10 Nov Meeting Minutes Nov 1, 2017
Sugar House Community Council Trustee Meeting Minutes
Trustees Present: Sally Barraclough, Amy Barry, Laurie Bray, Landon Clark, Mary Clark, Melanie Heath, Michael G. Kavanagh, Benny Keele, Steve Kirkegaard, Will Kocher, Susan Koelliker, Eric Mcgill, Dayna McKee, Larry Migliaccio, Dave Mulder, Benjamin Sessions, Judi Short, Shane Stroud, Chris Sveiven
Trustees Excused: Mike Bagley, Deb Henry, Jason Smurthwaite, George Sumner, Rawlins Young
Trustees Unexcused: Camron Anderson, Tina Escobar-Taft, Lucy Hawes, Topher Horman, Sue Ann Jones
The meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm by Landon Clark, Chair SHCC
Motion to approve last month’s minutes was made by Dave, seconded by Judi . The motion passed unanimously with no corrections to the minutes.
Secretary Report: Sally Barraclough
There were no new trustee petitions to consider. Benny Keele submitted a petition to renew as a trustee from the Forest Dale area. Sally moved to accept the petition, Amy seconded and the motion was approved unanimously.
Sally gave a reminder that Amy, Sue Ann, Susan, Lucy and herself all have petitions that will expire in December. There are no petitions expiring in January and Micheal G’s petition expires in February.
Treasurer Report: Benjamin Sessions
The account has a $6,352.50 balance. There were expenditures of a $25 donation to the Alzheimer’s Assoc and $148 to pay for the SHCC Vision brochures.
Construction Update: Landon Clark for Bill Knowles
The 21st street repaving near the CVS Pharmacy construction is finished.
Committee Reports:
Land Use and Zoning: Judi Short
The Land Use Committee did not meet in October and there are no new projects to report.
Transportation: Larry Migliaccio
Alex Cragun who represents Salt Lake City on the UTA Board was a guest for the October Transportation Committee meeting. They discussed the Transit Master Plan which includes a goal of providing “full bus service” within the next 20 years at a cost of 9.5 million dollars per year. There is currently no funding to support this plan objective. There is however, a proposal for UTA to borrow 88.5 million for other projects. There will be a public hearing on this proposal on Nov 15th at 1:30pm at UTA Headquarters (669 West, 200 South). Comments can also be made at http://www.rideuta.com.
The next Transportation meeting will be Nov 20th at 7 pm at the Forest Dale Golf Course Clubhouse. Larry will be inviting Jim Larson who is the new SLC Transportation Director to attend.
Parks, Open Space, and Trails: Sally Barraclough
This committee met in October. Sally presented the following updates:
There was a ribbon cutting for the Parley’s Trail on Wednesday Oct 18th at Tanner Park. This was a celebration of the completion of the 25th East to 17th East section and the South Salt Lake section from 300 West to 900 West. Dignitaries from Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, PRATT Coalition, and UDOT made presentations, which were followed by a public bike ride on the new trail.
Sego Lily Plaza is starting construction. The trail will be closed during construction. Environmental artist, Patricia Johanson will be overseeing the project being built by Boulderscape. They hope to complete the project by the end of the year.
Fairmont Park Pond has been dredged and refilled. The DWR is planning an urban fishery. The edge work project for the pond that was funded by CIP has gone out to bid and those improvements are expected to be completed in the spring of 2018. Amy acknowledged Mark Isaac and Westport Capital’s donation of clay from their construction site dig to provide the lining for the pond. The clay will last much longer than the synthetic material liner that was in the original plan.
Future Agenda Items:
Alexis Verson – SLC Transportation/ Trails – McClelland Trail
Ben Bolte – SLC Green Bike – future Sugar House stations
Matthew Loveland – District 7 Representative on the PNUT Board
Arts and Cultural: Laurie Bray
Laurie encouraged those present to go watch the construction on the Sego Lily. They found rubble from the destruction of the old state penitentiary while digging in for the supports for the sego lily petals. Items found included old bottles, tiles, and a bell from the penitentiary wall. The construction company is from Colorado and they are experts in applying the shotcrete on the forms to shape the lily.
The Santa Shack will open again this year on Nov 25th which is also Small Business Saturday. The Sugar House Santa Shack has a 70 yr history, and she thanked Mark Isaac who was instrumental in getting a new Santa Shack built several years ago.
The next Art Walk is Friday, Nov 10th. Go to the Facebook page to find the locations of this month’s walk.
Community Outreach: Melanie Heath
They are planning a holiday social that will be a community event rather than just an event for trustees on the council. The date and location will be announced at a later date.
