The Ephraim City Council met the police department’s newest officer, currently unnamed, a 9-week old German shorthair that Officer Kent Hatch is holding. The puppy will be trained as a “detection” officer.
EPHRAIM—The Ephraim City Council had a fun, serious and short meeting without Mayor John Scott last Wednesday.
The fun part was meeting the newest member of the police force, a 9-week old German shorthair puppy who be trained by officer Kent Hatch as a detection dog, for finding drugs. He will not be on patrols, or trained for finding bombs, just drugs.
The training process takes about a year, and officer Hatch has extensive experience as a handler instructor with judge certification. There is a contest at Ephraim City to name the puppy, and employees and council members are submitting names.
At the next council meeting, July 21, Mayor Scott will select the final name from among the top three selected. The council will also meet and swear in a new police officer, Jordan Garff, who was recently hired.
The council also accepted the flag proposed by the Granary Art Center, which will hang from poles on Main Street.
The serious part of the meeting came when the council discussed water conditions with Cory Daniels. “We’ve been running both city wells a lot,” he said. “The spring outputs are dropping way down, to the same levels we saw in 2018.”
The council is advising all citizens to conserve water. “If you have been watering three days a week, drop that back to two, and don’t water longer than normal,” the council said. “If voluntary conservation doesn’t work, we may have to issue mandatory restrictions; and we really hope we don’t have to do that.”
Bryan Kimball, Community Development Director/Engineer reported on a meeting he had with the county planning and zoning to discuss city buffer zones. The county is seeking input from the cities on whether changes need to be made to buffer zones as cities grow.
