The Hanksville Town Council meeting convened its regular session on the 18TH day of August, 2022 in the Hanksville Community Center; meeting commenced at 6:00 p.m.
Present: Mayor Jeffren Pei, C. Mona Wells, and C. Morgan Roberts
Absent: Treasurer Jessica Alvey, C. Tanesha Conder and C. Eric Wells
Employees: Clerk Lisa Wells
Public in Attendance: Sara Bradbury, Katy Roberts, Curtis Whipple, Chylene Whipple, Devin Rios, and Marina Pei
Meeting to Order: Mayor Jeffren Pei
Pledge: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Prayer: C. Morgan Roberts
Roll Call: Mayor Jeffren T. Pei
Motion to approve minutes of previous council meeting: C. Mona Wells; Second C. Morgan Roberts Aye: All in attendance
Public Comment on adoption of 2022 Hanksville Town General Plan – No comment from the public
Council member Mona Wells:
Nothing to report – C. Mona Wells scheduled a Founder’s Day celebrations with a town clean-up and then a dinner and a dance on September 24th. She will contact Wayne County about dumping at the dump or bringing a metal dumpster for town use.
Council member Tanesha Conder: ABSENT
Council member Morgan Stephens:
Nothing to report
Council member Eric Wells: ABSENT
Mayor Jeffren Pei:
Lance Smith with NRCS Bull Creek update: Design and permitting are in progress, they have requested a time extension for completion of the project. Funding should be award in October and bid the project in November with work complete by February 2023.
Nielson Construction has a few repairs before approval of final payment.
Motion to adopt the 2022 General Plan Mayor Jeffren Pei; Second C. Morgan Roberts Aye: All in attendance
Treasurer Jessica Alvey: ABSENT
Clerk Lisa Wells:
· Bills presented to council for approval (spreadsheet attached)
· Motion to approve bills for payment C. Mona Wells; Second C. Morgan Roberts Aye: All in attendance.
· Council agreed to go back to meeting monthly instead of 2 times a month
· A film crew has rented the rock church and the community schedule this coming week
Planning Commission: Will schedule a meeting after the September 8th council meeting to await direction from the council on which model to use for a starting point for Hanksville’s zoning ordinance. The council members will review Torrey and Bicknell’s zoning ordinances.
Tabled Business:
· Paid time off for town employees
· Moratorium on short-stay rentals
New Business and Public Comment:
Chylene Whipple: School starts next Wednesday, 8/24 and she would like the cross walks painted. She would also like everyone to encourage all families in the community to support the Hanksville Elementary School and put their children in school.
The mayor updated the public on a Critical Incident Emergency Response team that he is forming. The purpose of the team will be to respond to an active shooter situation in Hanksville that could target the Hanksville Elementary School, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints or BLM office. They are in the process of writing standard operating procedures (SOP’s) that will be reviewed by Wayne County Sheriff’s office and then they will present their plan to the Wayne County School District. This team currently consists of: DG Lusko - training officer, Duke Alvey - medical director, other members: Mayor Pei, Arden Sellers, Evan Sellers, Jared Alvey, Eric Wells, Jordan Wiehing, and Colton Roberts. Hanksville has received an assigned radio frequency and dispatch will call out this Hanksville team in the case of an active shooter instead of Wayne County SO, due to distance they can not respond within 45 minutes to an hour, so the mayor’s office is being proactive in getting training for this team and working with the school district for hands on training at the elementary school.
Katy Roberts: Would like clarification on if the clean-up of Bull Creek will just entail the town limits or will the clean-up continue south of town out of town boundaries. The mayor said that NRCS plans to clean Bull Creek further south which included private property and BLM property so they are seeking permission from those entities. She also would like a heads up when a film crew comes to town as she was unprepared to feed the mass of people.
Curtis Whipple – updated the council on the property tax increase due to the Wayne County School District application to the State of Utah because of a bill that was passed allowing one time money to fund rural school districts. Wayne School District qualifies and with the tax increase they are eligible to apply for $50 million from the State Revolving Line. Wayne County is currently ranked the 2nd lowest tax rate in the State of Utah. With the property tax increase they will rank about in the middle of the rest of the Utah counties. The Wayne School District will apply for this funding in September or October and then the project should be awarded by December and the project should be ready to start by January 2023.
MOTION TO ADJOURN: C. Mona Wells; Second C. Morgan Roberts Aye: All in attendance Adjourned 6:50pm