City Council - Regular Meeting

Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Welcome. We need to start with a roll call. Miss Harris, will you help us with that? Council member Per and Council Member Welling are both absent, but we do have a report.

Excellent. Thank you. We have an agenda before us. Any changes to that agenda that we need to consider? If there are none, I'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda. I'll make the motion. Mr. Sers, I'll second it. Your honor, Mr. Schmidt seconding. Any discussion? There's no discussion. All in favor say I. I.

I. Are there any opposed? We have an agenda. We have the city council minutes for February 3rd and the work session minutes for February 10th. Any concerns or changes uh with those minutes that we want to consider? If not, we will acknowledge those as they've been written and we'll go to the bills. questions. What's the Whitaker construction?

Okay. There's no more questions. Is there a motion to approve the bills? I'll make that motion. Mr. Lynn with a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Seconding. Any discussion? There's no discussion. All in favor say I. I.

I. Are there any opposed? We'll go on to the revenue and expenditure report for December,

questions, comments. I just want to thank Judy for the job that she's done on this. Also, I'm beginning to understand it a little better. So, thank you. Is there a motion to approve? I'll make that motion. Your honor, Mr. Schmidt. Motion. Second, Mr. Seller. Seconding. Any discussion? If there's none, all in favor say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? That's approved as well. Council comments. Mr. Schmidt, what's on your mind tonight, sir?

Just returned. I don't have anything tonight, your honor. Thank you. Good. Thank you, Mr. Land. You finally got something for your boys to do, Gordon. Yes, thank you for the snow removal. Um, other than that, that's all I got. Mr. Sellers,

I just want to remind people walk in our stores. It's a tough time for our merchant people who own and operate businesses, especially retail. So, if you're looking at buying things, do your best to buy local. Um, I think what I saw happen in town on Valentine's Day was incredible. I mean, the Horse Palace did a lot to bring people in, but I think the spillover in the other businesses was tremendous as I drove by and looked at the different heating establishments especially. So, I think I'm hoping we can continue to see more of that. And then thirdly, just be mindful of your neighbors and friends who are having mental health issues and crisises. And sometimes you never know where it's going to come from, how it affects neighborhoods. So be please be mindful of that. That's what I have.

Thank you, sir. Just take a minute.

Just with the upcoming snow, um, case we're a little rusty, remembering to get the garbage cans off the streets or vehicles. Anything that you can do to make it easier for the snow plows to get through. Um, I know it had to jog in my brain for a second there to pull my trash can back. U, but that helps them. They're going to be working with these over the next couple days managing our streets and they do a fabulous job and we can do a little bit to make their life easier. And um if there's anything you can do for your neighbor that would be helpful too. And um the other thing is a little bit more serious. There's a lot of talk online because of the national news about um child abuse and child trafficking issues and there are catchphrases that you can look up online and check your child's social media. It is more common than we think. Um the one I went to was Tim Thibo. Maybe Chief Ranish has something to add on that, but uh it the the when I looked into it, the biggest thing uh we can do is keep our children's online um interactions monitored and watch for key phrases. And that's it.

Thank you. I'll just add to it that I I guess we need to be careful what we pray for when this storm hits the way it did. But uh hopefully it stacks some snow up in the mountains and hope everybody stays safe. I do know that there was two or three wrecks out on the freeway today that uh looked uh pretty serious. So hopefully everybody's safe and but we need to be grateful for the snow when it comes. So other than that, I'll just uh we'll just move on. Um do have a board appointment to consider. Uh Bill Alexander has been serving on our historic preservation commission. he has uh expressed an interest or a willingness anyway to be reappointed to that uh board uh for a three-year term to expire January of 2029. If someone would like to make a motion to that effect,

I'll make that motion. Mr. Sers, is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Hegman seconding. Any discussion? If there's no discussion, all in favor say I. I. I.

