The Hanksville Town Council meeting convened its regular session on the 7th day of September 2023 in the Hanksville Community Center; meeting commenced at 6:00 p.m.
Present: Mayor Jeffren Pei, C. Mona Wells, C. Eric Wells and C. Morgan Roberts,
Absent: C. Tanesha Conder
Employees: Clerk Lisa Wells and Treasurer Jessica Alvey
Public in Attendance: Cathy Rosenbaum, Curtis and Chylene Whipple, Melanie Heckethorn, Deanna Mecham, Margaret Re, Carla Redmond, Dan and Nicole Cahoon, Sara Bradbury, Susan Wells, and Katie Roberts
Meeting to Order: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Pledge: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Prayer: C. Morgan Roberts
Roll Call: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Motion to approve minutes of August 2023 council meetings: C. Mona Wells; Second Morgan Roberts. Aye: All in attendance.
Council member Mona Wells:
Nothing to report. The town clean-up is Saturday September 23, 2023, and there will be a potluck dinner the night before at the firehouse. She has been trying to get in contact with Scott Chestnut to verify free dump day.
Council member Tanesha Conder:
ABSENT
Council member Morgan Roberts:
Nothing to report.
Council member Eric Wells:
The sewer lagoon project is ready to go out to bid.
Mayor Jeffren Pei:
The new yield signs have been installed, replacing some stop signs on streets where a complete stop is not necessary. The roads project money still needs to be addressed before the State takes back that money that has not been used yet. Eric wanted the road repair on center street, and he submitted the plan to DLII but hasn’t heard anything. The mayor discussed backfill work is needed between the post office and Mowgli’s. They discussed a small box culvert to address the drainage by the firehouse.
Clerk Lisa Wells:
Bills presented to council for approval (spreadsheet attached)
Motion to approve bills for payment – C. Morgan Roberts; Second C. Eric Wells. Aye: All in attendance.
An application was submitted to the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity for grant money to complete a water infrastructure project to install a 500,000-gal water storage tank. No word yet as to if this project is approved, denied or if additional information will be needed.
Treasurer Jessica Alvey:
Nothing to report.
Planning Commission:
The next planning commission meeting is Tuesday, September 12th and the mayor and the council are invited so they can finish their review of current ordinances.
Tabled Business: Solar eclipse plans for October 14th. Vendor booths are invited between the post office and Mowgli’s Café, both property owners were present and agreed to allowing vendors to put up a booth in the dirt. There will be no charge to the vendor, and they are on their own to furnish whatever they need for their booth. The rock shop is offering a 10% discount for over nights stays and she will also be hosting a card reader. There will be a gymkhana at 5pm sponsored by the town to raise money for the rodeo arena; the fire department will be selling concessions at that event. Muddy Creek cabins will have a live band with karaoke offered, Duke’s Slickrock Grill will have live music by Rod Asay, and Outlaw’s Roost will host a DJ. All the music will be on Friday and Saturday evening. Other ideas that were discussed include fireworks, bull riding, rock wall, corn hole, horseshoes, punch cards to get stamped at every business for a prize, farmers market, dark sky events and a 5K. Lisa Wells volunteered to host the 5K to raise funds for the veteran’s memorial and Nicole Cahoon and Curt Whipple said they would help with the 5K. Jessica Alvey volunteered to purchase punch cards and a prize for a full card. The town will rent a few portable toilets and put the eclipse info on NationalEclipse.com.
New Business
Mona Wells – property swap with town – Doug and Mona have purchased the property north of their house property which belonged to Carolyn Hatch. There are a few issues: property lines, access to the property, the two town wells (including a pump house) located at the edge of Mona’s property, easement of water lines through the different property. What Mona hopes to do is give back a piece to Carolyn Hatch, square up a piece of property; what she would like to do is move the access road that the town now uses, if the town will help Mona, to a different spot and turn it into the road. She would like the town to give a little push to help clean that up and move the access to the pump house on the property owned by Red Desert. The town has a utility easement through Red Desert property. Mona says what happened is this little 4’ road was supposed to be the access but that is too small, the previous property owner in years past, Larry Ekker, made a deal with Don Wells if he would give 2’ and Larry would give 2’ and put fences in and a gate but this conversation never got filed at the Wayne County Courthouse. Mona says the water line is only buried 4’ deep but Larry never used his back yard for anything. So legally, access to Mona’s property and the town’s property is down Wells Lane. She would like to talk to Hanksville Canal Company and see if they could get permission to straighten out the canal and make a natural boundary line, or even pipe it underground. C. Eric Wells asked what she would like the town to do? She doesn’t know if there will be a survey needed, she thought the last survey for this property was done in 2009, but she thinks they are going to have to find the stakes, because of the cleaning of the ditch, Mona doesn’t know if the stakes are still in place. If the town will help pay for the survey, what Mona can do is give the town a couple of sections of her property to square up the town’s property around the well and pump house. She said one piece of the property that has the pump house is in the town’s name but where the other pump is located is in Doug and Mona’s name and they pay taxes on that piece. Sara Bradbury asked if Mona had talked to Duke and Jessica, owners of Red Desert, about maybe granting access. They discussed if the water line should be going through private property. Sara’s opinion is that every property owner that is involved should help with the cost of a survey. Mona said she talked to Duke, but he never got back to her regarding this issue. Sara said to check into the current easements. Next steps discussed is to bring this issue to the planning and zoning commission and Eric as the water manager for the town. Have all affected property owners present. Eric said technically Mona doesn’t need anything from the town to make the road that she would like but Mona said she was hoping for the town, with a little push, to get Justin Ekker to clean up his property. They can’t get the property in their name until this is cleaned up and she is hoping the town will help get the property surveyed. Something to discuss and work with the county to get the property lines cleaned up. Mayor said have Eric get with the clerk and contact Jones & DeMille and get an estimate to survey the town property.
Mayor Pei – He presented his idea of creating an incentive for new single family home construction by waiving the impact fee or offering a rebate on the impact fee. This item is tabled for more discussion.
Public Comment:
Sara Bradbury – Great speech by the mayor but what she heard from the mayor is this plan is not going to work. As a citizen who is working on the planning & zoning, and is trying to generate more money coming into our town, and now the mayor wants to incentivize new builds, which is a great idea, but for somebody who is going to come to Hanksville and build a house that’s going to cost them at least $200,000 they are going to have to spend, Sara doesn’t think that $1000 break on an impact fee will get them to come to Hanksville.
Speaking for Katie (who had to leave) she would like to know if there is a schedule for mosquito abatement. She would like notice prior to the mosquito fogging and can it be done after her business hours? They agreed to post it on Facebook.
MOTION TO ADJOURN: C. Mona Wells; Second Morgan Roberts. Aye: All in attendance - meeting adjourned at 7:30pm
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