Pine Valley Special Service District Meeting (PVSSD)

Minutes of the Meeting held On June 7, 2006

Attending Members: Mary Esther Putnam (Chairwoman); Gerald Schiefer (VC); Dall Winn

Absent Members: Ron Snow; Ryon Gardner

Also Present: Steve Robinson (Fire Chief), George Cropper (Treasurer) and Beverly Udell (Secretary)

Guests: Guin Winn; Fred Pendleton; Jamie Udell; Sarin Udell

1. General Business:
a/b. Welcome — The meeting was called to order at 6:05 P.M. with the opening being the Pledge of Allegiance. Mary Esther wanted everyone to know of the sad passing of R.J. Snow. He was the first of Mary Esther’s and Guin's generation to be lost. R.J. was very influential to, amongst other things, our Valley and also Dixie College. R.J.‘s burial will be Saturday.
* Mary Esther then called forth Jamie Udell and officially asked her if she would accept the position of the new “Pine Valley Princess” for the 2006/2007 year. Jamie said she would be honored. Jamie is the first princess that Pine Valley has had for at least six years. Mary Esther presented Jamie with a letter of congratulations and list of her proposed duties as the Princess. Mary Esther also announced and welcomed Sarin Udell (Jamie’s 6 year old little sister) as the “Lady in Waiting”. Gerald asked if Jamie would go on to compete as “Queen” in Washington County and Mary Esther said that it was a totally different pageant and not therefore a natural succession part of the “Princess”.

c. Fire Chief’s Report- Steve: Due to the amount and length of topics under the Fire Chief’s report, plus the fact that Steve had another commitment that he needed to leave for, he typed up and presented the Board with a written copy of his report.

k. (Jumping ahead on the agenda to the Treasurer’s report) Treasurer’s Report - George: He informed the Board that the report for the State Auditor for 2005 has been signed, sealed and delivered.
* There has been a restructuring of the bank accounts, i.e.: checking, savings, wildfire ($9,000 has been moved from the wildfire account to the checking account to help pay for the new truck), plus a new account for placement of the impact fees which already has 4-5 impact fee collections placed in it.
* The impact fee money currently gets collected with building permit signatures. It was suggested that people who owe impact fees should call George to give him their money at which time he could issue them a receipt to present to the County proving their payment.
* George said that if we dip into savings, we could make the initial truck payment. George asked if once the annual fee money starts coming in, is it imperative to put it back into savings right away or should some of it go to buying equipment needed to stock the new truck for service. The answer was “both”. He asked if he had the authority to dip into the savings when needed over the next few weeks in order to get us through until all the fee money comes in. He was indeed given approval and authority to do that.
* Dall motioned to approve the spending of the money needed to update the current and new truck/s to meet standards as proposed in Steve’s report, also to spend the money needed for travel expenditures to get the new truck and money needed to pay the balance due on the new truck. Dall proposed in his motion that we also do the minimum requirements to bring the military truck up to code. Gerald seconded that motion, and all else were in favor.

d. Planning for New Fire Truck Dedication: It was discussed that Mark Wells (Chairman of the P.V. Activities Committee) should be contacted in regards to adding some type of truck dedication ceremony to the 4th of July celebration in Pine Valley.

e. Update on the annual fee letter: Beverly has been working on the fee letter. The biggest delay currently is the satellite being hooked up in the valley, which stems from Beverly’s computer issues with her move. Beverly needs to be able to have access to County records to update addresses on each record in her database before she can send the mailing out. Proposed time of the mailing - two weeks. Beverly asked how she should handle a property like that of Gene Phillips, where he has two separate but adjoining properties — one housing his home and the other housing his garage with a bathroom. Should he be charged twice? Bev was asked how the County handles that and she responded that the County does tax him twice because legally it is considered two separate parcels. Both Mary Esther and Gerald suggested that we follow the County’s lead on this. It would also save us later when someone else might have the same type of issue, but their properties might not be adjoining. If someone has two separate properties with bathroomed structures on them, whether they are adjoining properties or across town from each other, they should indeed be charged twice.

f. Impact fee report: George said that the Impact fees continue to come in. We have now received about 8 since we started just last month. We are going to make much more money off of impact fees per year than we ever dreamed. We jumped in and instituted those fees at a really good time.

g. Minutes from the May 3, 2006 meeting: the typing of the minutes has been delayed in order to allow Beverly time to concentrate on getting the annual fee letter sent out.

h. Pine Valley Building Permits Reviewed: N/A

i. Board Member Reports: Gerald:
* The road between Pine Valley and Pinto is projected to be done by the end of the month.
* There was a search and rescue performed because of a family of four who was lost while hiking on Forsyth Trail. They were missing for more than 24 hours and exposed to cold weather that they were not dressed for. The family was found and treated for near hypothermia, as well as scratches and cuts. Gerald told that we received appreciation from the sheriff’s department for allowing them to use our facilities during this time. Tim Izits had gone exploring up Forsyth Trail and he reported that the trail was not kept up and almost non-existent.
* The Forest Service received a grant to do trails, along with benches, signs, look-outs, picnic areas. The Utah Environmentalists met with Bevin and decided that since he really did know what he was doing, they wouldn’t stop his work with the trails.
* Tree thinning will go forward. They have already started the flagging for this project.
* In the campsite refurbishment, Bevin plans to label trails and roads after some of the original Pine Valley Pioneers.
Dall - None
Mary Esther - Reminded everyone to vote for County Commissioners in the primary on June 26th . On his own, Gerald met with one of the men running for the new Commissioner spot, and Gerald gave him a letter of concerns in Pine Valley. Gerald asked for a promise that this man would address our concerns if he was voted in.

j. Pine Valley Princess Reporting — Beverly and Mary Esther: Beverly said that at Mary Esther’s urging, she had been in contact with Carolyn Callahan, who is the Princess coordinator for Washington County. Apparently the position of “Princess” has grown quite large since Pine Valley was last involved almost 6 years prior. A lot more involvement is expected of the girls now. For the Washington County Fair alone, the girls are expected to be available and working for all four days of the fair, duties to include among other things - partaking in the parade on some type of float or something else to represent Pine Valley, being part of the ribbon cutting opening ceremonies and flag raising, they are to participate in the Princess Tea, and perform several areas of community service as assigned. We will also need someone (probably from the Board) to introduce and present Jamie at the fair — most other towns have their Mayor do this. Once the fair is over, the Princess needs to contact the Lion’s Club about having a float of some type in the Rodeo in September. The Princess will also perform other duties throughout the year for Washington County, whether it be community service at something like the Cancer Gala, or just be present for someone requesting appearances of “Royalty”. Along with this is whatever Pine Valley assigns their Princess to do. Mary Esther suggested appearances at the P.V. 4th of July and 24th of July celebrations. Possibly also the annual Pine Valley dinner and/or the Christmas Potluck, plus wherever else she may be requested to appear throughout the year.
* Beverly said that Carolyn said the towns usually provide their Princesses with a crown, a sash, some money to help with other expenses like gowns, pictures, gas back and forth to St. George, etc. Each town varies in the monies that they allot their Princess, and anything needed over and above that allotted money, the girls should then go and seek sponsorships for. Mary Esther suggested that the Board come up with some money to help Jamie with some of her costs. Dall reminded everyone that when this subject had come up a few years ago, it was determined that the Special Service District couldn’t get involved with money for the Princess because of the SSD monies only being allowed for fire related issues. He said at the time it was determined that maybe the P.V. Dinner Committee could help in that area. Mary Esther said she would also call Carolyn Callahan and get a feel for how much money might be needed. Then she would contact the previous Dinner Committee members and ask if they might be able to help Jamie with a few of her expenses for this year. Then maybe the present Dinner Committee could consider sponsoring any future Princess in Pine Valley.
* Carolyn Callahan also told Beverly that while the Princesses do indeed have a much bigger role than they used to, Dixie College is no longer offering tuitions as rewards for the service that the girls give. Some individual towns have been compensating for that by giving their own college scholarship reward for a Princess who fulfills her commitments in for the year.
* Beverly suggested that both for Jamie and any future Pine Valley Princesses, that we come up with some type of contract of duties and conduct that the girls should sign stating their commitment. She will check with Carolyn to see if the County already has such a contract which we could adapt and use.
*Mary Esther suggested that we use the 4th of July celebration in Pine Valley as the spot for the official crowning of Jamie and Sarin.
*Mary Esther suggested that we get someone on board to help with future P.V. Princesses. Beverly said that after all she is learning, she would be happy to take on the role.
* Beverly also checked on some future possibilities. It seems that Sara Herpel is the same age as Jamie (almost 18), so she will not be eligible to be a Princess next year (the girls need to be no younger than age 14, and no older than age 17 at the start of their reign). Beverly asked if the Board wanted to consider Sara to be one of the “runners up” and help Jamie throughout the year. The Board felt that just having Jamie would suffice due to the lateness of us jumping into the game this year, the costs involved and us just learning what we are supposed to be doing.

1: Report from Special Service District Training — Bev. And George: Due to the length of this meeting, this agenda item will be tabled for a future meeting.

2. Citizen Requests: Gerald reported that the P.V. Heritage Center is no longer handled by the Forestry Department. They have turned it over to ASIA. They are supposed to have historical items about Pine Valley, but currently they only carry two books regarding this subject. ASIA was wondering if it would be okay to put up signs of historical P.V. town sites and/or maps. Guin Winn was asked if ASIA could use maps taken from her mother’s book. Guin said that she thought her mother wrote the book to inform and that using her maps would be part of that informing process.

At 7:55 PM, Gerald moved for the meeting to adjourn. Dall seconded.