Council Meeting (06-05-2025)

Town of Vernon

Town Council Regular Monthly Meeting

Thursday, June 05, 2025

Vernon Fire Station, 325 South Main Street, Vernon, Utah 84080

Public Hearing

  1. Call to Order, Roll Call, and Pledge of Allegiance- Was lead by Councilman Lauti.
  2. Discussion to Approve Budget FY 25-26. Mayor John Olson asked if there was any questions about the Budget? No questions were mentioned by council. Mayor Olson asked to see the cemetery budget. He then addressed the council about changing the amount for Equipment updates. He then explained to council and members of the community that the software that they are using for the record keeping for the cemetery is extremely out of date and if the computer that he has now were ever to crash they would lose all of those records. The company he spoke to would help him in the transition of the records and also allow access to the public to be able to find graves at the Vernon cemetery. The council agreed to raise the previous amount to cover the cost of the upgraded software. There was no further questions or discussion. Public Hearing was closed. Motion made by Councilman Livingston and Seconded by Councilman Cheatham. All in Favor non opposed. Motion carried

Regular Monthly Meeting

  1. Call to Order- Mayor Olson called to order the Regular Public meeting.
  2. Prior Meeting Minutes May 01, 2025. Motion made by Councilman Livingston to approve the meeting minutes from May 1,2025. Seconded by Councilman Cheatham. All in Favor non opposed. Motion carried
  3. Public Comments – No Public comments.
  4. Reports from Police, Fire, Clerk/Treasurer- No report from Tooele County. Sheriff. No reports from Vernon Fire Department. Clerk Report- Cara Lyons Vernon Town Clerk stated that the Decleration of Candidacy packets are due by June 6th at 5 PM. Mrs. Lyons mentioned that the packet is posted was posted on May 14th to the public website as well as the post office. Councilman Cheatham asked if you are rerunning do you have to fill out the entire packet again. Mrs. Lyons stated yes everything must be filled out again. The conflict of interest was just past this year for elections moving forward.
  5. Vote to Approve Budget FY 25-26. Mayor Olson asked if there were any further questions or discussions? Seeing none Mayor Olson asked for a motion. Motion was made by Councilman Richey. Seconded by Councilman Lauti. All in favor non opposed. Motion carried.
  6. Vote to Approve Cemetery Bid- Mayor Olson opened the one bid that the town received for the Cemetery Maintenance. Mayor Olson read the bid to the public and council. Included in the bid Mr. Richins and Mr. Holden asked to be paid separately for their work they will split the monthly amount. Each Check will be $150.00 a month.  Seeing none Mayor Olson asked for a motion. Motion was made by Councilman Livingston to hire Darell Holden and Hyrum Richins for the Cemetery Maintenance at $3,600 per year for the yearly contract ( up to 3 years). Seconded by Councilman Cheatham.
  7. Update to Cemetery Records Software- This item was skipped because it is now a part of the budget.
  8. Vote to Approve Appointment of New Town Clerk- Cara Lyons stated that if they need to know the reasoning behind this it’s because she feels that the town needs someone who can be here full time. Cara Lyons stated that she took on more than she could chew and she has taken on a bigger responsibility in her career and that she is sorry. This last month she put in full time hours and she was also working her main career job as well. Council read the Resumes of the applicates. Cara Lyons stated that no matter how this decision goes Nicole has stated that she will train whoever they decide to go with. Mayor Olson asked is she not putting in for it? Mrs. Lyons stated that yes, she is putting in for it. They then allowed Nicole Hillman to speak on her behalf. Nicole stated that if she was hired this would not be a long-term solution. She understands the needs of the town and what comes with the job as a whole. Nicole mentioned that this will be a part time job for her because she is Full Time at Dugway Proving Grounds again. Nicole then stated that she feels that Ms. Williams would also be a great candidate for this position because she is more long term and in town. John asked Nicole so would you be coming in on Fridays? Nicole stated that my thinking is that I would come in Fridays for the good majority of the day if there were things that needed to be taken care of in the office. I will work remote on Fridays if there is nothing pressing that I need to come into the office for. I will work some weeknight hours as well. Nicole stated that the amount of phone calls throughout the day will have to be cut down because before the volume of phone calls she was receiving started to interfere with her career and she cannot have that happen this go around. Mayor Olson stated that what he thinks should happen for anyone who gets hired is if we need something send a text first. Nicole stated that as she mentioned before she feels that Alisha Williams is more of a long-term solution to the problem. Mayor Olson stated and you aren’t a long-term solution. Nicole stated as much as I would want to say yes it all depends on what happens in the future. Mayor Olson read through the resumes with the town council. Mayor Olson then asked if the council had any other questions. Seeing none Mayor Olson asked for a motion to be made. Motion was made by Councilman Cheatham to hire Nicole Hillman as Vernon Town Clerk and Planning and Zoning Commission Secretary. Seconded by Councilman Livingston. All in favor non-opposed. Motion carried. Mayor Olson welcomed Nicole Hillman back as Vernon Town Clerk.
  9. Reports from Council Members-
  10. Councilman Lauti- Water meeting was business as usual. Animal Control- Councilman Lauti mentioned that he had a call about 2 white dogs over at Mr. Darren Holdens house. He also mentioned will have to check up on the dogs that have still yet to be registered. Mayor Olson asked Council Rob Clegg to please prepare a letter so that Councilman Lauti can start to send those out to those who have yet to register their dogs letting them know that there will be a fine associated with that if they do not comply and register their dog with the town of Vernon.