Are there any opposed? That is complete. And we appreciate Mr. Alexander's willingness to serve. There we have one item on our consent agenda item, our agenda. It seems to be one that we have every year. It's a limited malt beverage permit by Savannah Lowry Arts, Inc. March 20th from 6 from 300 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. March 21st from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Is there a motion to approve our consent agenda? I'll make that motion. Mr. Lind, a motion. Is there a second? I'll

second. Miss Hegman seconding. Discussion. Can't wait. Pretty good activity every year. If there's no further discussion, all in favor say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? That's approved as well. Thank you. We do have some unfinished business and we'll go there with ordinance 2601. Mr. Harris, please.

Thank you, mayor. Ordinance 2601 is an ordinance of the city of Evston, Wyoming, relating to zoning, amending, and adopting provisions of chapter 24 of the code of the city of Evston, Wyoming, relating to accessory dwelling units. This is on second reading. Thank you, sir. Mr. Jacobson.

Yes. Uh, mayor and councel, uh, on first reading, there were some revisions made uh to item number four. There was an addition to 4A uh which includes in addition to the standards of section 2426.1 a detached accessory dwelling unit which is 400 square ft or less and at least 190 ft shall comply with the provisions of appendix BB tiny houses of the international residential code. So that was uh that's showing in the uh ordinance that you have before you now. Uh as well as there was a change to item number 14. We included the word physically. I'll read through um 14 and a of the 14 real quickly. A property owner proposing to construct an accessory dwelling unit shall physically live continuously in the principal dwelling unit in their pri in their primary residence for a period of one year prior to submitting a conditional use permit application if required and a building permit application for the accessory dwelling unit. Uh and this is an addition to so with the following exception. Uh so a if a lot is undeveloped or vacant with no existing structures, a building permit for a new single family detached dwelling unit um and uh excuse me and a building permit for a new single family detached dwelling unit is requested, an accessory dwelling unit can be incorporated into the initial request without having to satisfy the one-year waiting. period.

The other changes that was made was to item number 15, owner occupied. There is an addition of a word physically and for more than 50% of a calendar year. So, it reads, "The owner of a property containing an accessory dwelling unit shall physically live in either the primary dwelling unit or the accessory dwelling unit as their primary residence for more than 50% of a calendar year. The accessory dwelling unit shall not be occupied unless this is the case." Now, uh, with, uh, first reading, there was, um, councelor Hegman, uh, you, uh, proposed a, uh, revision to item number 13, occupation, uh, occupancy limitation. And there was uh we've there was a memorandum that was prepared by city attorney Mark Harris that was sent to each of you. Uh it does not propose to modify the definition of family. A family is included uh in item 13. It's also included in the definitions of our city code. So not in uh we're not proposing to modify that definition. Uh this is what is proposed. So item number 13 occupancy limitation. An accessory dwelling unit shall be occupied by no more than one family. Family is defined as a person or persons related by blood, marriage or adoption living together in a dwelling unit. This is the proposed addition. So nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed to prohibit an employed

non-family member from occupying the accessory dwelling unit on a temporary or intermittent basis so as to provide caretaker or caretaking services for a member of the occupant's family. So that allows someone uh to res uh temporarily live there to help take care of a family member.

I really like that addition. So I think it sounded really good. There was a couple things that I when I was researching it that before we go to the third one, we might want to tighten the language because it um that one and um the one-year residency uh because it comes from 20 years ago um that you know that language um or excuse me the one year did I say one year or 20 year residency um because it's based on something that's so old, we very slightly get into constitutional issues and constitutional statutes. So, we might just want to tighten that just a hair so we can protect the city. Cities have broad um legal uh for um this kind of thing in the in the constitution, but there is a couple big ones they step on. Um, so just a few and it's just really slight.

So you're talking about the uh item number 14, one-year residency.

Uh 14 had a few and then 13. Um we can cross I I have 13 pulled up right now. I don't have 14, but I can absolutely do that for you. um equal protection 14th amendment sub substantive due process fair housing act we cross into just just by tightening the language is what I'm saying we can take a look at that and then make sure that it's perfect for the community and I can pull up 14 if you want me to but we can do that we have time because we it's not till um till the next reading Well, this is second. Any other comments or questions? This is second reading, correct? Second reading.

