Moab City Council Meeting Report 2020-12-08

Workshop

• Rocky Mountain Power presented their analysis of how Moab City could offset 100% of municipal facility electric use with Blue Sky renewable energy credits for the same cost has the City is currently paying.
• DWR presented on a project to convert the pond at Old City Park from carp domination to breeding area for sensitive native fish; and the (low) risks associated with killing the carp with rotenone, an organic, strong, but short lived poison.
• Zion’s Bank presented on a sewer rate analysis to make the rates that churches and schools pay more similar to residential rates.
  

There were no citizens to be heard.

Administrative Reports

• Hospital and SEUHDD directors updated on COVID-19. Grand County may be faring a little better than the rest of the state due to early adoption of mask mandate, and lifestyle and comorbidity factor prevalence.
• The Water Reclamation Facility AKA sewer plant is not nearing capacity as previously speculated. Bad smells reported by nearby properties are generally due to septage from public and private haulers; no suggestions for remedy were offered by staff.
• High visitation is reflected in record sales tax collection, and that in conjunction with CARES act funds and significant cost cutting continue to move the City’s current budget year finances closer to the black.
• Planning is working on followup to the formal notice that the City was going to change land use permitting of ATV related businesses, as well as processing development applications.
  

Business

• Several minor subdivisions of commercial property were approved.
• An ordinance imposing the RAP tax (approved by voters in the general election) was approved; will begin being assessed in Q2 2021.
• The Council discussed priorities for the 2021 legislative session with the City lobbyist. Among these were off-highway vehicle regulations (still unclear to the author what exactly is being worked on), public noticing (all state noticing requirements remain except lead time for hearings/meetings not so tied to publishing schedule of newspapers of record that do not publish daily), road infrastructure appropriation (since can be political and sometimes money moves around in good and bad ways).

Kalen Jones, Moab City Councilmember