City Council · 2020-10-13

Council for today, October 13th, 2020. I'd like to read a statement first to begin with. This is a notice of an all-electronic meeting and opportunity for public participation pursuant to Mayor Richard F. Brent's proclamation dated October 5th, 2020. The Orem City Council meeting on October 13th, 2020 will be an all-electronic meeting. There'll be no anchor location for the meeting. The city cannot ensure the recommended minimum of 6 feet of social distancing for meeting participants at the usual anchor location in the Orem City Council Chambers. Therefore, holding the meeting at the City Council Chambers would present a substantial risk to the health and safety of those who may be present at the meeting and may contribute to the spread of COVID-19. There will be no public access to the Orem City Council chambers. Those desiring to view or participate in the meeting must do so electronically. To view the meeting, please go to orem.org/meetings. And we will talk about comments later on our regular City Council. We will go ahead and start, and we'll begin with the presentation. On the Central Corridor Transit Study, and Eric Rasband and Mary DeLamay Schaefer are presenting. Are you both online?

Eric is here. I don't see Mary yet.

Eric, will you be the one sharing your screen?

Is that okay?

Yep, yep. Let me just make you a co-host, then you should be able to do it, no problem.

So we'll go ahead and start with you.

Very good. Mayor, Council, thank you for the opportunity to come and visit with you. I feel a little bit like I'm coming home. I've spent a lot of time with, with the group of you over the last little bit, and I appreciate the opportunity to get involved again. Just a shout out to Jamie Davidson on this project. He's really taken a leadership role on the Central Corridor project from the beginning. He's been able to gain support from— there's 7 local governments that are participating in this project. Early on, Jamie saw the need to bring that group of city managers together and work on building a coalition, and it really made this project easy, relatively easy and fun moving forward. So, Jamie, thank you for your leadership on this and the support that you provided.

So, John Seeger, thumbs up.

There you go. There you go. From the project team, we have myself. I'm a UDOT project manager managing a transit project, which is—

Mary just joined us, by the way, Eric.

Very good.

Okay, great. Hi, Mary.

And then we have Mary Delamar Schaefer, who's the general manager of the Tempe and Hylas Business District for UTA. Claire Woodman is working with us from Parametrics and providing the technical support. And then Shane Marshall with Horrocks is the project manager from our consultant team. So just to give some background, I'm hoping everybody sees my screen and the presentation.

Yes, we do. Okay, very good.

