By Lynda Williams

Photo of Fire Lake Park, Ivins by Lori Cole

There was only one City Council Meeting in January. Here are some highlights for the January 15 meeting.

Give Daylight Savings Time the Boot

Who is ready to see Daylight Savings Time go by the wayside?

It was mentioned by Mayor Sip that Joseph Elison, our State House Rep, has introduced a bill to stop the annoying time change we have been forced to endure for so long. Elison’s bill would have Utah observe Standard time permanently unless the federal government decides to move to Daylight Savings time permanently, then Utah will shift to that with the rest of the country. If you would like to make your voice heard contact Utah Senators Vickers and Owens.

Hurricane Valley Fire District

The Battalion Chief, Merlin Spendlove, reported:

The district is well staffed.
There were 6000 calls in 2024
A crew from our district has been sent to help with Southern California fires.

Planning Commission

The Planning Commission chair, Valerie Preslar, reported:

She will continue as Chair in 2025
Dean Haymore will continue as Pro Tem

Toquerville City

Assistant City Manager, Darrin LeFevre, reported:

Work continues on the Toquerville bypass road
Currently they are in the process of moving the power pole that is on top of the hill north of the cut on the south end of the road. Utilities will be underground.
The 4 lane build out is being secured by procuring the needed properties.
The bypass road is preparing to open soon on the North end by Anderson Junction to allow access to Firelight. The road will not be open past Firelight.
Watch for drastic speed limit changes when approaching the access to Firelight. Speed limits will be 40 mph then drop to 30 mph before making the turn onto the parkway.

City Manager, Ben Billingsley, reported:

11.9% water loss. This is in the acceptable range.
22 leaks were repaired in 2024
The city is soon to have a new internet domain and email address as per state mandate. More information will be coming soon. According to the state this needs to happen by June. Toquerville hopes to have it ready to go before then.

Christmas Lighting Contest Winners

There was a Presentation for the Christmas Lighting Contest Winners.

1st Place Gradie and Kathleen Johnson
2nd Place David Missal
3rd Place Shelly Nakaoka
Honorable Mention Gordon Dotson

Congratulations to these winners and a big thank you to all who participated in making our town so festive during this Christmas Season. 1st place through 3rd place winners will be the judges in next year’s competition.

Toquerville received a mention and recognition in the Salt Lake Tribune for their Christmas lighting. What an honor for our small community!

Robotics Club Presentation

The Hurricane High School Robotics Club needs help!

The robotics team visited city council with a video presentation of their accomplishments and displayed their award-winning robot from last year.

They need donations! Venmo @HurricaneHighSchool-Hurr-Utah. Be sure to memo “Robotics” so the money goes to the right place. The club could also use adult mentors. Email hhsblackops@gmail.com.

Public Forum

Dean Haymore commented and noted that the city is searching for a path for the water line from the sewage plant at Confluence Park up to the city pond. He offered to give the city an easement through his property and mentioned that the city could use water from his 20,000-gallon pond in case of a fire emergency in the area.

Dean also volunteered to be on the City Emergency team and offered his expertise in training, planning and implementing federal requirements as the city works to put together their emergency plan and team.

Dean comes to us with many years of municipal experience and wants to be of service in this community. Thanks, Dean.

Lynn Williams commented on what he described as an illegal street closure in the city. He shared his comments as a separate post, which residents are free to peruse. The Toquerville Sentinel welcomes rants or raves on any city-related topic.

Kathy Bence expressed concern about the possibility of fires in Southern Utah. She shared that they moved from the Pasadena area and know three people who lost homes and many others that were evacuated. Some of the factors for this devastation appear to be:

High winds that couldn’t be controlled.
Homes built close together so the fire could easily spread from house to house.
Water issues in California. There is never enough water.

She asked if something like this could happen to us and pointed out that:

We live next to a place called Hurricane because we typically have such high winds.
Developers come and request zoning changes so they can build as many homes as are allowed, close together. Then they leave.
We know we have a shortage of water.