Second reading. Third reading would make it permanent. An actual ordinance, correct? Yep. Do we have But I can get with him before or do you want me to pull it up now? Well, I'm just saying do we have a chance to amend it at that point still or is it Oh, absolutely. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Mayor, councelor Lyn, yes, it can be amended at any time. Uh first, second, or third reading. Okay. And if I may, Mayor Councelor Haggedman, if you have some ideas uh for amendment to 1314 or anything else, just let us know what you're thinking so we can try to put something together.

Yeah, as I said, it was just really slight tweaking of the language to make sure that we were compliant and didn't have any it's an underbelly issue more than a sledgehammer issue, but as long as we're doing it and it might last another 20 years, we might as well do it right. Yeah. If you want to add those, you know, reduce those to writing and get those to Dwayne or Mark something and then we can Mr. Harris, if you do that, then you can send them back out to us so we have a heads up like we did on the one. It was that worked out really good.

If if I receive it in time, certainly put that language together. That's what we did is basically planning and engineering took a shot at this language on uh the proposed change to the occupancy limitation if I got what they started and between the three of us we managed to mess it up. I mean that's that's the product. So that's the way we would do things. Okay. But we we just need an inclination. Just need the information. Need what what what you got in mind.

Yes. I guess I'm I'm anticipating what we would do is approve this on second reading and then if somebody wanted to tonight offer an amendment to uh include the the wording about the U caretaker, we could offer that amendment tonight. So we would have a motion to approve it and then a motion to amend it in that fashion and then approve that. Is that right? because because no one has made a motion to uh pass it on second reading. You could actually amend it with the motion first and then pass it with as amended. Okay.

So if if if one was inclined to offer a motion to approve this on second reading with the addition of that language that you provided uh for caretaker yes services. They could make a motion make it all in one motion. Yes. Okay. I will make the motion to accept this on second reading with the addition of the new wording for the caregiver amendment. Okay, I'll second it. Your honor,

we have a motion in a second to approve this on second reading with the addition of the uh proposed changes that would been offered as far as caretaking uh services. Discussion. I think you did a good job with the wording. Perfect. I think everybody did. So do I. I don't know if Dwayne's paying attention over there. I'm I'm jotting notes down. Further discussion. If there is none, all in favor say I. I.

I. Are there any opposed? That is approved on second reading. And we will go on to new business. And our first uh item there is a motion to approve the issuance of a notice to sell property. Mr. Harris, what are we selling?

Thank you, mayor. Uh members of council, this is the end product of uh you remember last fall, Mr. Elling Ford made a request to put certain property approximately 2 acres up for sale uh located on Cheyenne Drive across from the Burnt Hill commercial uh industrial uh development that that he put in. Uh we had a time getting the property description uh from First American Title. We went back to like the 1890s for a really

uh for one of these parcels and it we found out that that site was originally part of the location for what was I think they called it city water reservoir. the Evston ditch that goes along the toe of e-hill on the other side of Yellow Creek Road up behind Un Meadows. That ditch used to come all the way over and then either a lateral off it or the ditch would run into there was a pond big pond up there that was the city's drinking water and then from that they had a pipe that ran down I always have to ask the engineer I think it's ninth or 10th street and that was how the water was distributed to the town. So it was it was a warranty deed to the city a hundred and some years ago

is that right? It took First American a while to figure out these three parcels that combined to two acres and what we actually have. So that took a while and then we had to go out and get the property appraised to an appraisal services rendered that appraisal. And so what this does is this notice is uh from the council just to get permission to put this notice in the paper. We would conduct a sale uh on March. We would we would accept sealed bids until March 13th, 2026. They would be opened at 12:30 p.m. on the 13th of March, which is a Friday. U and the minimum, it's a it's a sealed bid. The minimum bid is $102,200 which which encapsulates the appraised value at $100,000 to $600 for uh the title work, $600 for the appraisal and the anticipated costs of publication. So the min minimum bid 102200 it's basically cash and sale.

Excellent. Thank you. Some of those old deeds are are the the handwriting back then is beautiful but still hard to read over 100 years later. Some of those old deeds are fascinating to read. So, Mayor, we were just seeking a a motion to authorize us to go ahead and advertise this. We'll start our advertisements on the 26th, uh, which is should be a week from this Thursday, I hope. And then we'll advertise for three weeks, and we'll accept those bids and open the bids on Friday the 13th. Excellent. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to uh approve this notice of sale notice to sell property.

