C. R. Truitt

FOUNTAIN GREEN-- With another big project facing Fountain Green, the city council held another public meeting prior to the regular meeting April 14. The city has been considering a culinary water upgrade since last year and with the Community Impact Board (CIB) is squarely on board, the council is proceeding with the process. The process includes a pubic hearing, the council wants input from citizens on what they feel should be included in the upgrade.

Most of the citizens at the meeting didn't have a problem with constructing a new water tank. Mayor Scott Collard explained that the city's first water tank, a cement tank, that was built in the 1940s, was in such bad condition that it was best to replace it. The city does have a newer tank in operation but engineers from Jones and DeMille proposed another tank be constructed for more storage capacity.

Citizens did question why engineers chose another cement tank over a steel one. Darren Roberts, the engineer for Jones and DeMille, said in his experience cement tanks hold up longer than steel tanks and with less maintenance. Roberts said steel tanks cost a $100,000 less to put in, but require more maintenance. The cost for a cement tank, would be $600,000 - $700,000.

Several citizens didn't accept that explanation and Mayor Collard asked the engineers to look further into steel tanks.

Electric meters

The next issue concerned the city converting to electronic meter reading. Electronic meter reading works by sending out a small signal which is read by a computer which registers the reading. Future meter readers would be able to accomplish this while remaining in their vehicle. After completing field work, the reader would download the information to a computer that calculates the charge to residents. The city employee doesn't have to get out of their vehicle, open spider-infested manholes or wipe off lens to read the water usage.

City employee Roger Aagard, said that manual meters cost $94 to replace and electronic meters cost $131 to replace.

Several citizens questioned whether it was necessary for the conversion and wondered if maintenance would be more costly than manual reading. It was stated that Moroni and Mt. Pleasant both had gone to electronic meter reading and had lots of problems. Citizens noted that in addition to meters, computers and software would need to be purchased.

Aagard said electronic reading would cost about half what manual reading costs. In a later conversation, Aagard said that Moroni was happy with their system, in spite of what was said at the meeting. In checking with the Moroni City Recorder Becky Kendall, she confirmed Aagard's position.

Enough citizens questioned going to electronic meter reading so Mayor Collard said they would study the matter closely.

Fire Hydrants

One resident questioned whether the city needed to have a fire hydrant on every block. He cited statutes from Utah code and Roberts rebutted with another Utah code.

The resident said the hydrant placement depended on the size of the buildings around it. He said the houses required much less than big business buildings, churches and schools. The engineers said 500 feet was the state's requirement.

One person asked if the city considered getting a tanker truck and use secondary water system, namely irrigation water.

The mayor, council members, and engineers held firm when asked if the city could scale back the upgrade. They said that they had to use what the CIB granted them or lose on the grant end. Roberts said the CIB lends money on what they figure the community can pay back, which was 1.4 percent of average income level for Fountain Green, but allowed 1.6 percent, giving the city extra grant funding and the 50/50 percent deal.

Letters

Mayor Collard announced that the city received a fair response from the letter they sent out to residents. In a final announcement in the regular meeting, he said that the result was 33 letters for the project, two undecided, and nine against the project. He said the undecided hadn't mark for or against, but listed their concerns. Collard said the council would consider what people had told them and would look into the issues raised before the next public hearing.

Cleanup ordinance

Mayor Collard proposed parking be 72 hours, nothing parked on the roadsides that wasn't licensed and nothing that would cast visual impairment to drivers or hang out into traffic. He said he used public comment to make up the addition to the ordinance.

Councilman Scott Aagard questioned why a camper wasn't treated like a bale wagon. He said that anything that could be moved in 15 minutes should be okay. He said that of course if it was a traffic hazard it should be moved.

Resident Cindy Anderson maintained that if it was licensed and didn't pose a traffic hazard, the resident should be left alone. Collard said that all towns in Utah have some kind of time limit from 24 hours to 72 hours and he said the city needed that specification to enforce the ordinance. He added that what the city was trying to do is to get people not to store items on city property.

Another criticism was that streets in Fountain Green are not all the same width and that should be taken into account.

Another issue rose with Lester and Cindy Anderson's trailer. The Anderson's store a trailer that is licensed outside of their fence, but they said the side of their road is thirty-five feet from the pavement. When questioned why they didn't store the trailer inside their fence, they answered their livestock would ruin the trailer. In later discussion, it became clear that neither the Anderson's nor the city knew where the actual boundary of the property was. The next issue was who would pay for a survey, the city, with the threat of a citation, or the owner storing the trailer? The problem was not resolved at the meeting.

At the end of a lively discussion, Collard said he would take what was said and revise his proposal for consideration at the next meeting.

City cleanup day

The city cleanup day was set for May 15, which is the same day Moroni is having their cleanup. Mayor Collard said residents can only put yard waste on the side of the road where the city will pick it up, refrigerators and other appliances should be brought to the city hall where they will have a place for collection. Mayor Collard said the city would also have dumpsters00 available for other trash.

Roger Aagard added that the Light House Boys Ranch was looking for a service project and might help with the city cleanup day. Collard said the city would host a breakfast like last year for people helping with the cleanup.

Miscellaneous

In other business, Councilman Jess Bailey announced that a person could get a citation for running over a fire hose. He said it happened at the recent shed fire, ruining the fire hose. Planning Commissioner Larry Woodcock said they recommend the city update its plot map because the one they have is hopelessly out of date. Resident Lewis Rasmussen warned them to keep the existing map because it would show what properties are grandfathered, existing prior to zoning regulations.