City Council - Regular Meeting

But do they decide which Yeah.

I mean there we'll see. We'll see what happens. Well, I don't know how the house If they pass it,

so you already got chief of police watching.

I said the chief of police is out there watching out. symptoms, I is a good thing to get your code. Yeah.

What's the summer field?

So, what do you think? Yeah, be on the west side of 12. on there. That would be something How's it going? your wife. brought your

teeth like You know what? people.

All right. Thank you everyone for being here. Welcome. Welcome to our uh city council meeting on Rexburg City Council, February 18th, 2026. Like to welcome you all here uh for various different uh reasons. It looks like we've got some high school students here. We must have a government assignment due tomorrow. Is that right? Yeah. Okay. Well, we're glad to have you here. Um we hope it's a a learning experience for you on on how local government works. So, that's good. Uh we'd like to start our meeting this evening with uh with with a prayer and the pledge of allegiance to the flag of our nation. I've asked Council Member Eric Ericson to offer the opening the invocation for us after which forgot to ask you but would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

Sure.

Council member Teen will lead us in the pledge of allegiance. All right. Council member Ericson. Our father in heaven, we are grateful to be met here this evening as uh concerned citizens and u the city of Rexburg. We are grateful uh father for this community in which we live. For the um blessings of living here in this upper valley, for the safety that we enjoy, for the um for the for our neighbors and friends who make living here so enjoyable. We are thankful for the leaders of our our nation, our state, and our city and county. We pray for them that they may be blessed to make good and righteous decisions which will bless us um as we move forward. We are u we're grateful to to be met to discuss the affairs of the city this evening. pray that thy spirit was with us that we'll be able to um be effective in the in the decision making that that we we do this evening. We pray that our discussions will be civil. We will gather all the information needed to make good and proper decisions

for the for the the citizens of our community. We thank thee again for the opportunity that we have to um to live together in a in this wonderful community. Pray for that choice's blessings to be with us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. United States of America to the stands one nation God indivisible indivisible for all.

Thank you very much. We appreciate that. All right. Let's go ahead at this time with the roll call of the council members. Mariana, please. here. Here

thank you very much. Appreciate that. And we have a full council tonight. So that's good. Let's go ahead with item number three on the agenda. We have some new uh city employees that have joined our team and we'd like to welcome them and learn just a little bit about them. Let's start with Addison Cook from the water department. U and we will ask uh all of these new employees to just tell us a little bit about themselves and uh so that we can get to know them. Is Addison here? Oh, there you are back there. Okay, there she is. Just go ahead and come on come up to the microphone if you would please and just tell us a little bit about yourself. Um, my name is Addison Cook. I worked for the water department part-time for 6 months and then I got hired on full-time. Um, I'm originally from Blackfoot, Pingri, Idaho, and we moved here and yeah.

Okay, great. Well, welcome to our city team. We we appreciate having you here. Thank you. Let's give her a hand. that uh water department folks are important. We we like to have our clean, pure water flowing into our homes when we need it. So, thank you for all of your hard work there. We appreciate it. All right. At this time, we also have um a a couple of new uh police officers to swear in. So, we'd like to have them maybe just tell tell us a little bit about themselves first, after which we'll do the swearing in ceremony. So, let's start with uh John Row. John, there he is right here.

Uh thank you very much, sir. Um I am my name is John Row. I'm one of the new hires with the Rexburg Police Department. Um moved here from Fallon, Nevada for school. Uh just finished up um an a associates degree in wildlife management. um grew up in a law enforcement background back in Nevada and I really look forward to helping protect and serve the people of this community in Rexburg. Helping to cage the wildlife here in Rexburg. Huh. All right. Well, thank you. We appreciate having you. Let's give John a next Ethan Croft. Ethan right here.

Uh my name is Ethan Croft. I'm originally from Blackfoot, Idaho. Born and raised there, Wello area. Um, I also grew up in a law enforcement background. My father is currently the chief of police in Blackfoot. So, I guess it runs in the family. Always wanted to follow my dad's footsteps. He's a great example to me. And I'm also excited to learn from record's finest. Great examples to me. And they've also already taught me a lot. So, super excited. And I appreciate you guys' time. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let's give each

All right. Maybe just before we do the ceremony, we've got a couple of more young men outside here. Uh we have some chairs over here to the side if you'd like to grab those and set them there somewhere there where you can uh if that works or or right up in here somewhere. Yeah. Great. Okay. Thank you. All right. We'll turn the time over to our city attorney, Mr. Spencer Raml, for the swearing in ceremony. a little bit. No, we're going to get you this. We're like diagramming a plate right here.

Hi. State your name. You solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution. I swear that I will support of the United States United States, the Constitution laws of the state of Idaho and laws state of the ordinance ordinances of the city of Rexburg and the law enforcement code of ethics. I will endeavor to enforce these laws to enforce these laws to the best of my abilities best of my ability

and that I may I will faithfully discharge all of the duties assigned or requested of me in my capacity or request as a law enforcement officer for the city law enforcement officer.

All right. All right. We'd like to welcome you to our city team. Thank you for the work that you have done and will be doing as well as all of our other officers that are here. We appreciate all of you and all that you do to help keep the citizens of Rexburg safe. So, thank you. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate your presence here. So, with that, let's go ahead with uh item before we go on to item number four. I would just like to note real quick um the passing of one of our longtime city employees, Mr. Ted Dy. Um he he passed away uh last last week and had a funeral and um he worked in our building department as one of our building inspectors for a lot of years. And not only did he in did he work hard as an inspector, but he uh he was always available and willing and able to help us with a lot of our small little building projects and things that we had around city hall and in some of our different buildings that we own. So we really appreciated Ted a lot and would like to just note his passing and um our prayers with his family at this time. So, all right, let's go ahead and move forward with item number four, which is a public hearing. Uh, let's see. Okay, it is 6:30. So, um, we would like to, um, this one has to do with the annexation of approximately 1600 North, second east into the city of Rexburg and a reszone of this property from Trans A, Transitional Agriculture to Community Business Center. um a CBC zone and uh this has been recommended for approval by the Rexburg

Planning and Zoning Commission. So um is there any questions about this particular item before Oh, Ellen, do you want to go ahead and tell us about this a little bit and then then maybe we'll ask questions?

Yes. Thank you, mayor, council members. Uh the property, let me show you on partial viewer, is located next to the North Rexburg exit just north of Walmart. There's a close to 40 acres in there that we are that the applicant is requesting to be annexed and reszoned to CBC uh to be developed out. Uh the PNZ commission has reviewed this, looked at it, and they recommended it to you for approval. Um unanimous vote. So I would just take any questions at this point that you would have.

Does anyone have any questions about this item? All right, hearing none, uh we will go ahead with the public hearing. So the way Thank you, Ellen. Uh the way the public hearing works is uh we offer a time for people to give testimony and uh we will first ask for those who are in favor of this action followed by those who might be uh neutral about this action and then those who who might be against this action. So um at this time we will declare this public hearing open and uh I would ask if is there anyone who would like to um testify in favor of this action. Is there anyone online that we need to be aware of? No one with their hand up. Okay. Thank you. Uh is there hearing none is there anyone who would like to testify in the neutral position? All right. Hearing none. Is there anyone who would like to testify against this action? All right, hearing none, we will declare this public hearing closed. And uh at this time, I would entertain, if there are no questions again, um with all of that information, I would entertain a motion to go ahead with um ordinance number 1344 and consider it first read.

Mayor, I'll make that motion to go with the ordinance number 1345 and make it first read. 1344, sorry. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Motion made by council member Colin Ericen. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second. Seconded by Council President Eric Ericson. Any further discussion or questions? Yes. Hearing none. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Right. That motion passes. We will go ahead and consider that first read. Um, just as a note for our high school students that are here and anyone else that's here for the first time or uh who who hasn't, you know, been around government uh procedures a lot, we we have a first reading and a second reading and a third reading and uh any ordinance uh that comes before us or some of the larger decisions that we do have to be uh considered three times. And the reason for that is because they want, you know, we want government to, even though it slows things down a little bit before it's finally done. Um, we want it to be sure that we have plenty of opportunities for people to be heard and to talk about things before we make a final decision so that hopefully we, you know, we keep our, uh, mistakes to a minimum. That's that's the idea. Try to make good decisions. So that's what that's when we say first reading and second reading. That's that's what that is all about. So item number five on the agenda is a public hearing. This one is for the creation of local improvement district 55. Uh the boundaries encompass real property primarily along Birch Avenue, Ash Avenue, Fourth West from 2nd south to 5th South, 7th South from US20 to the west end of the Somefield subdivision as well as several miscellaneous properties. Uh this ordinance would be designated as ordinance number 1345 and considered first read if the motion passes. So we will go ahead and ask uh Mr. Keith Davidson, our public works director, to come up and visit with us about this particular item before we go to a public hearing. Mr. Davidson.

Yeah. Thank you, Mayor. Um so I think you're familiar with the the areas on the L. Um, and so we're just seeking obviously we've got a number of people here that are wanting to testify on that and so uh we want to hear their their input and then have a discussion. But are there any questions uh before we go into that uh public hearing? Anyone have any questions beforehand?

All right. If none then we'll go ahead and go with public hearings. Okay. All right. Thank you. At this point in time, we would declare this public hearing open and uh same same rules as before. So, uh we'll start with if there is anyone who would like to testify in favor of this uh this item on the agenda. Yes. If you Yes. Home on Birch Avenue has been sold. You don't have that updated.

Okay. 159. Okay. Can we just make a note of that? Thank you. Appreciate that information. Okay. Um, is there anyone who would like to testify? Anyone? Well, I guess we won't really count that as a testify against. That was just information. Thank you for that. We appreciate that. Um, is there anyone who'd like to testify against this this item? Please come to the microphone and state your name and address, please. State what? State your name and address, please, for the record.

My name is Danny Kesler. I'm at 681 Blue Willow Circle. I'm speaking on behalf of all eight members in our area. All right. Thank you.

We are homeowners alongside along west 7 South between 12 West and Highway 20 and we respectfully oppose the proposed LI costs and timeline for our neighborhood. Our situation is unique. Six of our affected homes sit on 1acre lots originally built in the county. Another is on a halfacre parcel and the and there is a horse property at the end of the road. Because these homes were originally county residents, we do not have existing city infrastructure. Our lot also have our lots also have significantly more frontage than typ typical city lots, which dramatically increases the assessments placed on us under the proposed assessment structure. Originally, this road served about 12 homes. After the development of the Meadows Town Homes, we were annexed into the city and our road became the only entrance and exit for approximately 160 households. We are not now being asked to assume substantial debt and improve a dead-end road carrying traffic far beyond what existed when our homes were built. We have repeatedly been told that this issue was inherited from the county, but we have been residents of the city for many years now and believe the city shares responsibility in addressing these extraordinary circumstances rather than placing an overwhelming burden on a handful of longtime home homeowners. Each household is facing an estimated assessment of 16 to $22,000, roughly $220 to $300 per month for 10 years. This is an overwhelming financial burden on our families. We only learned of this proposal in on January 31st, leaving no time to budget, plan, or save. Without delay or assistance, our home homeowners will be forced into long-term debt with leans placed on our properties and additional interest costs. If this project move forward, we respectfully ask the city to cover a significantly larger share of the cost and delay the timeline to allow residents time to plan. We also object to the blanket 12%

administrative fees, which is approximately $1,800 of the $16,000 assessment. This generalized allocation does not reflect actual property specific costs and should not be passed directly to homeowners. We also have concerns about construction impacts. This road is the sole access point for more than 160 households and disrupts disruptions will affect far more than the few properties being assessed. We are not requesting sewer or water services as we maintain our own wells and septic systems. We're asking the city to consider the unique history and structures of our properties and circumstances of annexation and the disproportionate burden being placed on a small group group of homeowners. This proposal represents significant financial and emotional hardship. We respectfully request a delay in the timeline and reconsideration of the cost allocation, including removal of 12% administrative fees and substantial increase in the city's financial contribution to this project. Thank you for your time and your service to our community. Sincerely, families Baldwin, McCoy, Garner, Kesler, Hernandez, Ellis, Diaz, and Coons. All signed. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you. Appreciate that. Very well spoken. All right. This is an abbreviated version of the letter you received.

This is Dr. King. Thank you. Good night. Well, let's let's wait until we're done with the public hearing. Then just maybe if you would make some notes on comments uh that we that you would like to, you know, talk about after we Well, I I didn't want to talk. I just was wondering if we could put the map up of that area was just talking about. That's all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can do we have that on there that we can put up there, Keith? Sorry about that, Bill. No, it's okay. So, there's several areas. So, I'll just try and move to where their address is located. Yeah. Mhm.

Right there. Okay. And so the let's see that's when the sidewalks were put in along there what two three years ago three years ago. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to speak in opposition of this action?

Good evening. My name is Lisa Ellis. 1042 West 7th South here in Rexburg. I'm the last house before the Meadows. Um, being an only only wage earner in my house, this would this would put a huge financial burden on me. Um, I'm only one person. I'm getting too old to do two jobs anymore. So, I'm down to doing just one. There's only so much blood you can get out of this turnup.