I'll make a motion to uh accept the notice to or publish the notice to intent to sell the property. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Schmidt with a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Lynn seconding. Any discussion? Just to refresh my memory, this is kind of over there by the football field kind of right up above. up above just off Cheyenne Drive. Mr. Mayor, councelor Lind, it's you know where the Burnhale commercial is between the interstate Cheyenne Drive. Yep. It's right across the street from

in the area where Mr. Ellen for built that spec building. It's just I don't know how to say it. I think Cheyenne Drive toward you in metals. Okay, that's that's what I that's what I thought. I just want to make sure. Very close. It does have access off of Cheyenne, right? Okay, that's what I thought. I just want to make sure that was the spell. I want to make sure that's the spell we're talking about. Yes, sir. That is it. So, now I'm a little I need a little bit of clarification. Is it that the best way to put it? That funky little wedge that we talked about that uh Yeah, it's that really weird no good to anybody. But yeah, y

Mr. Mayor, that is correct. Councelor Haggman. It's an odd shaped kind of looks like a backward L. Yeah. Funky little wedge. We could just put that in the description. Put that in there. Put that in. I'm not always as eloquent with my verbiage. If there's no further discussion, all in favor say I. I. I. There. Any opposed? That is approved. And now we need a motion to accept the financial disclosure statements from the mayor, city council, city clerk, and city treasurer. Trudy.

Well, mayor and council, you should be familiar with this. We do it every year. Um, and the purpose of doing these disclosures is because you have the authority to invest um, public money into these bank accounts that the city uses. And so by state statute, you're required to say if you have an account or use services at the same places that the city does. So that's all that is. Excellent. Thank you. I assume we've got all those in for you. You've got them. I need Evans and Jyn's got hers right there. So we'll do Is there a motion to approve or accept these uh financial disclosure statements?

I'll make that motion. Go for it, Mr. Lind. Is there a second over here? Hegelman seconding. Any discussion on that one? There's no discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? Thank you, Trudy. Resolution 2605. Mr. Mr. Harris, read that title for us.

Thank you, Mayor. Resolution 2605 is a resolution of the governing body of the city of Evston, Wyoming, officially designating bank, State Bank, First Bank of Evston, excuse me, First Bank Evston and as a depository for monies of the city. Again, this is a yearly thing. We have to do a resolution just saying these are the banks that we have depository accounts too. Not necessarily investments, but we deposit money regularly regularly into these banks. Excellent. Thank you. Is there introduction on this resolution?

I'll introduce with a motion to pass with a motion. Is there a second? I'll second it. Seconding. Any discussion? There's no discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? That passes. Thank you. Resolution 2606. Mr. Harris, please. Thank you, mayor. Resolution 2606, a resolution authorizing the city of Evans, Wyoming to enter into a SCADA service agreement renewal 2026 with Wetco, Inc. to provide maintenance services for the SCADA system at and in the city of Evston wastewater and water treatment plants.

Thank you, Mr. Robinson. Good evening, mayor and council. This is our annual agreement with what co same price, same agreement. We just have to enter into it with them every year. They uh maintain our SCADA systems, which stands for system control and data acquisition. They're basically the brains of both treatment plans. Excellent. Thank you. Is there a This is a common thing it seems like. So, is there introduction on this resolution? I'll introduce with the motion pass. Mr. Sellers with a motion. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Lynn seconding. Any discussion? They haven't raised their price for a few years now. No. They've been good.

They're excellent. Excellent at what they do. Yeah. So, that's good. It's pretty rare.

Tell Blue Cross Blue Shield to not do that. That'd be great. There's no further discussion. All in favor say I. I. I. I. Are there any opposed? That is approved. Thank you. Ordinance 2602. Mr. Harris, please. Thank you, Mayor. Ordinance 2602, Visionary Communications LLC franchise agreement, an ordinance granting a franchise to Visionary Communications LLC on behalf of itself and its affiliates, Visionary, to operate and maintain a telecommunication system in the city of Evston, Wyoming. This ordinance is sponsored by Councelor Perks.

