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MINUTES OF A REgular

CITY COUNCIL MEETING

City Council Chambers

125 South Main Street, Vineyard, Utah

September 13, 2023, at 6:00 PM

_______________

 

 

Present                                                               Absent                               

Mayor Julie Fullmer

Councilmember Tyce Flake

Councilmember Amber Rasmussen

Councilmember Mardi Sifuentes

Councilmember Cristy Welsh

 

Staff Present: City Manager Ezra Nair, City Attorney Jayme Blakesley, Lieutenant Holden Rockwell with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, Chief Building Official Cris Johnson, Finance Director David Mortensen, Community Development Director Morgan Brim, Planners Cache Hancey and Anthony Fletcher, Public Works Director Naseem Ghandour, Environmental Utilities Manager Sullivan Love, Human Resources Manager Corrie Steeves, Orem Fire Department Chief Marc Sandersen, Deputy Recorders Heidi Jackman and Kelly Kloepfer

 

Others speaking: Residents Daria and Russell Evans, Tyler Haroldsen, and Jordan Christensen; Orem Fire Chief Marc Sanderson; Laura Smith with CRSA

 

1.      CALL TO ORDER/INVOCATION/INSPIRATIONAL THOUGHT/Pledge of Allegiance

Mayor Fullmer called the meeting to order at 6:02 PM. Councilmember Flake gave the invocation and led the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

 

2.      Work Session

No items were submitted.

 

 

3.      Public Comments

Mayor Fullmer called for public comments.

 

Play >>  Resident Daria Evans, living in The Villas subdivision thanked the city council and staff for providing an informative pamphlet. She thanked the Sheriff’s Department for having a patrol car at the crosswalk. She had a question about a dumpster and Ezra Nair told her it will be there indefinitely. She expressed concerns about Utah City.

 

Play >> Resident Russell Evans, living in The Villas subdivision, expressed concern about Utah City. Mayor Fullmer replied that Utah City was a large regional development that included Utah Valley University and Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Play >> Resident Tyler Haroldsen, living in the Edgewater Townhomes, read a mission statement from group called Strong Towns Vineyard. Mr. Haroldsen spoke about the Master Transportation Plan and shared a chart he created. He expressed concerns about the safety of the streets and suggested the city create a system to view the different roadways.

 

Play >> Resident Jordan Christensen, living in The Preserves subdivision, thanked city council and staff for the service project he was a part of.

 

Play >> Mayor Fullmer called for further public comments. Hearing none, she closed the public comments session.

 

 

4.      Mayor and COUNCILMEMBERS’ REPORTS/DISCLOSURES/RECUSALS

 

Play >>  Councilmember Sifuentes reported on the Patriotic Event held by the city on September 11. She thanked the Utah County Sheriff’s Department and Orem Fire Department for their participation in the Patriotic Event.

 

Play >> Councilmember Welsh talked about youth council starting for the new year. Mayor Fullmer named the youth council with executive positions.

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer reported on the Utah League of Cities and Towns conference. She mentioned that they had some meetings about transportation and encouraged the council to send their thoughts or take the time to meet with them.

 

 

5.      STAFF, COMMISSION, and committee REPORTS

Play >> 5.1 City Manager Ezra Nair reported on the construction projects and introduced new

employees, Deputy Recorder Heidi Jackman and part-time Recreation Coordinator Aaron Kohler.

 

 

6.      CONSENT ITEMS

6.1  Approval of a GRMU Amended Plat E

 

Play >>  Motion: COUNCILMEMBER SIFUENTES MOVED TO APPROVE THE CONSENT ITEM AS PRESENTED. COUNCILMEMBER RASMUSSEN SECONDED THE MOTION. MAYOR FULLMER, COUNCILMEMBERS FLAKE, RASMUSSEN, SIFUENTES, AND WELSH VOTED YES. THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

 

7.      Appointments

No names were submitted.

 

 

8.   Presentations/recognitions/awards/PROCLAMATIONS

No items were submitted.


