City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you, everybody, for being here tonight. We will start tonight. We have Chief Adams has, I guess, been dubbed to pray for us tonight. Thank you, Chief. And then after Chief, Matt Baker will lead us in the pledge.

Our dear kind Father in heaven, we humbly bow our heads before thee and come to thee as a group of city employees and citizens and friends and neighbors as we participate in this important process. We ask for thy blessings to be upon this meeting that thy spirit may dwell here to guide and direct our thoughts and our actions that we may have civil dialogue discourse and that we may be able to properly take care of the affairs of the city. We're grateful for citizen involvement and all those who are here tonight. We're thankful for the council and the mayor and the staff and we pray for them and ask you to bless them and edify and lift them. We pray for those in attendance from the American Legion and Boys and Girls State and grateful for their accomplishments and how they represent themselves and and the city. We acknowledge all staff within the city and pray for them and pray for our first responders and those who protect us for our military and grateful for thy bounteous blessings upon all of us as we do thy will. We again thank thee for all that we have and pray for these things most humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Amen.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to

Thank you. So first, is there any changes to the agenda?

Mayor, I don't believe so. So with that, I would move that we approve the agenda order for this work meeting August 19th, 2026. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We will, of course, excuse Councilman Schmidt tonight. He's on a trip with family. So hopefully he brings something back to share from previous discussions. He better. Yeah.

Bring something back to smoke. Fish. He's fishing. Fish.

That could have been an interesting minute over there.

Well, if you've been to Alaska lately, it could be other things. I'm telling you. It could be fires.

Good stuff. Okay. Waldo, you mentioned something earlier that you might want to ask.

Yes, just a moment of personal privilege. Council members, you remember that a few weeks ago We approved the concept of working together with SUU, especially in the public administration MBA program, and in coordination with our staff to develop strategic plans for each and every department in the city. So we've gotten to a spot now where we have designed the process and have taken a look at our mission and vision statements and our priorities and so forth. And both the mayor and I felt that we're ready to proceed with this thing. So we have invited city manager, bitman to be my co-partner in this process and enrolling this out and we will set up a process so that we would go department by department and get in all the engagement we need so just wanted to inform you it's moving forward and we're going to start making some good progress here just In terms of timing, it's gonna take this probably the rest of this fiscal year for us to get all those wrapped up, but it'll help us as we take a look at our budgets and our staffing and everything else that we're gonna need for the following year and into the future. as we do the strategic plans.

If I'm wrong, Waldo, but this first semester they're working with their master's level students. They'll go through and design the very specific process in which a department will go through and then the next semester, then we'll start actually creating the plans with the departments is kind of the, is that correct?

That's correct, yeah. There's an outline of the process already. They'll just get into it and begin to solidify it in the next few weeks. They're back in session, I think it's two and a half weeks from now or two weeks from now, so we've got time to get that going. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

Okay, staff comments. Today we've got the opportunity to swear an officer in, so Chief.

Thank you, Mayor, Council and staff, Darren Adams with the Police Department. So we have here Gary Orton. He was our crime scene and evidence technician for the last several years. He's done a phenomenal job. He's also law enforcement certified. He's got quite the tool belt. And we had a need that we needed to fill, and we were able to hire him as an officer and put him out at Canyon View as the new school resource officer. So I want to let him introduce himself and his family.

How's it going? My name's Gary Orton. I know a lot of you just from working here already, but I'm happy to be here and happy to take on a different role, hopefully more positive interaction than crime scene investigation.

Hope so. I hope so.

It'll be great. I've already done it, had a lot of fun, and it's a very positive environment, so I'm looking forward to it. I've got my wife, Jamie, and my youngest, Hazel, with me today too. Awesome. It'll be fun.

Wonderful. Thank you. Is this the first one, Amber? Amber? Oh, that's right. We have had one other.

Mrs. Orton, if you want to take pictures. You're welcome to take photographs anywhere you want. It's all yours. Yeah.

We do. We do. Got to have the seal in the photo.

I solemnly swear. I solemnly swear.

That I will support, obey, and defend.

Little blood. This is our favorite part. Here's your opportunity. Just to watch him cringe. You don't want a picture with him? I mean... And the daughter.

Come on up, she's there.

You got to make him look good somehow.

She doesn't have to see her dad at school every day now, does she?

If you wouldn't mind, let us shake your hand. I appreciate it. Welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

That's a good question.

Thank you. Next item of business is American Legion, 2026, Utah Girls and Boys State. Darren, come on up.

I'm Darren Duncan. and I am in the Cedar City American Legion, Pulse 74, and I'm actually John Fenn's... Sneaky. Yeah, John Fenn. He's in Vietnam, and he's a very honorable Vietnam veteran, and he's in charge of Boy State, and I've helped him, and he wanted to come here tonight and and show you some of the fine young men and young women that attended Boys and Girls State this year. What we'd like to do is we'd like to have the boys and the girls, but we'll have the girls first, come up and just say their name and what they were elected to, and then we will have Cambry Selby give a talk, a short talk. She was one of the most successful young women at Girls State and she will represent the girls and then we'll have the boys come up and they will introduce themselves and what they were elected to and then we'll have Bracken Johnson represent them. Bracken Bracken was elected governor, which is one of the highest elected offices at Boise State, and he gave a talk on the Constitution, and he wanted to present his Constitution talk to you tonight. So we'll have the girls come up first.

That's your cue. That's when you stand up. Don't come up all at once.

Suzanne Roundy, will you raise your hand? Suzanne Roundy is the girls' state representative, and she was up there, and her daughters have been participating, and it's been wonderful. We sure appreciate her.

I'm Cambry Selby, and I was elected our city secretary, and I was a Girls' Nation finalist.

Which high school do you attend?

Cedar.

Thank you.

I'm Madeline Lazard. I go to Cedar, too, and I was on the city and county councils.

And what else do you do for the city?

I'm on the Cedar City Youth Council.

Thank you.

I'm McKinley Bagley. I go to Canyonview High School, and I was elected the county clerk, and then I was just the sergeant at arms.

And what else?

I also do the Cedar City Youth Council.

Thank you.

My name is Evelyn Dodds. I go to Cedar High School as well. And I was elected county attorney, and then I ran for a bunch of green offices in the city level as well and got some of those. Awesome.

Where's your speech, Mrs. ?

