting to get something done, but at least we will all be aware of what is happening,” CM Neal said.

Molly Besaris

Besaris spoke to the council about an issue that had been presented to her.  She has had two businesses contact her about Malad being an “EV charging desert.”  This is a designation that applies if there isn’t a charging station within a 50 mile gap.  McCammon and Snowville both have them, which creates a 65 mile gap between.  Several local business owners, according to Besaris, have visitors come through without places to charge, and have at times hooked people to generators for up to 12 hours.

Local gas stations have people ask all the time.  She talked to Tesla and others to help, but has not had luck with that approach.

She located a department of Gems and Minerals $50K grant that would fund a study to determine needs and create a path forward.  It’s for public partnerships.  The grant was approved to Malad for $42K.  It is 100% covered, if the council accepts it.  

The study would only determine the viability and plan for bringing charging stations to town, it would not determine whether such a thing was done, where it would be done, or by whom.

Clerk Wittman noted that a similar study about hotel viability had been very useful in the past.

The grant was accepted and the study will begin soon. 

Forsgren 

Camille Miller joined the meeting via zoom.  Mayor Hawkins informed the council that an agreement needed to be singed for professional services from Forsgren for Bannock Street work.  “We are going to do all the inspections, construction admin, ITD paperwork, material testing for QA.  All of that is built into the contract,” she said.

Camille then spoke about the project on 1000 N road.  Attorney Evanson has talked to the county’s Attorney Lyle Fuller about it.  

They received another grant to take the Bannock street project to 1000 N, which is partly in county property.  

The county could also vacate the road, which would then be annexed into the city.  If the county wants to keep the road, would they want to be involved in the design process.  

Evanson proposed an MOU authorizing the city to do the work, or turn it over, or annex it.  Fuller didn’t foresee any issues with an MOU.  

CM Neal said he would rather use the grant to update the road, but let the county keep it.  “I would rather them keep ownership of the road and we’ll upgrade it.”  

CM Tripp noted that it is an area that is highly likely to be annexed in the next 10 years.  

Mayor Hawkins said that if the county keeps the road they should be involved.  

The second issue for Forsgren involved trees at the Park.  There are a couple of trees in the way of where the outflow pipe area is.  They will have to be removed or relocated.  Trevor Robbins could move the two small trees with forest service maintenance funds.  The other five, the contractor has agreed to take them out, should they need to.  Three are quite small, and Trevor thinks he can move them.  One is a very large tree that they might be able to remove with the right equipment.  The cost should fall under the Forest Service money.  Robbins thinks he would move them as close as possible to where they currently are.  

“I understand the value we’ve put in these trees, but if we’ve got to get a pipe through there to stop people from flooding their basements, so be it,” CM Neal said. 

“Time is of the essence,” Miller said, noting that the trench will be started on April 20. 

A Disc golf tournament is scheduled for the 25th in the same area.  

The pipe should be installed by the end of August.  FEMA will need to complete the pipe to create the overflow. 

Tyler Webster noted that there will be flooding on Bannock and 1st without the overflow.  

Candy Broadus and
Trissa Nesbit 

The two spoke to the council about 4th  of July celebration plans.  Malad’s Got Talent is back on for both nights.  All the songs that people play will be patriotic.  

Last year they had a hypnotist came, but this year they have an open slot.  They asked for ideas from the council.  The band costs $4000.  The HS band is too hard to get together for the July 4, due to scheduling.  

The issue of potentially moving the location of the fireworks was discussed.  

April 11-17 is the
Week of the Young Child  

A proclamation to that effect was signed in support of education from birth through age 8.

Cemetery Saturday Pay

It costs $200 extra to have a Saturday burial, due to city resources, primarily manpower.  Digging requires 2 people, because 6 feet exceeds OSHA. The backfill-only portion can be done by one person.  The time is not clocked in, but based on the set pay rate.  According to Superintendent Webster, most of the crew do not want to do it on Saturday, so there is not a lot of competition for the job.  The question was whether the pay was per person, or per burial.  In other words, was it pay for $100 for each person for a total of $200, or would it be $200 for a person who did it alone in a situation where it was considered safe.  CM Tripp motioned to divide the $200 Saturday fee between the number of people who do the work, which passed.