Councilman Livingston- Town Treasury- Very pleased with how things are going. Councilman Livingston asked Councilman Richey to please talk to Pelorus in Orem to see what we can do it get things going that way. Roads- Councilman Livingston mentioned that he did not get the asphalt put out this month. He will get to that this month on a weekend so that they can the asphalt out and get things moving there. Mayor Olson mentioned that Larson Hill is getting really bad, but that is hopefully the road that we will be getting fixed. Mayor Olson mentioned that he talked to the Engineer Jake Clegg (Ensign Engineering) and Mr. Clegg mentioned that he is still waiting to send out the bid for the Core samples. Mayor Olson mentioned another thing we need to talk about is the plan was always to start at the bottom of Larson hill and move up over the top as far west as the money would take us, the problem with that from the base of the road to main street isn’t really that bad. It is about like the main street we have not fixed yet. If we went east instead of west then it would probably hook into the road that we will probably get with the CDBG grant. But at the same time the worse road is going west. That is something that we need to think about before we get to far into the process. Mayor Olson asked Councilman Livingston to call Jake Clegg and talk with him. Councilman Richey asked is part of the plan with that hill to level it out since it has been mentioned a lot of times of it being a safety hazard. Mayor Olson mentioned that the hill has had 15 feet knocked off of it since he was a kid. If you go up the hill and look to the left that is where that hill used to be. Mayor Olson mentioned that it has helped a ton. Councilman Cheatham mentioned that is a good point. Mayor Olson stated that he can bring that to their attention.

Councilman Cheatham- Fourth of July planning is coming together, we are about to release the flyer and Interary out to everyone this weekend. Councilman Cheatham stated that he will get on ordering the Conex for the Cemetery. Nothing to report on the Fire Department or Emergency Management.

Councilman Richey- Councilman Richey mentioned that he just saw the Email from Mayor Olson about a couple of grants. Mayor Olson mentioned he didn’t think that the town would fit any of those requirements but any emails from Madison he is going to forward on to him. RCOG grant David Long has been reaching out to us a number of times asking where we are at with it. Councilman Richey mentioned that his next steps moving forward is getting a copy of the 4 checks that Madison was missing. Cara Lyons mentioned that her and Nicole were talking about that this. The Checks that they had gotten copies of already were the ones out of the MACU account the checks that were still needed are from the old Zions bank account that the town had before switching banks. Nicole stated that the issue that we are running into with Ensign is whenever they do work for us they add all of the work into one invoice instead of breaking the invoice down by job. Nicole stated that she will get those copies for him and hopefully be able to get this rapped up. Councilman Richey also followed up with the Joint Highway committee that is open from October to January 1st. We can put it on our radar for this upcoming fall. We can not do anything with this until October but he will need project details and a project summation. It sounded like it would be for 2-3 years down the road. Mayor Olson asked about Planning and Zoning. He asked if Councilman Richey has been doing any training? Mayor Olson asked do we know what training the Planning and Zoning Commission need to have? Mayor Olson mentioned that he has finally found someone who finally said yes to being on the commission. Mayor Olson has the right to appoint the Planning and Zoning Commission. Russ Walker stated that he is willing to server on the Planning Commission. Mayor Olson stated that with the permission of the council he would like to appoint him. Mayor Olson asked Councilman Richey to call each member and get a meeting set up by the end of this month. Mayor Olson mentioned that maybe we get with Sharlene Manzione to see if she would be willing to do some training for the Commission.

Mayor Olson- COGG meeting was May 15, 2025. On June 13, 2025 at the park by the swimming pool in Tooele there will be an event put on by Tooele Army Depot and Dugway Proving Grounds for the 250th birthday Celebration for the AMRY. UDOT came out and disused the Tooele valley connectivity study that they performed. What it is telling us is that we need to have more east and west connectors between Tooele and Grantsville. They stated that there are roads that need to be completed such as the 33rd parkway, none of these will help unless we get the Mid-valley Highway completed. Right now UDOT has Mid-Valley Highway on their 20 year plan their push is to lobby and do what they need to do to get it within the next 5 years. Tooele county did a pavement assessment in 2024 Tooele county Hired IMS to perform a county wide pavement assessment, the assessment was in compliance with the FHWA distress manual used to determine how best to allocate our class B funds for pavement preservation. They voted at the COGG meeting to use some of the COGG money and they are going to do the same for Vernon and Rush Valley Roads so we have a report. Tooele county said they would pay for that and then we can go to the Tooele County Offices and we can look at it there. They will give us a written report on the findings. Mayor Olson mentioned that there is a event for the 250th celebration coming up for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. We have to sign a America 250 resolution; they will give us $1,500.00 to use for swag with their logo on it.

  1. Other Business- Nicole Hillman mentioned that your next meeting is on July 3rd. The Council will need to figure out if they want to move that meeting. Mayor John Olson asked for a different date that would work for that meeting? Council Rob Clegg mentioned that it may be beneficial to meet at the end of June. Mayor Olson mentioned June 26, 2025? All agreed to move the July meeting to June 26, 2025. There will ne no Council meeting in July. Cara Lyons Mentioned that Tyson Vorwaller got a hold of her and he stated that he contacted Seth Clegg to come out and do an inspection and he was advised that he is no longer able to do that. Seth Clegg gave him the contact of Tooele County. The Contact with the country is now telling Tyson that he needs 2 separate letters of notices to procced. Cara is asking for guidance from the council. Council Rob Clegg asked what is the bases for the letters? Rob stated that once we figure out who the building inspector is we can figure out exactly what he needs to move forward.
  2. Review and Pay Town Bills- Councilman Livingston Made a motion to Approve and pay the town bills. Seconded by Councilman Lauti. All in favor non opposed.
  3. Adjourn- Councilman Cheatham made a motion to Adjourn. Seconded by Scott Livingston. All in Favor non opposed.

 

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