Okay, I will be sharing a little bit about my Girl State experience. So, during my time at Girl State, I met amazing people and I experienced invaluable opportunities. We listened to incredible speakers. I personally loved every two hour meeting we sat through and every speaker that spoke to us. For a week, we lived together, ate together, learned together, and grew together. Every laugh, every smile, every tear, and every part of it became a very big part of my experience. At the start of the week, I was excited to wear the cute new clothes I had gotten and to receive the college credits, but that quickly changed. At the end of the week, I was sad to leave the wonderful people I had met and to leave the amazing program I had been introduced to. But I was excited to take over the world with the new things I had learned earlier in the week. Throughout the week, I had ran for multiple different positions, and I had put myself into different situations. I ran for chair, vice chair, secretary, and senate. These all definitely pushed me outside my comfort zone, but time after time, it taught me more and more about myself. In particular, running for Girls Nation Senator was a huge learning experience for me. I decided to try out on a whim, and honestly, I didn't know much about it. But the day before checking in, I submitted my application. Day two, they made cuts down to final 12. Upon that 12, you got an interview. And upon those interviews, they made final cuts down to final eight. And to my surprise, I made final eight. After making those final eight, those eight candidates got to give a speech in front of their entire Federalist Party. Because I had given multiple speeches earlier in the week, I wasn't super nervous for those ones, but this one was different. I was quite scared for this one because Girls Nation's speech was a tiny bit more serious and I had now realized I was in the running and I was excited and I wanted it. After I filed for office, I could now campaign. Now, this was something that didn't scare me, because earlier in the week, I had started to make connections with different people. I had started trying to make and talk to people, as many people as I could possibly kid. Wow. I started to hold the door open at lunch and at dinner, and as people walked through, they thanked me and they said my name. This was a better feeling than winning a campaign. I had reached out to girls on a personal level and made a connection with them so much so that they remembered my name. I remember calling my parents that night in excitement because someone had remembered my face and my name with it. I will never forget that feeling. No, I did not make Girls Nation, but I am proud of how far I went. I am even more proud of the impact I had made on everyone else's life. On our last day, our newly appointed governor and the other returning generals got up on stage to announce state awards. As I sat in the crowd watching, at first I did not understand what was happening, but shortly after hearing my name and the award of Ray of Sunshine, I had shortly noticed what was happening. I had now noticed how much this week had meant to me. A week to get out of my comfort zone, meet new people, and share my light with others. This award wasn't just a title. It had made me feel like my efforts were validated. I had now learned this was the real reason I was passionate for running. Girls State not only gave me confidence, but it gave me a renewed love and appreciation for my country. I gained a greater respect for where we live and the opportunities we share. I left Girls State with new friendships, more confidence, and a new interest for politics and our government system. But most importantly, I walked away knowing that my voice matters and that I can make a difference. I know I have so much more to learn and so much more to give. But Girls' State gave me much more new perspectives and new excitement for what my future holds. The American Legion Auxiliary is an amazing program that builds up women and shows girls that they can do anything. And I am so honored I got this opportunity to attend Girls' State. Thank you.

I'm going to need a new campaign manager in three years. I think I just found her. He just declared he's rerunning in three years.

Is that in the minutes?

I'm Tyson Barney. I'm homeschooled, and I was the county sheriff.

I'm Landon Larson. What's up? I go to Cedar High School. I was elected county delegate, and I was also city health director.

I'm Tripp Strange, I go to Cedar High School and I was elected Mayor.

I'm Ethan Black and I go to Cedar High School and I was elected City Auditor, sorry.

I'm Bracken Johnson, I go to Cedar High School and I was elected as the Governor.

I talked to Bracken about his election and was curious as to why he hadn't, what other offices he'd considered. Would you tell the council and the mayor and others here why you chose to run for governor instead of senator?

I would have been out of town for the Boys Nation, so I couldn't have gone to the Boys Nation.

Why were you out of town?

I went to hike Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. Oh, is that all? It was really cool. It was a great experience.

Wow. Governor's cooler anyway.

Since I was elected as a governor, next year I get to go back to Boise State and conduct the next session. So I'm really excited about that.

Awesome. Cool.

You've got a speech that you also won an award.

Yes, we had a constitutional oration challenge, and I took third place in that. So I was very excited about that. And then that's the speech that I'd like to present tonight.

Awesome. Let's do it.

OK. All right. I want to start off with the preamble to the Constitution. As we the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. In this introductory paragraph to one of America's most essential documents, it outlines the purpose of the Constitution, which is to create a country in which its citizens can have safety and freedom. it's clear that the founding fathers wanted to create something that would last and continue to bless generations to come. In order for that goal to be realized, however, it was necessary that the government not become corrupt, nor allow an imbalance of power to arise, as that could topple the whole system they'd worked so hard to create. The solution to this problem is found in the form of checks and balances, which are written into the Constitution in Articles 1 through 3. Articles 1 through 3 specifically talk about the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Section 1 of Article 1 says that all legislative power shall be vested in a Congress. Basically what that means is that Congress has the power to debate, draft, and enact laws. In Section 2, it talks about the executive branch. The executive branch is headed by the president, the vice president, the president's cabinets, and then some other government entities. And their job is to administer and enforce the laws. Now you can already see where checks and balances are coming in here, as if the legislative branch can't enforce the laws it creates and the executive branch can't create the laws it enforces. And finally, in the third section of the third article of the Constitution, it talks about the judicial branch. And through the Supreme Court, their job is to ensure the constitutionality of laws and to resolve legal disputes, as well as to interpret the letter of the law as well. So now each of these three powers is unique and important, but together they're the reason why we have freedom in America today. One modern example of when checks and balances were used in our government comes in the form of the 2005 Stolen Valor Act. Basically what happened here is this act was passed by Congress in 2005, making it illegal for anyone to lie about having received military awards. Now, this was fine until in what became known as the United States versus Alvarez case, a man by the name of Alvarez lied about having received military awards breaking this law. Now, the judicial branch through the Supreme Court ruled that this act was actually unconstitutional because it violated freedom of speech. Now, I don't condone lying about receiving military awards or lying about anything in general, but what I am saying is that I do believe in freedom of speech, and that means that sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. Even when small freedoms get taken away, it can be a slippery slope leading to larger and larger freedoms being taken away. In order for this system of checks and balances to continue working in our government, it's essential that the citizens of America know how this system works. If people can understand how power dynamics work inside our own government, it can influence the way they think, the way they act, and the way they vote. Now, for everyone listening tonight, I would encourage you to make yourselves familiar with the system of checks and balances. and also to teach others so the government of the people, by the people, and for the people can continue to prevail in our free country called America. Thank you.

Maybe he ought to run for council next go.

You notice I didn't have any of the boys in the Youth City Council. We've got to change that gentleman. So reach out to your junior classmates. We're going to be recruiting a new class very soon. Mayor, could I just ask maybe if we've got time that I think we want to get a photograph. We do have members of the press here and others. Could we have all the representatives come up for a photo?

Would everybody come back up real quick?

This is a great program, and I'm very proud to have you here. You need to come every year and present to us.

Mayor, I suggest that you get into that picture, please.

Yeah, it's all about government, buddy.

Thanks to the adult leaders that make it happen. It's life-changing things like this that really build our youth, so thank you.

We'll make it.

Whatever the mayor asks for, the mayor gets.

You're the one wanting the picture, Scott. I wish I would have made a couple of

So as you're leaving, I applied for Boise State a long time ago and didn't make it. And unfortunately those that did, I haven't seen their involvement in politics and they're all still local. So hopefully all of you will engage in the future. Thank you. Okay, next item on the agenda. Mr. Oglesby. This is a recap from the Utah Summer Games. Good luck following that one, John. Yeah, I say follow that one, John.

