City Council - Regular Meeting

It's 7:06 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18th, 2026. The Tula City Council's meeting in a business meeting that immediately followed our re redevelopment agency meeting. Um, this meeting is being held at Twilla City Hall in the council chambers located at 90 North Main Street in Twil Utah. And we are also streaming this electronically on the Tula City YouTube channel. We will start with the pledge of allegiance. If you'll please rise and repeat after me. I aliance 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. Our second item is a roll call. Councilman Gosset, present. Councilwoman Gochas, present. Councilman Hansen, present. Councilman McCall, present. And Councilman Brady, and I'm also present. We'll move on to item three, which is an America 250 tribute. We'll have the reading of the Declaration of Independence presented by Chase Randall, the library director.

Good evening, council. I volunteered to um read the Declaration of Independence tonight um because I think as we spend all of our a lot of our time dealing with the how, right, the minutia of water rights and building and I think it's always good um that you we can get in trouble when we sometimes forget the why. And that if our constitution is the how of the American government and obviously our state constitution and our city charter are all the hows, I think the Declaration of Independence really spells out the why. So in Congress July 4th, 1776, the unanimous declaration of the 13 United States of America, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness. Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes. And accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer

while evils are sufferable than to write themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurppations pursuing invariably the same object invinces a design to reduce them under absolute desperatism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufference of these colonies, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurppations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his ascent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance unless suspended in their operation till his ascent should be obtained. And when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimal to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from their depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time after such disillusions to cause others to be elected whereby the legislative powers incapable of annihilation have returned to the people at large for their exercise. The state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of

invasion from without and convulsions within. He has endeavored to present to prevent the population of these states for that per for that purpose obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his ascent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone for their tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out of their substance. He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unagnowledged by our laws, giving his ascent to their acts of pretended legislation. for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us. For protecting them by a mock trial from punishment for for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world. For imposing taxes on us without our consent. For derive depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury. For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses. for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing their establishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies. For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments. For suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government

here by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and profidity scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens take he has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country to become the executioners of their friends and brethren or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections against us and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in our attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our immigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity. And we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurppations which would inev inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must therefore acquance in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them as we hold the rest of

mankind enemies in war in peace. Friends, we therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish, and declare that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved. And that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Thank you.

Thanks, Chase. That was great. Item four is the state funded grant for court victim advocates. is presented by Valin Matson, the Tula victim advocate.

Um, for those I haven't met yet, that's I'm Valin Matson. I work with the Tula City Police Department as the court victim advocate. Um, part of my position is funded by a state grant um, which requires me to report bianually. Um, and since I procrastinated over the holidays, you'll get to see me again in a couple months. So, if there's anything you'd like to know, please let me know and I can get that prepared. Um I do want to share a brief um program update. When the grant cycle started back in July, my hours were um approved to be increased. As a re result of that expansion, um we were able to assist 426 victims of crime compared to the 302 victims that were served during the previous eight months. Um the additional hours have allowed us to provide more consistent outreach and support uh to individuals and family affected by crime. One of these notable cases involved a DUI related homicide that occurred on September 26, 2025 at the intersection of Main Street in 2400 North. A mother of six tragically lost her life as a result of that incident. The defendant recently entered a plea, a guilty plea, and was sentenced to one to 20 years in the Utah State Prison. Uh we were able to offer services to the surviving family. Um and that family was able to come to the hearing and give their victim impact statements. So it was very powerful to hear from them. Um we're also currently offering victim services to the family affected by the incident um the recent incident on Main Street in a thousand north. So um I really appreciate your continued support of victim services in our community. Do you have any questions for me?

I don't have any questions. Just want to say thank you for what you do. That's a big job and we appreciate it. Thank you very much. I really enjoy it. So, I echo that, too. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see you in a couple months. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. We're going to move on to our public comment period. We did receive one email to our public comment. I'm just going to summarize that. We received it on Tuesday, February 17th at 10:39 a.m. And just a summary is they're asking about cameras all around town. They wanted an explanation of who approved and installed the cameras and how much is it costing taxpayers. And that was from Cheyana Jorgensson. It might be Cheyenne Jorgensson, but in the follow-up email, she wrote Cheyana Jorgensson of Tilla. Okay. We also have a public comment period for anyone attending today. We ask that you state your name into the microphone, you keep your comments to 3 minutes or less, and then you sign the paper by Shiloh. The time is now the public's. Seeing no one come forward, I will close the public comment period and we'll move on to item six, a public hearing and motion on ordinance 2026-02. an ordinance of the Tula City Council vacating a municipal utility easement near 2400 North Main Street, the Peak at Compass Point subdivision, and accepting a replacement municipal utility easement for identical utility service to the same area presented by Paul Hansen, the city engineer.