Okay, so some of the background. We've been evaluating a high-capacity transit system from Lehi to Provo. Our goal has been to select a preferred alternative for both an alignment and a mode, and throughout the process provide a lot of collaboration and make sure that all the agencies have had an opportunity to have their voice heard. And we believe that that has been the case. The agencies that have participated in this are UDOT, UTA, Mountainland Association of Governments, Provo-Orem, Vineyard, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, and Lehi moving forward. So we started about just a little over a year ago and have been meeting with both a technical group and an executive group. The technical group includes city staff members, either engineers or planners, and then the executive group is typically the mayor and the city manager for each of the agencies. And recently we've selected a preferred alternative. I should say that the executive committee selected a preferred alternative. And just going forward, The preferred alternative is a bus rapid transit paralleling— we'll start up in Lehigh. It's going to start basically at the Adobe location. There's a rail that UTA co-owns with the Union Pacific Railroad. Take advantage of that rail alignment, go past the hospital there at the point of the mountain, come down to the— just east of the former brick factory. that's off of 2100 North, cross under I-15, parallel State Street. Now there's some design options that we'll need to figure out in the next phase. As I mentioned, Union Pacific Railroad currently has some ownership and some customers being served in the Lehigh and American Fork area. But we're fortunate in that we have State Street that parallels that route, and we may need to jump out of that rail alignment into State Street. Going down into American Fork, likely we'll take advantage of Pacific Drive north of Main Street, and at some point in that downtown area, we anticipate that we'll turn and go down and tie into the Main Street area through the historic downtown area of American Fork. Then it continues down State Street to North County Boulevard in Pleasant Grove. where it turns south, goes across North County Boulevard to 700 North in Linden, back to State Street, and then goes all the way down State Street into Provo and ultimately ties into the Frontrunner station in Provo using 3rd South and University Avenue. Mentioned Vineyard was a participant in the The study, and they were really the only community that didn't have a connection with that alignment. And so we're moving forward with a branch alternative, basically at 800 North and State Street. We anticipate running an east-west connection over to Vineyard and provide some connection there. It's really a valuable link. It helps increase ridership of the overall system. goes past the hospital there in Orem and some of the high density around the hospital. And so we believe that that particular link is a low-cost addition, but really helps improve the ridership as we move forward. Ridership is a key metric that the Federal Transit Authority will look at as we move forward to help fund this project. And we are going to need federal funding to move this forward, in addition to some local sales tax increment that we'll need to work with Mountainland and the county as we move forward. So generally speaking, we have a high level of support from all of the communities. There's some additional design options that we need to figure out a little bit more here at the— the UVX line ties into the Orem Frontrunner station, there could be an option of extending that up Geneva Road and tying into the vineyard and making it a loop across 800 North. So we would have 2 tie-ins to the UVX system, one at 800 North and then the other one would be down at University Parkway in front of University Place. And then in a kind of a parallel effort that's been going on that Claire has been helping— That's right. To lead. Is a tie to the Point of the Mountain and that redevelopment that's happening around the prison. So we anticipate that there's gonna be a link and hopefully, well, we know that we're gonna be sharing an alignment, whether it's at the Adobe location or at the hospital. That's where our 2 projects are going to interlink together. We've been working closely with the Point of the Mountain team team, and we need to figure out some of those operational characteristics as we move forward. So some of the key features: it's a robust north-south high-capacity transit spine through the central part of Utah County, provides an alternative and really a different function than the commuter rail. It's a shorter service. maybe a little more often as well. Connects to key TODs, including the ones along State Street in Orem, and connections to Frontrunner and UVX, and like we talked about, the Point of the Mountain study. And a big advantage is this alignment with the branch serves all the communities within the study area. So we're excited about where we're going. In Orem, some of the transit stations that we're looking at are 1600 North, 800 North, Center Street, 800 South, University Parkway, and 1700 South. I think those are all higher density nodes that are planned as part of the State Street Master Plan. There's actually another one that we're evaluating with Linden up here, just north of 2000 North. So several along there, and then along the branch Pick it up, the hospital at 800 West on 800 North, and then Geneva Road as well. And so we're excited about those opportunities. Some of the cross-sections that we're dealing with, you know, the existing right-of-way is between 110 feet and 120 feet, and because of the additional lanes and the clearances, going up quite a bit in our footprint. on State Street and then 800 North, similar type of impact as well as we move forward. We have had a great public involvement effort that has been— we've had 2 previous opportunities for the public to weigh in, and we are currently just released another public opportunity for the public to weigh in on the the study. We've received 250 comments. Those are individual commenters and about 750 overall comments. Generally speaking, there's a lot of support for this north-south transit spine, connections to Vineyard. The connections to Frontrunner are important for folks and safety for pedestrians. As we move forward, Some of the items that we have left to do are the presentations like this to the city councils. We have some additional engineering work that needs to happen, some operational planning, and getting down to the cost estimates. And we do have some open houses that are programmed. They're going to be virtual on the 26th and 29th, and hopefully we'll get an opportunity to to close this project out in the November timeframe. And Mary, did you want to— or did you have anything else that you want to add to this study and how it's progressed?

