Fairview chooses engineers to redo line
By Angela Thompson
01-30-2019
FAIRVIEW— The Fairview City Council has decided on the engineering firm they want to hire to take charge of replacing the “spring line,” the main pipe bringing water from the mountain springs into the culinary water system.
The proposal had been discussed, but tabled at a special meeting on Jan. 8.
Council members asked Justin Jackson, the city water and sewer superintendent, for his input on the three outstanding bids for the project.
“All of the proposals have unique pros and cons,” Jackson said. While each firm would probably get the job done, the selection was a matter of trust, he said.
Jackson stressed that whichever company was chosen, the city would need to work closely with them for a significant length of time. He said he was confident he could personally work with any of the companies submitting proposals. Jackson also counseled the council to choose the firm that would maximize the amount of water captured for the city.
After much discussion, and after learning that Horrocks Engineers of Pleasant Grove was the only firm that visited the project site prior to submitting a bid, the council voted unanimously to award the project to Horrocks.
Mayor David Taylor re-introduced the idea of creating an enterprise tax zone in the city. Fairview previously created such a zone along Main Street, but none of the businesses in the zone were able to qualify for any benefits and the zone was allowed to expire in 2009.
Taylor proposed to make the new zone cover the whole city. While business currently operating within city limits still would not qualify for any real benefits, Taylor was urged in a recent meeting with the Utah Community Impact Board to reapply for the enterprise tax zone in light of new federal tax law.
The first step would be to hold a public hearing to see how residents of Fairview feel about the proposed new zone.
City Recorder, Jan Anderson, brought to the council’s attention that the city codes are significantly out of date. Anderson requested the council’s permission to spearhead a project to work with Sterling Codifiers, an Idaho-based company used by many local municipalities in Utah, to assemble city ordinances into an organized code book.
Anderson said there was enough money set aside in the budget to cover most, if not all, of the estimated costs of $3,000-$7000.
Anderson led a discussion about municipal elections coming up later this year. She said there are three four-year council seats and one two-year council opening.
The council voted to retain the current mail-in ballots. The county will again mail out the ballots, but it is expected that Fairview will oversee the actual counting. Anderson will be looking into details about the process, election judges, etc. Declarations of candidacy are due in June.
Council members noted and passed along compliments they had received from several residents of Jackson and his crew for their handling of a recent water line break. While many in the city were without water for nearly 48 hours, it was evident to many that Jackson and his crew worked tirelessly to get the system repaired.