It's just there's no way I can afford another monthly payment. And the construction does concern me also. I just it scares me because you've got over 300 cars in the meadows up and down that road every day. Plus us as home owners trying to get in and out. And in visiting with Joel the engineer, you really don't have a solid plan on how you're going to get us in and out of our houses um while the roads tore up and you're dropping sewer in there. So, but my main concern is the financial the financial aspect of it. I cannot afford another payment in my life right now. So many other things in life hit me as does everybody. Life just is consistently knocking you down. And it's just the financial is my biggest my biggest pain. But thank you for listening to me. I appreciate your time. I appreciate appreciate Noah and Joel for putting up with me last couple weeks. Um

it's all I got to say. It's just I think it's um I think it can be put off for a while is what I'm thinking. I've had I' I've been there 32 years. I've seen that road a lot worse than what it is today. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that input. Anyone else that would like to speak in opposition to this item? Yes. Come on up. Name and address, please. It's up here. We just have to have this information for the record. That's part of our requirement here. So,

Ruth Lee Hernandez, I'm here with my husband Gabriel, 1068 West 7th South.

I'm the next one over from Lisa. Okay. And uh feel the same way. But part of it is uh definitely our ages. He's retired. I'm hoping to retire here in the next soon, but with an added um payment for 10 years and everything, both of us are going to be close to 70 80 years old by the time we get this paid paid off. We don't want to leave. We like the city of Rexburg, but to add what we already have, it's just not going to it's just not something that we can handle. We also agree that the road's been there for quite a while and it's not as bad as it could be for sure, but just the added um cost is the main thing to us and uh we would either ask that the city pay most of the cost. Maybe we can, you know, get something in there, but definitely postpone it so that it allows us to prepare maybe for a a cost later on, but we're not sure how we're going to handle that cost because, like I said, we're both getting older and and we'd like to stay here in Rexburg. We don't want to have to move because we can't afford to have our our home there. So, I appreciate you listening to us. I know we've all sent in letters describing each one of our own personal uh situations and we appreciate you listening to this.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else? Yes. Come on up.

Good evening. Desired Diaz on uh 691 South 12 West. I'm the lucky one on the corner. Um I'm opposed as everyone else because on my property the lids if this went through the lid my total lids would be around $325 a month from my property taxes and adding this. And then I have an additional concern because when are they going to throw the other sidewalk up and add another lid? Like I'm going to be paying a lot. So just a clarifying question, which what sidewalk?

House 7th and 12th. Oh, on the on the front on facing 12th you mean. Okay. Gotcha.

Gotcha. Okay. Um, so I mean it it's, you know, like I I understand growth is inevitable. Um, but you know, when we bought this house, you know, it's on the outskirts of town, close enough to town, away enough from town, but it just seems like with all they're wanting to put between Rexburg Motorsports and Valleywide, it's like they're wanting to put a whole city, a a charter school, did the district office and town homes and commercial and in another neighborhood across the street from me, which I really I'm opposed to um the roads just I'd never get out of my driveway. It's it's it's a lot to go in that area if any of you all have spent some time there. So, that's about all I just I'm real concerned about, you know, if this passes and I have that $310 a month for 10 years. I can't sell my house. How you going to sell your house? You gonna tell somebody, "Oh, it costs this much plus because my my portion is almost $23,000. I'm on the high end." And then if they put a sidewalk that way, it just seems unfair. Where do I sign? Thank you for your time. Appreciate it. And you said your name is Desire. Right. Okay. Just want to make sure the right one is.

And we moved. Yes. I don't need to sign again. Sign it in. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Baldwin keeps trying to follow. Yeah. He's he's actually online. We do have a lot of following online. Online. Yeah.

Okay. Uh Mr. Baldwin, we hear you are online and you would like to speak. Uh if you'd like to speak, go ahead. At this time, uh if you could state your name and address, please, that would be great for the record. Uh you might be muted on your if you're on your computer, we cannot hear you. If we can tell, is there anything on our end? That's everything normal. Maybe if if there's something else you can try on your computer. Um, Mr. Baldwin, we we still can't hear you. We do have an alternate method. Uh we could have you call in to call into a phone number and um we'll get that number here for you momentarily. Maybe while we're waiting, let's uh is there anyone else that would like to speak that's here? And then we'll go ahead and yeah, come on up and and Mr. Baldin will catch you in a minute here when we get something figured out for you.

My name is Victor Harrison. Um I'm not sure if we're talking about just the 7th South property or everything included in the everything in the L. Yeah, that's included in it. Yeah. I reside at 782 Nina Drive. Okay.

I own a home on Southwest 335 Southwest. Um, this is going to my bill for the the is somewhere around $9,000. And the house that I own there is a rental house. So, I'm going to have to add that on to the cost of my rent for my renters. I know Rexburg is a family community and we're always struggling to find more affordable housing. Well, this is going to cost my tenant another $100 a month or more based on, you know, but so if you you have any interest in trying to keep rental costs down, I would be with the seventh South people and say, you know, the city needs to come up with a little extra money to help us out with this because, you know, $9,000 is maybe not a whole lot of money, but you know, over 10 years, that's especially if you're adding a 14% fee. You can do better than that. I really think that that's um taking advantage of the situation where you're doing the work and you're requiring it to be done at your standards. Yes, I can go get somebody else to do it, but if I'm going to add it to my utility bill, I don't think that you should be charging me interest, let alone an additional administrative fee. That's my two cents. Um take it for what it is.

Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. All right. Um, okay. Do we have Miss We have Mr. Baldwin on the phone.

Do we I send send the number. Oh, okay. All right. So then again, while we're waiting, I guess, is there anyone else who would like to speak at this time? Yes. Come on. Go ahead. Come on up. Come on down.

My name is William Clemens. I live at 653 Val Lane, Ricksburg, Idaho. Um, you've seen me before. I also oppose the lid. I believe that we can do a better job at finding better ways of paying for these improvements within the city. Uh on average people most households are about 300 $2 to $300 from bankruptcy by adding a loan that they have to pay off in the next 10 years. They're definitely going to be um using all of their income to pay off the city. I believe that this uh these lids should be paid by all of the taxpayers at a lower interest rate as part of our property taxes. One of the reasons why I believe this is with the property tax that I already pay and then these poor citizens are having to pay a$10 to $30,000 loan. We even mentioned up to a $70,000 depending on the apartment complex. Um that's adding huge monthly fees or monthly payoffs. In addition, because of the improvements, their houses are going to be improved and therefore the taxes on their houses are also going to be improved, which they're going to be ending up having to pay more taxes also. So this is a triple tax, which I don't think is appropriate for our city to do to our citizens. I thank you for your time. Thanks.

Okay. Thank you. All right. Is there anyone else? A question I forgot to ask. Okay. Can you come on up? So, the question I have is um on 7th the Meadows uh complex that's there. Mhm.

Are they are the owners of that complex being asked to because they're the the majority of the people using that road and the and and the sidewalk. I don't get out and walk on my own sidewalk and I don't need the the sewer and the water and and all that stuff. So, are they having to pay a portion? Yes. Yeah. They're Okay. Because that wasn't clear in the letter. I didn't know. Oh yeah. Yeah. We don't typically um put everybody else's stuff on on your letter, but yes, they are on the list here. Okay. As as well. Yes. Mhm. Yeah.

Mr. Baldman, I don't know if you can hear me or not, but the number is in the chat. Uh 20835998. Say, repeat that number. 208 359 359 9098 9098. If you'd like to dial that number, we can get you on here. Oh, that's like it's ringing.

It is. Hey, you're on. taking the time to listen to me. And now I getting too much feedback on my computer. Try try and mute your computer. I'll just step away from it. Okay. All right.

So, I just wanted to introduce myself also. I'm Robert Baldwin and I own the property at 680 Blue Willow Circle. I've owned it for about 24 years and um just recently retired two months ago and getting ready to become a new resident of Rexburg and got this letter three weeks ago which uh was quite a surprise. Um, and I just wanted to say that the same things pretty much that everyone else has said that uh being retired now, I can't afford this uh $19,700 bill. Um, I would hope that the city would take into consideration uh the costs because they are being the costs are being very, how do you want to say it? It's pretty overwhelming. I just wanted to introduce myself and say I'm against this proposal and would hope that I'm not against you improving things and having growth, but I'm against the exorbitant cost that is coming upon me at this time and my neighbors. So, thank you for listening to me and um

good night. I will listen on the computer now. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate your comments. All right. Uh is there anyone else this time? Okay. All right. Seeing none. Is there there's no one else online, I'm assuming. Oh, is there someone else that I missed? Sorry, I can't hear you. If if you'd like to testify, you can come up to the mic. Oh. Okay. All right. Okay. If there is no one else, then I don't want to cut anybody off if there's anyone else. Yes. One more question. Did you guys all read the letters that were submitted for everyone?

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Those are ones that we try to get read before the meeting and and I take those in consideration. Yes. Spot that we can find the definitive map of what's impacted by the L. I was trying to find it online today and was having a lot of difficulty finding anything online regarding it and I I'm somewhat familiar with finding documents on the rest website. So, uh I struggle I couldn't find any when you're looking for it. There's there's some confusion about where some of these areas are. Yeah. Keith, can you address that please?

Yeah. Um, so on the website under our street department, so you can find where our five-year capital improvement plan is. Now, that one generally we're pretty specific on the next year's street, but roads can change in a heartbeat where we don't know exactly on the base. So, sometimes that fluctuates. Uh, but um, under our street department, you'll find that we have a five-year capital improvement plan um that we put on there. Um, what was the other another question? I think that was Was that your question? Does that answer your question, Mr. Woodell?

Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. Did you have something else or No, I'm just uh if if council has any questions that I can answer or I mean, obviously Okay. Uh let's make sure that we're we're done here with the public hearing first. Is there anyone else before we close the public hearing that uh has any comments? Okay. Oh, yes. And then in we already did those. We did those at the front end. Oh, those went pretty quick.

Yes. Young man back in the back. Can you if if you'd like to make a a statement, come on up to the microphone and state your name and address, please. I haven't really done one of these before. That's fine. So, Caleb Joshua Hedges 1351 Stone Drive. Okay. And the question I have is why does our town like this is neutral neutral question here. Why does our town do the like the the instead of like just doing a widespread tax across the entire town instead?

That's a good question and a lot of people have asked that. Uh one of the main reasons is because it's kind of an overarching question, but our city tax levy is very low. It's one of the it's we're one of the three lowest city tax levies in the state of Idaho. And uh so therefore we have very limited funding. We don't we you know we we only get say for example uh per you know if you look at a a graph uh we get maybe $350 per um let's see what is it Matt $350 per

per 100. Yeah that'd probably be good that that'd probably be a good thing to kind of explain to people because that that's a good question and it it comes up all the time. So, it's good to help us all understand that better. I'll just pull up quick here and then wait, we should probably do this outside of public comment. Let's let's question.

Oh, yeah. Maybe we should close the public hearing and uh and then we'll go ahead and and address that. But because that's a good question, so we don't want to ignore it. Okay, let's go ahead and uh declare the public hearing closed. And uh now we will go ahead and just address that question. Yeah. Okay. Um, let me pull it up here. So, just just under the finance department, we have this property tax section. And anybody can go look at this. And we what we do is we basically go in, we kind of uh show how what your property taxes are if you live inside the city limits or if you don't live inside the city limits and just live in Madison County. But just to give what the mayor was talking about, um there's a couple ways to look at this. You can look at it per $100,000 of taxable or assessed value, but we'll just take a quick look at here at some of our neighbors. Um so if you look at our property tax in the city, this is everything. So this is, you know, what you pay to the schools, the library, the county, the city, etc. But if you look at Rexburg, we'll start there actually. You can see that we get about $313 per 100,000 of assessed value. If you look at like Blackfoot, they get $79. Idaho Falls gets $588. And so although, you know, if you look at the total amount of taxes, you know, we're kind of in the middle there, if you will, but if you look at what we're getting at the city level, it's substantially lower than all of your neighbors there. And then there's another quick way. I'm not going to take a ton of time, but and you're welcome to pull these up. We also do it per um person or per capita. And I got to read it here before I can tell you what it is. Um so, so a lot of times property

tax, if you look at the red one for Rexburg, it is uh about $172 per person. If you look at Idaho Falls up at the top, who's our neighbor, they get about $695 per person. And so, you know, that is that's a big reason why we don't have enough that comes in in property taxes to pay for these improvements. And so that's why we look at the LIS as an option for financing those. So,

right. Thank you. Yes. So, that's a good question. And so, so then the the question kind of usually is a followup and I think and it was brought up by the by gentleman is uh why don't we uh just do a a streets levy and uh have everybody vote for it and um and you know try to just have everybody cover it. Um which which is is is another option. It has been uh tried in the past and and hasn't passed. you know, of course, it's got to pass by everybody in order for it to to do, but but that's one of the one of the options. We actually have a a committee and council member Johnson and Council Member Teen sit on that committee and um we are exploring options because to be honest with you, none of us really like uh this particular meeting because it's always the same. You know, we hear we hear it all the time and and I've been on your end of it. I I was on a $20,000 end of an LI quite a few years ago and uh and you know it is a burden and so it's it's a struggle. It really is a struggle. But um one of the things that I that I will mention uh because it was brought up that you know there's not much time to budget and save. But one of the things that I apparently I thought I thought we were going to try to get it put in the letter and maybe we didn't. But uh after the construction is done, which would take, you know, pretty much all summer to usually get it done. um then you have a year after that before you have to start making your first payments. So it gives you a couple of years to, you know, to save up and build some savings and try to and so a lot of people will try to save up money and pay off a good chunk of it, you know, uh, right then. And so so that that does help. Um, but um, you know, th those I

mean when when we say the city should cover more of it, I mean the city is is us. It's all of us, right? And so, as you can see, we don't we don't bring in enough tax money to really be able to just say, "Okay, the city can pay for all of it, which, you know, we'd love to do that, but we we just don't have the money to do that." That's kind of what it boils down to. So, um, so that that's kind of the situation that it puts us in is to be able to in order to do, uh, you know, to to do these sidewalks and curbs and gutters and and and of course, uh, it's good to know, too, that, you know, the city pays for, you know, all of the street repairs and all of the improvements and, uh, and and, uh, you know, so, you know, you don't bear any of that, which is, you which is normal. You shouldn't because that the streets like you say are, you know, used by everybody. And so we try to cover all of that and cover as much of it as we can. And uh and even, you know, last last year we made a change where we actually cover a little bit more than what we used to. So we're trying to kind of balance that out and do the best we can. But um so anyway, I don't know if that answers your question. And I hope it it helps you to understand a little bit more about how why we do LIS and and where we're coming from on this. So, but anyway, uh so the public hearing is closed. So, I guess I would uh entertain any questions or discussion from council as to uh uh how you want to proceed and you know what thoughts you have. Council member Johnson. Yes.