Well, it was pretty all-American, his stuff, too. That's true.

Good evening, everybody. John Oglesby, the Assistant Vice President of Sports and Destination Engagement at Southern Utah University overseeing the Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games. It is an honor to be here this evening. While they're still here, I want to add to my congratulations to the folks who were just up here a minute ago. who were so successfully represented our community in Boys and Girls State. Mayor, I was a Boys State attendee, but in Nevada. So anyways, not quite at the same cut there, but.

I'm right with you there, buddy.

Councilman Phillips, yes. But it is a great experience and these young folks are definitely to be commended for the work that they're doing and the leaders they will be following.

John, that means you're following in Councilman Phillips' shoes. I just hope you keep your hair. We don't need to go there.

You just threw his entire presentation out there.

Did we really go there?

It couldn't help it.

Well, it's a live night tonight and it is an honor to be here. I should note before we start with anything that Councilman Wilkie actually serves as one of our sport coordinators in the Utah Summer Games. We'll bring that up here in a minute. But first off, I think anytime as I'm around town visiting either before the games, during the games, after the games, talking about our program, We can't say thank you enough for all the support we get from folks throughout Iron County, but Cedar City is such a massive part of that. And whether that's with Ken Nielsen and his team with Leisure Services, which is outstanding, Chief Adams' support with the force, all the different city departments that work and support us. I see so many of the folks that are up here, whether it's members of council, city leaders that are at so many of our events, and just generally supporting what we do. Thank you for the work that you're doing to support the Utah Summer Games. It was really one of the unique, professional privileges that I've had in my life to oversee our 40th anniversary celebration this year. It's really unique to oversee great celebrations of moments in time of properties that were going well before you were there and will be going well hopefully after you're there. And our 40th anniversary.

But you're not going anywhere.

What?

But you're not going anywhere.

Not that I know of, yes, yeah, no, not that I know of. But it really was a tremendous celebration of the history of our community, the impact that we've made for a long, long time at the university, in our community, not only on sports in the state of Utah, but regionally, even nationally in many cases. To see that codified with our numbers this year and the strong participation, which I'll talk about in a minute, and then to set the table for the future. and the future, I believe, for the Utah Summer Games, for all the different things that our community is doing in sports tourism and engagement. I think there's never been a better time to work in sports in the state of Utah, and I don't think there's ever been a better time to be involved in that endeavor here in iron county and in cedar city so i say that to set the table give these numbers were just final yesterday by the way so the council and such is getting the first look at our total numbers from the 2026 program year 11 144 total participants which is a 6.4 percent increase over last year We had 27 to 29 Utah counties that participated. MyPublic offered a scholarship. Any rich or daggett county participants that want to come still sits out there so we can get that 100% participation across the state. But I think one of the biggest metrics as we try to be a driver of economic development is to see Strong Iron County numbers but to see the percentage of participants from Iron County actually going down when you look at the total number, even though the participant growth in Iron County is still there. And it is to be an economic developer for the city, for the county. This year we had a record 21 states who were represented in the Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games with a 22.2% increase of participants from the state of Nevada, which was almost 700 participants. So we believe a lot in what our community has to offer. We're very bullish on... our business future here in the county, particularly in the hospitality space, and are grateful to have the opportunity to steward that and share that with people all around the country and specifically our neighbors here close. Waiting, working with Visit Cedar City Bryanhead to get an economic impact report based on this year's attendees and numbers, but thinking that it is going to be very healthy looking at some of the different residents here are lodging rates, ADRs, et cetera. They were definitely very healthy during the game season. I think closing in kind of the recap of our 2026 program year, and then I'm happy to take any questions or comments from the council. I think one of our great things was really trying to stretch ourselves in terms of bringing our local participants as well as our visitors together through more large-scale community events besides just the opening ceremony. I have to make special note of Councilman Phillips, his work that he did with Maria Twitchell and the entire America 250 Iron County Committee It was wonderful to be able to bring that work particularly through the Summer Street Fest initiative together with Summer Games participants to give visitors who are coming to our community not on opening ceremony weekend an equally wonderful yet unique and different experience that brands our county as an elite summer destination for people that are coming to participate in the Utah Summer Games. I was extremely excited with the outcome of that. I think our weekly engagement series that we tried to do to celebrate our 40th anniversary was so successful that it set the table for being a permanent inclusion in our program. And I think as we turn our attention to 2027, which we're already eagerly planning on, we're looking at a variety of our initiatives such as Special Olympics that are going to split off and be an entirely separate weekend because they continue to grow. a big growth in our high school state tournaments that we're continuing to host, and I think you'll see next summer continued growth in terms of sports we're adding, but also just us having to split some sports into multiple weekends just because we have the enviable problem right now of having too much business for the weekends we have them scheduled on, so we got to make some changes there. Again, thank you. Thank you what you do to contribute to our city, our community, the university at large. Thank you for what you do to support the Utah Summer Games. Like Sinatra said, the best is yet to come, and I completely believe in that statement. And I think we're just getting started in terms of what we can do to brand ourselves as one of the elite sports destinations in the state of Utah and in the Intermountain West. So with that, I'm happy to take any questions or any feedback.

I know this is hard to quantify, but you know the economic benefit that it brings to this community. I know it's tremendous. The hustle and bustle is awesome.

Yeah. So in 2025, last program year, it worked out to approximately $17 million. That was worked out with Maria Twitchell at Visit Cedar City, Brian Head. That was just the Utah Summer Games. By the time you add in our high school state tournament experiences, which those continue to grow, in our book of business. Those average around between $800,000 to $1 million depending on that type of event. So when you look this upcoming year with the growth that we're continuing to project plus the two different state tournaments we're hosting through the UHSAA, the three different Special Olympics Utah state events that we'll be hosting plus their summer games, we're pretty bullish on the future of it and its impact.

That's wonderful.

Councilman Phillips first.

I just wanted to find out, you maybe pointed out some of them, but what do you perceive as the biggest challenges that you face as you move forward into this future?

I think one of the biggest challenges we have continually is venue space for particular sports, particularly diamond sports. I'll give you an instance. Next year we're splitting our fast-pitch softball tournament into two separate weekends. There's benefits to that from an economic perspective because we think we'll – approximately 30 team wait lists this year. So we think what will end up happening is we'll end up selling out just as we did this year, the original weekend, and then adding a new book of business on a new weekend. But I think having facilities one, but not only facilities, but high quality facilities. I think that is one of our bigger challenges. There's no doubt a facilities arms race going on throughout the state for athletic facilities, particularly in smaller and rural communities. And I think that's something that I've appreciated conversations I've been part of around the county about the future of those and I think we're gonna need to continue to have them. I think that viability is extremely important. I also think too, just like anything, us finding a way to preserve what makes Cedar City and Iron County a world-class experience, which is our people, but finding a way to scale that as the number of weekends we have large-scale events coming into town. That's a challenge for our business community. That's a challenge for elected officials. I think we're up for the challenge collectively, but no doubt that's a moat that we have as a business advantage, but it's something that no doubt we definitely worry about making sure we preserve that first-to-class experience. I think those are probably the two things that keep me up the most at night, with the third being rain potential, which none of us have control of that.