Fire Station #3 Report: Captain Bob Silverthorne
Oct 8-14 is National Fire Prevention Month. It is always in Oct to commemorate the anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire which 92 years ago killed 250 people, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures and burned more than 2000 acres. During this week every year they encourage people to develop a fire escape plan for their home and check electrical appliances and furnaces for fire hazards.
They have been doing outreach in the community to encourage people to look at careers with the fire department. There will be a oral preparation course this Saturday to help people to prepare for testing in the spring.
New fire station #3 construction is underway near the Forest Dale Golf Course on 900 East. The new facility will allow the department to house larger equipment to better serve the growing Sugar House community.
September stats for Station #3 were 220 calls and 1,818 calls YTD. October stats were not compiled in time for this meeting. Go to http://www.slcfire.com to access the fire department newsletter.
SLC Police Report: Detective Josh Ashdown
Josh encouraged people to use the Salt Lake City Mobile App to report crime tips using their smart phones. The app can also be used to report graffiti, open man holes, street light issues etc.
There was an incorrect report of police letting a person suspected of stalking someone go free. It was posted on the Nextdoor App. There was a person who was followed, but the police were never called and the victim was not assaulted. Josh said to contact him if you see these “inflated” reports appear on Nextdoor or Facebook and he will follow up on them and report back.
If you report a homeless camp, you will be given a case number. Josh would like to followup on those reports. He reminded us that being homeless and hanging out in the parks and public places is not an illegal act. They can have all their carts and things with them legally. They are not however, allowed to drink, smoke, or camp overnight in the park. Those activities should be reported to the police.
Vehicle thefts will start to go up now that the weather is getting colder and people leave their cars warming up in their driveways. Do not leave your running car unattended.
Bess Thompson from the Fairmont Aquatic Center is collecting comments and situation reports regarding the homeless population in Fairmont Park. If you have something that you think needs to be documented see Bess in the Aquatic Center. Josh encouraged us to get to know the people who are experiencing homelessness, talk to them, learn their names etc. It is a fairly consistent group of individuals who are living around the Sugar House area.
Announcements for items not on the agenda: Will Kocher
Will Kocher: Will reminded everyone that election day is Tues. November 7th. Mail in ballots should have been delivered by mail by now. If you didn’t receive a ballot call (385)gotvote at the Salt Lake County Recorders office. Ballots must be post marked by Monday the 6th. Otherwise you can drop them off at the vote center at the Salt Lake County Government building on 21st and State St. You can also vote in person but expect long lines.
Jen Bloom: Sugar House Winter Carnival will take place on Nov 25th with Santa and Elsa arriving via the S-Line and fire truck to the Santa Shack which will again be located at the Sugarmont Plaza. There will be activities in the Legacy Village Senior Living, Wilmington Gardens Plaza, and at other locations in Sugar House. Go to Facebook, Sugar House Winter Carnival for more details.
Mark Isaac: Westport Capital (ShopKo block) They have completed the dig for the parking. 10,500 double dump truck loads of dirt were removed from the site. Foundation construction will start on Friday with a fewer number of concrete trucks than dump trucks. He thanked the community for their patience during this phase of construction.
Library Report: Cherie Kofoed, Sprague Library acting branch manager
On Oct 23rd the upper level of the library was reopened. Hours are Mon-Thurs 10am-9pm, Fri & Sat 10am-6pm, and Sun 1-5pm. They are still waiting on the elevator which could take 10-12 weeks before they can open the lower level. Unfortunately there are no public restrooms available until the lower level reopens. There are computers available and they are once again checking out hold items. The entire collection of items is now available on the upper level. The Book Baby and Story Time sessions are being held at the regular times on Wed at the Legacy Village meeting room.
Repairs will cost 1.2 million dollars and the renovations that were recommended from the space utilization study would cost 4-8 million dollars. At this time there is not funding available for the repairs so they are considering hiring a consultant to help them fund raise but no decision has been made.
Presentations:
SLC Public Utilities: Jenni Orman and Natalie Moore, Project Manager Engineers
The project to place a lining on the sewer lines on Simpson will start on Monday and will last about 2 weeks. They will be digging on Highland Dr.
The city will be replacing waterlines on 13th east on both sides of the street. The water lines were installed in 1908 and 1954 and need to be replaced. They will be working from 13th South to 21st South starting in the spring, and it should take about 120 days. They will also be doing sewer line work. Questar is replacing gas lines right now in anticipation of the spring work. The street will be resurfaced after the work is completed.
There will be public outreach and continued construction updates as the project design is finished and construction starts.
SLC Public Utilities: Jesse Stewart, Deputy Director
Jesse spoke a last month’s meeting about city and county culinary water. At tonight’s meeting he discussed the storm water, sewer, and street light systems.
The storm water drain system includes approx 340 miles of underground pipes and 90 miles of ditches, canals, and creeks. The storm water system is not connected to the sewer system. The system is highly regulated by various governmental organizations. The department oversees regulation of construction sites and others who may be discharging into the storm drain system.
