The first item on the agenda at the February 12, Kanab City Council meeting was a Legislative update from Cindy Bulloch, who works with Representative Celeste Maloy’s Office. She pointed out that the state wants to make sure that the voices of Kanab’s citizens are heard, but budgets for projects have not been approved yet. She urged the council and members of the community to reach out to her, or Representative Celeste Maloy’s office, for any questions or concerns. She gave examples of helping expedite passports, help applying for workers’ visas, help with Social Security and more.
When the public comment period was opened, concern about a dog park was brought to light. A member of the public who shared this said, “Dogs need a place to socialize and be active without running through town.” They continued, “A dog park would bring [the community] together to socialize.” Mayor Johnson invited the speaker to call and set up a meeting sometime the following day. The next order of business was to appoint and approve Kimberly Dansie to the Kanab Arts Council from the present until December 31, 2027. This was passed unanimously through the council.
The council then skipped to item number seven on the agenda: “Discussion and consideration of a resolution approving an amendment to the January 2023 interlocal agreement for emergency medical services with Kane County Hospital.” City manager Kyler Ludwig explained how the city and the hospital have had an agreement since 2021 for $450,000. The resolution was to increase the agreement to $480,000; $15,000 going towards more staff training and $15,000 accounting for inflation.
Kurt Loveless, the manager of the Kane County Hospital, commented, “There has been an increase in 911 calls recently, and we officially have a licensed paramedic in Kanab.” Loveless added, “There will be an increase in the salary of our [EMS].” This motion passed unanimously among the council.
After the previous motion, the council jumped back to the previous number on the agenda, a resolution supporting a traffic control method at the intersection of Highway 89-A and Kanab Creek Drive. Ludwig explained that Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) has been working closely with the city to ensure the safety of our community. Ludwig continued, “UDOT has conducted several traffic studies … the regional engineer from UDOT has been down three times to see the intersection.” UDOT is waiting for the approval of the city to start working on possible solutions for this intersection.
Mayor Colten Johnson added, “I don’t think that anyone in Kanab is opposed to a solution for this intersection.” Ludwig has confirmed that staff has informed UDOT how the community feels about this. The council passed this motion unanimously.
The next motion, number eight on the agenda,”approv[es] an interlocal agreement for library services with Kane County.” This motion will provide all residents of Kane County a Kanab City library card for the price of someone living in the city limits. This motion passed unanimously.
The next item on the agenda was the “consideration of a public bid process and contract documents for the construction of a fuel farm at the Kanab Municipal Airport.” The proposal is to build a new 12,000-gallon Jet A tank, which will provide revenue for the city due to the amount of planes that stop to fuel here. It will be an expensive and time consuming project, but the city received grants on the state and federal level, reducing the cost to the city from $654,000 to $14,000. Ludwig recalled, “Fuel sales [from last year] are down 40 percent due to the fuel truck being broken.” The city is hoping that this project will be able to restore those funds.
Item number 10 on the agenda was a review of the 2018 impact fees facilities plans, getting ready for the update coming in April of this year. The council did not dive deep into each section of the plans, but they did come up with goals for future meetings through April. Ludwig stated that the city could be charging double the amount of impact fees than they are currently charging. However, the city cannot use this money for existing projects, meaning that they cannot fix an existing problem. The problems they can fix are all related to growth. For example, if our police department becomes too large for its offices, the city will need to provide funding for them to expand their resources.
The next item on the agenda was the quarterly financial report. The most important takeaways from this report were that taxes are up 11.5 percent from last year, including a five percent increase in sales tax. Another important mention is that revenue is up one percent from last year.
The final item on the agenda had Emily Bentley, manager of the Kanab Museum, giving a presentation about what exactly the museum does. It is important to note that Bentley stated that all employees go through careful collections training to be qualified for the position. Bentley stated, “Preservation and education are the goals of a museum.” The council was pleased with all of the work that Bentley has done for the museum. Bentley also mentioned that she was able to show Chris Heaton, a member of the council, the museum and items the previous week. It is safe to say that the council is well-acquainted with Bentley and her work at the museum.
The meeting was then adjourned so that the council could attend a tour of the museum with Bentley. All the members of the community who were present were also invited to attend.
