City Council - Regular Meeting

We're delighted to have Cody be new chief and brings lots of experience, that real emphasis on community policing. That's something I really appreciate, something really important to me. Cody gives his whole heart. We're lucky to have him. Welcome to Hermanology, the official podcast to keep up with Herman City. We'll take you inside the city, explore the latest news and updates, show you how your government operates, and discuss the issues that affect us all. Now, here are your hosts talking all things Haramman on Herminology.

All right, welcome to Herminology. It is Thursday, May 14th. It seems like mere hours ago that we were here finishing up a city council meeting. Uh I don't know if you got a whole lot of sleep. Uh we were doing this at like 8:00 in the morning, by the way. So, we're This is the first thing we're doing today. Yeah, we were out a little late last night, but we got a lot of good things done, so it was good. A very busy meeting. a lot to go over, lot to go over, especially since last especially since last week's podcast week's podcast with just with D on our with just with D on our uh rodeo uh rodeo committee. So, we talked committee. So, we talked exclusively exclusively rodeo. So, we'll do a little rodeo. So, we'll do a little bit of bit of catch up here, too, on catch up here, too, on not only the city council meeting, but not only the city council meeting, but some other topics. I'm John Lfal, some other topics. I'm John Lfal, communications manager for Hammer City. communications manager for Hammer City. Joined this morning by city council Joined this morning by city council member Tara Anderson. How are you? member Tara Anderson. How are you? Good. Yeah, doing great. Good. Yeah, doing great.

Um, you mentioned your first thing you Um, you mentioned your first thing you walked in this morning that your walked in this morning that your secondary water was on at your house. a secondary water was on at your house. Yeah, it's, you know, we had to wait a little bit, but I'm so happy to have it now. And then also makes you, you think a little bit more about why it came on late, and that's because of our water conditions. And so, just being a little more mindful about when and how we water to conserve this year. Yeah. And one question we had earlier this week was um there's more of a statement and an accusation now that I think about it. The city doesn't control that timing when the um the secondary water comes up from Utah Lake. There are a lot of cities who rely on that supply. Uh so some people thought that we were stopping

uh the secondary water supply in an effort to conserve and not letting other people make that own their own choices. Uh that's not really the case. We don't control that timing. They send us a text and let us know when it's coming. So, yeah. Yeah, now it's all in the system. It's pressurized and and ready to go. So, um as we've said all year, please still be mindful of when you are watering.

Uh we talked maybe we'll talk about this next uh in our work meeting last night. Uh there was an item to talk about the statewide drought conditions and our regional drought conditions. And um our public works director kind of painted a picture of just like where we are and you know our our storage right now is good. Um it's kind of normal for this time of year and when I say storage I mean reservoirs, right?

But the snow pack that normally melts into those reservoirs and fills them up throughout the year was terrible this year. So, um, anything we're using this year is going to be from reservoir storage and it's not really going to replenish much. So, um, just be mindful of that. Yeah, I think that's what is be aware. It's a unique year. Um, we'll just roll with it and do our best to conserve. Yeah. U, there are some people who say, you know, I'll conserve when so and so does. Well, that means that neither of you are. Um, if

if just the people who are willing to conserve conserve, that still makes a difference. So, even if your neighbor is watering more than you think they should or the school next door or uh a church or a business or whoever, um, you can still make the choice to conserve and it does make a difference. Jordan Valley Water, who we get a lot of our water from, has already mentioned there uh is a difference this year compared to last few years because people are making the choice to conserve water. And it it does make a difference.

And then one of the things I appreciated about the presentation last night was listing off the different ways the city is going to conserve and the different things that we're going to do to be able to make sure that we are also doing our part, especially with all the the area that we maintain. um um to make sure that we're conserving as well because it's just really important. Yeah. A few notes that I wanted to get to before I forgot um because I've forgotten before youth council applicate. This is totally switching gears, but we're just going to go with it. Youth council applications are due Friday, end of I think end of the end of the day, Dade, so not business day, but just by 11:59 p.m. Friday night. Um

herman.gov/ / youthyen counsel is the web page for all the youth council information. That's something you've been really involved with.

Sure. Yeah, I'm um one of the adviserss for youth council. Um it's been really fun to to get to know the the youth. You know, they're passionate, they're interested, and then um it's just a great group. So, we focus on service leadership and understanding local government. And so we meet monthly and have some field trips and bring in different people from the city to talk and explain about how local government works and then also a chance to give back and help with our city events. Um do some individual service projects, too. But um it's open grades 9 through 12. So I encourage anyone to to get the application in. It's it's not super hard or anything. It shouldn't take you super long, but um we'd love to have you join us. There are a lot of youth council members who are repeat members from previous years. And to me that says this is a good quality experience that's worth doing over several times.