Um so, this is my seventh year on the council. Just about every year that I've been on the council, you know, in February, we have the same meeting with the same residents that come in and tell us that they can't afford this burden that's being placed on them. Um, and then we just do the same thing next year. Um, a year ago when this happened, we said we were going to put that committee together. Um, and it took all year, so we barely met for the first time just a couple weeks ago. So, we haven't really had a lot of time to to explore properly. Um, I guess I I look at it differently. I I think sidewalks are a public good, just like our streets and our other infrastructure or our parks. So, I wouldn't have a problem with changing the way we do it. Um, I personally feel it's a little disingenuous to say that we just can't afford it because that's not really true. It's what we have prioritized. Um, and so I know I I've talked to Matt about this. We have a we have a very robust streets budget. In my opinion, we have every time I' every year I've been on the council, we've had a carryover of a few million dollars. Um, and I know all of it isn't discretionary, but I think we have more money in there than we can use in a year. So, I would have no problem with changing. The amount that the city would pay if we paid for all of it is very small compared to our entire budget. But for one person to pay 223,000 to me, that's just like that's not fair to the residents. And even if I had a year to save, my family could not save that much money. I have a kid in college, another one on the way to college. I don't have that kind of money. So for me, I think we should try something different um and spare our residents the burden that we're placing on them. So that's how I feel.

That's a good point. Um any other discussion, Mr. Mayor? Yes. Couple of just points of clarification. There were there's a discussion about the administrative fee of 12 for 14% was me mentioned in testimony. Help me with that. Engineering. So the engineering engineering yeah engineering it's also administration right so as they carry uh the loan over that 10-year period uh Matt's office uh manages that. Um so those are those are the fees where they come from is engineering and then the management of that uh loan that comes from the city.

Okay. Um, and then a question. Do do we need to consider this in its entirety? No, you can you can approve all of it. You can break sections out if you would like. So different different options you can take a look at with that. So it isn't all or nothing, if you will. Um, and so there there is some some areas like I would say ash. We have a sewer line there that's in need of desperate need of repair. So, that one needs to to move forward as far as we're needing to reconstruct that sewer line. Um, which then has us taking out the street. And so, that's the best opportunity on on that one. Um, and then obviously the streets, the ones that we're working on are deteriorated. And so it's just a just a matter you could you could pull some off if you want. It just puts it out later. Um it just depends on how much maintenance we have to come back in and do on those streets. So sometimes that can be an additional burden is just coming in trying to maintain those streets that are deteriorated. Um so yeah, so there's lots of different aspects you can can look at with that. also, you know, putting it off sometimes also the price goes up and it's it's a higher cost later on. Um, and so we we've definitely seen that our prices have been climbing. Now sometimes we get a little dip, but generally overall we see prices climbing with that. And so so those are some of the the the drawbacks. I mean, some of the things that we're looking at to try I mean, obviously, we're trying to look at ways in which we can lower prices and and try and keep them as as low as we can. So, I mean, 7 South is a good

example of an area where um the contractor would come in with a curb machine versus handset. Um, and so we would look at bidding that out separately as a line item for curb machine versus handset. So where you already have existing curb and you're just replacing pieces. Uh generally that that's a little bit more expensive than if the contractor comes in with a curb machine. Um so that would be something we would look at uh when we bid out those areas that like seven south um that have wide open areas right that there isn't curb and gutter. Um the other options obviously we we give property owners is you know anything beyond the curb the property owner can contract uh get their own contractor on. Um so I know on 7th South a lot of those uh that landscaping in between the curbon gutter and the sidewalk. Um, as you can see on those, I think they're in the neighborhood of three to $4,000 um on that section of that that landscaping in between. Um, and then also there's uh those driveway approaches um that they could look at getting their own contractor on. So there's there's different options. Obviously the curbon gutter because that ties into the road and with our contractor we don't allow that one for them to get their own contractor on that one.

Just another quick quick question. There was some discussion when we when we were discussing this a few weeks ago um about the uh you're planning on putting sewer down seven south, right? Yeah. Yeah. If we're going to reconstruct that road, we want to put uh the sewer line in there. in at that time because we don't we don't want to have ter But there's there's no pressing need for that sewer line right now. Is that correct? No one's going to connect to it.

No, but I would I would anticipate if that sewer line went in. I know uh property down at the end of Seven South. Uh that's stopped a lot of uh redevelopment of a property down at the end of Seven South because the sewer line wasn't in. Uh the reason why we'd be putting it in is if we're redoing that road, we're not going to be back in that road. nor do we want to run because that sewer line is deep and you would be tearing up a brand new road in order to get that that sewer line in. Right. But but like I say, there's no pressing need other than I guess a developer that maybe wants something, but there's no pressing need right now to to replace shoreline because it's not there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. That was my question. Thank you.

Y Okay. Question. Um it looks to me that you know obviously the seven south section is a significantly higher uh portion to the homeowner. Is that because there aren't curb gutter right now? Yeah, that's correct. There's no curb and gutter existing at this point there and they do have larger lots. Okay. What about the sidewalks? Because when I was looking there and when I was looking on the pictures at home, it looks like they've got sidewalk there. Is that sidewalk usable or is that going to have to be replaced? No. No. That sidewalk's offset from where the curb's going to sit. So, we have that seven foot landscape strip

uh that will go in there. So, yeah, the sidewalk is is fine. Um we were able to receive a grant to put in that sidewalk. So, there was no cost uh to the property owners for that sidewalk to go in. So, it's just curb and gutter. Yeah, just curb and gutter for those costs. Okay. We're not We're not removing the sidewalk. No. No. Council member Ericson on seven South. know I went out there and walked that and looked at it to the west as we as we go down towards Somefield. Um there was a letter in there about that cess the homeowners out there. What are we doing and show me out seven out to the west?

So you're saying west of 12 west? Yes. Is that right? Okay. Um, so through this section, um, right through here would just be Kurban gutter as well as along the school's property. I'm saying up in Somerfield area. Yeah. Oh, so going out Somerfield. So Somerfield just um I believe I mean we'd be redoing the road, but uh I believe that they have some sidewalk that's in poor shape that needs to be repl. Yeah. See, that's that's one area I was trying to figure out because that's a fairly new subdivision, fairly new sidewalk. Yeah. And is there curb and gutter there already? Yeah, curbon gutters already.

Okay. That's why I didn't So, it's just a sidewalk area. Yeah. And um so, yeah, I think that's what my understanding is is that they went out and there was a a section or two of sidewalk that is in need of replacement. Okay. Yes, Council Member Johnson. Yes. Well, I mean, I live right there, so I guess I don't understand what the criteria is because that is not in bad shape compared to so many other places in the city. I mean, and that subdivision is not very old. So, I just think sometimes we're indiscriminately charging for things that don't need to be replaced. Well, I would say let's let's go out and take a look at it. I live by it, so I've looked at it. You went and saw the exact spot that they

I don't see anything that looks like it needs to be replaced to me. Yeah. So, I would say let's go take a look at it. I mean, we're happy always to go back and re-review with a property owner. So, that's that's not a problem, but there is our criteria that's online that lays out here's the replacement criteria. Yeah. I'm just saying sometimes I don't see the fit there. That's all I'm saying. I don't see the fit between what the criteria is and what is being replaced.

Yeah. And if that's the case, then then yeah, we I mean anytime if if it doesn't meet the criteria, then we're happy to pull that off. So, absolutely, we're happy to take a look at it uh with property owners and and re-evaluate with them there and and show them here's what we're looking at and here's the criteria on that. Yes, council member.

So, on the I do have some concern on the 12% administrative fee. I I think that that's some area we could possibly look at. I know we're hitting some of these homeowners very high. Uh, that's something I think we could possibly absorb in some and not hit them with another 12%. I know that's where we come up with our fees for our our divisions to work on, but that's something I'd like to look at. I do want to address that we do have this committee. I wish it had been going on a year ago to address on some of the concerns we brought that was brought up tonight on reevaluating that and we're definitely looking at that very heavily on what we could do different. uh that we don't have every every year come up with the same thing and could we do some things different be and make better for the citizens. So I have no problem looking at some things that we could do better. Maybe even split this up a little bit. I'd like to have some more concerns about why we have to have seven South right now other than maybe that we're putting that sewer line down and the fees are going to go way up. Uh there are big lots out there so I don't mind readressing some of that. If if we if there's a need to get that sewer line put in, um I could we put that in and then then just patch there's nothing driving it at at this point. Right. The thing that's driving the sewer line going in is reconstruction of that road.

So there isn't we don't have someone that's saying, "Hey, we need this sewer line uh to put in." So So definitely the sewer line isn't isn't driving. It's just saying, "Here's a section of the road that's in bad shape. if we're going to be in there reconstructing that road, we want to get that sewer line in so we're not back in, right? Um on that road. So that's that's really on that section of Seventh South, right? So when I when I talk about the sewer line and the section of Seventh South is just the section from West going east. So that's really the the section that we're talking about with that sewer line put in. Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay. Yes, council member.

I agree with uh Council Member Erikson that about the administration fee. That seems like we can maybe figure out a way to absorb that. That just seems um that that's something that we could look into. And I also agree that that we might need to split this apart and to re-evaluate this and to this is I this is something that the residents have been coming to us for years that this is something that they can't do and I think we really need to like sister uh like council member Johnson is saying that we need to listen to them and figure out a different way forward and so um I agree that we need to um maybe what other things have been proposed that we need to look into that a little more about splitting it up and and the administration fee.

Okay. Um yes, go ahead. if you he could just one more time help us some of the some there's some concern that we've got so much money that we just don't know what to do with it and help us understand from your point of view what why we can't afford to do do it all without passing a a a a bond if I mean do we have all the money that No, we don't we don't get enough money every year.

So I can I can say that because I've visited with Matt on that. So yes, do we have some other money? Is there different accounts that money is is in? Yeah, there there is. Um and every year I get with Matt and say, "Okay, how much how much money can we spend this year?" Right. And so we try and look at that and forecast out what those costs are. So I get with Matt and we do the five-year capital improvement plan on that and there's always more than what we have funds available for over that fiveyear period. Um so we could increase and do more and that's what we've been doing as I've talked with Matt and said okay how much do we have? Do we have do I have two and a half million? That's generally where we've been sitting. But as Matt forecasts out, right, we're going to eat through those extra funds and then we're going to be out. And there's other things that can come up um with streets that you're going to have to figure out a way to pay for or we just are go go into repair mode and we don't um fix those streets like we want to do. So So yeah, it's there is some things I mean I can have Matt. Yeah.

Talk a little bit about that. But so basically what you're saying is the carryover that we're that we we carry over in street occasionally or is is is to pay for future uh construction, right? Yep. And so we're going to continue to carry over some funds, but we're going to use those funds up as we go forward with different projects over the next 5 to 10 years. Yeah. So we'll just be eating into those funds. Now, we could we could do a a $5 million, right, and do a bunch more streets with that. Um, but yeah, you're you're eventually going to eat into those funds and those funds, right, there's not as much funds coming in

on that. So, well, and what one of the challenges, right, is everything just keeps getting more and more expensive and our revenues aren't going up as fast as the expenses. And so so you're really you're really deferring those projects longer and longer and longer. And I think what is Baron's chart that you're your average replacement of a street is out between what is it 50 something? Yeah. Over 50 years.