There really is a simple reason for this resolution. Council is familiar with the the Peak at Compass Point development. That's the new development on the northwest corner of 2400 North and SR36 where Smiths is and the surrounding development that's in process. When the city has a water line that connects to our system and runs through it and connects back, we consider that to be a public piece of infrastructure so we can pro protect it from crosscontamination and other uh uses that might damage the public use. And as when the subdivision was platted, an easement was prepared by the design engineers and that was what was shown on the on the platin with the according docu with the um accompanying documents. When the utilities were actually built, they made some adjustments to the installation to account for either errors or changes in the plans that were minor. So, this action tonight that you're considering would vacate the prior easement and replace it with a new easement that correctly locates those same utilities. It's neither bigger or smaller. It just adjust it to reflect what's actually built. Do you have any questions? No questions. Anyone else?

Okay. Thanks, Paul. This has a public hearing, so we invite the public to address the council. We ask that you state your name into the microphone. Keep your comments to three minutes or less and sign the paper by Shiloh. The time is now the publiclix.

Seeing no one come forward, I will close the public hearing and I will entertain a motion. Uh Mr. Chair, I make a motion we approve ordinance 2026-42, an orders of the Tula City Council vacating a m municipal utilities ement near 2400 North Main Street and accepting a replacement municipality um miss municipal utility easement for identical utility service to the same area. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion from Councilman Hansen and a second from Councilman McCall. We'll take it to a vote. Councilman McCall, I. Councilman Hansen, I. Councilwoman Goes, I. Councilman Gossit,

I. I'm Councilman Brady and I vote I. That passes 5-0. Item seven is ordinance 2026-03, an ordinance of the Tula City Council amending Tula City Code Chapter 1-26, clarifying application of fee changes to new and pending submissions and updating reference to Utah code presented by Shannon Whmer, the finance director.

Good evening, council. We discussed this code update um in a prior work meeting, but just to give you a little bit of a refresher, um this ordinance will update code uh 1-26 section 1 and two. Um and this will just clarify when new fees adopted by the city council will go into effect. Um, so the code will now read, "When the city council enacts a change to any fee, the new fee amount shall apply to all new and pending applications and submissions for which the fee has not been paid in full except where the fee amount is otherwise vested by law or written by agreement with the city. So just to clarify in code that once a fee is adopted by the city council that it will go into effect immediately. Um, for some fees there is a waiting fee. There is a waiting period. for example, um impact fees generally have a 90-day waiting period. And so once we adopt them, we we can't enact them for 90 days. Um and there and there's certain times when we update in the in the resolution, we stayed in the resolution when utility fees will be enacted. So um unless outlined differently in the resolutions, then these fees um would be enacted immediately upon their adoption. Um, we just believe that this clarification in the code will help us unify our internal procedures and our practices. Um, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Any questions or comments? Thanks, Channon. I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Cherro make a motion to approve ordinance 2026-03 an ordinance of the Tulais city council amending the Tulis city code chapter 1-26 clarifying application of fee changes to new impendee submissions and updating reference to the Utah code. I'll second it. We have a motion from Councilwoman Goes and a second from Councilman Gosset. We'll take it to a vote. Councilman Gossit, I. Councilwoman Goes, I. Councilman Hansen, I. Councilman McCall. I

I'm Councilman Brady and I vote I. That passes 5-0. Item eight is resolution 2026-06, a resolution of the Twilla City Council amending the legislative policy regarding public comments in public meetings applicable to the public comment period and public hearings. Presented by Matthew Johnson, the city attorney.

Thank you, councel. Um, this is a another item that we discussed in a prior work meeting. Uh this is a resolution. It's a uh address this issue that came up uh between my office and and Shiloh Baker, the city recorder. As we were receiving uh in particular written comments, uh we realized that it wasn't clear how much of the of the public comment policy um geared towards verbal comments, inerson comments applied to uh the ones that are submitted in in writing. Um so most of the red line changes uh address that. There are a few other um changes that try to we try to clarify between public hearings and and um the general public comment period. Um but the main thrust of this was to clarify the written comments. Um when uh we discussed this in uh in the prior work meeting um one change that was made. So, just to clarify, the red line version you have is now red and blue line. So, the red lines are the original proposed um amendments. Blue lines are amendments that uh have been changed since the prior work meeting. Uh the big one is that we're changing um the deadline for uh written comments from 5:00 p.m. the day prior to 11:59 the day prior. just to make clear to both staff and and to the public that that uh that's the cut off for for for those. And if it's for a public hearing, that means it's the drop deadline because once the public hearing happens, there's really no point in the comments for the general public comment period. It just means that it would go ahead in the calendar to the next uh council meeting. Um, and then there were a little additional blue line changes that I I just happened

