IHC
asks Tremonton to donate $1 million, gets $15,000
By Dave
Archer
October 22, 2008 | TREMONTON -- The City Council voted
to donate $15,000 toward the construction of the new
Bear River Valley Hospital after much debate Tuesday
night.
Mayor Max Weese said that Intermountain Health Care
(IHC), who is building the new hospital, has asked the
community to raise a total of $1 million to help offset
construction costs. The company has approached a number
of individual cities and towns around the valley asking
for donations.
Councilman Byron Wood said he was hesitant to donate,
due to the fact that the city has already given IHC
an approximate $140,000 break on their building impact
fees.
"I think we've given quite a bit already," he said.
Councilman David Deakin agreed, but felt the city
still needed to make a donation and be listed with other
donors to the project. He made a motion to contribute
$10,000, which was voted down by a 3-2 vote.
Councilman Jeff Reese said he felt that the $30,000
the city collected in building impact fees should be
given back to go towards construction costs, and was
upset other council members felt that number was too
high.
"I don't know how you can say that with what they're
doing for the community," he said.
A motion was made to donate $20,000, but that was
also voted down. The council finally compromised on
$15,000.
In other news, council members approved an amendment
to the city code, taking all references to 20-acre agriculture
zoning (A-20) off the books. The city had decided not
to allow any more A-20 zoning within city limits in
the late 1990s, but a few references were never taken
out of the code.
The city also amended the code to include a specific
list of required utilities for housing developments
that need to be in place. City Building and Zoning Administrator
Steve Bench said those utilities include power, water,
sewer, telephone, cable television and Internet lines.
"The code didn't have specific utilities," Bench said.
"We went back and spelled out the required utilities."
The council is also considering a proposal from Public
Works Director Paul Fulgham regarding the purchase of
a new street sweeper. Fulgham said the city's current
sweeper is 13 years old, and will start costing the
city more money in maintenance and upkeep than it would
be worth. He said he proposed the city buy a newer model
of the current sweeper, which is estimated to be between
$165,000-$170,000 after trade-in.
"We've been happy with our sweeper, but it's lived
its life. Thirteen years is a lot of hard work," Fulgham
said. "When we spend the money, we want to get the best
bang for our buck."
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