Thank you. Councilman Wilkie.

Councilman Phillips actually took my question. It was just, yeah, it had to do with, you know, what are some of the pinch points facilities-wise and things that we can do? I mean, our crew obviously will do everything that they can, and we can't unfortunately just have everything that we want recreation-wise overnight, but we're trying, and so... No, and I...

I'm involved enough in those conversations, whether official or just asking questions, that I appreciate the reach out that I get from members of the council, from members of the business community, to ask, you know, one of my, parts of my position change at the at the university is to very much make sure that i'm providing great information to to yourselves on where i'm seeing as far as business trends opportunities and uh... we take a very seriously and stewarding a tremendous return on investment for our community and uh... that's not going to change in terms of where we're going we think again they're they're uh... there is a very bright future for our community in the sports business landscape in the state of Utah. We want to make sure that we're playing a very active role in ensuring that you all have the information you need to steward things as appropriate. So I think it's a great opportunity ahead of us. Sounds like Mayor Nelson's okay with me sticking around for a little bit to hopefully be a part of stewarding that.

Yeah. We'll talk to Mindy, make sure there's good contract extensions built in.

Yeah, thank you. Any other questions at all for members of the council or member of the city staff?

Nope. Thank you, John.

I don't know if the chamber's allowed to ask any questions. I'm happy to answer anything. I do have that number. To say that I know it off the top of my head is inaccurate. I know the number of teams we had. We were about flat on soccer this year. That tends to go up and down just depending on what's going on in terms of other regional tournaments, but we were pretty flat year over year. Saw some growth in a few different sports, which was really encouraging. Saw some drawback. Water polo, we have struggled in the last couple years. No doubt we have a concerted effort. That's a focus for sure because that April timeframe is really valuable for lodgers to get occupancy. And so our hope is we're gonna continue in some new marketing thresholds that we think are looking promising and move forward.

Thank you, John.

All right, thank y'all so much.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, next item is to consider a bid from Bradshaw Chevrolet for a work truck. Mr. Clove.

Mr. Andy Clove with Cedar City Wastewater Collections. We got a couple different bids, and we'd like to shop locally, so we got Bradshaw Chevrolet work truck, amount of $54,590.25. Is this a 2500 or a 35 or a half ton? It's a 1500. Oh, it's a half ton. 1500, okay.

I won't make any comments on it being the superior brand. So Randy, what happens right here?

What happens to the fleet? Is this just going to be added to the fleet or are we cycling some vehicles out or what, what are we doing? So right now, what we'll do with this truck, we're going to add on. We're kind of behind. We'd like to keep some of our older trucks we have up there. When we do chip seal, if we keep doing what Eric's been doing with the street department, we'll probably consider getting rid of it. We'd like to use our older trucks and chip seal. We have one submersible pump left out on the south interchange, and it has a crane in the back of it that we pull the pumps with. If we can get rid of that lift station out on the south end, we'll probably just... eliminate that truck out of there and auction it off so cut it thank you thank you okay thank you randy mayor with that i would move that we put on consent for next week

Have a motion?

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, great. Next one. I won't make another comment on the brand. It's a truck night.

Not one. Matt Baker, Water Division, just here to consider a bid for two Chevrolet work trucks from Bradshaw in the amount of $111,776.75. What is this?

You get a truck, you get a truck? You approved it in the budget.

I know. Same thing, just two 1500s? One's 1500, one's 2500.

And what's the plan? What is the purpose of these two trucks?

$1,500 is going to be for the reclassification position I got for the inspector, just to replace the old trucks.

Okay.

Okay. Any other discussion? If not?

So the half-ton cost is the $2,500 cost is the same as the half-ton, it looks like. A little bit less. $4,000. No, he's saying the $2,500 is less than the half-ton. That's crazy.

Mayor, I would move we put this on consent for next week.

I have a motion. Second. And a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. Thank you, Matt. Oh, you get the next one, too. Consider a bid for the Ditch Witch of the Rockies.

I have Baker Water Division here to consider a bid for the Ditch Witch Hydro-X trailer from Ditch Witch of the Rockies. Amount of $53,323.55. This was also approved in the 26-27 year budget.

Can you help educate us about what this is? They're cool. Well, I'm sure they're cool, but what does it?

I'll just go off like, have you seen Randy's back truck sucking out sewers? It's the big giant truck. So this is just a miniature size on a little trailer that we can carry around and clean out our valve cases, meters, hydrovex, spot utilities before we do anything else.

So you just hook it up when you go around to do that?

Yeah, instead of pulling out the big truck, we can use a little.

So you can get into the places you can't get the big truck. Is that the reason for the trailer?

Well, yeah. So, for example, if they're digging around lines and stuff, instead of using a shovel and you're digging around a power line, you just blast it with water and it sucks the mud out and You have a clean one.

So like our valves get full of dirt and stuff, instead of a little hand auger to do it, we can just stick that, suck it out, and we're done.

Okay. Make you much more efficient.

Yes.

Mayor, with that, I would move that we put that hydro trailer on consent for next week as well.

I have a motion. Second. Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Thank you.

Just a little disappointed you don't have a yellow shirt on to match the shoes.

Well done, Matt.

Thank you.

Another one.

At least you stuck y'all in a row. You only get two.

Sorry.

I won't make a comment like Robert did to you.

Okay, the next one is to consider a resolution to amend the consolidated fee schedule to increase the fee for water meters.

I spoke to you guys about this about a month ago. I brought this up. We're getting an increase in Neptune water meters. So this here is just the increase due to the materials and manufacturing costs and increased shipping.

So what are they going up?

About 40 bucks? Some of them are 40, some of them are 2,000. Yeah, for the big ones. We don't ever hardly use a 10 or 12 inch meter. They just threw it in on the bid.

I can't even imagine. That's a big meter.

And really all this is is just the actual cost. We're just trying to make sure that we're not losing money when we're purchasing. Correct.

Any further discussion? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

I would move that we put this, it's a resolution, so I'll put it on action for next week. Second.

I have a motion and a second. I'll roll call because it's resolution. I'm getting this.

No?

Oh, I don't. Oh, next week. Sorry, yeah, yeah.

Oh, man. See, I still ain't getting it. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Now you're actually done. Thanks, Matt. Okay, next one's to consider proposals for a wastewater treatment plant expansion study.