Thank you. Any uh questions or concerns before we move forward with this ordinance?

I have a question. At the work session, I brought up 12 different um ideas uh counter proposals to better reflect flexibility for the city and um benefit for the taxpayer. And none of them were uh put into this reading. Um, was there a reason why I never got a response as to whether these were even brought up to visionary? Everybody got a um handout that I had made with the um the language and what exact um sections that they applied to. Um so just curious why that wasn't um

Mr. Mayor. S please. Uh, Councelor Haggiman, that information uh, I did what I told you I would do. I sent it to uh, Visionary Communication in River Oaks uh, Wednesday morning. Um, and uh, I that's what I did. I sent him the information. The ordinance that you have before you is the same one that was presented at uh, work session. So, if there's an amendment proposed along the lines of what you have, you can um ask to move to amend the ordinance accordingly. But I did pass the information on to visionary and their response.

I they didn't say anything.

So, at this point, it's uh take a look at these and and the point of me making this um handout wasn't for my health. Uh I got better things to do with my my time. Um but this was uh these 12 points really benefited and curtailed this contract for the taxpayers and the city uh was the push back. So uh we should have all looked at these and felt like yeah this is one we need to push back or no. So um it's a negotiation. So, how do we go forward with negotiating with Visionary to see if they're willing to uh put these in? Cuz if not, then they're just going to go through with the one that we have. Visionary is a great company. As I said, very pro business. Excited to have a Wyomingbased company. Uh have uh telecommunications in Evston. Super excited about that. But my job is not to represent visionary. It is to represent the taxpayers and the city. And that's what these 12 points were about. So um in the good negotiation process, we should take a look at these and see where it could fit and see what Visionary thinks of any of these and where they would like to be.

So this is on first reading, right? Correct. So, we have an opportunity to get a response from Visionary before second reading if they feel like we need to change something. Yes, sir. Um, in my opinion, I think we stay at the 3% or possibly 2%. I think 4% is too high. I think I'm in line with Mike. I think if we start getting too high, then it's just that's going to have a worse effect on the city personally. But

when it comes to the 3% or 4% or 2% or 1% um that's money that they pay us. So that's so the higher it is the better except the caveat that the company can and we have no control of this pass that charge on to the others. But it's not a singular issue. there's uh quite a few other elements that can be uh negotiated with visionary. So I put it in as 4% because I really wanted to be able to give them some room to come back. Um not that that's the truth of it. I wanted them to be able to push back on us. that uh there's there's other parts that we can actually uh benefit and make money for the taxpayers that they can't uh deal with and we can discuss that.

Yeah, there was another point too. I think you put 10 years in there, right? I thought it was five. Is it was it five? I like the idea of the five we get to come back and reconvene and then you know it's four 10 year period but I think it was five years we can look at it I think is what you said Mr. Mr. Mayor, that is correct, council. And it's a 10-year uh at the end of five, either party can request that negotiations take place to any of the terms. Yeah, I like that idea instead of just a flat 10 year. So

they were more than genu they were, you know, I was really surprised when I read the contract after the first when they came up here and talking to them and um they really listened to a lot of the points about um uh you know the the term limits and the the the change and the one to 3% and I was very you know great good company but again going to push for everything I can get

I think I'm comfortable with the way this is written and if we want to consider a an amendment down the road or wait and consider amendment after we perhaps receive some feedback from visionary we can certainly have time to do that. So I will and I will ask him for that and plenty of time to get that. Okay. Excellent. I'll entertain a motion to approve ordinance 2602 on first reading. Just a minute here.

Please can I make a comment please? And I I I noticed, you know, I noticed that Mr. payment. You put you did put in 4% on yours proposal and I know it's for infrastructure for whatever you know for the city to make sure that it's put in place but if you remember when he presented this to us he also went during their negotiations at other times they they did come up with the 2% and they said 1% went to the city and they waved the other percent that went to the community to the consumer. So rather than ask for 4% I would rather ask for the 3% with maybe 2% coming to the city and 1% going being waved to the consumer rather than asking for four.

