The East Carbon council met Tuesday and the city hall was crowded. It was the first meeting for the new mayor, and routine housekeeping matters took up much of the regularly scheduled session.
At the Jan. 10 meeting, the council passed resolutions re-appointing city officers for the new year.
In reports from city officials, councilwoman Joyce Caviness indicated that she was still working on securing funds for the brownfield cleanup of the old Rasmussen property.
Councilwoman Darlene Kuhns reported that the city planned to begin advertising for a new building inspector in the near future.
Kuhns also said the power bill for the city hall was high and she asked the council to consider installing new windows in the building.
Kuhns indicated that she had found $6,300 buried in the city budget that could be used for seed money to get the project started.
A discussion followed. Caviness recommended that the city do a heat-loss study of the building before new windows were bid to be sure that windows were the major issue of the heating problem
In addition, Caviness suggested that an independent contractor be hired to assess heat loss in the entire building.
Suggestions were also made about putting plastic or thermal panes over the existing windows in the building.
In the end, the council passed a resolution authorizing a heat survey of the city hall.
Councilwoman Darlene Lopez reported that the city’s justice court had received a grant to purchase new computers and a copier for the courtroom and judge’s chambers.
Councilman Dave Maggio reported that the smell coming from the ECDC landfill was due to the company opening an old cell to search for two barrels of cyanide that had been put in the landfill by mistake.
Maggio told the East Carbon residents assembled at the meeting that the mistake was not the fault of ECDC, but was an oversight by a company sending waste to the facility.
Maggio said the company that made the mistake was paying to find and remove the barrels.
Once the barrels are located, the landfill cell be sealed again and the smell will go away.
Maggio explained to the attendees at the meeting that he had been in contact with ECDC officials and had been assured that he odious vapors were not harmful, only annoying, and would soon dissipate.
While speaking of ECDC, Maggio indicated that the facility was down to 15 employees from a high of 55 a few years ago. All trash going to the landfill is local.
The Wasatch Front is sending all of the northern Utah area’s municipal garbage to a landfill on the other side of the mountain, said Maggio.
The focus of the meeting then turned to Utah Highway 123 from the Sunnyside Junction to East Carbon City.
Residents are still complaining about the situation of making the turn from U.S. Highway 6 onto the East Carbon road in the dark.
The intersection is not lit and there are few painted lines and no reflectors. Several citizens had comments on the dangerous and confusing intersection.
Maggio also pointed out that the entire road is due for major repairs. “People think big trucks impact only the lower section of the road below C canyon,” Maggio said. “But truck traffic to the power plant is tearing up the top section of the road too.” The council discussed ways to approach the state about the road situation.
Maggio also pointed out that the county road to the gun range is in bad shape and the county had fixed only about 60% of what they had agreed to do in the past. He said he would meet with county commissioners to see if the county could do roadwork there as well.
The council then discussed the issue of fire protection for the west end of town along the highway. Some citizens were concerned about a perceived lack of fire hydrants. Darryl Valdez of the fire department said that city fire trucks could reach existing hydrants with their hoses and the two fire trucks carried enough water for most situations. In the end it was agreed that the fire department would conduct a drill in the area to test response times, hydrants, and distances. The department will report the findings back to the city council.
Citizens were also asked to cover loads of trash when going to the landfill. Some people living along the roadway complained about litter blowing from uncovered loads. Maggio explained that the city had no jurisdiction over the state roadway, but citizens and the local police could file complaints about littering along the state highway. Citizens were told to get license plate numbers of violators.
Before the meeting was closed, citizen Robert Warren asked the council to be more mindful of the way the American flag was being presented around the community. He gave council members a document listing proper flag etiquette, and asked that the flag in front of the city hall be taken down in the evenings or lit with a spotlight, as proper protocol requires.
The council promised to take his suggestions under advisement and see what could be done. Either the flagpole must be repaired, or a new spot light installed. The mayor said that he would see to it.
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