50 to 60 years, right? And and that's another issue is I mean if you're not getting in and trying to replace those streets, number one, you know, they're not good streets and people don't like that. Number two, they're they're really expensive to even maintain. You start to get a lot more potholes. And so now you have a lot more maintenance going on on those streets, etc. And then as you get damage on curbon gutters that you're not getting back and improving, the water is getting up underneath and ruining that street. And so, so I mean really what you're trying to do is is minimize that life cycle of the street instead of pushing it out farther and farther and farther which just gets more costly because we know that prices continue to climb and they climb at a much faster rate than the revenues that are coming in.

Thank you. Yes. Mayor, could I respond?

Yes. Oh, go ahead. I'd like to respond since I know Council Member Ericen, you were probably talking about my comment and I I I didn't say that we have more money than we know what to do with. That's that's not what I said. So, so that's misrepresenting my comment. Um I just wanted to point out that it says right here the property owner share is $671,000. So, what I meant was on a $und00 million budget, that's a very small portion for us as a city, but for the residents, some of them have a $22,000 bill. So, that's what I was saying. We spend more money than that on the tabernacle some years in our budget. So, that's what I was pointing out. It doesn't matter. We set the budget and we pull from our general fund. We could put more money in our streets from our general fund if we chose to. So, that's what I'm saying. We actually have been elected to set the budget. So we get to choose what we use our money on. And so to just throw up our hands and say money's not there, I feel that that is a disingenuous statement because we could choose to prioritize different things. That's what I meant.

Well, you're you're correct. It is a matter of prioritization. Um, but I'm I guess I'm not sure how many of our residents would want us to just let the tabernacle fall apart either. I mean, you know, we got to we kind of got to do what we have to do and you know, and different things and and and you're right, it it's priorities, you know, and so that the reason we that we do the less is just to try to make our streets funds go further. Um, you know, by sharing the cost and and I get it. I mean, I I know those those are big amounts, but I I'm wondering if we were to look at this and say, is there something that we can do, you know, like some cost cutting um you know, the there's some numbers here like for the landscaping if we were to just take those out of the L and let folks do whatever they want with the with that portion of the the strip out there. I mean, you can do some fairly inexpensive things that way. You know, just put some rock in there or something like that and, you know, try to cut some of those costs out of there. And and I don't know, maybe if if we feel like it would be helpful to the residents, we could even put this section of it off a year or two if it's not pressing for us and be able to let people know that it's coming up with a little bit more time. you know, you do have a couple of years, like I mentioned before, uh, to save some money, but maybe if we had another year or two added on to that so that folks know, uh, you know, maybe that would be helpful, too. Yes, Council Member Exon.

Yes. And I think that's something we definitely need to look at. That's why I brought up the 12% administrative fee and possibly landscaping. I think we need to kind of reevaluate this. We definitely heard from the seventh South patrons out there that talked about the burden that's going to and we hear that from every every LI but we did address this last year in fact the year before that we need to communicate with the citizens better on future. I think we need to look at you know three years out of sending those letters out not three months. Uh let's communicate that back to citizens saying we're going to have come into your street three years be be prepared for this understanding that our budgets are very tight. I I mean we set through two weeks of budgets and there's not money to set them and come up with that. I just was in a meeting last week that the state's cutting us almost a million dollars from our street department budget.

Yeah. That's going to come down this next year. A million dollars gone. So, we definitely need to continue to keep up on our streets, but it is a b big burden for these citizens and I think we can maybe hold off on Senate South a little bit, figure out the rest of these, come back on this, readress it because they're a lot bigger lots, maybe give them a little bit more time and see what we can do to help. May I uh make some comments? Yes. Council, um Keith, I know this is this is a dream. I know we were talking about uh we we talk about maybe sometimes Seventh South going all the way either over the freeway, under the freeway, whatever it might be, right? Yep.

So, I'm I'm thinking from the perspective of of of future looking at it and saying, you know, can we wait? Can we wait for that sewer to go in? Can we wait? Let's figure out let's let's look long term and say, "Yeah, you know what? there's a very very good chance that we're gonna ultimately put a bridge going across here and then we can at that time we can put in the sewer, put in the road, etc. Right? So that's just I know that's and I and I apologize for putting a dream out there. Okay. But but uh but I think I I think it's important to look at the other comment that was made and and I I I actually agreed with the comment. um you have uh 1 2 3 four five six seven homeowners plus the culdesacs that are using that road and someone said most of that road is being used by those people that that that are in that apartment building right on on Countryside Avenue whatever that is there and are are they participating in this right will they ever partic because because they are apartment dwellers right will it and yet they're using the road day in and day out, right? So, I think we have to come up with a way to say, "No, this has got to be fair to them and everybody es especially um those that dwell in those apartments that um you know have no skin in the game." So, I I um I feel for that. the the other I I'd like to just get some clarification and and this is just ignorance by the way. Uh on this you have uh sidewalk driveways and it's eligible and then sidewalk non noteligible. Um what's the difference between eligible and not eligible? What are we dealing with there?

Uh so some of that deals around the ADA, right? If it's in or out. And so if it's got ADA accessible or Right. So that's where the sidewalk goes right up against and the driveway and the sidewalk are the same on there. And so that's that's where that comes into play. Okay. Generally is when we're looking at that.

All right. The Thank you. Appreciate that. The the other thing again um going back to similar comments have been made here. There are some things in here that I look at. I'm I'm a I'm a concrete guy, right? So, um, uh, we're we've got concrete sealer in here. And you go, you know, that ought to be an option for them as to whether or not they want to put seal their concrete or not, right? And so you go, are we going to do that? Um, can I speak to that one? What's that? Can I speak to that one? Oh, yeah. Yeah, please.

Um, so we didn't used to require sealant on the concrete, right? and we found that the concrete was started spalling and the contractor was coming in and warranting it and we're seeing those prices go up and the sealant has since lowered those sidewalk sections that needed to be warrantied on there. So, it's been a a direct benefit uh because of the concrete in this area. Um, and so that's why we went to the sealant on there because of that because it helps protect the concrete. And so I mean I get I get your point is like should this be an option but it's one of those things that I know our whoever gets the contract on it would probably be severely concerned because of our weather and because of the the spalling that happens to that concrete where that sealant has really kind of helped stop that. In fact, a lot of times they're they're now recommending that that sealant should probably be put on maybe every five years to protect the concrete. again and I I I understand that by the way u uh but ultimately it it's not a quote unquote necessity right when we look at it. Um we also have some areas where you have reinforced steel versus non-reinforced some that don't have reinforced steel and I'm going okay from my perspective at all should have reinforced steel but but um there's some who are have it and then some who don't. So, I guess my my issue with it is um are we looking across and saying uh you know, isn't there's a reason for the reinforced steel on driveway?

Yeah. So, it's it's not in your typical residential driveway, right? We don't put that cost in there. It's really when we're looking into commercial areas where our garbage trucks are going to be rolling in and out to pick up three yard bins uh to reinforce because of those heavy loads that are going to be driving across it versus just a car. Okay, one more. Yeah. Um, uh, we've got, uh, two neighborhoods, one more here, a little partial, where they're going to be charged $3,500 for sanitary service rec uh, reconnection, right? So, you must be putting new sewer in.

And again, from that perspective, okay, we're going to we're asking them to pay for the curb. We're asking them to pay for the sidewalk. They're asking we're asking them to pay for their uh for their entry into their into their driveways. Um why are we asking them to pay for their their for us to reconnect their sewer um when they've already I'm assuming everybody who lives on Ash and forth already have sewer. Yeah. No, that's a great question. So, so what we've got is we have old sewer lines that are routinely failing

uh that are like an orange B. So, the old style and those those routinely fail and the last thing we want to do is put in a brand new road and then have to have the homeowner because the homeowner's responsible for that service line to our main line. Okay? And so, if that homeowner has to come back in because their sewer line failed and once again, we're not going to be back in these streets potentially for 50 years, right? The worst thing you can do is have someone come in and cut that road,

right? And so, and it's far cheaper when I'm reconstructing that road to redo. And we only take that sewer line from the main line to the back of the curb because that's the area we as a city we want to protect. We're not taking it all the way to their house through their yard. And so, we're really just trying to protect our roadways because we know that those sewer lines are suspected fail. Now, if the sewer line is a new PVC line, we're not we're not reconnecting or going back in, right? So, we're we're looking and trying to analyze and say, is this service line in good enough shape, right, of new material that it's going to last? And if it's going to last, we're not we're not coming in to reconnect. That that would be taken off of that one.

Yes. So, again, if if you look at some of these numbers, right? So, somebody has a 10,41 and you take off 3,500 bucks, right? Off, you know, immediately brings it brings it down.

Oh, yeah. Size. So, so I I guess again as we're as we're looking at this, we we've it's already been mentioned. Let's take a look at our engineering costs, right? Let's look at this sanitary sewer uh service reconnection and say, is this something that we out of the budgets that we have could pay for, right? Um, make it make it so that um the the uh the homeowner is not having to pay for something that they never ever thought they were going to have to pay for. Right? As a homeowner, I figured sooner or later I'm going to have to replace my sidewalk, but I'm never thinking about, oh gosh, I'm going to have to reconnect my sewer system. Right? So, anyway, just just a thought on that. What's the possibility? What's the possibility of us uh taking that $3,500 charge and saying, "Yeah, we're going to put a new sewer in and and we're going to we're going to include that as part of our cost uh for that." So, I

I don't think that really affects any of these folks, though. Uh you know, the ones on Seventh South that have the biggest bills because they don't am I am I missing that? They don't have that sewer connection because they're on their own sewers, right? Yeah, they're on septic out on Seven South is on on septic. Now, yeah, the ones on uh Birch, I think those I think majority of those are in backyards, so that wouldn't be a a bill on that one. But if when you look at Northwest, those could have some on there. Yeah. Um the concern or go ahead. I got a question to clarify. Just my understanding, we pay for the main line out to the edge of the curb, right?

No. No. So the sewer charging them right to the main line.

Yep. So, this the the property owner is responsible for their sewer service line to our main line. Now, some of the problems you're going to run into potentially, right, is just now are we looking at taking that over? We can't maintain those lines. It's the homeowner responsibility. So, if that line plugs, we're not right. Are we going to be responsible for the backup in their house? Now, if our main line plugs, yeah, then we we take that responsibility. But if there's service line plugs, right, and then if if we're taking over that responsibility to replace that that service line, then there could be some issues that we need to dive deeper in to make sure because we do not want to take over that responsibility of whatever the person puts down their their sewer line or if that sewer line collapsed or anything like that. I mean, I think that's the last thing you would want to take over. In fact, probably I crimp would probably weigh in on that. Yeah, that wouldn't be a good idea on that, too. And it's it's also Whoops. Council member Eric Ericson,

you just um from from I think listening to the to the citizens and you know, the concerns um from my point of view, I think seven South is something that can be put off. I don't think there's there's not a pressing need except for the I mean, the road is terrible. I understand the road is bad. The road is bad. But I guess, you know, if if they're willing to to to get by for another year or two, I would suggest that we pull Seven South out. Let's clarify that. Seven South from 12 West over to US 20.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Just clarifying because we seven south is a bigger section than just that. And and in that is are there is there some improvement of that intersection that's going to take place? Um yeah. So we're we're looking at that right as as the the new developments come online. Um there's some other uh

but that's not included in the LI. I mean we wouldn't be doing that this summer. No. Okay. Well then, yeah, I would I would I would recommend that we pull the seventh South from 12th West to Highway 20 for this year. I I it needs to be done. It's something that's going to have to be addressed sometime in the next year or two. That road is just going to have to be redone. And when that's done, then I think it's it's it needs we we should put the sewer in. We should we just going to have to do what we what we need to do. But for now, I think I think we can get by without that one. Um, the others, we've got sewer issues, we've got sewer line issues that have to be addressed. I think I think would would would be I I would I would recommend that we go go as is with the other three sections just because there are some issues that we need to address by to tearing the road up. And so that would be my recommendation is that we that we go that route.

Now I as far as the engineering, you're going to have to help us understand whether that's something that's, you know, doable. I I Yeah, I mean obviously we can come back and say here's here's what these costs here's what where they go. Uh council, how would you like to pay for those costs? So Okay. Yeah, definitely. That's something we can address. Yep. Sharpen our pencil. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let us know what we can do. That would be my recommendation on this particular allies. So, okay. Yes, Council Member Reer.

Well, my my thoughts are, you know, I'm I'm very concerned about the cost of the citizens of this and you know, what goes around comes around. I live on a corner, so eventually I'm going to be I'm going to be one of those guys paying out. Yeah, you too. I know exactly. Uh we're going to be in that in this boat. And so, I think

man, I don't know. Uh, Council Member Johnson, I'm very intrigued by the idea of sharpening our pencil and looking at the budget. I don't I don't expect you to have an answer, but do you have I mean, can you just say, do do you have a specific thing that you're thinking of of cutting or what, you know what I mean? When I see the budget, I see the budget in about a thousand different pieces and and maybe I'm just missing the overall picture. So, it's difficult for me to say when I say the police budget to look at and say, "Well, we could probably, you know, and and again, I'm not I'm not being specific to know what what ones have to go to certain areas and what don't according to the law. I'm just I'm just giving you a whatif scenario." But, you know, it's hard for me to say, "Well, you know, there's $1,000 here we could trim and move to this and there's $1,000 here." And so, I was wondering from your perspective if you if you had some of those because I really would love to figure out a way for the city to take this over, too. I am right there with you. But uh and I'm and I'm willing to work there with you, too. If you've do we have some ideas of some specific uh line items or budgets that could be trimmed to help out the street budget because I really would like to get to get away from the LIS.

