New Deputy Clerk, Parks & Rec Looks to Add Members
The New Meadows City Council met for their bi-monthly meeting on Monday, February 10 with Council Members Josh Carr, Traci Foster, Jeff Parnett, and Shiloh Ryker all attending in person along with Mayor Julie Good and City Clerk Kyla Gardner. Six community members were present at City Hall with two attending on Zoom as well as City Attorney Richard Stubbs and City Engineer Grae Harper. No public comment was offered.
The Mayor began her report noting that with the recent snows the Public Works team has been working very hard to clear snow. She also noted that they received complaints about snow piling up in the gutter areas on Virginia Street through town. She said the City’s snow removal team worked many nights to move snow and noted that they are not able to do this removal process during the day due to traffic.
The Mayor noted she is looking forward to meeting with Shannon McKnight of Youth Advocacy Coalition to discuss starting a New Meadows Community Youth Advisory Board. She also noted that they look forward to working together with the school.
Mayor Good’s report also noted that a needed material list was received from Grindline Skateparks for the Mehen Memorial Skatepark project. She said the project will also need labor assistance including excavation and moving dirt.
Finally, the Mayor noted that the Parks & Rec Committee is down to three members and is looking for new members. Committee members do not need to live within city limits, but do need to participate in events as well as meetings. They meet on the first Monday of the month at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall. Their next event is the Easter Egg Hunt.
The new Deputy City Clerk, Sonya Brodhecker was then introduced to the council. She will start officially in her role on Thursday.
The meeting then moved to discussion items beginning with an update on the New Meadows Youth Center. Mayor Good said starting this week that Kirk Kundrick, Gardner, and she will be attending weekly walk-throughs at the construction site. This week they will be doing a walk through with the architect and construction crew. She noted also that they will be needing to engage with the school very soon to start talking about a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the preschool in that building.
Mayor Good also said the Meadows Valley Early Learning Foundation would be meeting with Cambria from Central District Health on March 4. Mayor Good said the Foundation is doing well and has elected officers and set up email along with progress in other areas. In April they will most likely meet with the City Council to gain an MOU for their part in the Youth Center.
The Mayor also noted that they had received their first reimbursement payment that day from the Idaho Workforce Development Childcare Expansion Grant. The process for receiving each reimbursement is many steps long and each takes about 60-90 days. The total grant amount is $600k.
Next up, the council discussed the potential of using part of the land application area owned by the school as rock source for street improvements. The City would need to apply for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and do a public hearing before gaining approval. The considered area is in a 15 acre zone located north of the school and west of the airport. Doug Buys noted that the roads and streets committee discussion on this has brought up that any base rock taken from the land application area would be replaced with what is taken from the roads stating more would be put back in than will be taken out and that the area would be improved as well since vegetation would be able to grow with improved soil. This could potentially save the city money. The council agreed to move forward in discussions toward a CUP.
The council then discussed the idea of a Local Option Sales Tax. In order to put a local option sales tax into place, the City would need to be declared a resort city and would need a 60% majority citizen vote. Other nearby towns including Riggins and McCall utilize a local option sales tax on things such as dining and hotel stays. This money could be directly used for city projects such as street upgrades. The council ended the in depth discussion with a decision to continue researching option tax details from other cities and beginning to write out what specific items they may decide to have the tax apply to along with where the money would specifically be applied. They expressed concern for public understanding and ensuring people know the tax is meant to benefit the city by placing tax on items most used by travelers or visitors.
Mayor Good gave an update on Brown’s Mountain Recycling as she attended a 10:00 a.m. courtroom citation hearing that morning. The new prosecutor had not yet been able to review all details of the case and requested more time for this. The hearing was moved back to March 20. Mayor Good noted that she restated to the judge and prosecutor that the City Council’s intent was to incentivize progress and that they may dismiss the charges if the property is cleaned up according to city ordinances.
Moving to action items, the council was introduced to Ordinance TBD-2025 officially creating the Roads & Streets Committee. The Mayor noted that this is an advisory committee that reports to the City Council and that this is very needed for the city. Council Member Carr introduced the motion with Council Member Foster giving a second and all voting yes. Gardner read the full ordinance and then Carr moved to approve the ordinance with Council Member Ryker seconding. A unanimously affirmative roll call vote approved the ordinance.
Next the Council unanimously approved adjustments to approved bank account signers. Former Council Member Troy Black and former Deputy Clerk Diane Hunter were both removed and Council Member Traci Foster and new Deputy Clerk Brodhecker were added.
The council went into Executive Session 74-206(f) to communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated.
After coming back from Executive Session, the council approved the consent agenda unanimously.
Future meeting topics discussed included ideas for the volunteer policy, appointing Road & Streets committee members, Local Option Sales Tax review and discussion, rock source CUP, potential childcare foundation public meet and greet, and potential public meeting related to items the city attorney is working on.
The next New Meadows city council meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 24 at 6:30 p.m..