Jesse clarified that the letters that were sent out to the community from the state of Utah regarding water rights only apply to individuals who are using water other than culinary water provided by the city. Examples would be natural springs or water sources located on your property that you use for irrigation. It does not apply to most individuals.
The sewer utility was developed in 1889. There are 650 miles of sewer pipe in the system that are internally inspected on a regular basis. There is one waste water reclamation facility that they hope to decommission by 2025 after they build a new, larger facility that will allow them to meet environmental standards and upgrade to specific seismic standards in the event of an earthquake. Cost estimate for the new facility is 300-400 million dollars.
The city street lighting came under SL City Public Utilities in 2013. There are 50,500 street lights that they maintain. They are currently phasing in high efficiency LED bulbs and they are about 50% done with the change out. They will realize about $100,000 per year in savings by changing to high efficiency lights. The decorative street light program was once again funded by the city council. It is a 50/50 funding proposition between residents on those streets and the city.
Sign Ordinance: Anthony Riederer, Principle Planner SLC Planning Dept.
The current vintage sign ordinance states that vintage signs can be used “as is, where is” but they cannot be taken down for repair or repaired and replaced to another location.
The goals of the amendments are to, 1) provide clarity about the maintenance options for nonconforming signs, 2) provide a process to nominate potential vintage signs, 3) establish a criteria for designation and modification of vintage signs, 4) provide flexibility to allow retention of vintage signs.
The criteria for designation states that can’t be a billboard, and it must retain it’s original character. It also needs to meet at least four of the following criteria.
- It was specifically designed for a business or establishment where it is located
- It bears an emblem, logo, or graphic specific to the city
- It enhances the streets-cape or neighborhood
- It is characteristic of a specific historic period
- It is integral to the design of the building where it is located
- It represents a unique lighting technique or design
At this point the choice to restore or have a sign designated as vintage is up to the property owner of the building. If the sign is determined to be a non-conforming vintage sign, the owner will be given permission to take down the sign for repairs and re-installation.
The Planning Department will be presenting the amendment to the Planning Commission by end of November. They hope to have it adopted by the City Council by the end of the year.
Spotlight on Business: Micheal G Kavanaugh
Heidi Nelson – Howdy Homemade Ice Cream
2670 S. 2000 E.
This is a new store “with a purpose”. The store was started by the parents of an adult special needs son, who were looking for job opportunities from him after he finished high school. They opened the store over Labor Day and have ten special needs employees who range in age from 18 to 37 yrs old. They offer 24 flavors of ice-cream including 3 non-dairy. They will be offering seasonal flavors and hot chocolate soon.
City Council Report: Lisa Adams District #7
Lisa really hopes to have the vintage sign ordinance passed by the end of the year. She thanked Anthony for his work on this project.
The RDA board approved spending some of their funds to purchase an old motel property on State Street which will be redeveloped with affordable housing. The project has been sent out for RFP. They hope to have a developer designated by the first of next year.
Lisa encouraged people to contact Detective Ashdown if they encounter problems with homeless citizens but keep in mind that they are within their legal rights to be in the parks with all of their possessions.
They are thinking of proposing a “street fee” on utility bills to pay to resurface the backlog of streets that are in poor condition. They have not determined how much the fee would be but it could be similar to the street lighting fee.
Mayors Office Report: Tim Cosgrove for Nate Salazar
The city is gearing up for snow removal. They have 90 employees and 45 trucks to provide snow removal for the city. Snow removal is handled based on a removal priority plan and is conducted on a 24 hr 7day a week schedule as needed. A GPS system tracks the location and activity of the snow removal fleet.
The mayor signed an executive order for police body cam policy. It states that video footage will be released to the public within 10 days after an incident. The hope is this will provide transparency between the police and the community.
The Arts, Culture and Events funding application period has closed and awards will be announced in the near future. Capital Improvement Project (CIP) funding application process has opened and they will be accepting applications for projects that qualify through the end of November. These are projects that enhance the community, last more than 5 yrs and cost $50,000 or more.
The open enrollment time for the Affordable Care Act is starting now and the mayor is asking us to tell our community members because funding for advertising the program was cut. Go to http://www.takecareutah.org. or you can call 211 and you will be referred to someone who can assist with signing up for insurance.
The mayor’s blue ribbon commission on housing submitted their plan to the RDA with five locations for development of affordable housing to help with the homeless situation. The goal is to build 1000 units within the city and they are looking for funding from various sources.
It was announced that federal Health and Human Resources approved the Utah Medicaid waver plan that provides 100 million in funds for the most low income/no income Utah citizens to access the Medicaid program for health, metal illness, and addiction services. Most of the funds come from the federal government.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15pm