I think that it would take everyone wanting to look at it. Um looking at the general fund, I mean, we're going to have different ideas. I know mayor said the tabernacle, for me personally, that's not a priority to pump millions of dollars into the tabernacle. And I know some of you feel differently um about that. The romance theater, I think we could look at those things. Um we could look at the streets budget. Um and I know not all of it is discretionary like I already said. And I'm not saying that we maybe won't come up with all of it, but I have seen us come up regularly with, you know, $600,000 in a year for something that meant a lot to us. Um and that's that's what we're talking about here for these residents. um is you know somewhere around that amount of money which for us is small like I I've looked at a pie of the amount of our budget that it is it's this big you can't even see the line um but then for the residents it's a lot of it's a lot of money so yeah and and I know we've already talked about this before but Keith correct me if I'm wrong but some of this is is some of this new curbon gutter on any of this

and so we Last year we said the city was going to pay for the price of the curbon gutter but only if it's a replacement. So this is new curbon gutter for some people who were county residents never in their life dreamed that they would have to put in a curbon gutter. And now we're saying we won't help you at all with your curbon gutter but if it's a replacement curb gutter we'll pay for all of it. And you can see that that's a few thousand for some of these residents. And so I know we'd have to work it out because like mayor you've brought up a good point before that subdivisions when they're new they have to pay to put that in. But I would say people who buy those that's a choice and we're enforcing this on people and they don't have a choice. So I view it differently. So if we even paid the curb gutter for these people that have to have a new curb and gutter that would knock a couple thousand dollars off their bill right there.

So just uh rather I mayor is it okay? Yeah. Go ahead. Thank you. I u just so the citizens know I I just went through this in my neighborhood right and there were four of us and Adam's here and he could verify um Noah sorry I always call you know Adam Noah it's you're all good um you're all

sorry Noah um Jesus you know um but we just we just went through it last year we and and um uh I I want you to know that that on my entire street there were there were four of us who had to pay and I happened to my daughter lives across the street from me and I live there and I know that as my neighbors drove by they thought sucker you have to pay for it right um we've got to get to the point where everybody in the city is sharing equally year in year out your neighborhood may not get done this here. But you know that everybody everybody in the city is putting into it. When they drive by, they're saying, "Look at my tax dollar going here, right? It's being used to but but out of my pocket, right? I had to pay for two sidewalks, two two curbs, two and you know, I I I mean, I agree with I I I didn't have I don't have the money for that, but but we had to do it, right? Um so, we've got to come up with something. And again, and this is this is why I'm looking at this and saying, okay, we don't have a solution right now. We don't have another way of doing it. Um but but we've got to look at it and say, "Okay, where's where's the give and take? Where where can we sharpen the the the pencil and what are the absolute necessities that have to go in um until we can figure something out differently, right? But the reality is um a street shouldn't have to it it's it's if if if every member of the community were participating on this project right here six 688 what is it $660,000

divided by however many taxpayers we have in the city it would be pennies right so anyway I think we've got to get there now but my understanding also is we can't raise property taxes in the city by more than 3% a year per state law. Correct. So by raising is that help me understand just because I'm a little fuzzy because it's been sorry it's been a day. Um your microphone. Oh sorry there. No no you're fine. I apologize. Um so help me understand we can't raise the levy rate by more than 3% a year

or we can't change the amount that we're bringing in by more than 3% a year. Which is it? So it's the budget. So So you're not actually changing the levy rate by 3%. You're actually changing the budget. And so if your budget was a million dollars, you can go up 3% above on that. There are a few other things uh like new construction comes in, you get you get some added value there. Of course, you get the added service that you have to provide as well.

Same thing with annexation as well. Um, and in order for to do kind of what you're saying, everybody put in, right, it's it's called a permanent override. It has to be passed by the voters with a super majority. 2/3 2/3. And um I mean that would be the way to to do it, right? Ideally, in a perfect world, assuming it could actually pass, right?

So So just, you know, to kind of finish that thought, Bill, I'm right there with you. I think that is what we need to do. So, is there any way other way to do that other than to apply for uh levy override and and shoot for that 2/3? You know, we can sharpen our pencils and sharpen our pencils, but we can just not improve the roads. We can do less. That's about the only other way. And it's not the we're paying for the roads, it's the sidewalk,

right? So, so you could you could disentangle that too. It doesn't have to be that every time you do a road you do the sidewalks. A council decided that years ago and we have kept that as our policy. So, I'm just saying it's not like that h doesn't have to happen. It's just the way we do it.

Well, I don't think it is. In our in our neighborhood, they didn't take out all this. They they they they and by the way, they did a beautiful job. beautiful. Uh they took out the the curb and gutter that was in bad shape and and and uh leaning the wrong way. Um you know that wasn't ADA appropriate and so on and and so unfortunately it was it was four homes out of every home on my street and so it's my house, my daughter's house, my next door neighbor's house on my street. Um, so, so yeah, it isn't I don't think I don't I don't think it's a law. No, it's our policy. You can ask

the law the law is we have to redo the corners. So, they ADA accessible corners, right? Right. So, when we reconstruct a road, we got to do the ADA corners. That's that's the law. Yeah.

Um, now the the other aspects. Yeah. Um, Council Member Johnson is correct. Um, some of the things you play with with that though is we're not going to be back in. They'll continue to deteriorate. There'll be problems. Do we have mailboxes that are in the way? Do we have uh individuals in wheelchairs and driveway approaches are steep? So, there's there's things in there that that you probably want to consider, right? I mean, obviously cost is a definitely a consideration, but there's also the usability of that sidewalk. I mean years ago we had lots of of things and when I say years ago like decades ago um that where sidewalks were against the curb all the mailboxes are right in the middle of the sidewalk and so people getting around those mailboxes is very difficult. Right? If you're in a wheelchair trying to get around that doesn't work. And then if you have a steep driveway access approach and you're in a wheelchair I would recommend if you ever have a chance try it. I've done it. um just so they kind of give you a feel of what it's like to be in a wheelchair and trying to navigate that. So there are some things that you need to take into consideration as as well. But obviously cost is one of those things.

I'd like I'd like to I'm sorry. I'd like to propose that we we consider what our president suggested that we eliminate seven South for now. Let's worry about it. U later on again and maybe even as we look at the dream and then um and then uh sharpen our pencil on the other three areas and then come back and then just take a look at it and go from there. Yes, Spencer. Go ahead.

Quickly again. And I think there's just there's been some definitions thrown out and some the ways that we describe this um as a tax. I think it's important to note for the record that again anything that's as unpopular as this um has been challenged legally a number of times and they've been challenged. They say, "Hey, this is a illegal tax." The court doesn't there's long-held precedent that's been challenged over and over. in the standing with the Idaho Supreme Court is this is not deemed or designated a tax. The word that they use, the term that they use is a special benefit. Which when we say that out loud, some of them say, "Oh, oh, really? A special benefit?" Now, it was mentioned in some of the public comment where they said, "Hey, this is hitting me on two spots because I'm going to have to pay this and then because it adds value to my property, I'm going to have to pay the added property tax." Again, the court their interpretation and how they've looked at it is that value is being added to your property. So, it is a special benefit to your property and equity that then the owner assumes. And so, that's the holding from a tax. So, when we refer to it as a tax, again, we can talk about a levy override, which would increase taxes, but again, this isn't a tax that we are assessing. The legal term is a special benefit to their property.

Thank you. Thank you for that clarification. I appreciate that. Mayor comment of Erikson and then Johnson.

So I I agree that maybe we need to look at removing 7 South from 12 West to the 20 uh reevaluate that knowing that's probably going to come back up. That road needs to be fixed. I walked down it. I definitely seen that we definitely need to do something about it. Understanding that the values very very heavy on those citizens. But I also think we need to let our let our uh committee that we develop finally to work on this next year hopefully next year or before that hopefully before that they come up with better ideas better ways that we maybe can address that can solve a lot of this. Uh but I think we got to give that committee some time frame. We it's been three weeks or two weeks. That's not long enough. We got to give them some time to relook at other cities, other ways they do it and and address that. But I agree that we need to we got to move on some of these, but seventh South probably could wait.

Okay, Council Member Johnson.

Um, my comment goes back to why I brought up that policy because I just I think we should be careful in our language because it's not that the streets are going to turn to ruin because we are paying for the streets. That was the only reason I wanted to clarify that is that the residents are not paying for the streets. The city's paying for the streets. And so even if we didn't make them pay for their new sidewalk, we could still do the streets. I'm not saying that's the smartest move. I was just clarifying that it's not that the streets will turn to to ruin because we as a city are paying for those streets with our tax dollars. Um and then I did want to point out that some of the other bills are high. Like I can see one that's 21,000 on Ash Avenue. Um and so some of some of those other streets I I am happy with the idea of waiting um on the one, but that some of the others are high. Just want to point that out.

Yeah. There's there are large lots on Ash as well.

Yeah. Okay. So it sounds like the council thought is to uh take 7th South. Uh I guess we'd call it east 7th South. I don't know if that's really what east of 12 West, right? at 7 east of 12 off of this L. And um so then do we want to just uh go ahead and move forward with the rest of it or what are what are your thoughts, council, as far as the the rest of it? I would I would suggest we do again the need is there because there are sewer issues that need to be addressed and so the road needs to be done. And when we do that, I've I'm huge proponent of doing everything right, doing the curb and gutter, doing the sidewalk that needs to be done so we don't have to come back and redo it and so and and the and the you know the stubouts for the for the um sewer I think need to be done when we got this road torn up. So my my thought is these the three the the three others because of the need um for this for the for the poor roads and the sewer and and and issues with drainage on particularly on Birch. I just think I think we should go ahead with the other three my in my opinion.

Okay. Is that the general consensus council member? I just have a clarification. So, if we pass those, if we do the L for those three, but we keep talking about going back and and sharpening our pencils and all that, what is how does that work? And if we does that, my question make sense like that that seems to be a consensus, but I'm not sure how that works if we approve it.

Um, so some of that I'll just take a stab at it. Um, is uh some of that revolves around just the council, right? So at at the end, the council will set the interest rate uh that goes with that. So obviously Matt would recommend and say here's here's what we think that interest rate, right? And council would adopt that interest rate. Uh same on some of these these other fees, right? That they could be recommended. Right now these these are all estimates. Okay. So we want to make sure everyone knows that these are estimates. We don't have official bids.

Um hopefully the bids would come in lower. Yeah. So that that's something that that can be taken into consideration uh with council I believe at a later date um as far as what those fees just like um we look at those interest rates those that choose to pay it over a 10-year period with those interest rates

and and quick just a quick clarification the reason why because you know I've obviously heard some criticism the reason why the city charges interest is because this these are funds that the city has saved for other projects or things that are off in the future that we're using to help out the homeowner and we would be earning interest on those funds. Is that that's the reasoning why just to make sure I understand it correctly and that maybe others can understand.

Yeah, I can. Yeah, let me address that. And then the interest rate. So when you guys changed the policy last time, so about a year ago, um you know, we we keep finance tries to keep track internally of what these decisions are and you had basically said have the interest rate go down to 3.5%. And so internally we we wrote up a policy that says that that would be the rate and that's much lower than what it had been. It had been between five and a half to 6% even on the most recent ones before that. Um, and then what? Sorry, what was your other question? Um, excuse me. Um, the money we

The reason that that I remember understanding as to why we were charging interest is because we could have that money in the bank or in investments and earning money for our own for the city's future projects. Yeah. And I can Yeah. And there's a couple reasons. One, excuse me.

We don't have an endless amount of money. And so if if we didn't have enough money internally to do it, we would actually have to sell warrants and bonds and you would not get three and a half percent interest. You would probably be getting more in the market, right? Five to six and a half%. And so what we did is we felt like there needs to be some interest because we want to incentivize people to pay it off so that there's other money available to continue to offer that at that lower rate. And so that was part of it. And then internally the policy is if there is any money left at the end which you'd be surprised we've closed out I think two this year there was a total of like 15,000 if I remember right left we split it half goes to streets half goes to the general fund and so I mean it it's not typically as big a number as you think but anyways yeah because a lot of people honestly pay it off and then a lot of people they don't go the full 10 years because people make decisions to refinance their house for example, right? As interest rates drop a lot of people refinance their house and they'll just include it or they move and when they move uh the title companies require it to just be paid off as part of the transaction. So

thank you for that clarification. I appreciate it. Okay. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Could I say one more thing? Um, I know I have the minority opinion here, but I just wanted to

say that if I was a resident on one of the other streets, I would be disappointed if my bill was high that it was still going to be in effect for me. Um, and then last year, like I already said, we had the same situation and we said, we are going to figure out, we are going to see if there's another way, but then we did nothing for an entire year. So, I think if we postponed the L, that would put the fire under us. if we said we're going to postpone these leds until we investigate and see if there really is a better way. And then if there's not, okay, that's what we have to do. But when we pass it and then we forget about it for another year, then nothing ever changes. So for me, it's still going to be a no because I think we should actually look into this. And if we keep passing them, you know, we're struggling to actually accomplish that. So that's my that's my thought there. Keith, what what kind of time frame are we looking at that this needs to be approved if we're going to get the work done because obviously

summertime is when Yeah. I mean, if we're going to do any construction this year, this we've got to we got to have this approval when we go out to bid. So, so yeah. So, we need to move forward on this. I I would say we don't want to delay. Okay. This it would be a year postponement if we postponed that. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. And I think we need to be aware of that we postponed birch last year already. It's in fact I think two years uh that we're starting if we're if we're going into the sewer. We're going into redoing this and we have to get the the sewer replaced. We got to do this plain and simple. We can't just keep pushing this off. It's not just the streets. It's sewer. Everything else that goes on with the with that infrastructure. Um and I I want to reiterate on seventh South. looking at that. We talked about that. That's something we felt like that that didn't need to be did done right now. It's probably next year or the year after, but we'll give them a little bit more time. We'll re-evaluate some of this. We did get this the committee set up. I think that the committee will come up with some ideas within the next year that will help us out. I still feel like we need to move forward on that. It's not because their fees were so high. It's because we could hold off on that. other parts of sewer and other things that need to be done now. So,

yeah. And I'm I mean, I would encourage you as council members to maybe not necessarily even wait for committee meetings or whatever. Um, investigate whatever you can find out on your own, too. I mean, that's really what the committee is going to have to do is just try to dig in and look at what other cities do and and I think what mainly what we'll find out is they they've either got enough money in their general fund because they they collect more or they pass a a levy and and maybe that's one of the maybe that's what we look at say, okay, are people tired enough of less that they would be willing to vote for a streets bond to be able to pay for it? you know, that that would probably be my guess is that would probably be the the solution that we would come up with. I'm not saying that's the only thing, but that would probably be um I mean, that's a lot of people have suggested, you know, let's have everybody citywide pay for it instead of just the people that are, you know, that are being affected by it. So, I I think that's probably one of the main ideas that will come up, but there there may be others. I' I have actually been looking myself. I've looked into I've looked online. I've looked in some magazines and read some articles about the way some other cities do it and um there I haven't really seen anything that is much better to be honest with you. But yeah.

Are you ready for a motion? I am. Yes. Yeah. I I will move that we go forward with local improvement district 54 excluding 7th south uh from 12th west to highway 20. Um and with the caveat that we will look at the administrative fees and the um sewer sewer fees was it the sewer sewer connection but whatever we can do to minimize the cost

to the homeowner uh in but but move forward as as stated at this time. That's my motion. Different. So, which one is it's is it 54 or 55? This paper says 55. This paper says 54. Yeah, we got two different ones, but whichever one it is. Sorry, 55. Okay, 55. Okay, so it's written wrong. Thanks for clarifying that. No, that's okay. It's a It's good to have the right number there. That's That's good catch. Okay, so there is So, there is a motion on the table. Is there a second to that motion? I

I second then according as has been suggested. as suggested by council president Ericson. All right. So there's a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion on the motion before we move before we vote? Hearing none. All in favor? I I Any opposed? No.

Okay. That uh motion carries 5 to one. So we will go ahead and move forward with this. And um as as Keith said uh these are estimates hopefully as in the past most of them come in lower than what they have what they're estimated on here. That's not always the case but it has often been the case. So we we always hope for that. Um okay. Thank you very much. Thank you all for your input. We appreciate it. Thank you for the discussion. and it's been good discussion and um I think we're going to move forward and try to do what we can to figure out a better way. Um it's it's it's actually kind of a a difficult problem. So, but but we will tackle it the best we can. Okay.

Question. Yes, you sure may. You had mentioned Sorry. Can I ask you to come to the mic just because we can't hear you for a recording if you're out there? Yeah, you had mentioned that laying down a road you expect it to last 50 years and so that No, no, let me clarify that. I do not expect it to last 50 years. Okay. Unfortunately, that's our life cycles. So, generally on a road street construction, your general rule of thumb is you look at a 20-y year life cycle, okay, with a street. Okay.

Um, we have to routinely push ours 50 years because of the budget that we have for street reconstruction. So, but you like if this comes up next year or then or in two years or whenever I mean it's going to come. It's looming. Um you're wanting to put the sewer which none of us need and then a brand new road and so we have to pay our part on that and then let's say my my septic fails in seven years. I have to pay again to hook into it. Yeah. So you would pay and tear up the road. That's no only.

No, because we would look at areas where we'd stub out, right? So, as we look at those homes, generally we try and stub out so you're not trying having to dig up for that sewer line. Okay. So, yeah. So, we try and plan ahead. No, that's that's a good question. So, we try and plan ahead and depending on on what's happening, we try and look to say, okay, where do we need to put stubouts in? So, that way at a future date when it does need to be tied into from the homeowner, the connection, it's already there. But there are some fees that go with connecting into the sewer because there's costs that that go with that.

Yes. No. What I had heard you talk about that other place where they had to the reconnection and you didn't want them digging up the road and I'm like, well, if they put the sewer there and I'm not using it and I need it in three or four years, I'm going to be digging up the road. So, okay. Thanks for clarifying that. Good question. Good question. Thank you for clarifying that. Okay. All right. Let us move on to uh see where are we? Item number six. Yeah. Oh yes. I I think this would be a great project citizen research for this some of our students to to jump on and and see what they can do. So

I just created one this last week and their conclusion was the only way is to put it on the ballot and try to get the levy override vote so that we can increase property tax. And maybe we want to do that. I mean some interesting ideas that'd be good to have because you know we always say well I didn't absolutely talk to you know then we'd know I'm okay with that and keep maybe people are sick enough that they don't increase okay all right let's continue on thank you all for your attendance here we're not done but uh you're you don't have to stay for the rest if you don't want to

so item number six on the agenda is our time for public comment. Uh if there's anyone who stuck around long enough that would like to make comments about something that is not on the agenda tonight, this is your time. So, is there anyone that would like to make any comments at this time? You know, you guys voted that. All right. Seeing none, then uh we will move on to item number seven, which is our committee reports. So, let's go ahead and uh let's just start down here on the far right with council member Erikson for your our committee reports, please. I'm gonna be really fast because Okay.

Uh my uh high school one, the board meeting will be next week. It was going to be tomorrow night, but they canceled until next week. And my other ones were cancelled. The airport board and the golf was moved to next month.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Johnson. Um so for parks, wreck and trails, um they have boy, you know, boys basketball, women's volleyball is going on right now. Um John says they're doing really well. There's a disc golf tournament on March 14th. If anyone wants to participate in that, they still have um space for that. Um the grand opening of the ice rink was on Monday. I missed it because I was out of town, but John said it was pretty decently attended. Um and then this is more of just an FYI. Um, I spoke to John about the ice rink. He says that the recck department is feeling like they're struggling to keep up with um, managing it right now. And so coming before us in the next few weeks is going to be u more of a discussion on on that. Um, there's been talk of hiring a private company to to manage it. Um, there's been talk of needing another full-time employee. So, I think that we should all be, you know, just thinking about this as an FYI so that we're prepared when that discussion comes up. Yeah. Yeah. And just just to add to that, Council Member Johnson, we did have a company. I've run into these folks at the National League of Cities conferences several times. And uh they're they're a company that manages uh a lot of different facilities all around the country. And so they came and looked at our facility and were there for the grand opening. And then we met with them at at length uh yesterday. and uh they're going to put together a proposal for us that we will bring to you to take a look at and see if that's something that we might want to consider. So, and you know, they'll they'll fill you on in. It'll be a full presentation at that time. So,

yeah. And then our committee, our L committee did meet um the one time and if there are any residents out there listening that want to be on that committee, I feel like we could benefit from having a few more residents since we're pretty low on numbers on the L committee. Yeah. And there's a form that they could fill out if they are interested. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. There is we're we're not we're not exclusive. If anyone else would like to be on it and uh you know help us to try to find a better way, we're certainly open to that. So, okay. All right. You done, Council Member Johnson? Is everything? Okay. Council member TJ.

Um the grants committee did not meet uh uh this last month, but we will be meeting again uh at the end of this month. uh the mayor's youth, they met and they made uh Valentine's for the members of the homestead and then they went over and they did a Valentine party there. Um the ADA oversight board, we are we are also looking for members to uh join that board. So if you know anybody who is interested in in being on that, please reach out. Uh the historical preservation committee, we met yesterday. Uh they are uh looking into uh helping find out information for the pump house as well as the um old seminary building. Uh they also are uh getting ready to help with founders day and uh and all the and they're going to be selling decals uh vinyl decals that will go on windows of uh homes that say 50 years. So if your home survived the flood, you can buy this decal and put it in your window during the this next summer when it's the flood 50. So um and then uh we also met today with the flood 50 committee and uh went over uh the budget and the different activities and uh for that and um and we also met with America 250. We've been really busy and uh we've been talking a lot about what that acceleration will look like and there'll be updates coming for that.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. And speaking of Founders Day, um you know, the uh the lighting the way ceremony that we wanted to do on March 14th, we've run into some snags. That's a a day is um is not going to work actually for several reasons. So, we're we're rescheduling that for Tuesday, March the 10th. Um I know I hopefully that's gives you enough time that if you're involved with you know young men, young women or anything like that. Um what I'd really like to do is if invite a lot of the uh youth groups to actually come to that and learn, you know, learn about Rexburg and the heritage and I think it'd be a really good activity for them. So anyway, that'll be Tuesday, March 10th. We'll probably start at 700 p.m. Uh and you'll hear a little bit more about that. We we're just kind of finalizing the details now. So,

will that be at the theater? Yeah, at the Romance Theater. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Council member Council President Ericson. Um I don't have a lot to report. Meppy has not met since we've uh last reported. Um uh was able to attend the u uh um open house for the for the skating rink. Um, I I just we we've just got a great facility there that's I think it's going to be a real great asset to the community. Um, and uh and uh well attended, lots of people there and so I think it was a great event.

Yeah. Yeah. They just they talked me into putting on a goalie suit and letting people shoot pucks at me and worked out pretty good until I took one right there where the pad was a little thinner and that hurt a little bit, but other than that it worked out okay. Yeah. And I didn't realize we had a We do have a local youth hockey team. Yeah, we did. I didn't realize that. So, yep. I think that'll grow. Yeah, as the night went on, it got uh crowded, more crowded, and more crowded and yeah, there were a couple hundred people crammed in there. So, it was a good event. Okay, Council Member Research.

Yeah, the Legacy Flight Museum. Uh we haven't met for uh quite some time, so nothing to report there. I've also got the new assignment also with the mayor's youth advisory, so I'm happy to meet with you guys. I know some of the kids. Uh, when do you guys meet? Just so I know. Uh, the Thursday second and fourth. Yeah, second and fourth Thursday at 4:00. 4:00 in this room. I just come to here. Yeah. Second and fourth Thursday at 4. Pretty sure. Let me check. Yeah, that's that's right.

All right. And then the only other thing I've got is it doesn't have anything to do with my committee responsibilities, but project citizen season is over for a few weeks for a second. And just thank you cuz I know that we've got so many kids that call all of you. Keith and Matt and you guys are just so helpful. I mean, the first and third.

Is it the first and third? Okay. Um, but you guys are just so helpful. And these kids are just starting to figure out how to interact with adults when it comes to realworld things like this. And so to have nice, happy people who are willing to spend a little time and a little effort to tell them what's what, it really matters. It really helps. And so I am I try to take the heat off you guys as much as possible. And I'm taking most of the interview a local government official thing. We just do that in my room now. So hopefully that's gone down a little. But the other stuff I I keep telling them I I think I don't think I've ever given him your numbers, you two, but I I certainly throw your name around a lot. and and just thank you to all the city workers that feel those calls and field those questions.

It is extremely helpful and the kids have a good experience. It's terrifying, but they have a good experience when they when they interact with with city employees and elected officials. So, thank you for Madison High School. You know, one thing I will say is the one I I attended u I don't know, three or four of them and uh they were very well done this year. uh even I think even better than some years they had information factual and correct and uh yeah I was pretty impressed with them. They they did a good job. Yeah, sometimes they can really dig in and do a great job. So Right. Okay. Thank you, Council Member Rigggins.

Yeah, we met uh Rexburg uh the urban renewal met today. Um a lot of stuff going on. Uh we the Rexburg Historical Society met with us. Um they're really concerned about the uh destruction of the seminary building uh that's on the uh the property that's being purchased. Um and so ideas were thrown out. We'll see what happens there. Um they uh approved an RF the uh uh to to put out an RFP for the school district property that will close in uh on April 31st. I think it is April 30th. Whatever it is, April 30th. And and um um so that'll go out and then um let's see, we're still working on uh the feasibility study for the west the west highway district that would be on the west side of Highway 20 there. Um we thought we'd have some information today, but we didn't. Um and um yeah, other than that, uh just uh waiting for a lot of answers so that we can uh figure out what we're going to be doing with that property in the property that the urban uh a the agency owns uh in the downtown area.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Council Member Wiggins. Appreciate that. Thank you all of you for the work you do on your committees. I know um that's important. Okay, let's go ahead and move to item number eight, which is our staff reports. We'll start with our finance report with our CFO, Mr. Matt Nielson. The uh treasures report. I'll just uh I'll go just through the treasures report real fast and then if you guys want to get in and see the investments report, it's in there. Um, so really not I don't nothing really stood out that I feel like I need to spend too much time on, but we're about four months through the fiscal year. So about 33.3% would be the your budget through that. And we've actually spent about 17%. And so so that's kind of where we're at. Um, I'm really, you know, we're still closing out the fire. In fact, we just processed hopefully the last couple funds, closed those out this month in February. So, other than that, unless you've got specific questions, I probably won't spend too much time on this.

Anybody have any specific questions about budget report? Okay. Mer just quick. How we doing with the with the fire department deal? Is that kind of worked its way through already?

Yeah. Yeah. I I feel like it is. Um we charged them a little bit of an overhead for the first quarter and Cory and Troy actually came over and met with me last week on that and I explained, you know, why there was still costs continuing and why some of them will continue and I think they felt pretty pretty good about the conversation after they left and it sounds like uh we'll get that paid. they'll get their bill paid and we'll pay them to close out some of those funds. And so, but yeah, other than that, I haven't heard a whole lot. Maybe the mayor's heard more where he's on that board. No, I haven't I haven't heard any any negative comments or anything. So,

there there will still be some in in the budget cycle, there'll still be some something we need to look at as far as the fire department.

Yeah. So what will happen is right now what we do is we have a a fund transfer from fund 01 that goes into fund 17 instead of a fund transfer it actually will be a contribution made towards the joint venture and I've already created new accounts for that and so I'll go through that with you and then I actually did write up um a recommendation for a new budget process um not saying that's finished but but it's a budget process that I actually reviewed it with the county with Kim Mir and then we provided that I went through it with Corey and Troyce last week and basically asked that it be put on their agenda as something to discuss and then maybe even do an amendment uh to the agreement until we can get a new agreement. And really the approach on that is that as they go through the budget process, they'll bring in, you know, what their recommendations are through that board meeting process. Um and then it would actually go back to the three respective governing boards. So the city council being one of those. And then we would be able to tell them, you know, what we can afford in terms of dollar increase or percentage increase and go back and say, "Hey, we can't quite afford all this. Maybe we can do a 5%. Rework your budget to keep it within those targeted amounts." If that makes sense. And so yeah.

Okay. Okay.

All right. Let me let me go to the next item. There's there's a lot to talk about here. Um so this is this is the budget calendar. And so we really I'm already started on the fiscal year 27 budget as of last week. And uh so I'm working through the capital improvement plans getting ready to send those out to departments. And what happens is they they actually send back their capital improvement um recommendations for five years. And so we're actually we're trying to look five years ahead right as we do that. And then um we incorporate of course just the next year's request into the fiscal year 27. But having that fiveyear looks just important because it helps me to look at the the savings like how is it going to be funded? You know, how do we finance it? how do we raise the money for it? Those kind of things. Um, and then I'm also asking them if they have any new personnel requests that they have to get those back to me along with the capital improvement plans by March 13th. Um, couple things that I want to talk about in yellow are kind of the main things. So, that top one uh says we we actually need to set a public hearing date. We actually have until April 30th. you have to notify the clerk. Looking at the calendar, I felt like July 15th would be the best date for that. So that's your second meeting in July. We did the same thing last year and I actually think it was quite helpful because we used to do it the first one in July and it's just really difficult because we don't have oftentimes all of our revenue forecasting back and and usually who we're waiting from is the state. We're waiting for the the state property tax and road amounts and so so

anyways if if you guys and just jump in if you have questions and then the other thing is um and I I sent this out to council member Eric Ericson. Um, we're wondering if if you guys are good with doing a the drive around on April 10th starting at 9:00 a.m. You know, we can look at other dates, but that was the date we wanted to throw out to you. That's like spring break, is that? Spring break starts the 13th. So, some people might I I don't know. I I don't know our plans yet. That's just as a consideration because I know later. Well, the 17th is spring break, too.

You spring break begins on that Monday. It starts the 13th. 13th through the 17th. So, it starts the afternoon 10th. Spring break. Oh, it's the 13th through 17th. I see. Do I mean, do you guys want to do it on Friday or is there do you want to do a different day? I mean, do you want to do it? Friday's best for me. Fridays are best. I mean, you could you can do it as early as you want. Um I mean, you can even do April 3rd if that's works for you. I'm going to be in Utah because of conference on the third. The 10th or the 3rd. The 3. Yeah,

I know. I I won't be able to cancel my classes if it's like I don't know how I don't know how I don't know what your schedule's like, but I'm just a Lily adjunct, so I I don't have as much I I don't have as much leeway. So, like if it was the 24th, I just couldn't do it because that's the first week of classes and I can't cancel my classes. You could do it the 10th. I could do it the 10th. So, we could probably just go ahead and do But I think Didn't you say you're going to be gone the 10th? You're gone the 10th? I can do the 17th. I could I know at spring break I don't know if everyone's gone. Do the 17th. 17th. I'm good for the 17th. You want to shoot for the 17th for now? I don't have anything planned yet. So, all right. Well, I just wanted to put it out there for anybody else who might have to plan it for a Saturday. Yeah.

Okay. Well, you're playing on the 17th. Then we always go somewhere, Justin. Great. That's temple closes. That is closed. I just remembered I actually don't teach on Friday. That's not I think the 24th teach on I don't teach on Friday. Okay. This coming semester. Oh, so maybe the 24th would be better for me. Yeah. Okay. April 24th be better for me. I might be in Washington moving my daughter. So, April 24th. April 24th. I don't know if that does that work for you the first week. That's fine. It's fine. I'll make it work. And it might be warmer. April 24th. On April 24th. On April 24th. Oh dear.

Oh gosh. There's always We'll have to drive you around by yourself when I can do that. Just give me the itinerary. Okay. So, so you want to shoot for 24th for now? Probably better. It seems like that's what worked for the majority. Okay. So, all right. It's It's going to be all always hard to match everybody's schedule. So,

and if you if you could if you've got some ideas and thoughts about what you'd like to see, where you'd like to go, you know, let me know and we'll um I've got a few ideas, but if you got some ideas and thoughts, let me know. Okay, let me let me talk about the next item, which is the cost of living. But before I jump into that, a couple things, especially for new council members. Um, as you look at the general fund, the general fund is hands down by far the hardest to balance. It always is every year. It has the most demands on it. And um one thing that we had after COVID, you would think after COVID that your reserves would have dropped, but they actually went up substantially because of all the federal grants that came in. And so just to give you kind of an idea of what is happening to that reserve, our policy is to try to keep that reserve in in between 25 and 33% in the general fund. In 2023, it it went to 44% mostly because of those those COVID grants, which was great. It allowed us to do a lot of projects. 2024, it dropped to 30%. 2025, it dropped to 29%. 2026, we set a budget that will drop it all the way down to 22%. And I and I will just tell you, you know, looking at forecasting sales tax and other things, um I I think it's just going to keep dropping. Um I think so too.

And so so I think that budgeting in the next five years is going to be far more difficult than the last five years. And so so that is just something to keep in mind. And the other thing is is you have to look at some of the in the rising costs, right? And so one of those as you look at just the cost of living and I'll just show you this real quick. So our policy that we've adopted honestly since I've worked here um so even before 2007 that shows on this chart has been that we use u an index to determine the cost of living adjustment for wages. um we have changed the index you know a little bit over the years and I'd have that noted on the far right but for the last six or seven years we've been using what we call the west region consumer price index so from January to January that index changed 2.73%. Um if you look at the prior years the year prior so the current year fiscal year 26 it was 2.42 42 before that was 3.33 and then you can see those COVID years were huge 6.28 and 7.74 so the good news I mean the good news is it's gotten back more to what's average or normal and so you can see the 10-year average is about 2.7 or sorry go down a little Deborah I can't quite see it 2.86 86 and so it's a little bit below that 10-year average. Um go down a little more and let me just kind of show the financial impact. So using using the fiscal year 26 wages, you can see that um those come out to about 12.6 million that the city pays. So, if we were to

adopt that 2.73, you're looking at a total increase of $344,000 in wage cost in the general fund, which accounts for about 60% of that. That's about $25,000. And so, you know, when you're looking at, you know, what's the dollar amount impacts, this is really the best way that I've been able to kind of show you that. And so, that gives you an idea. And so, so what I'm looking for is is your comfort level in me doing the payroll budget process utilizing that COLA amount, the 2.73. Help me understand that when when you said increase if adopted recommended by COLA and then increase in general fund. I don't understand those two numbers.

Okay. So So you're talking the 205 274. So So all I'm doing all I'm doing is the general fund paid wages using the fiscal year 26 budget is 7.5 million. I'm tsing that by 0.0273. Oh. Are you saying what's the difference between the 344? No. Why? Why? That's that's your total that's your total. You have budgets outside of the fund. So that includes streets, water, wastewater, etc. General fund would just be police and fire basically, right? No, it's a lot more than that. It's it's so the total the total of 12.6 million is citywide. That's every budget,

right? Um the general fund is I mean if you think of general fund I I can name them in order. I got them memor memorized. So you got building maintenance, you got HR, you got legal, you got you got economic development, finance. I can keep going if you want. Parks. Yeah. But I think what he's what we're getting at is the 344 is the increase in the total uh labor rates and the 205 is just the increase in the ones that come out of the general. That's correct. Yeah. So, so there's $5 million that's not paid out of the general fund. Five million correct some other I don't know where it comes from. Yeah. Is that a

building? So, you have building, water, street, all your public works. Yeah, I'm with you now. Okay. So, can just a question. Uh, so you're just you're just uh again multiplying the 2.73%, right? So, so that number actually that 344,000 actually is higher because your FICA goes up and right. Yeah. Yeah. So, you you'll have some increases in the benefit side as well. So, this is just wages. That's correct. Yeah. So, that that number I mean that number in Yeah. Yeah. And and and it's when I go through the payroll budgeting process, it will account for that in the benefits. Yep.

Okay. So, go back to the calendar for a minute. Um, sorry I'm hitting a lot of items here. So, the other thing, two things that are kind of a big deal is Percy, this one's a positive, I would say. So, Percy actually did quite well um last year. I thought I had the report here, but I'm not sure where it's at. But anyways, they they did quite well and so they were going to do rate increases and they were going to do that in July of 2026 and they have pushed those back to 2027. And so as you think about fiscal year 27, we'll have July, August, September in that mix. And so I will have to show a little increase for those four months in the payroll budget process. So keep that in mind. Now hopefully they'll defer them again. Uh but to give you an idea, at the end of 2025 they were 90 their funding ratio was 90.6%. In 2022 it was 82.66%. And so it's improved, right? And that's because return on investments has been quite good the last 18 months. Um so anyways, that one's important for you to understand because that is a pretty big benefit expense when those go up. It's an it's an increase to the employee and it's also an increase to the departments or the employer. The other thing that is a really big deal is the the payroll budgeting process for health insurance. And I sent you guys probably more than you wanted to see. I sent you kind of that that big spreadsheet um that kind of goes through forecast this. But I'm just going to kind of give you high level. I I probably won't even drill down into it for you unless you have specific questions, but I want you to be aware we've been meeting with our

broker about every two to three months. Um, the city of Rexburg has had terrible experience the last 12 months plus. Um, mostly due to dependence, just uh large claimants. And so so basically as you look at it, you know, we if you look at what Select Health has done, they've been paying out about at about 162 loss ratio, which means that they're paying out about 62% higher than what we're paying in in premiums. And so obviously they're they're going to come back with, hey, you need to raise we need to raise your premiums next year. Now, we're hopeful that those will drop because if if you think about it, the report they provide us is January of 25 through Jan J or December of 25. Well, our plan will go we won't quote it and probably till August. So hopefully we'll have seven good months uh to be determined. They could be just as bad, but hopefully they're better. Um, and hopefully they'll be able to not increase the rates as much. But what I did in my analysis is I assumed a 42% increase in medical and a 5% increase in dental. Our agent is saying best case is probably 35%. And so, so 42% may be a little lean. And if we were to do that right now, we are setting aside into a savings account about $367,000 a year. We would basically take that whole 367 and wipe it out. It would go down to about 3,000 a year. And we would have to turn around and increase what the

employee employer is paying by 22.5% and what the employee is paying by 26%. And we would also end up having the city have to cover about 86% of the total cost. Right now, we're trying to keep that at 85%. But in order to cover that cost increase, it would have to go probably to 86%. Sorry, I'm throwing a ton of numbers at you, but my point is is that it's a big number and I feel like we we need to do at least 22 1.5% in the budget. Now, you're probably saying, well, if it's going up 42%, why aren't you doing 42%. And that's we don't have to do that because not everything in the plan is going up, just the health insurance. Um, we could have dental go up, but typically we don't say we don't see that go up as much. It's typically zero or maybe 5%. Um, and then we're not increasing some other things like the HR contribution. And so that that stays flat. So anyways, I guess my my point is is that I I want to make sure that you're comfortable knowing that I'm going to have to put a 22 and a half% increase, which is a lot of money. I mean, you put that in terms of dollars, it's about $671,000 citywide.