But there's always room for more. And you know with graduating seniors, we need more kids of of any of those ages to to be a part of it. It's it's a great thing that the city does. Yeah. That's good. Apply. Yeah. Another kind of deadline approaching. Uh, if you want to go to the rodeo, Sunday night is the last night to buy tickets before prices go up by $5 on Monday.

Um, as we mentioned last week, Saturday of the rodeo, so day three of three of the rodeo is entirely sold out. Those tickets don't exist anymore. Uh, Tuesday, sorry, it's early. Thursday, which is day one of the rodeo, and Friday, day two of the rodeo, both have tickets left for now. For now, right? And we said this last week with D, when organizations say, "Oh, tickets are going fast," they usually are lying to you. But we're not. They are actually indeed going fast. Uh so if you want to get tickets, especially before the price increases, that's uh this Sunday night. So today's the 14th, so I'm going to do 15, 16th. So May 17th, I think.

Sounds good to me. your calendar. Sunday night, uh the prices go up on Monday and it's really close and it's going to be a great time. So excited to go again. You know, it's it's fun to go every year. Like we put on a great rodeo. We're so lucky and so it's neat to have it just right here right here in Herman. Yeah. Great talent, great production. Uh our events and recreation department has been kind of leaning out on that and doing an awesome job. It's going to be amazing. So, if you haven't been before, if you've never been to any rodeo, this is a great one to go to. Yeah.

So, one other thing happening tonight, we did talk about this a little bit at the city council meeting, but an open house for a major construction project coming up. And I know you've gotten a lot of questions about this one. We've kind of hinted at it on online, but we'll start putting out more information, but uh a major project along Rose. So, this um we always kind of reference 134th South down to Crown Rose Drive. It's actually going to start uh right in front of Blackidge Elementary after school gets out and that's on purpose.

Um but that whole stretch of road over the next year and a half, it's a long time, uh will get worked on. Um, but tonight there is an open house for anybody who's interested to come learn about the project that starts at five, no six o'clock, goes to 7:30. Sorry, it's been, this will be day three of the day after and doing something this week. Um, but that'll be here at the city hall. You can meet um, representatives from the city. I believe you'll be there.

Yeah, I'll be there. Um, representatives from the water conservancy district, too. and it'll just be a great place to find out what's going on and when. Um, you know, this roads needed help for a while and we put it off so that we could do a joint project instead of doing two projects and um having the road um inaccessible for longer. So, I know many of you are really excited to see this road done. There will be a little bit of discomfort um while it's getting done, but luckily we have good partners who can plan to work on the the part in front of Butterfield while school's out. And um you know, it's just going to be a big benefit for our city to have it done.

So, anybody who we joked last night during uh the work meeting that we have chiropractors in the city because of this road, which maybe isn't entirely true, but the point remains that the road has needed help for a long time. Um, but look, government's saving money by by doing this joint project. So, we did we did wait a few years to do this because we knew this Jordan Valley water supply project or this pipeline project was coming. Um, and then after that, we'll we'll redo the road and um what's the the new phrase? Feed two birds with one scone. Oh, the less violent phrase. The less violent one. So that's that'll start the work actually starts I believe the latest update was July

U and that's going to go clear until next fall of 2027. So it's going to be a bit of a headache. Um we're trying to get out in front of it and let you know so you can be aware and plan alternate routes as needed. But theformational open house this evening uh at the city hall 6:00 to 7:30. If you're listening to this after that you can go to haramman.gov gov, click on the construction projects button and we'll have all the updates you need on there. And if you want, you can sign up for uh for email updates on that. Yeah. So, that's great. One more thing before the city council meeting recap. Last week, we missed it because we were just talking rodeo. Uh but we had another ribbon cutting we wanted to mention for Sucasa Market.

Um people were really excited about that. We put that on on social media. Um, most of our ribbon cutting announcements are are pretty positive things and people are get excited about them and they in terms of, you know, the likes and comments and shares and whatever do do well. Uh, but people were really fired up about this one. That's great.

That was a a good time. So, congratulations to to Sue Casa. Seems like a great spot. You know, it was fun to go in there and see um more variety for the different kinds of businesses that we have in Haramman, but also I know um like the meat counter, you know, like um all the different products that um are unique. We're just so happy to have them. Happy to have the variety and you should go check it out.