I think that's a great idea. That's why I put four, which gave us room to um have some padding so we can throw ideas around and um talk about the other parts of it that the city can actually benefit the taxpayers. So yeah, I mean it it just needs to be fleshed out and talked about a little bit more.

The only other comment that I had was I just had a question, Mr. Harris, on 12.5. Uh it talks about um if during the course of the work on the facilities visionary causes damage to or alters the rights of way of the public property and so on. Does this does this cover if it's personal property? Is that also part of if the land owner or the property owner when they're putting in these lines if there's damage they're covered also?

Mr. Mayor, councelor Smith, it would apply to anything in in in a right subway street alley uh or a dedicated easement. So to the extent that they are installing their system in an easement that is part of that is in fact on a private property, they can use that just like any other franchise holder can. So you can imagine them laying a system in front of your your house, if you will. There's probably a 10- foot utility easement there. This would provide that they restore the surface if they do any damage. They're responsible for it in whatever they do.

So they bring it back to this natural state or whatever. So if you've got lawn and they dig up your lawn, they're supposed to restore it to a natural state. But tell you can tell me if I'm wrong, though. I don't think like they'll come up with a separate agreement for the connection to these lines to your house, right? That like this isn't going to cover that installation of visionary. That's correct. It will cover anything councelor Lynn that is in that utility easement that may be in front of you. Yeah. So you you get the fiber run in front of your house, right? And then there'll be a separate agreement that you go in with visionary to hook into that that would cover any damage. more city water, sewer, whatever. So from the meter on so on.

Mr. Mayor, that councelor Schmidt, that's exactly how I do. Okay, I'll entertain that motion. I'll make a motion to pass. Is there a second? I'll second. Mr. Seller seconding. Any further discussion? Um, I guess River Oaks is involved in the negotiations, too. Did you send if you get a chance to send that stuff Jen put together to River Oaks? Do they need to look at that too? Okay. So, we could wait for response from them and visionary to see if they get a response from Merber Oaks on the on the legal technicalities of the some of the

Okay. So, so any of these these can be kind of sifted out over the next two weeks and then we can readjust at the end of We got two weeks. We got time. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Good for me. Further discussion. If there is none, all in favor say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? That is approved on first reading. Comments from departments. Mr. Newsome, you have anything for us tonight, sir?

Okay. Uh, good evening. I'm hoping you guys have seen this in the paper, Facebook, wherever else websites, but I just want to remind people that uh there's a public meeting open house if you will to uh discuss the upcoming master plan. It's at the roundhouse this Thursday 6 to 8. This is an opportunity to uh talk and discuss that plan itself. Um, part of this advertisement are links to surveys that will help, uh, guide us to things to put in the report. So, uh, QR codes, um, if you haven't had the opportunity to take the survey, um, a lot of good questions that are being asked that we can incorporate into that plan. So,

excellent. Thursday roundhouse 6 to 8. Excellent. If you have questions, concerns, show up. Yeah. Yeah. There's if you're running late, there's no set schedule. It's just a conversation opportunity. So, where is the QR code? Is it only on the um pamphlets or is it online? Uh it's in the advertisement at the bottom. Okay. So, it's on the just on the pamphlets. Could we get that up on the website? It is up on the website. Oh, perfect. So, we shotguned it out as many places we could think. Uh Facebook, public works. People are listening. So, what's the website again? that that's on. It'd be on the city of Evston website. City of Evston website. The QR code. They can take the survey there.

Correct. Come to the roundhouse at th on Thursday. Correct. I assume so. Or if nothing else, they'll help you get to that uh survey. But yeah, just snap your QR code on your phone and and uh fill out accordingly. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Mr. Robinson, do you have anything for us tonight? No, sir. Mr. O'Neal said join us Thursday from 68. Nice. Chief Chief Rish. No, sir. Miss Lim Harris. Nothing, your honor.

Mr. Harris, nothing your honor. Public participation. Is anybody here to address the council for any reason? If not, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Mr. Silver, second, your honor. You second that, Mr. Schmidt. All in favor? I journed. Thank you, everyone.