 

9.      BUSINESS ITEMS

9.1 DISCUSSION AND ACTION – Fire Station Design Options Task Order

City Manager Ezra Nair will present a fire station design options task order. The mayor and City Council will take appropriate action.

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer turned the time over to City Manager Ezra Nair.

 

Play >> City Manager Ezra Nair discussed the Fire Station Design moving to step two of the process. More in-depth analysis and space planning. He stated that CRSA has been working with us on this project and has presented options we can take individually or collectively. He listed four separate options and discussed each one.

 

Option 1: A permanent single fire station, design cost just over $34,000. Mr. Nair said this could be at any of the four sites we are looking at to put at site one or two.

Option 2: Sprung Station analysis. Not brick and mortar, has a 50-year life span station with a membrane structure. Mr. Nair said we could look at several sites for that. Looking at site one and two for this.

Option 3: Public Works Facility Reuse Analysis. Repurposing the Public Works building, turning that into a fire station.

Option 4: Repurpose City Hall into a fire station.

 

Play >>  Mr. Nair stated that there are multiple sites and if they were chosen then there would be a discount.

 

Play >>  Mr. Nair asked if anyone had any questions and introduced Chief Sandersen and CRSA.

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer asked if there were any questions for Mr. Nair or CRSA.

 

Play >>  Councilmember Sifuentes asked CRSA about having more details of the studies they have received.

 

Play >>  City Manager Ezra Nair invited CRSA architect Laura Smith to approach the podium to answer questions.

 

Play >>  Laura Smith, an architect with CRSA spoke about the analysis. She explained the study was done on a broad scale.

 

Play >> Councilmember Sifuentes said that she thought doing four more detailed site plans was excessive and instead should be narrowed down a little more. Discussion ensued about the location. Mayor Fullmer asked Councilmember Sifuentes if she had a location she preferred. Councilmember Sifuentes prefers a more central location. She discussed location and response time. Mayor Fullmer stated that the ARCH did not review the roads that were going in. With roads coming, she feels the response time would be different. Mayor Fullmer said she would love to see a projected timeline. Ms. Smith explained that additional analysis would be more of a schematic design programming analysis versus the site analysis done previously.

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer commented that there are four options. The option for the permanent fire station design would be good if there was a site in mind. The fourth option that came in today for an adaptive reuse of City Hall is choosing that site, so there would be three sites. Mayor Fullmer recommended that they do two site adaptive reuse analysis with the projected roadways of both scenarios, one and two. She also wanted to include that with the four-minute driving distance at the 5:00 PM time frame. She recognizes that currently in our contract with Orem we have a temporary building that we have agreed to build. In 2022 we thought our ERU’s were 5500 units. She stated that in our audit we found that we haven’t reached that number and she is hoping Orem has some flexibility. Mayor Fullmer feels that a permanent fire station would be more productive for a long-term benefit. She understands if certain time constraints need to be met or if someone would like to look at viability of a temporary structure. She stated she is not throwing it out, it is a $17,000 cost difference between one versus many.

 

Play >> Councilmember Sifuentes had a question for Laura Smith and Chief Sandersen.

She asked Ms. Smith if she would be prepared to give more information on the roadways. Ms. Smith responded that they have a transportation analysist on their team but was not included in what they proposed, but he is ready to add a proposal for that.

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer stated she wanted to talk about site three. She spoke about site three and discussed her concerns with connectivity and level of service. Councilmember Sifuentes asked Mayor Fullmer to clarify what she said about putting something in a centralized location and that she wasn’t a fan of site three. Mayor Fullmer stated that she thinks it’s important to have something on the west side of the tracks. She said we are reestablishing where the freight line is.

 

Play >> Mayor Fullmer stated that the reason she didn’t want to pick one option. Regarding options one and two was because she feels like there is information lacking in level of service in driving distance and the significant cost difference. The cost difference makes or breaks it. Having an additional option like the Public Works building could potentially serve us long-term. She discussed using the PW building and the City Hall building.