With the growth of Cedar City's been experiencing and also the surrounding area over the last several years, of course the flow going to the treatment plant has been increasing. We're currently at about 68-69% capacity. The general guidance is that at about 70% that we should start looking at treatment plant expansion and so We put out a request for proposals to consultants to perform this study to look at look and see what we need to do in order to expand the capacity of the plant. In the. As part of the proposal, they needed to provide a cost to provide a master plan for the treatment plan over a 40-year planning horizon. We feel like that'll give us good information so that we can implement whatever infrastructure is proposed in that plan over that time period and then also look at any short-term expansion needs that we have that we need to meet. The proposals were received from Stantec and Carollo. We had a group of city staff that reviewed the proposals and Stantec received the highest score on the proposals. Their fee was also higher than Corolla, which was quite a bit higher, but as we reviewed the proposals, we felt like Stantec provided a proposal that would meet the scope of work that we requested and would also provide all the information that we need to move forward in making important decisions in regards to the treatment plant. We also felt like that the team that Stantec has is very familiar with the treatment plant. They're also proposing a team with Hansen on the loose which we've been working with them on the water side quite a bit over the last few years and so they'll bring good information in terms of the flows going to the plant. So we present this to the City Council for your consideration. One issue with Stantec's proposal is it would exceed the budgeted amount for the project. We currently have $130,000 budgeted. There were a few things during the proposal process that came up through an addendum that may have caused that cost to increase. One was to look at a few more alternatives in terms of the expansion and then also go into the 40-year planning horizon. We feel like Stantec would do a good job for us in moving forward with this proposal.

So Jonathan, I have a couple of questions regarding this. You've addressed some of them. So the 40 year expansion, was that an addendum to the original RFP that we did for this study? Because we talked about this study back in the budget time.

Yeah, so we originally we were looking at a 20 year planning horizon. But as we discussed internally as staff, we felt like the 40 year planning horizon would provide us with better information and also allow us to plan for the future moving forward.

I think that's correct. I mean, it's been in there, what, about 30 years now. Yes. But I'm assuming also that that 40-year planning will work in tandem with population growth projections and everything else so we know when we look at this that it's moving in the same direction as development.

Yeah, absolutely. We're looking at not only population projections, but also water use projections as well.

The other question I have, or maybe a comment, is that we've worked both, I know in the city, with both Carollo and with Stantec on various projects. I remember Carollo did a study for us a few years ago on the... the retention ponds and things out of the wastewater treatment plan and some recommendations and things. I'm just, I'm concerned that the bid is double what the other one is, and I wasn't involved in the process of analyzing it, but I want to make sure we're getting the right amount of bang for our buck, as it were, because as you say, this exceeds the budget, so I have concerns about that.

Got some cucks.

Well, it stands to reason if Henson Allen Luce has been involved with this, it would be less, in my opinion. I mean, if they are familiar with it, then it would take less work to get it done. And so I'm concerned, too, with the big disparity. and I don't know how we can justify that much more if we can get the same job. We keep saying, hey, we're going with that. Well, the bid process is there, and they have to do the same job at the end of the day, right? So, again, we should be able to get it for less if they're familiar with it.

Councilman Glenn.

Yeah, before I let you come on up, I'm with you on the disparity here on the price. However, there's also a pretty big percentage-wise disparity on this scoring by the team that did the evaluation between the two companies in terms of their bids. If I may, I had a conversation with Councilman Glenn and he felt pretty strongly that for a lot of reasons, Stantec would provide probably the level of expertise, dedication, and thoroughness that we require in this study for the future expansion. From your comments, Jonathan, I suspect that you along with some of the staff member are pretty much aligned in that view. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yes, that's correct. I went through the introductory letter. There were even Stevens, but then when you came down to the things that are important, like the project team, the consultant's capability, there's a huge disparity there. the project understanding, the work plan, the schedule control, the project costs and fees, of course that one was overwritten by the great difference in pricing, but everything else that is important to a project of this nature is pretty much to the advantage of the stand tax. So my question is, how much pushback do we have available to us in order to see if they can bring that price down? But I hate to... to trade expertise, which is clearly being highlighted over here and appreciated by the staff that evaluated both proposals, versus just an issue of price. This project is very important. You mentioned this briefly, Jonathan, that not only our population is growing, but the mixture of solids versus liquid has precipitated the capacity utilization at the plant in the last little while. because we're putting in more and more and more water efficient faucets and showers and everything else in the homes and the apartments and the liquid to solids ratio is becoming an issue and being processed properly and in an expedient way. There's all kinds of things that I trust were evaluated by the team that evaluated both submissions to make sure that we have the best way forward.

So question, is it all right for Jeff to maybe respond to some of your comments so far? And then we can ask him some more if necessary.

Jeff Leonard, wastewater treatment plant superintendent. I can tell you that we went through these proposals very thoroughly and the one that we scored the highest had all the elements that we wanted looked at. The other one didn't have all of them. I'm also a little concerned about the one with the lesser price because if you look back at the filter building, the winner on that was $24,000 and the losing bid on that was about $98,000. We ended up paying AE2S $266,000 for the whole engineering of that project. I'm a little concerned this is get our foot in the door and then we do change orders to bring it back up.

And is that, I'm sorry, go ahead. So I'd like to know what criteria you used to, because there's, obviously there's some subjectivity to this scoring, and pardon me, I don't mean to offend, but there's probably some bias as well based on relationships or whatever else. How is that mitigated? Again, I'm not saying that you did, I just want to understand, because to me it looks like it's mostly subjective.

Well, there is criteria that engineering has, and that's what we used. And keep in mind that we have worked with and know Corolla engineers and have worked with Stantec. So we've worked with both of them. This isn't, we're just deciding on one of them.

So that fear of change orders, did Corolla do that to us the last time?

I don't know, because I wasn't that in-depth involved in it on the last one. So that was 2015, 2014.

The last major thing that Corolla did that I can remember, they were the ones that did the wastewater, the affluent study, correct? Yes. And then that's kind of what, for years, we thought it was going to be a really high unattainable thing, and then we were able to find out down the road that we could actually do it, and that's what we have now. So that was the last time I remember hearing their name.

And to clarify the capacity thing, as far as flow, we're about 69% of capacity. But on total suspended solids and biochemical oxygen demand, we're in the 70% range already.

Yeah.

Okay.

And that requires a bit of catching up, I think.

Yeah. Councilman Phillips, did you have something else?

Yeah, I did. Maybe, Jeff, without, you know, I don't want you to divulge things that perhaps were in discussions, but I have a question or two here, and my computer just went dead. So on... Two items I'd like to address is on the project team, where they scored lower, was that a matter of them not having as many? Were they less experienced? I mean, trying to figure out what was the difference. And then the other one, while you're thinking about that, is on the work plan. Was it just not laid out properly, or was the work plan going to be longer?

I just don't think they defined the plan well enough. And they also included some equipment suggestions even before looking at the process.

Okay.

I think also to that.

Who are you?

Ryan Marshall, Public Works Director. Stantec is also partnering with Hanson, Allen, and Lush on this. So you've got the combined efforts from two different engineering companies. So we felt like that was a little bit more manageable. Well, and we're paying the combined effort of those two.

Yeah, and we've already paid them a bundle for other studies. I don't understand.

And then the other thing on that is when we were going through that, there was five of us that scored Stantec higher, even with the cost difference. One of the biggest things that I noticed in there is that you had Stantec was giving – their studies up front, they were gonna pull the data, they were gonna specify it to Cedar City and they were gonna do a thorough research on that. Corolla, it seems like they were using some general data that was out there, more so than what our specific data was and that's how they were saving some time and some money is by using some generalizations. I think if we're doing a study that's gonna go out 40 years and this is really gonna drive a lot of decisions we're making, We wanna know specific to what our plan is, not generalization what's out there for the general type of system that we have that everybody runs. We wanna know specific data from our system to drive what we're gonna be doing the next 40 years. So that was the biggest difference for me on that.

Okay, thank you. And then I have one last question.

And then it's all yours, Councilman.

So if we do decide to award this contract to Stan Tech, and probably this is a question maybe for Jonathan or Mr. Bittman, but how do we plan to cover the overage?

You would see in your next round of budget adjustments a request to allocate additional fund balance from the wastewater enterprise fund to cover the overage.

Thank you. So I wanna give the opportunity as we go through these if there are people here that would like to speak. There's a finger up over there. This one's.

My name is Doug Hall. I think we have a golden opportunity right now to take a different route. You've all heard recently the term SMR where we talk about small modular reactors. Well, that technology is also available in wastewater treatment. It's a mature philosophy that is available now and has so many advantages over expanding our current plant that it's just unbelievable. You can co-locate with a subdivision a modular wastewater treatment plant that will serve just that community. What does that gain you? How many wastewater sewer pipes are we putting in the ground trying to get to our current plant? Especially from the southern end of the city where we're looking at lift plants, which is the worst thing you can do as far as sewage is concerned. I think that this study needs to include looking at going a different route and rather than expanding our current wastewater treatment plant, look at co-locating small modular wastewater treatment plants along with the communities. And the great thing about that is let's say we have a subdivision of 1,000 homes that's going in. Well it doesn't all go in at once but a modular plant allows you to put in one section and then as that subdivision grows you put in another section until you reach the capacity of that subdivision. By not having to put in a large wastewater treatment sewage pipes in the ground to try and get to our current plant, we would save millions of dollars. Just absolutely millions of dollars. And you were talking about flow rates and that sort of thing. If you co-locate the plant along with the subdivision, you don't have those problems of flow rates that we're looking at now. and you have the flexibility rather than trying to build one plant all at one time to expand, you do it as the demand arises. I would suggest that this study be looked at to include looking at those alternatives for the future rather than just looking at expanding our current plant.

Thank you, Doug. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else?

Forgot to tell you, when you do come up, I am going to time you. So if you hear a beep, your time's up, three minutes. I'll be quick.

My name is Clint Rogers. I'm the project manager for Stantec that submitted the proposal here in question. I just wanted to put maybe our fee in context a little bit. In 2023, we did the sewer collection master plan for the city. Our fee was $170,000. Our approach is to be very collaborative to do workshops with your operators and make sure that we understand every problem, every situation, and then develop a plan that will serve the city for 40 years. I think we have the track record to do that, and again, it looks expensive relative to our competitor, but it's a very thorough study that I think will give the city a great plan for moving forward, and... the best time to save money on a project is in the planning stage. When we get to construction, it's too late. So if you have a good plan, then that really sets the stage for the city going forward. So happy to answer any questions, but I just wanted to maybe give some context to that number.

I have one question. So we have a 40-year plan, but is there technologies like this gentleman just mentioned that are going to change in the 40-year plan, you know, doesn't really give us 10 years anyway.

Yeah, and that's part of what, you know, has changed from the original budget to our number now is the city's asked for, hey, maybe there's some additional technologies that are out there. And as your public works manager mentioned, we haven't come with those ideas. We have budget to explore those ideas with your city. So if we want to look at modular technologies, if we want to do something completely different, we've got budget to do that. We're not coming in with an idea that's take it or leave it. This is what the city has to do. So we can adapt to what the city would like to study.

Thank you. Anybody else? Yeah.

My name is London Saxton with Carollo. I live in Hurricane, work out of the St. George office. This as well provides some context for our budget that we provided to the city. Carollo was the original designer of your facility, so we're familiar with the process, we're familiar with the design. The project manager that managed that project is still with Carollo, so we have retained that experience. So we felt like Felt confident enough to know the process to pass those savings on to you, as well as some alternatives that we've implemented at other facilities across the state. Those were in the proposal. Worked with the city of Logan, Park City, and some water districts in Utah and Salt Lake County. We felt confident enough to use that experience and pass those savings on to the city. That's why our number is significantly lower. Happy to answer any questions that you have, but I greatly appreciate your consideration for our proposal.

So it felt to me like one of the concerns of the evaluation team was that you had built in this is the direction that we should go, and that's why it was cheaper versus a feeling of, no, we'll make sure this is the right direction to go and explore alternatives. Is that an accurate read into the way you intended your proposal to be written?

Yeah, we wanted a proposal to have options for you to consider. We're not trying to push you in a certain direction, but we do have very positive results from new technologies that are already implemented. We want the city to be aware of those options if they choose to implement it at your facility. But certainly, if you want to expand on your process that you have now and just make more capacity, we're not going to try and push you one way or the other.

But does your number build in the same opportunity to research alternatives? You have budget in yours to research alternatives.

Yes, we do.

So just so I understand, I mean, I think I know the answer to my own question, but this is just to get us as far as here's all the different options, and then you get to put it out for, then we have a whole other set of engineering to actually design and engineer the thing. This is just, here's options one through five, choose which one you guys want to do.

That'll take probably about a year or so. And then the project execution, another four or five.

Every time I see one of these, I always say I'm in the wrong business.

Typically, they give us ideas on what we can do, how long it will take, and how much it will cost.

An approximate budget, yeah. Well, and I'll be honest, that is one of my concerns is... You know, we've had, and I'll be honest, you know, with your company in the past, there was a project that was done and the number sticker shocked everybody and we kind of just were like, there's no way we could ever do anything affluent. And then when other things came about, we were actually able to do it because it was vastly different. And so that's one concern that I have a little bit too, just with these types of studies in general is, I mean, I think engineers in general are conservative, and they go on the high side just to make sure we're prepared for what it can be. But then we don't end up doing stuff because sometimes we're even so, we're like, we could never afford that, and we just don't even get there.

Councilman Phillips.

Sir, do you believe that given the requirements of the RFP that you responded to, do you have any issues with your scheduled timeframe for it or the control of getting the work done?

No, we feel that we are able to help meet that schedule and not exceed it.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Anybody else? Okay, I will entertain a motion.

Mayor, I would move that we put this item on action for next week.

I have a motion. Second. And a second. All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Okay, thank you. Next one is to consider disposal of city property and easement to UDOT for the south interchange.

Mr. Whitman. So there's two different things we want to talk about. First is the right-of-way acquisition. Both of these have to deal with the south interchange redo. So UDOT needs a little triangle of right away from us. It's right by our pump lift station on South Main by Maverick. You can see it in the drawing there.

