City Council 17-Mar-2015: Lone Peak HS Parking, Road Projects, Overnight Parking on City Parking Lots

 

Appearances

1. Public Comment: None

Presentation

2. Representative Mike Kennedy: Mike thanked the council for being involved and invited members to come up to the capital next year during the session. He briefly discussed the session. Mentioned that he had voted against the gas tax increase, not because he opposed it, but because he received a copy of the last revision of the bill at 11:45 PM the last day of the session and he did not have time to review the changes. He also mentioned that there was no fiscal note attached and he does believe a vote should be taken on a tax increase without understanding its impact.

City Council 3-Mar-2015: Roads, Park Maintenance Building, Library Tax

51 residents attended the council meeting this week, many of them were scouts. 4 residents contributed during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Appearances

1. Public Comment:

   • Ed Dennis (Open Space Committee Chair): Thanked the council for the progress on Open Space issues and then reiterated his support for the dedicated library property tax and then read a prepared statement (I can’t find my copy I will add a link to it when I do).
   • Shawna Larsen (Arts Council Chair): Shared with the council the news that they were able to raise enough donations ($13,500) to purchase a used Kawai Grand Piano. Note, since then the Arts Council received another significant donation which allowed them to purchase a new Yamaha Grand Piano (total cost $30,000).
     
     
     
   • Jackie Healey: Expressed support for the library property tax as she didn’t want the library to worry about funding each year.
   • Blythe Shupe (Library Board Chair): Reiterated her support for the library property tax and said it is only 2% of the total city budget. She also mentioned that a neighbor of hers who worked for Qualtrics (an online polling firm) said that he could help construct a poll of the residents. Blythe thought this would be done at no cost to the city.

City Council 17-Feb-2015: Republic Waste, Public Safety District Agreement, Budget Amendments

12 residents attended the council meeting this week. One stayed through the entire meeting. I did not get her name but thank you for coming and for your comments near the end of the meeting.

Appearances

1. Public Comment: None

Reports/Presentation:

2. Charlie Greenland presented poster of an aerial photograph of Highland City from 1958. Abe Day, a member of the planning commission, helped put it together. It has a key that can be used to identify the homes and who lived there. About 21 of the homes remaining standing today. Copies can be ordered from Mr. Greenland.
   Phone: 801-766-6624
   Email: charlesgreenland36@gmail.com.

City Council–Library Board Work Session 10-Feb-2015

I asked Tim Irwin, the city council representative on the the library board, to “guest host” this post and he graciously accepted. I’ve put his comments before a copy of a presentation the library board delivered at the work session.

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It is quite an honor for Rod to ask me to write a report on the library work session the city council had with the library board 2 weeks ago. 

Included in this report is the presentation by the library board president, Blythe Shupe and I feel she did a very good job explaining the progress the Highland City Library has made over the last 8 years. The library is well managed and well supervised by very dedicated volunteers appointed by the mayor. To be clear, the purpose of the work session was to find ways the council could support the library and its goals. In my view of the council, all 5 members like the library. Some residents were misled in the last election thinking that 2 candidates wanted the library to be diminished some way. That was clearly a campaign tactic that did not resonate with the voters and it was in fact a false view held by the losing candidates. In the interest of full disclosure, I serve on the library board at the request of the mayor.

What is true is that there is some disagreement within the city and the council as to how to fund the library going forward. It is interesting that the board chair chose the following quote to start off the discussion: