Attending Members: Mary Esther Putnam (Chair); Dall Winn; Spence Beckstrom; John Nichols; Jeff Gardner
Also Present: Gerald Schiefer (Fire Chief); George Cropper (Treasurer); Beverly Udell (Secretary).
Special Guests from the County, Sherrifs, Road and Forestry Departments: Bevan Killpack; Rob Tersigni; Dave Patterson; Wendle Gubler; Ron Whitehead
Guests: Fred Pendleton; Layne Frei; Guin Winn; Rhean Pendleton; Dave Holdsworth
Absent: N/A
1. General Business:
a/b. Welcome – Meeting was opened by Mary Esther (Chair) at 5:00 PM and the Pledge of Allegiance was said.
c. Snow and Road Conditions: Fred and Gerald showed a PowerPoint of pictures taken during the Christmas break. The pictures depicted road blockage on all the streets right in the center of town by people coming up to play in the snow. There were many dangerous situations concerning ATVs and snowmobiles. There were pictures of children driving, sleds being pulled behind ATVs, cars double parking and blocking the roads, camp fires in the middle of the road, plus many others. Gerald explained that the snow plow couldn’t get through. Emergency vehicles couldn’t either. We had numerous EMT callouts because of sledding accidents or visiting cars going off the road. There was a case of some teenagers who brought a couch up in which they had attached snow skis to the bottom of it and then they sat on it while being pulled all over town behind a car. A mini van pulled kids behind it on sleds going down a street in which the speed limit is 40 mph. There were kids sliding down the Jennings hill and running into (or under) cars. Mrs. Jennings got chewed out from the sledders when she tried to gain access to her house. Because there are no public restrooms in Pine Valley, we had people urinatingand defecating right on the streets. And the list goes on….. Someone from the audience asked if we could charge for EMT services at the reservoir, but Dave Patterson said we currently don’t have an ordinance that would allow for that. * Mary Esther noted that we had an unusual amount of snow this year, which lured everyone from other areas to come to Pine Valley to play. But too many of the visitors were not in vehicles equipped for snow. She asked if in the future we could place someone at the cattle guard in Central to warn people that the road was closed due to the snow and dangerous conditions. We did that when the roads were flooded a few years back. The sheriff added that if he would have known the severity of the roads, he would have had more deputies in Pine Valley. In one day, people from Pine Valley pulled seven cars out that were stuck in the snow in just one area. When people couldn’t find a place to park, they resorted to parking in the church parking lot, even when asked not to. We also have construction vehicles that cause some of the road blockages. The Board asked if we could put up signs (maybe a flashing one in Central?) saying that tire chains or 4-wheel drive was required during snow – other areas do something similar to that. Or have public service announcements said on the radio, TV news, and/or placed in the newspaper. Or possible a gate in Central with a sign during snow that says “road open to residents only”. * Bevan jumped in to tell everyone that while we are in Dixie NATIONAL Forest – meaning that we can’t restrict people from going into the campsite area and other forestry areas, he felt that there were things that could be done to lesson the problems it caused. Bevan would like to start highlighting other areas (Cedar Breaks?) and maybe people would take notice and go to those areas to play in the snow. Another thought he had would be to maybe expand the campsite overflow area and build a parking lot and hill there to sled on – the hill would not have any trees like are at the reservoir sledding area so it would be a lot less dangerous. Mary Esther asked if Bevan could put restrooms there also. Another suggestion would be for people to sled in the Grass Valley area. Bevan also mentioned another area for parking would be the flat area by Bev’s road. Layne told how the area by Bev’s would need some major work to build it up because once it got wet it would be a mud trap. Cars would literally sink and be buried there in the mud. Beverly said that not only would her dirt road not support that type of traffic, but she would be concerned with people that would then be walking down the main road where cars are driving at 40 mph. * Bevan said that the Forestry Department has to provide recreation for people, so keeping people out of a national forest is not an option. * Another thought was to have Wendell park some of his snow plows here in the Valley, but Wendell said that wouldn’t do any good because without him driving his plow up the mountain, he wouldn’t be able to get to Pine Valley to use the plow that would be parked here – the plow needs to start in Central. * The sheriff said that they could start impounding cars that were double parked on the streets. Bevan added that if it is a Forest issue, if we could get him a car license number, he could pay a visit to the owner later. Rob said that he could also get more manpower if needed. Dave added that we have to make sure that we have something sustainable in order to have the deputies go after people, such as if they are parked in the middle of the street or not following the sheriff’s directives. * February and March are traditionally Pine Valley’s biggest snow months, so we need to prepare to have more of the problems possibly occurring again. * Bevan said that he could have a parking area up here (maybe by Gardner’s peak?) as early as spring. The Pine Valley dam area (reservoir) will be the first area that will be redone by the Forestry Dept. Gerald mentioned that trees were a problem at the dam for sledders, as their hitting the trees is what often causes our EMT emergency callouts. Ron Whitehead felt that adding a parking lot up here would be one of the best options. Dall liked the idea of parking up by the recreation area, which would at least keep people more out of town. * Ron said another thing that would help him is if people would call him when it started to snow up here so that he could get snow plows on it right away. * Kirk Gardner will be visiting with the construction guys who are building houses in Pine Valley and get after them about clogging up the roads. * Dave Patterson said that we should further explore the idea of signage at Central with lights to indicate to people the conditions of the roads. * Jeff asked Ron about getting k-rails at Deadman’s Curve. Ron replied that there would need to be additional funding in order to be able to do that, but he didn’t indicate how much funding was needed. *
d. Leash Laws: Mary Esther asked Rob about leash laws. She said that we have quite a few dogs up here that people just allow to run free. Rob responded that if we can get pictures of the dogs, and know who the owners are, that they could better do something about it. Unfortunately, the complaining neighbor would have to be willing to testify against the leash offender in order to make anything stick.
e. Pine Valley Building Permits Reviewed: N/A
f. Board Member Reports:
Mary Esther: N/A
Spence: The Pine Valley Local District is definitely moving forward. We are still waiting on the governor’s office. Spence also passed out applications for the administrative board which need to be turned back into the County Commissioners. Beverly will also post some of the applications in the post office for anyone else who may want to apply. The Commissioners will be voting on the Board’s member appointees on March 3.
Dall: We are looking into purchasing a Ford Expedition (a used one for sale by the State) to be utilized as an EMT emergency vehicle. We are now getting big enough, and we have been having so many EMT medical callouts, that we feel such a vehicle is very warranted. In the vehicle, there would be room for four EMTs or fire fighters, a back board and stokes, plus all of the medical kits, oxygen bags, etc. We could utilize the Edith D. Green donation to pay for the vehicle. Beverly added that Ty from Enterprise said he could get us a light bar to go on top of the SUV. One question would be where the vehicle would be parked during hours it is not in use. The vehicle would act as a first responder in medical emergencies, with the goal of getting the EMTs to the emergency as fast as possible. John motioned to purchase the vehicle. Spence seconded the motion and all were in favor. The money from the Edith D. Green Foundation will pay for the SUV. * Dall has given the proposed plans for the fire station addition to Bevan, but they have been sitting on his desk for a while. We also need to locate the permit for the land use of the land that the fire station is on. Our permit is good for another 18 years. * We should probably have a meeting soon to go over how we want to start paying for things regarding the fire station addition. Do we want to use impact fees? It will be springtime before we can get things like permits started.
John: N/A
Jeff: N/A
Minutes: The Minutes from the meeting held January 6, 2009 were read by each Board member individually. Dall motioned to approve both sets of Minutes as corrected, Spence seconded that motion and all else approved.
Fire Chief – Gerald: See attached report.
Treasurer’s Report – George: See attached report. * A newsletter from the State Auditor’s office says that Special Districts will need to start doing additional reporting if they collect impact fees. * The State Auditor’s class will be held in St. George on April 20 from 1:00-5:00 PM. * The State Auditor approved our 2009 budget. * We have already about $45,000 for a down payment towards the new addition. Should we start shopping around for a lender?
Beverly: Asked for Board Member input for the annual fee letter that she needs to prepare. She hopes to get the letter out in February. * Bev. also asked permission to send out a copy of Fred’s survey along with the annual fee letter. It will raise the postage slightly. The Board all agreed that would be a great idea.
2 – Public Comments: N/A
Spence moved for the meeting to adjourn at 7:25. All were in favor.
The next Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 4, 2008 at 5:00 P.M.