Uh people are raving about their customer service and their meat. So, um I haven't tried it yet, but based on all that I feel like we're going to need to. So, that is on or just off Herman Boulevard just west of Rose Road 5600 West if I remember right. Um but you'll you'll see it. You'll see the 7-Eleven just off the road is kind of behind that next to Galaxy of Games and um Herman Carnitas and you'll see it back there. Big Sukasa Market sign. So,

nice to see that area fill in. Yeah. So, congratulations to them. Now, a few things from the city council meeting last night. We are not going in chronological order, but um we finalized, I guess, um the appointment of our new police chief. We'll announce this across all platforms today, but I guess the podcast is going to be first depending when this gets posted. Um but Cody Stroberg um who has been serving most recently as the interim chief

for several years. He's been the deputy chief uh after the uh public process we've talked about a little bit here on the podcast um pulling off the interim tag and making him the new the new chief of police. Yeah, we're delighted to have Cody be new chief and brings lots of experience. Um brings that real emphasis on um community policing and and maintaining that in our community. Like that's something I really appreciate, something really important to me. Um Cody gives his whole heart, you know, and we're lucky to have him. And so it'll be great to have the official um swearing in at the city council meeting. um in two weeks, but also nice to to be able to keep moving forward. You know, it was um we did have great applicants. It was nice to meet them, nice to see their interest, and then also um nice to to be able to have Cody be our new chief, too.

Yeah. So, like we said, more on that. You'll see you'll see it in the newsletter, on our social media, on our website, and and everywhere. It's a big deal. That's a very very key position. um that makes a big difference across the whole community. So, congratulations to Cody. Congratulations to us for being able to have Cody. Yes. Um and like you said, thanks to the other applicants, too. There was that community open house where we could go meet a few of them and they the other two who were there were just outstanding. Um

so, in fact, I know one of them is actually a listener of this podcast. So, that was kind of fun. Thanks to them. Um and yeah, now now we can move on to the next chapter. That's great. Yeah, we're so lucky. Last night, the city council approved the tentative budget, which is not a final approval of the budget. We have a weird long process of budgeting in government. Um, but last night the budget was approved and now there's time for the public to I think the normal term is public inspection. You can go look through the budget uh on our website and if you have any questions or concerns uh flag those and u please reach out. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, that's the was I think the original intent of lengthening this process is for more transparency, more public input. Um, we welcome it and would love to to go through it. So, um, it's there and you know that it's your it's the public's money. It's taxpayer money. Um I I really believe in our city staff and that we do the maximum we can with like a finite amount of resources. Um but you know it's it's good for everyone to take a look too and to understand more about how local government works and how the budget operates. Yeah. So haramman.gov/budget. So you can go find a link on there.

Um and again that's the basically the city's official proposal to the public. here's here's what we think. So, that was what was approved last night. Go look through it's it's long. It's a lot of spreadsheets, but this, like you said, it's it's our money for anybody who lives here. Uh it's money that um we try really hard to be careful with because it's not taken willingly. That's just how government works. So, we try to to be good stewards and and do our best, but it it's always good to have extra sets of eyes on it and reach out to your city council member or uh the next city council meeting in two weeks. Um come and and make a comment on it or question on it. So, yeah, please do.

Last thing, as I said, we're not going chronological order here. This probably would have been more natural a couple topics ago, but um we wanted to shout out the police awards banquet that happened um Tuesday night. Tuesday night. It feels like a month ago. It was two day three days two days ago. Day and a half ago. Anyway, uh you were there. Um what was what was your experience? What did you what were your thoughts as we got to to hang out with the entire police department or at least most of them and Yeah. um and honor a few of them.

You know, it was um really neat to be there with everyone and with their significant others, like some someone important with to them in their life. Um, and then also just to to hear the awards and some of the context around the awards, like the explanation about um, why they were getting the award and just we just have an amazing police force and like people are just really dedicated and you know, you would hope that there would never be any problems and no one would have to do anything, but there are and like they really serve our community. So really nice to be there. um like a really lovely evening to honor them. You know, one night's not enough, but like we want to to do that and let them know like how important they are to our city and how much we we value their service.

Yeah, they do amazing work and it's uh from my own perspective it can kind of be easy to forget what they do because to me in a lot of ways they're co-workers and if they come up here needing something or they go CIT or they are just walking through we just chat and they're they're just people. But um I've also in my role been assigned to help with some emergency situations and I've I've seen some of the things happen that

uh some of them received awards for and and yeah, they're welld deserved. Um they really uh put their own safety second and and put serving the community, serving others first and they really have to put themselves in dangerous situations and a lot of it goes unseen. And um I'm glad that they are able to get recognized. This is something that we're going to try to do every couple of years. It it's been a little while since we've had one, but

um we really have some outstanding officers. Um, so it was, as you said, great to to see them be recognized and and get to dress up, I guess, for an evening, have a dinner, hang out with everybody, and and see the the people behind them, and just take a minute to to relax and celebrate. So, that was pretty cool. Yeah, it was a great evening. So, so I'm so grateful for them. Well, that gets to the end of our bullet list and you have to go to the next thing. Yeah, we got the next thing. But, um, you know, fun to come back and like reflect a little bit and chat about what's happening in our city. So, yeah. Thank you, Council Member Anderson, for taking some time this morning. Yep.

Uh, thank you for listening and watching. If you have any questions, um, as always, email communications@ herman.gov and we will be happy to answer them in the next podcast. Uh but for now, have a nice day, nice weekend, and we'll catch you next