Kathy said that life and safety, obviously, needs to be a huge priority. She asked: how dense is Toquerville going to become? Where will the water come from if there is a large fire like we’ve witnessed in California? She expressed hope that this is the biggest consideration as our leaders govern our city.

Business items

The Business part of the meeting was long and complicated. Some of the issues have a long history. Watch this City Council Meeting on YouTube to get more complete information.

The discussion on the business items starts here and this also begins a very lively discussion on locked gates which is items 1 & 2.

Locked Gates

1.Discussion regarding North Grand Canyon Parkway gate and water tank access.

2.Discussion regarding South Grand Canyon Parkway gate.

(See article by Lynn Williams addressing fire code violations regarding these locked gates.)

Turkey Trot Donation to the Parks

3. Discussion and possible action accepting a donation from the 2024 Toquerville Trails Turkey Trot and restricting funds as a parks donation.

This item was approved. The $1500 donation from the Turkey Trot will be set aside for parks.

Firelight and Zoning

4. Discussion and possible action on a Firelight MPOD modification application submitted by Firelight Development, Inc.

Firelight is asking the city to create zoning and standards for their development that do not exist in Toquerville and seem to be different than what was originally agreed upon by both parties. They are asking for R12, R10 and R8 zones and set backs of 5 ft. The discussion begins here.

Heath Snow, former legal counsel for Toquerville, is also the attorney for Firelight. He was the attorney for Firelight during the time he was the city’s attorney. It might seem confusing, but in this meeting, he argued the need for these changes on behalf of Firelight.

Firelight’s request seems like a bait and switch tactic to me. They were given the parameters with which they could build their community in Toquerville. Now they are whining that they need to be allowed different setbacks and lot sizes in order to make their development profitable while arguing that they are not asking for more density. Huh?

I love that our City Council will stand up and push back against developers. Yay for Joey Campbell, Wayne Olsen and Gary Chaves who brought up many concerns they have in allowing special zoning that has never been seen in Toquerville before. One Firelight rep referred us to Sun River and said we should go see how beautiful it is. We don’t care!

We live here because we value the wide-open spaces and room to breathe. Wayne Olsen reminded the developers they are not building in Sun River. This is Toquerville and it is different than Sun River and we want to keep it that way. He also warned against the fire danger of such density especially with the high winds we experience here.

Firelight emphasized the changes would affect their development only and not all of Toquerville. I fear it would set an undesirable precedence.

This discussion was tabled for further study, legal review and staff research. I would rather it was denied on the spot. I hope our City Council will keep in mind the concerns Wayne and Kathy Bence have expressed and consider the quality of life and safety of the residents that live here before they create new zoning that will affect all future development.

This discussion is definitely worth a view on Youtube!

Procurement and Disposal of city property

5. Discussion and possible action on Ordinance 2025.XX – Amending Title 1 of the Toquerville City Code by creating Chapters 11 and 12 establishing a Procurement Ordinance.

This ordinance has to do with procurement and disposal of city property.

Toquerville has a procurement policy. The state requires that a city has its own procurement ordinance or use the state’s ordinance. Toquerville would rather have their own ordinance. There was a big discussion on this with much to be considered. There is time to work out the details. (This was tabled to allow time for the ordinance to be finished.)

Power Pole Credit

6. Discussion and possible action on approving Change order #14 as a credit in the amount of $670,494.19 from JP Excavating for adjustments to Change Order #11 for North Slope Remediation.

This has to do with the removal of the power pole from the top of hill across from Cholla Creek. This amount will be credited back to the city but moving the power underground will reclaim this amount and more. This item was approved.

Calendar

1. Backflow Prevention and Cross Contamination Awareness Meeting – Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025 at Toquerville City Offices – 5:00 PM.

2. Fiscal Year 25-26 Strategic Planning Session – Feb 6 and 13, 2025 at Old Town Hall from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Open to Public. No comments.

3. Community Readiness Meeting – Thursday, Feb 13, 2025 Old Town Hall. 7:00 PM.

4. Spring Community Clean-up –Saturday Feb 22 & Sunday Feb 23, 2025. Dumpsters will be in the community, not in the park.

Council & gates, Fires, firelight, & More