Really goofy shape.

Yeah, it's a weird shape. But it goes along with some of the other PoE they're gonna provide. Ryan was gonna double check with Matt to see, make sure we're okay with our infrastructure. If there are conflicts, this is a public utility easement. We run public utilities. We would be okay in a public utility easement. We may have to move our fence a little bit, but that might be the extent.

Move it in? Because I saw that.

I wasn't sure what that meant.

Typically, you don't want to block the public utility easement.

So it might be cutting through part of it. Got it.

So they've offered us $9,400 for that easement. The second part of the transaction is a very weird shaped piece of property that we happen to own that I'm not sure any of us knew that we owned. It has great frontage along the I-15 southbound on ramp, which we would never be able to get a driveway to. And then it has, it's landlocked against some private properties to the west. I have no idea how we ended up with this piece of property. I don't know why we own it. All I know is UDOT's offering us 700, and can you scroll the other document, John?

Well, hold on.

What was that? $721,600. $721,000 to buy it.

Sold.

When he walked in my office and told me that, I was exactly the same. Sold.

Great job. Sold. Anyway, UDOT's offering a signing bonus of sorts if we... If we approve them within the month and we get the document signed, there's a couple thousand, five, $10,000 they'll give us incentive money to sign up and go. So part of our disposal process, and the reason we can run this straight to the council with the triangle-shaped piece, there's normally in our disposal process we go through appraisals and bids and that.

Open it up to anybody.

And the public bid, right?

Mm-hmm.

There's a portion on our disposal process that says if we have an insignificant parcel of property, we bring it straight to the council. We define insignificant parcel of property as something that given all of our zoning and land use regulations, you really can't develop anything on it. Looking at the triangle shaped piece of property after you do setbacks and everything else, there's not much developable land there and then it's got the land lock issues as well. That's why, as staff, we've considered it insignificant. We brought it straight to you.

Well, and correct me if I'm wrong here in my thought process, but from looking at this map, the only people that land would have value to are the ones behind it. And if they somehow ended up with it, UDOT's going to get it from them somehow because they need it for the on-ramp.

UDOT needs it for their improvement, correct.

So this can end up with UDOT weather, so we might as well just... Might as well let the taxpayer benefit from this. Correct.

Anyway, those are the two items. Phillips, yep.

Mayor and Mr. Bittman my only thought on this of course I'm jumping ahead but I think much like Councilman Wilkie that yeah we put a soul sign on it and do it now but What I would like to have us consider as a city is that sum of money is that we somehow place that in a fund or wherever you want to call it. It could be in a general fund, but it's allocated or earmarked to say if we as a city need to come back afterwards and make some additional adjustments to this south interchange or we need to fix something or we need to enhance it or put a sign up or whatever it might happen to be we have some funds set aside to do that until such time and then it could be released for something else i mean that would be my only thought so there's a mechanism to do that we would um

I don't know if you'd adjust the budget for that or not, but if the council gives staff that direction and you vote to give us that direction as a body, we can segregate that money within the general fund. So if we have betterments on the UDOT project, we have some money.

I know you're gonna respond. Let me just respond to that and then I'll let you have it. Yeah, I understand that. I just don't, this is a multi-million dollar project. And there's gonna be stuff that comes up that we go, oh crap, we gotta pay for that?

And that was my question is, this is a state road project. What are we gonna be responsible for ultimately or potentially?

So when you work with UDOT, there's always what they call betterments to their projects that come up. So the way I like to, Kent could probably give you a doctoral level dissertation on betterments.

Which if he was here, he would.

I'm more at the kindergarten level. It's stuff on the project that looks nice and is beneficial to the community, but UDOT's not going to pay for.

Minimum is four-inch curb. We're going to put six-inch in. Something like that. You're going to pay for the upgrade.

Sometimes you see some of the landscaping betterment. Sometimes you see, like if you're going down south in St. George, the way they construct the bridge. abutments that go over I-15. They look nicer.

They have an animal engraved in the concrete.

Sometimes they just say city of Cedar City on there. Some of those things are typically betterments. In this case, there's probably some trail stuff going through it that we may have to find funding for.

And my memory is we had one that was something to do with the water, the drainage that we had to pay for part of the discussion.

So if that's the case, I agree with Councilman Phillips that we ought to use it for that area and then use it after a certain amount of time, then release it to do something else.

If that's what council would like to do, please include that in your motion next week. We can segregate the 9,400, the 700 and whatever thousand and whatever bonus money we get. We can hang on to those for a little while until the project's done.

And we have no idea what that number is going to be, right? It could be zero.

It could be something else.

My final thought on this is, is there anything else? I mean, is UDOT keen on trading things at times, or is it cleaner and easier if we just take the money, and if we need something from UDOT, we'll just go and buy it later? I mean, is there any at this point where we could say?

UDOT's bound by federal highway restrictions, so they're not in control of how they acquire this. Federal highway money has a lot of strings on it. One of them is you make fair market value offers and you pay money for it.

But we can't trade them. I guess that's what I'm getting at. They have something that we've been trying to get that we could trade at this point, but. That's what I was thinking, but yeah. Okay. Just curious. Well, Mayor, unless you had something, sorry.

No, I'm okay.

Okay, Mayor, with that, I would move that we, can that go on, or does that have to go on action because it's disposal? Action.

I'd prefer you put it on action, then you can make it very clear on the record as to what you want done with the money.

Okay, that's fine. Yeah, Mayor, I'll move that we put that on action for next week then.

I have a motion.

Second.

Second. Councilman Cox, all in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Okay, next one is to consider the upsizing reimbursement agreement with BZI Innovation Park.

So this is to, so BZI Innovation Park put in a 30 inch sewer line, master plan sewer line. And as you guys know, they're responsible to pay for the first eight inches. We're splitting the cost with Iron County. We're paying 62.3%. The county's paying 37.7% of the upsizing costs. Now, these costs were derived by looking at the service area that this line will serve, looking at county master plans, city master plans, as we develop out in that area in the future.

Most of ours is industrial, correct, the Port 15? Because we don't have houses.

So you've got to realize this 30-inch line has a service area that is way bigger than just Port 15 and BZI. It goes way south.

Okay.

It goes west. It goes north. It encompasses a lot more than just industrial land.

I guess I was just curious what we have in our area. in our annexation boundary zone that's residential that this falls within, but to the south would make sense.

There's a lot of property south of Highway 56 that will feed into this.

Okay.

So those are the splits. The version that you have in your packet got amended on Monday.

Oh.

So let me catch up on the amendments. They're not too complicated. There's some... Refinement to how the county's gonna pay for their portion. They've already prepaid some. They had some money that they needed to, some sewer money they had to spend, so they spent it here. Our numbers are refined a little bit to reflect that we're gonna pay them, it's approximately 145,000 a year instead of what it recites in the agreement there. The gentleman who wrote it was incorrect in his math, and once somebody told him he was incorrect in his math, he corrected his math. And then finally, there's a provision that's added to the bottom that says the city and the county, it has nothing to do with BZI, but the city and the county will work together on basically three sets of issues. One is annexation policy. Two is future connections and future capacity in our collection system and in our treatment system that the county could buy into. And what does that buy-in look like? Those are basically the changes that have been made.