to catch. Just to clarify, silly things like I realized um it says that all of the uh policies for verbal comments apply. Well, you can't both verbally and in writing identify yourself when you're sending an email. So, just to clarify that, but if there's any other questions or or suggestions, I'd be happy to to take those. Okay. Any questions or comments? I think it looks okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Chair make a motion we approve resolution 2026-06 resolution of 12 city council amending the legislative policy regarding comments and public meetings applicable to public comment period and public hearings. I'll second. We have a motion from Councilman McCall and a second from Councilman Hansen. We'll take it to a vote. Councilman McCall I. Councilman Hansen. Hi. Councilwoman Goches. Hi. Councilman Gosset.

Hi. I'm Councilman Brady and I vote I that passes 5-0. Item nine is resolution 2026-08, a resolution of the Tula City Council waving development impact fees for the Tilla County Housing Authorities Harvey subdivision presented by Matthew Johnson, city attorney.

Thank you again. Um we uh just discussed this resolution in in the prior work meeting today, but for the benefit of the public and and the record, this is um addressing uh Twilic County Housing Authorities's uh application to uh for a waiver of the of the uh impact fees for uh the building of um uh six uh dwelling units. Um given the nature of these dwelling units, um city council does have uh the authority to wave up to $10,000 per dwelling unit. Um uh that that's totally within the council's discretion, but but that at least up to that cap and then and then it's that that is the cap per dwelling unit. So for the six it would be a total of 60,000. Um and that would uh come out of uh fund balance to to pay for those. Um, I will note I took the lead uh from prior resolutions. The amount is left blank in the resolution. So, if there is a motion approving this, I if uh you could be so kind as to state the amount that's approved, I appreciate it. Thank you. And if you have any questions.

Okay. Any questions or comments? You know, we talked about in the work meeting, but I'm I am for approving for the $10,000 per unit just because that seems to make a big difference in the people that can qualify for them homes. I agree. I'm for it as well, the 10,000. Okay. Would someone like to make a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion that we pass resolution 20268, a resolution of the Tilla City Council waving development impact fees for the Tilla County Housing Authority uh Harvey subdivision. Will you state an amount? Uh oh, yeah, the 10,000. Sorry. Thank you. Oh, each

each each total of 60. Total 60. 10,000 each. Is that good, Matt? Okay. 10,000. Okay, perfect. Okay, we have a motion. I'll second. Okay, we have a motion from Councilman Gosset and a second from Councilwoman Goes. We'll take it to a vote. Councilman Gosset, I. Councilwoman Goes, I. Councilman Hansen, I. Councilman McCall. Hi. I'm Councilman Brady and I vote I.

That passes 5. Item 10 is resolution 2026-07, a resolution of the Tilla City Council approving an agreement with Aerrow Landscape Construction LLC for the 2026 Tilla Valley Museum sidewalk project presented by Darwin Cook, the parks and recreation director. Thank you, council. Uh it's a pleasure to come here before you. As you know, and as you visit the museum, we've been making several improvements to the property there. Um, at this particular time, we've done several sidewalk projects there. I'd just like to mention that one of the what I feel is one of the big improvements that we've done there is that this year when we open the museum for the public that the Foreman's House will be part of our exhibit and that the patrons will be able to visit the Foreman House, enter the Foreman's House and see the exhibits that we have there. Um, we've added an ADA ramp to the Foreman's House so that all of our public can access that uh part of the museum. Uh, I firmly believe that this is a a diamond in the rough. Uh, I love the museum and it's fun to be there and to see all the history and u we're uncovering uh historical photos all the time of Tula City and Tula County and it's actually a fabulous place. What we're proposing in this resolution is that uh on the south part of our property there, the city's property, uh there's a easement for a sidewalk, uh it does not have a sidewalk there currently, but as you can tell from the the ground, several it is used quite heavily for walking. Uh if you want to go to the next picture. Um, so the trail, there's a more or less a dirt path trail through there because a lot of people actually walk on that side. Students walk on that side going back and forth through school. Uh, and it gets used quite a bit. Uh, we've always talked about adding the sidewalk in