 

Play >> Councilmember Sifuentes asked where the Public Works team would go when the fire station was built. Mayor Fullmer answered that the city purchased a mobile modular building. She stated that money could be spent to upgrade that. And also, a building is in the works for all the city employees to be in.

 

Play >> Orem Fire Department Chief Marc Sandersen approached the podium to answer questions. Councilmember Sifuentes asked about the contractual agreements regarding the number of units. A discussion ensued.

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer stated that she had requested numbers and asked Chief Sandersen to talk about calls for service for 2021-2022. A discussion ensued regarding response times.

 

Play >>   Councilmember Flake stated that he had conducted his own study regarding safety and would like to pursue the two-station idea. A discussion ensued regarding the safety of the community, cost and how to proceed. He stated he thinks we need to pursue the two stations. One station being here at city hall. Adapting it is the best move cost wise. Another station up north. He wants to come up with an adaptive plan. He stated he did not want a bond. He had concerns about the cost of a fire station.

 

Play >> Mayor Fullmer asked about buying a house and having an off shoot for vehicles. Chief Sandersen said they have done that before. She stated that as they are looking at a temporary opportunity that is costly. She discussed having a permanent and a temporary place and the timeline with cost.

Play >> Chief Sandersen responded that looking at the call volume, if they can get a fire truck out here with the adaptability of a house second station services can be scaled back and staff an ambulance that can support many of the calls. He stated there are a lot of options.

 

Play >> Mayor Fullmer wanted to add, why she wants the studies done soon is if costs can be cut it benefits the residents.

 

Play >> Councilmember Flake stated that he hated studies but understands that this decision requires good factual information. He is not comfortable without further information.

 

Play >>  Councilmember Rasmussen added that she thinks its fantastic to live in a city where people agonize over details and care about the plan.

 

Play >> Councilmember Welsh stated that she loved studies.

 

Play >> Councilmember Sifuentes asked for clarification regarding the three studies. She listed each study. A study on a temporary station, a membrane. Study on the Public Works facility reuse. And a third study to change city hall into a fire station. Mayor Fullmer added that because it’s being combined, the cost goes down $10,000.

 

Play >> Chief Sandersen approached the podium and stated that shared space isn’t unheard of in public safety.

 

Play >> Ezra Nair stated that the cost savings was approved with the original three proposals. He said it could change with the new option.

 

Play >> Laura Smith approached the podium and said there would be a fee proposal for the traffic study.

 

Play >> Chief Sandersen came back to the podium to express his concern about the timeline for studies to be completed. Mayor Fullmer stated it was nine weeks. She said if they had to make an amendment to the contract they could and discussed that.

 

Play >> Mayor Fullmer recommended the two adaptive, reuse studies and everybody felt comfortable utilizing the membrane and adding additional funds for the projected-out road timelines for what we expect to see in the other locations.

 

Play >>  Motion: COUNCILMEMBER FLAKE MOVED TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE TASK ORDER WITH CRSA ARCHITECHTS, OPTIONS 3 AND 4 WITH THE ADJUSTMENTS NOTED FOR THIS PLAN REVIEW. COUNCILMEMBER RASMUSSEN SECONDED THE MOTION. MAYOR FULLMER AND COUNCILMEMBERS FLAKE, RASMUSSEN, SIFUENTES, AND WELSH VOTED YES. THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. 

 

 

10.  CLOSED SESSION

No closed session was held.

 

 

11.  ADJOURNMENT

 

Play >>  Mayor Fullmer called for a motion to adjourn the meeting.

 

Play >>  Motion:   COUNCILMEMBER RASMUSSEN MOVED TO AJOURN THE MEETING AT 7:07 PM. CRISTY WELSH SECONDED THE MOTION. MAYOR FULLMER AND COUNCILMEMBERS FLAKE, RASMUSSEN, SIFUENTES, AND WELSH VOTED YES. THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY

 

MINUTES APPROVED ON:    September 27, 2023            

 

CERTIFIED CORRECT BY:   /s/Heidi Jackman

heidi jackman, deputy Recorder