Sheriff Williams

DW Incident reports went from 100 to nearly double, same with the city.  Speeding tickets are up.

Park activity.  CM Tripp has looked at cameras from 8pm-11pm, and he sees that there are teenagers at the park in that time he worries are going to break the new playground equipment.  There is some concern about safety and liability.  

Williams said that the police don’t have a lot of time to patrol everywhere, but they do sweeps through the parking lot, and check on the park often.    

The park ordinance has been published and is in the code, but it is felt that they need to put up a sign and address the fact that curfew is earlier than the listed park hours.  

Sheriff Williams said that in person visits are a good deterrent.   

There are concerns about increased problems after school’s out for summer.

Williams relayed his concerns about staffing.  “It is getting better,” he said.  But he noted that there was another issue, which was that “If I get fully staffed tomorrow, that leaves us with 70% inexperienced staff, and two that know their stuff.”  While he believes that “You have to have a mix between experience and inexperience” he noted that the new hires will take 9-10 months before they can finish the Post Academy .

The city contract requires the city and the county to have a $500K policy for liability.  “One single lawsuit—civil rights or force—the average payout is millions,” Williams noted.  The concern was in reference to the high percentage of less experienced employees. 

“I’m working my tail off, and have been finding out a lot of interesting stuff budget-wise.  I’m looking for ways to keep and retain good officers. It’s not just the incidents, it’s the mental stuff.  The trauma you see from the families.  That’s why I’m fighting so hard,” he said.  

Shelly Williams

There was a discussion about how ordinances can be enforced in the county.  CM Tripp noted that they have been improved in the city thanks to John Christophersen.  There are several properties potentially in violation of the animal ordinance, with pigs, goats, etc.  “That’s something to look into” Christophersen said.  

The council reiterated that they need to enforce ordinances when there are complaints.  

Recreation

Because Melissa Firth joined the council, she will be stepping down from Rec Board.

The Howells and Director Scott Ray did an inventory of the baseball/softball equipment.  There is a lot of stuff that needs to be replaced or purchased.  Ray asked the council for approval to purchase equipment.  

CM Neal suggested that they spend as needed on equipment and keep the kids in good supply.  

Money from registration fees goes into the department’s account, and the council noted the “The reason we have those fees is so we can keep up with this stuff.”  

CM Tripp suggested $2000 each for softball and for baseball.  

Atty Evanson talked to Ray about liability as it applies to people who come in to play at the court.  He will create a city waiver for tournaments, etc. to try to limit liability. 

Can they bring in an electrician to make the lights work better?  Mayor Hawkins said Ray should get an estimate for doing it.  They will look at options.

Playground

Members of the Playground Committee gave an overview of the playground project.  There is money still coming in.  They have raised $230K so far.  Installation went very well.  The City crew and Doug Crowther were thanked.  “There was just tons of in-kind donations,” Nicole Daniels said. Malad High Athletics came in to spread mulch.  They are ready for a ribbon cutting, and discussed ideas with the city.

They had a simple idea of just a ribbon cutting, as well as more involved possibilities.  They have a variety of ideas. A lowkey plan with popsicles and a simple ribbon cutting was tentatively agreed to.  

There is still money trickling in, so they want to wait before they put the donor plaque in to move forward with it.  

CM Tripp noted, “I wanted to say, it’s been amazing working with this committee on this.  That this can happen in a year is just crazy.”

Tyler Webster  

They are starting the cemetery prep.  They are raising graves right now.  

Webster talked about leak detection.  He ran into an engineer from Burley with an ultrasound/ultrasonic technology that can provide training for $28K to use this equipment, which can be used to find leaks.  

John Christophersen

“I’ve been busy with dogs.  Had a few in the pound.  Sent out letters.  Talked with Prosecutor about pursuing misdemeanors,” Christophersen said.

He would like to work on a dog pound.  He thinks they could do something for under $20K.  

He would like to put up a fence around the current spot to keep cows out.  

He is going to ticket more aggressively as far as watering violations this year, especially for open hoses.  

If you are on a timer, you can water at night, but have to be reasonable.  

Superintendent Webster wants to push conservancy and education.