The Hanksville Town Council meeting convened its regular session on the 3rd day of October 2024 in the Hanksville Community Center; meeting commenced at 6:00pm.
Present: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei, C. Robert Gilner, C. Mona Wells, C. Morgan Stephens, and C. Eric Wells
Absent: None
Employees: Clerk Lisa Wells and Treasurer Jessica Alvey
Public in Attendance: Margaret Re, Ashton & Caib Brian, Dan Thatcher, Cathy Rosenbaum, Kelly Florez, Sue Fivecoat, Connie Brown, Katie Roberts, Sandy Wells and Jan Hunt
Meeting to Order: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Pledge: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Prayer: Jessica Alvey
Roll Call: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Motion to approve minutes from September council meeting: C. Eric Wells; Second C. Robert Gilner Aye: All in attendance.
Report of Officers:
Council member Mona Wells:
Hanksville Cemetery clean-up has been scheduled for October 10-12th. The event will be sponsored by Stan’s Silver Eagle Team and it will be a. Dinner will be served at the end of each project. She has scheduled Founder’s Day for the following Saturday, October 19th for free-dump day and Andy Alexander has offered his services to haul any big items to the dump. C. Mona Wells is discussing forming concrete tables to build at the cemetery. Any extra cement will be used to pour a ramp to the side door at the Hanksville Community Center for the Wayne Community Health Center access.
Council member Morgan Stephens:
The fence by the town housing needs repaired. An eviction notice has been sent to tenants of Apartment #2 and they have 30 days to pay; they are 5 months behind. The mayor gave Tony Bell a key for the food bank access back door.
Council member Eric Wells:
He has contacted a technician for the generator at the Navajo well. The mayor would like the town water tested for everything in the water. The clerk met with Jones & DeMille and Brown Brothers Construction regarding the sewer project. They are set to begin work at the end of October and hope to have the project completed by the end of May. Brown Brothers has contacted Susan Wells for access to her property to pile the sludge from the sewer lagoons that will be reused in the lagoons. The engineers will hold a weekly meeting with the construction company and the town to coordinate the project.
Council member Robert Gilner:
The Bull Creek crossing needs to be repaired.
Mayor Jeffren T. Pei:
Discussed the money that was awarded through Celeste Maloy’s office regarding the new tank for water storage. The land swap with the BLM is in the process as well as the updated Water Master Plan by Ensign Engineering that needs to be completed before the water storage project can begin.
Mayor explained the HERT program that he has been working on. It is a group of trained 1st responders for an active shooting situation. The mayor is the sole director of the program, Mayor Pei has been trained and certified to instruct the members of the group. They have held several training sessions at Hanksville Elementary School. The mayor has worked on getting communication access; Hanksville has been approved for 15 Tango call signs with the Department of Public Safety and will be dispatched in an active shooter/riot situation only. This is not a law enforcement group but a special function officers group. The mayor plans on sending members of his 1st responder group to be trained as Special Function Officers, the cost is $800/person.
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.
Treasurer Jessica Alvey:
Nothing to report.
Planning Commission:
They have met weekly for the last month and have invited the council to attend these work meetings and are hoping to be inline with the commission and the council. If all goes well they would like to post the final draft on Monday, October 7, 2024 and give the community 30 days to submit comments. The council has access to review the ordinance document through Google Docs. They discussed with the council to hold the public hearing for the ordinances at the next council meeting on Thursday, November 7, 2024 at 6pm.
Tabled Business:
Interlocal Cooperation Agreement with Wayne county and Hanksville Town for EMS services - Treasurer Jessica Alvey discussed with the council her opinion on signing the contract that Commissioner Brian presented to the council last meeting. She would like there to be language that holds the commissioners accountable, if the Rural County Health Care Sales tax passes that has been proposed and is on the ballot for November, to use this tax for funding of emergency medical services in Wayne County as it states on the public notice. (Attached to the minutes). The council discussed the Mayor and C. Eric Wells attends the next mayors meeting, which will be October 15, to see how the other mayors in the county are addressing this issue and if they have the same concerns.. The fee amount to each municipality is open ended in the contract. That is why in the changes we made to the contract we stated $180/run, which the commissioners were not willing to sign. They would like the same contract in place for each municipality within Wayne County.
Report on UDOT ruling regarding 0.447 acre tract of surplus land at SR-24 and SR-95 - Clerk Lisa Wells read the letter that UDOT sent with their decision not to sell directly to Hanksville but to sell this property through the UDOT Action process. The basis to put it on the auction is done under State Code R907-80-10(3). The auction is open to the public and the town of Hanksville to bid on this parcel. They discussed if they still wanted to bid on this property and how much they would be able to bid. Robert Gilner recused himself for the discussion of this property.
Motion to bid up to $55,000 on the UDOT property parcel: C. Eric Wells; Second C. Mona Wells.
Roll Call Vote: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei - Aye
Council member Eric Wells - Aye
Council member Mona Wells - Aye
Council member Morgan Stephens - Abstain from voting
Council member Robert Gilner - Abstain from voting
New Business:
New appointment to the planning commission - 2 applications were received for the empty planning commission seat; Dan Thatcher and Sandy Wells. The council discussed both applications and talked with the planning committee on their recommendation. C. Eric Wells discussed some of the challenges someone in public office will face such as: lost sleep, patience with neighbors, a target on your back. Mayor said we need people to serve with good moral character and be willing to sacrifice, have patience and tolerance of other views.
Motion to accept the applications of Sandy Wells and Dan Thatcher to the planning commission: C. Eric Wells; Second C. Robert Gilner. Aye: All in attendance.
Public Comment:
Margaret Re: She asked the community at large to keep track of all volunteer hours; she works with R6 and they have asked for this; the hours that Hanksville submits will be given back to Wayne County in aid from R6. Any service hours count except service through a religious organization.
Dan Thatcher: He asked if he could remove the tamarisk along the Hanksville canal by his house. He discussed that with Margaret Re who is the Hanksville Canal Company President. She said every property owner should be responsible to clean the canal that borders their property.
Katie Roberts: Asked C. Bob Gilner to explain his comments he made earlier in the meeting regarding the radical agenda that the commission has with these ordinances. She explained that the ordinances were robust, not radical, to help educate the council on what the process could look like, such as Dark Sky designation, the mayor has shown an interest in Hanksville being recognized as a Dark Sky community so they included all that in the Lighting section of the ordinances. Of what could be. She believes it is very unprofessional of Bob to declare this a radical agenda. The planning commission is not the enemy, she would like to have the support of the council before this document goes out to the public again. It was published prematurely and this time she would like the image to go out to the community that builds trust and works together for the good of the community.
Sue Fivecoat commented that the first planning commission meetings were a little rocky since the draft was first published but as she has continued to attend the weekly meeting they have gotten better and have allowed the public to comment even though they did not have to. The planning commission allowed the public to speak in these meetings. The document needs to reflect what is best for the town. There has been a lot of learning and they have been open to input.
C. Robert Gilner: Thanked Katie for their work and expressed that he stood up for the commission at previous meetings. He did state that he has a different opinion then Katie and he should be allowed to express his opinion that his constituents have been sharing with him.
Motion to adjourn: C. Mona Wells; Second C. Eric Wells. Aye: All in attendance. Meeting adjourned at 8:35pm
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