there. So, what we're bringing for you today is the proposal to enter into contract with Aerrow Landscaping to actually put the sidewalk in there. If you go to the next slide, uh part of this project is that we're going to repair uh working with the public's works department. We're also going to have the contractor repair this part of the sidewalk from First Street to Pinehurst. Uh you can tell the old 1910 sidewalk when Ed was here as a kid. They put that in and

might have been. So, and it is just completely I I I'll be honest with you. I don't know if I've ever seen anybody walk on that part cuz when they leave our dirt path, they actually just travel in the road right there. But we are going to fix that part uh right there all the way down to Pinehurst as part of this project as well. Uh, and then I think the next picture shows so as we come down heading west, uh, we're going to tie it in right there for an ADA crossing right there to bring that sidewalk all the way through. On this project, there's a couple, uh, driveway approaches that we're also going to have the contractor remove. They were drive approaches that were there when the property property was actually being operated as a depot. So, we're going to remove those. Uh, and then it will be a 6ft sidewalk the whole length of the project. Uh, I think it's going to clean up that side of the property uh quite a bit. We've added parking as one of the improvements that we've done there. Um just uh the funding from this part of the funding for the part by the museum is actually coming out of the capital projects uh fund and then the portion from Pinehurst or first uh street to Pinehurst will be out of the general sidewalk fund.

Does the sidewalk in that one picture have to be back that far? Cuz you said no one uses. We are not going back that far. We're actually putting it within the same standard so it lines up better. Yeah, that makes sense. Great. Yep. Yeah, we are not going back all the way to that where that one's currently sitting. That'll just stay there as a historical monument. Yes, we'll put a monument on. Eventually, it'll be overgrown in there. Correct. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Oh, the the contractor that you you

Oh, yeah. Sorry. We did this did go out to bid. There was 12 We did have 12 uh bids on this project. Uh the winning contractor was Arrow Landscape at a total bid of 73,59125 of which 65,49750 is the capital project amount and 8,9375 is the sidewalk general sidewalk amount. And we use this contractor. We have used this contract and it's been good. Yep. Okay. He's done uh this contractor has done uh several a large amount of the sidewalk at England Acres Park and at the golf course new parking lot.

Okay. Any other questions or comments or how we paying for it? Uh the I missed it so I just I was doing during that part. The 65,000 is coming out of the capital projects fund and the 8,93 is coming out of the general sidewalk fund. Okay. Quick, if we're not going to use that part that you were saying we're going to leave, technically you could move that fence further because that's our property, right? No, that part's not our property. That's that's actually another property.

Never mind. Sorry. How close does that sidewalk up here at the the corner of Broadway? How close does that come to the existing chain link? It it'll be a 6 foot wide project sidewalk, which is our code. No. But I mean, does it go all the way to the fence? Uh, it's like 5 in shy of it. Yeah. When the curb is or when the sidewalks to the back of the curb, we actually do require it to be six feet wide. So, and we we do have we are jotting the fence on a couple of the places where the fire hydrant is so that we can maintain ADA passage. So,

okay. I think it's going to be great and I love preserving history and making history accessible. It It's a wellutilized park, so it'll make it very inviting. It's going to clean up that south border. So, and we we've talked several times, so We're We're getting in the right direction, I think. So, I think you'll agree the parking lot looks a lot better than it did last year. Yeah. Really nice addition. All right. Thanks, Darwin. I will entertain a motion.

Mr. Cher, I'll make a motion to approve resolution 2026-07, a resolution of the Twilla City Council approving an agreement with Arrow Landscape Construction LLC for the 2026 Twilla Valley Railroad Museum sidewalk project. I'll second. We have a motion from Councilwoman Goes and a second from Councilman McCall. We'll take it to a vote. Councilman McCall, I. Councilman Hansen, I. Councilwoman Goches. Hi. Councilman Gosset. Hi. I'm Councilman Brady and I vote I. That passes 5-0. Thank Thank you. Thanks, Darwin.

Item 11, invoices and purchase orders presented by Shiloh Baker. And there's not any. Great. Item 12 are the minutes from February 4th, 2026 work meeting and the February 4th, 2026 business meeting. I think they look great. Thanks, Teresa. Thank you. Any corrections? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Mr. Mr. Chair, I make a motion we approve the minutes from February 4th for the work meeting and the business meeting. I'll second. We have a motion from Councilman Hansen and a second from Councilwoman Gochas. We'll take it to a vote. Councilman Gosset. I. Councilwoman Gochas. I. Councilman Hansen. Hi. Councilman McCall. Hi.

I'm Councilman Brady and I vote I. That passes 5-0. And item 13 is to adjourn at 7:38