The Hanksville Town Council meeting convened its regular session on the 11 th day of July 2024 in the Hanksville Community Center; meeting commenced at 6:00 p.m.
Present: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei, C. Robert Gilner, C. Mona Wells and C. Eric Wells
Absent: C. Morgan Roberts
Employees: Clerk Lisa Wells and Treasurer Jessica Alvey
Public in Attendance: Slate Banner, Dennis Alvey, Margarete Re, Stuart Oliver, Colton Roberts, Kathryn Roberts, Mary Devonshire, Neal & Becky Rasmussen, Jared Alvey, Jaron Jackson, Jeanette Pei, Terralyn Labrum, Kole, Pei and Tiffany Martineau – Wayne County EMS director
Meeting to Order: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Pledge: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Prayer: C. Eric Wells
Roll Call: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Motion to approve minutes of June council meeting: C. Eric Wells; Second C. Mona Wells. Aye: All in attendance.
Report of Officers:
Council member Mona Wells:
The new manager, Kole Pei, of the Silver Eagle would like to do service projects for the town and will start with the cemetery. The service projects will be open to anyone willing to help but for sure will include employees of the Silver Eagle. C. Mona Wells will oversee the project at the cemetery.
Council member Morgan Roberts:
ABSENT
Council member Eric Wells:
Met with Sunrise Engineering and the lead & copper line inventory project is on schedule. Ron Pierce with RWAU will continue to get a project ready for submittal and the mayor to review but nothing has been presented yet. There are currently 2 construction companies using bulk water, Nielson’s Construction and Brown Brothers Construction. There has been a citizen complaint about selling water to these companies and the concern is that this will draw down the town water wells and there will not be enough water for public use. The concerns the council discussed were the current storage capacity and they are working on funding to increase the storage capacity.
Thank you to all citizens who participated in any way with the many events of the 4th of July celebration.
Council member Robert Gilner:
Nothing to report. Mayor Pei asked C. Gilner to investigate any upcoming grants from UDOT to help Hanksville.
Mayor Jeffren Pei:
The license has expired for handling hazardous materials which involved the fireworks for the 4th. He will work through that process with the fire department so they will be ready to manage the fireworks next year.
Clerk Lisa Wells:
Bills presented to council for approval (spreadsheet attached)
Motion to approve bills for payment – C. Eric Wells; Second C. Mona Wells. Aye: All in attendance.
Xpress Bill Pay will soon be ready to go live; the clerk will be trained on August 7th in Hanksville.
Treasurer Jessica Alvey:
Nothing to report.
Planning Commission:
Kathryn Robert – The planning commission completed the general plan last year and through that process tried to get an understanding of the needs and desires of Hanksville. The public has been invited to attend their meetings and they have been working on the ordinance document for over 2 years. They are close to being ready for a public hearing, the next meeting is on August 6th. The clerk will make the ordinances available to the public through the town website. The planning commission would like the public to site the ordinance that they have an issue with and provide a solution. The council were again reminded that they all have commentor status on the ordinance document and C. Robert Gilner mentioned the council ought to go through each ordinance as a council.
Tabled Business:
Interlocal Cooperation Agreement between Wayne County and Hanksville and fee to Hanksville Town for EMS services. The Wayne County commissioners were supposed to attend along with the County Attorney, but they sent their representative, Tiffany Martineau – Wayne County EMS director, to represent them. She approached the council with direction from Wayne County commissioners to find out why Hanksville is not paying their dues as requested. Does Hanksville want Wayne County to provide EMS services within the municipality of Hanksville? The mayor explained his objection to paying the amount levied to Hanksville because Hanksville citizens also pay into the Wayne County general fund through property tax, Wayne County received transient room tax from Hanksville tourism in a greater amount than Hanksville receives for transient room tax so why should Hanksville be asked to pay an additional fee for EMS services. The council also explained that Hanksville is the only town in the county that paid for the EMS building; Hanksville pays about $12,000 annually for the lease and insurance on the building. Wayne County has been paying the electricity and propane. In the lease agreement that Wayne County attorney sent to the council the county agreed to pay the lease amount of one hundred dollars ($100.00) with all the utilities and maintenance being paid by Hanksville. The attorney said this $100 was a place-holder amount and he expected Hanksville to make a counteroffer. The council agreed to a twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) lease amount, all the utilities and maintenance paid for by Wayne County. No response ever came back from Wayne County attorney or the commission with this counteroffer. Ms. Martineau continued to outline that the lease agreement for the Hanksville EMS building and the request for payment of the fees assessed by Wayne County were two completely separate issues; her answer to the agreement for services is if Hanksville doesn’t want to sign with the county to provide these services she will be forced to take all Wayne County ambulances, equipment and supplies out of the Hanksville EMS and station them in Torrey and then respond from Torrey to any 911 calls. She stated that this would not include any 911 calls from within the boundaries of Hanksville town. There was discussion of the large area of service that Hanksville EMT’s currently covers Emery County as far as I-70, Garfield County to Ticaboo, beyond Hite on Highway 95, and in Wayne County from Notom to Canyonlands to the Henry Mountains. She said if they withdraw the equipment from Hanksville they will not be able to respond to these outlying areas. For the town council and local EMS this is not an option, but no agreement could be made without a conversation with the Wayne County Commissioners. Tiffany then proceeded to hand the mayor a letter from Commissioner Kerry Cook stating that if Hanksville Town did not pay the requested fee of $11,586 by July 31, 2024, then all Wayne County owned ambulances and support equipment and supplies for the ambulance would be removed from the building. She then gave a new contract from Wayne County regarding the lease of the Hanksville EMS building. The mayor took no more comments and tabled this until the council could schedule a work meeting to discuss options.
Affordable Housing rent increase discussion – The housing needs some work; it needs to be maintained and if rent is increased then the council needs to commit to improving the housing. The council tabled this issue.
Public Comment:
Neal and Becky Rasmussen – They introduced themselves to Hanksville council, they recently purchased the Kelly Taylor farm. They live in Highland UT and would eventually like to move to Hanksville. Their ideas for this property would be like an oasis in the desert with fruit trees, a vineyard, beehives, vegetables, animals, wildflowers, or a corn maze. Originally, they purchased a 22-acre lot that Kelly Taylor had split off, but they heard he was going to split up the rest of the farm in smaller lot sizes which included the pivot sprinkler line. They decided to purchase all the property and since this is a bigger investment they have been brainstorming ideas to make the land profitable and still fit in the zoning of agriculture so that is why they are approaching the council to see if they could have like a creamery or roadside stand to sell their farm goods such as: milk, eggs, butter, fruit, vegetables, honey, and other items. The council welcomed their ideas and agreed that they fit in with agriculture use. As they get more concrete with plans then they can request a zone change, that would have to go through the planning commission. In the future, they might subdivide off some land for their adult children.
MOTION TO ADJOURN: C. Eric Wells; Second C. Mona Wells. Aye: All in attendance - meeting adjourned at 8:00pm
Comments