And then budget-wise, where are we?

Well, I'll acknowledge this part of it, that BZI is a gracious partner in this because technically we're required to pay the difference between the 8-inch line, right? But they're financing it for us because we don't have enough money in our impact fees to cover it.

Budget-wise, we're fine. We have money to make the first payment. It's set up so we make five even payments over five years.

And impact fees will make that payment every year?

Well, they'll make it this year in this budget.

Okay.

My crystal ball says I think they'll make it next year, but I don't know. Keep building and selling houses.

Yeah, we got a lot of houses. There's a lot of houses to be built.

One of my questions is, I recognize, and I read through that contract, and it was $159,000, so it's $13,000 or $14,000 less, but are we paying interest on that every year? No. Okay, there you go.

It's really being a good partner. It's already in, right?

Yeah, it's in, and Randy's looked at it, and it's good, and we're good to go.

Well, and they're great community partners. There's a large payroll. Many of them work here and live in Cedar City.

So just so you know, the next shoe in this series is they have a lift station they've built. We're gonna have the same discussions about splitting the upsizing cost between the county and the city, and we'll be back with that one, I suspect, relatively soon.

Okay, any other questions? If not, I'll entertain a motion.

You should probably put it on action so that you can see the new language.

We'll publish that in the packet. Mayor, I would move that we put this on action for next week.

I have a motion.

Second.

Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Great. Thank you. Next one is to consider a GSA lease amendment.

Good afternoon, City Council, City staff. I'm here at the lease amendment to the GSA lease that currently is for the TSA offices upstairs in the airport terminal. So April 2026, they passed a federal aviation regulation that would make all GSA leases or contractors or cities who hold those that we do not participate in any DEI, racially discriminated DEI hiring practices, is what it says in here. So they sent this to us requiring us to amend our lease with GSA.

That we don't participate?

Correct. What it says is, let's see, any racially discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion activities for any of our contracts at the airport terminal that pertain to this lease.

So the contracts are based on merit? I didn't say that. Got it, got it, got it.

Well, you're a Chevy guy.

I did run this one by Randall. Any comments on this one? I mean, it's a GSA lease, we're required to sign anything. It doesn't change any of our rental agreements or anything else.

Well, the great part is it was, I think, only last, what, two years ago, we had to make an amendment to some of our prior ones to put most of this language in. I know. So now we're taking it back out and we're just kind of back to where we were when we signed most of these agreements in the first place. That's called changing the White House. Yes, that stuff happens.

We've experienced a lot of that with the government the past couple years, so back and forth.

Okay, any questions? If not, I'll change the motion.

I would move that we put this on consent for next week.

I have a motion.

Second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? Great. Okay, next one is to consider change order number one for the bike pump or bike park and pump track project.

So we're currently constructing a new bike park and pump track along the industrial road parkway that was just completed. As the contractor got into construction and with the rains we've had over the last few weeks, they noticed that there's quite a bit of drainage that comes off the properties to the south. They had known about the, the LDS Church has a detention pond in their northwest corner that drains out into the into the city property and then also there's some storage units that has quite a bit of surface drainage and then also a culvert that drains to the north as well. So in order to make sure that the drainage is handled going down through the proposed bike park, there needs to be a gravel detention basin and then a pipe that will take the drainage west. And then there was already a, a detention pond at the west end and a pipe going underneath. I believe that's 600 west that was installed as part of the industrial road project so it would tie into that. So they're requesting a change order to be able to install that infrastructure so they can continue building the bike park and the pump track. The pump track has already been paved. It's this portion on the east end. So there's kind of a small children loop and then there's a more advanced loop.

It's pretty cool.

But then the portion going west, that's the portion that they're having the issues with, and that's where the ramps are going to be for the more advanced bikers.

Jonathan, I have a question. Is it not the responsibility of these property owners? From what I just heard, they're dumping water onto our property, and now we have to take care of it?

So it's been historical drainage going that way.

The tracks used to be the drain.

Yeah.

Yeah, the ditch used to be the south side of the tracks.

Okay. So by us removing the ditch, we took the responsibility to now move the water?

Well, we bought the property. We own it.

Well, yeah, but...

Okay.

These are already developed. You can't ask them to go back and pay for it after they're already in either. And so that's part of it.

So just a couple of thoughts and then more comments than anything. I noticed last night I don't know if it was a birthday party or what it was, but there had to be 30 or 40 people on that asphalt trail last night. I noticed today they had cones all over it because it's not finished, right? It's still under construction. I'm looking at you, Anthony. Is that correct? You have to come to the mic. Sorry.

Sorry. Anthony Pearson, Parks Department. So I believe the asphalt is at a finished stage. Oh, okay. So they're moving forward. I'm not sure if they would consider it open yet.

Well, they had cones up there today and wheelbarrows there today.

I did hear that some families had dropped off van loads of scooters.

I mean, it was exciting to see it being used. It was fabulous. Maybe not quite yet. But the second part of that, and this does fall on you, sir, we are going to have to look in that neighborhood, that area somewhere, to put a bench or two, because there was so many parents out there, and there was no place for them to sit.

Yeah, I actually was walking it the other day. That's a good problem to have. I have a spot that we'll lay a pad and put a bench in. Those are my comments. Thank you.

Thanks, Anthony. Okay, any other questions?

If I may, one issue is we are getting very close to the end of the budget in this project. So we're likely, with the additional items that still need to be completed on the industrial road project, they will likely be coming for a budget revision in the next month or so. So just so everyone's aware.

A budget revision in the, we spent too much?

Yes. Yes.

Okay.

Does it ever go the other way?

Yes, we have actually. Sometimes. Is that the 19,000? Sometimes you find out you have a piece of property worth three quarters of a million dollars.

Well, we don't. Jonathan, is that the 19,000? Is that the overage?

So there's the 19,000, and then I believe there's some other parts of the project that are still being finished up. There's what they call a train play structure that's being installed that still needs to be paid for.

Well, and like the benches that Councilman Phillips alluded to. The benches. Things like that. We have a few little. No, I mean, it's a valid.

But the current change order, Jonathan, is that $19,927.55?

Yes, and that is included in your budget recap that you gave us.

Yeah, so there's some, I mean, we currently have money to pay for it, but there's other items outstanding that still will come later.

We'll call Kenny. He's got deep pockets over there. And the last thing we want to do, I just want to say one last thing is that, you know, a lot of efforts going into this, we want this to be a place where families gather and we don't want to have this pump track eroded because water is running through the dirt portion of it. So I would move that we put this on action for, well, can we put this on consent?

Sure.

I move that we put it on consent for next week. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

I'm over here shaking my head. Mayor, I would move that we close this public meeting and move into our closed session. Second.

All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed?

That's a roll call because we're going to close.