Yeah.

Um, having a 26% increase to the employee, I mean, they're that's going to impact them greatly, but, you know, because they're only pay paying for 14% of the total bill, that's about $122,000 that they're picking up. And so when you think about it, that's almost $800,000 additional dollars we would be set putting into the into it. Plus, we're not setting aside money anymore. So we would have to cover about $1.1 million in increases if it goes up 42%. So anyways, I want you to be aware. Um, we probably won't have a lot of options to be quite frank. Um, we've looked at some of the the groups I tried to join some of the groups like tripleia and we did that I think it was either last year or the year before and they were like give us five years and we'll we'll look at you again.

And so it's been really difficult. Had we went self-funded last year it would have been a really poor decision. Um, and then the other thing that's really hurting us is our our count is dropping had dropped by like I think it was like 25 people when the fire department left our plan. And so now you have fewer people paying in and when you get those huge claims, it's just it's got to come from somewhere, right? And it's not spread out to as many people. So I want you to be aware of that. that will be uh you know and it's it's all estimates right now. That's all we can do is do our best to estimate it but I know it's going to be very significant

every day. Yeah. So sorry that that's not the best story to be telling but I want you to be well aware of that. Um, okay. And then the other thing is, um, I think I think you get I think I heard I heard from all of you but one on the department meetings, but we're looking at hopefully I can get everybody accommodated May 11th through 20th. I'll do my very best. And what we do on those, we make those interrupt. Did I am I the one that didn't? Because I don't know if I got that email. I wasn't going to call you out, but yeah, you are. But you can tell me after.

Okay, I'll tell you after because I I swear to you I did not get that email. Okay, it was a text. Sorry, it was a text. I didn't get that text. Okay, I got to check and see if I got the right number then. Okay, let's talk after. Okay.

Um Okay, so May 11th through 20th, the thing that we do, um so Deborah and I talked about this a couple years ago. We we just advertise those as public meetings. So anybody can come to any of the budget meetings that they want, but we try to accommodate the three oversight so that we can get at least two or if not three of you there. So we'll do our best there. And then um the other thing to keep in mind is the work meeting. So I think Brianna I think it was last year, right? We extend we made it a little longer. Maybe it was two years ago.

Years ago. So, um, my thought on that, typically we do it the first council in June. I would actually prefer that you do it on June 17th, but the problem we've had in the past is that AIC conference, but I looked and it showed 10th through 12th. So, I think we're good. If you guys are good, I'd rather do it on June 17th. 10th through 12th. Yeah, because I show AIC June 10th through 12th. It is it usually at the end of the week? It shows it. It's usually kind of like 18 19 something like that. Yeah. Yeah. They said they were changing it last year. Oh, did they not be over Junth? Junth. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah, they did talk about that,

which is way better for me. So, if you guys are good with it, I'd like to do the 4:30. June 17th is your budget work meeting instead of June 3rd. Instead of June 3rd, I'll be out of town. Uh, would you be able to join remotely? Probably not. I think I'll be in Lithuania.

Oh, yeah. So, I mean, it's up to you guys. The I can try to do it on the on the third. I just a lot of times I don't have as we're we're making more estimates the sooner we do it. And so, if we could do it the 17th, that would be my recommendation. But it's up to you guys. I'm good with the 17. Sorry, Dave.

Yeah. And I and I can I can send you the whole packet as well. So, okay. And then uh I will actually be gone on the 3 actually or I'll just be coming home on the third. So,

okay. And then on July 15th, we would do the public hearing and then we would do two other items that are kind of a big deal. We would do set utility rates for October. Um assuming the study's done and then we would do review amendments to the fiscal year 26 budget. So sorry that was a lot, but that's that's the budget prep calendar I'm recommending. any concerns with moving forward? I mean, I don't I don't It might be good to have you just kind of do a motion to accept that. Okay. But it's probably not necessary. Well, let's just, you know, let's do it just in case.

Oh, it's not an action item, so never mind. That you said it's not action item. Oh, it's okay. But if you give me action on Yeah, we won't worry about it then. We'll feel like we're not violating any uh policies. So, okay. Is that everything? That okay then for me to work with those? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. That'll work. All right. We'll get working on it. All right. Let's go with our public works report with Mr. Keith Davidson. Got anything else to talk about? Oh, yeah. We do. Oh, yes. I've got I've got more. We're excited.

All right. So, um, we had, uh, two bid openings today. And so, the first one, uh, is for the sewer line. So, that's the one that's going to, uh, extend from where the temple left off, um, down south. So, it's going to pick up kind of the northern part of record. We had two biders on that. Um, so we had Edstrom Construction and Suncor. Edstrom Construction was our low bid at $5,984,77. Um, and so we're seeking council's approval to award that uh subject to finalization of related items. When they retire on one job,

you you typically have that kind of difference with bids. That's kind of especially on on these sewer type bids and we had a very similar discrepancy on the one to Sugar City. So yeah. Yeah. Just just depends on how they I think sometimes it you know they're just they're really busy and they just throw in a big number and figure if they get it they'll figure out a way to get it done. But but luckily you know we've got a lot of experience with Edstroms. They've done a lot for us and so we we feel pretty confident in the bids that we get from them. So so that's good. So anyway, I would entertain a motion to uh approve this bid amount. Is there anyone that would make that motion?

I will make that motion that we approve the bid from Edstrom Construction. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second that motion? I'll second that. Second by council member Teen. Any further discussion or questions about it? Hearing none. All in favor? Any opposed? All right, we will go ahead and award that bid and get them going. And the second uh bid that we had is for painting of the elevated water tower. Um so it's been about 20 years since we've uh repainted that. Um we did have three biders on that. The low bid is Viking Painting LLC. So you can see this bid was a lot tighter

than than the other other bid. So this is a very tight bid between those two biders. But uh uh we did some checking and we feel comfortable with uh Viking painting to that. So we're seeking council approval to award that. Okay. Is there a motion to approve uh this to award this bid? Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve uh Viking Painting LLC for the elevated water tank painting. All right. Thank you. Is there a second that motion? Second by council member Rigggins. Any further questions or discussion? Uh which water tank is this? the elevated one. So up on the hill on the leg. Okay. All right. Is it gonna be the same design? Just curious.

Yeah, same design. We won't do the old city seal that's on it. We're just going to say Rexburg. Yep. It's going to say Yeah. At least that's how we fit it out. If you've got different ideas, you can let me know. We can see what that cost would look like. But but for now, it's just similar colors, white on top, Rexburg. Okay. All right. Thank you. That Let's see. Did we vote? No, we need to vote on that motion. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? All right. We will get the water tank painted. All right. Mr. Mayor, just a question for Keith. When do you expect that sewer project to be completed?

Uh probably we've given them 200 days on that, but uh with groundwater coming in in the summertime, we anticipate a summertime shutdown. So we would anticipate going into 2027 with that project. Does it have to go really deep? Do they have to is it going to be really Yeah. So we got some deep sections. We're picking up a large area. I mean we try what we try and do is with our lift stations try and pick up as big an area as we can with those to a degree. Um just because if we have fewer lift stations that can handle a bigger area, it's it's better on our maintenance side. So yeah. Can I can I add on that too? Yeah, go ahead.

So, that project, just so you guys are aware, um we had about 4.7 million in the budget this year for it. And yeah, I don't like Keith said, I'm sure they'll go clear into next year. So, we'll accommodate on the capital improvement plan for the full almost 6 million. And then that is being paid 35% of it's being paid by urban renewal, just so you know. Okay. All right. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Keith. Appreciate that.

All right. Uh I kind of already took care of the business that I had with the lighting the way ceremony. Just wanted to make sure we had that on our calendars. And um uh other than that, I don't really have too much. Oh, I will say that I spent quite a bit of the today trying to uh find out information about House Bill 583, which is a short-term rentals bill that's going through the legislature. It's supposed to be in the Senate tomorrow and uh I had conversation with Senator Ricks and uh one of the they're they're pretty much kind of taking away any kind of local restrictions that we can put on. Uh, I asked him to uh to bring up the consideration to maybe to consider the way we do it where we allow people to rent if they live in single family neighborhoods, but they have to be owner occupied or at least for sure, you know, manager kind of more permanent occupied in order to do that. And uh and also to look at, you know, they they they don't want to allow any inspections or licensing. And I said, "Well, you know, we've actually found some pretty serious things like basement rooms, storage rooms that have been turned into bedrooms and there's no window for people to get out in case of a fire." So, he said there's some life safety things that probably ought to be considered. So, he said he would try to interject that in. I don't have a lot of faith because he was saying he didn't know that there it would, you know, that there would be much chance because a lot of the leadership has is signed on to this bill. And uh the problem is we've got a few cities around that kind of go overboard on regulation. And so then the legislature jumps in and says, "Oh, you know, their cities are terrible." And then they go overboard the other direction. And I'm trying to get them to kind of meet the

middle and and just because they had 17 a list of 17 things that they that they don't want cities to regulate. And I looked at the list and I said, you know, I don't really have a problem with most of those cuz some of them are like regulating how many people can be in a bedroom. And I'm like, who's going to police that? You know, it's just one of those silly things. And so, but most of the things were not too big of deals to us. But I said, you know, the regulation of of uh owner occupied in single family neighborhoods and uh safety inspections and licensing. I said those are important. Parking, you know, can be an issue, but if they pay attention to the first one, the owner occupied thing, parking kind of takes care of itself most of the time. So, so anyway, that's I had that conversation and I don't know how far it'll go, but if any of you feel like you want to contact him or send him an email or a text or any of the other members on the commerce the Senate Commerce Committee, um that might be helpful because a lot of times the more information they get from people, the the better it is. You know, they if they don't hear from people, they think, "Oh, well, nobody against it, so they just vote for it." So, so anyway, I would consider I would encourage you to look that up. It's um you can just it's pretty easy. You can just Google uh Senate Bill on short-term rentals 2026 and it'll bring it right up and you can look through it, read through it, and and then it'll even tell you, you know, the email addresses for all of the uh legislators and stuff. So, I would encourage you to look at that and you've got a minute um tonight or in the morning because it's supposed to come up before that uh committee tomorrow. So, anyway, that's that. Um all right, item number 11, let's see, 10. We have no items for consideration. Item number 11A is a second reading. This is ordinance number 1343

for the Rexburg Police Facility Bond Election Ordinance to seek funding for construction of a new police facility in the May 19th, 2026 election. Uh, this has been first read and passed. Um, is there any questions or comments before we move on this as far as the second reading? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to consider ordinance 1343, second read. Mayor, I'll make that motion to consider 1343. Second read. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second? Second by council member is that Riggins. Okay. Down. Um, okay. Thank you. Uh, all in favor? I.

Any opposed? All right. We will consider ordinance 1343, second read. Item B is a third reading. Ordinance number 1342, the zone change from rural residential 1 to low density residential 3 and medium density residential 2 and regional business center zones at approximately 801 South 12th West. Uh this is a third reading. Do I hear a or is there any discussion before we move forward on this item? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to consider ordinance 1341, third read 42. Well, I'll make that motion that we consider ordinance number 134242. I'm sorry. Yeah, you're right.

1342 third. Ready? Me. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? I'll second. Seconded by council member Colin Ericson. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? I. Okay. We will consider Oh, any opposed? Sorry. No. No.

Okay. All right. We will consider 1342, third read. Yep. Item number two is ordinance number 1341. The zone change from low density residential to low density residential 2 at approximately 301 south 12th west. Um all right. This item obviously is u has been passed as a second reading. Is there any questions or comments on this one before we consider third read? Hearing none. I would entertain a motion to consider ordinance 1341 third read. Is there such a motion? We'll make that motion.

Right. Made by council member Johnson. Is there a second? Second by council member Reese or Riggins. Oh, sorry. You guys are all sounding the same down there. Okay. Council member Riggins. All right. Um, any further discussion hearing? None. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? Right. That motion is passed. We'll consider that third read. All right. The consent calendar is the minutes from the February 4th, 2026 meeting as well as the approval of the payment of the city of Rexburg bills. Does anyone have any questions about either one of those items? Hearing none, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar. I'll make that motion, mayor, to uh that we approve the consent calendar, approve the minutes from February 4th, and pay the bills. Okay. Thank you. Is there a second to that motion? Second. Second by council member Reer. Any further discussion, questions? Hearing none. All in favor? I.

Any opposed? All right, we will enter the minutes and pay the bills. Um, unless there's anything else that anyone needs to mention, we are ajourned. Thank you all for being here. Appreciate all of your good work and discussion tonight.