Well, I always want to add something because this project is near and dear to my heart. There's very few times in your professional career where you get to work on a project that just really brings you a lot of happiness and joy. And this is one of them for me because I understand the need and I understand what it will do for our communities. And I want to thank Jamie Davidson because this project wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for Jamie. Shortly after UVX opened, Jamie, right on the heels of you all working on Imagine Orem and all that hard work you did along State Street, he called together all his colleagues colleagues and began the ball rolling for saying, how do we move forward? And, you know, how do we get ready for the next step, the next transit step? So, Jamie, I thank you very much for doing that. And I'd be remiss if I didn't also thank my colleague and very valued friend, Eric Rasband. It's been an absolute delight to work with Eric. And I honestly feel like how UTA and UDOT are working on this project together is a model for everybody else throughout the state. Thank you. Because we're showing that the focus should be on the community, not on our agencies, and getting and addressing the community needs. So as we move forward into the environmental study, which was funded through the regional planning process, UTA will do the cash match, but the $3 million has come through because of your participation and MAG and support and all the other communities involved. UTA and UDOT will continue this partnership. in delivering that next product so that we can move towards construction. So it's a wonderful project. I'd love to hear any feedback that you all have for us or any questions or concerns that you have.

So Mary had an area question. How long will the environmental study take? And then how will the funding estimation carry forward. So UVX was about $200 to $210 million. As Eric alluded to, we'll need a— probably a sales tax component locally, but we'll also need federal funding. And of course, the elections make a big difference on that. But I'm just curious, we're— you know, I think this phase is One that, that we're in right now has gone very smoothly. But of course, the elephant in the room is really going to be the funding phase. And of course, there's a lot of competition, not only within our own state up north, but also throughout the country. So when we did UVX as an example, there were 120 applicants for the Small Starts grant, and only 6 got funded. And so I'm just curious if you could tell us more what your thoughts are as to how we're going to proceed with that.

Yeah, I'll jump in on this. We have Zions Bank helping us with that financial analysis, that financial plan. And for our next executive meeting, we're going to have more detail on that. This is not a— this is not a cheap project. It's a very expensive project. It's over 20 miles in length. And so that is going to be a big heavy lift for us. We know that the 5th quarter generates historically about $20 million a year, which isn't enough to construct. And— but it could be used to help bond or leverage. some funding mechanisms to help build this project. We believe that this project will be competitive on the national scale, but time will tell as we move forward on it. To your other question, how long will the environmental take? We anticipate it could take anywhere from 2 to 3 years.

So, Mayor, I just— I would like to add That not only is it forward-thinking, but we know that the 850 route that runs up and down State Street that you all are very familiar with has been a really steady workhorse for us during COVID I mean, it was, it was on the rise, the ridership, before COVID and while we have reduced ridership, it's also stayed strong. We pulled back some of our service in April. We added it back in August, saw the numbers continue to rise, so we see the importance. For many people, I believe, who have to have transit in order to live their lives, and we're seeing that on a daily basis. So I feel really good about the strength of the ridership for the 850 and what that— and what this project means in the future for those that are using that service.

Good.

Very good. Any other questions?

Yes, so what would— what will State Street look like after this, and do we lose any lanes of traffic? Just explain that a little bit more. Are there 2 lanes of— are there 2 bus lanes?

I'll pull up this cross-section here so you can see this cross-section of State Street. Yes, the top is what State Street looks like today. So we have a wide shoulder, 8 to 14 feet. We have— I think we actually have 12-foot travel lanes today. They're between 11 and 12 feet today. And then the center median where you can make the 2-way left turn lane. So it's 3 lanes of travel. And then the future, we anticipate that we'll continue that 3 lanes of travel, the shoulder, and then we're going to add really an additional lane in the middle for the bus and take up what that existing 2-way left turn lane would be. So we're adding some width. We need some separation between the buses and the vehicles, the passenger vehicles, and separation between the buses so that they're not taking each other's mirrors off. When we get to the stations, we grow this cross-section out at the station location at about another 15 to 20 feet of additional width at those station locations. So think what University Parkway is today, and that in reality is what we're trying to get to.

So you're going to widen State Street by another 24, 28 feet?

We're going to have to figure out how to either widen or fit, and it could be that we have to make some adjustments. the shoulders. You know, if there's buildings right next to the back walk today, we're going to do what we can to avoid taking buildings out. But those are— so those are some of the design refinements that have to happen in the next phase. But we're planning for a wide corridor at this point in time.

But Eric, this is Jamie. Just I think it's important to reinforce that we anticipated this expanded cross-section when we put together our State Street master plan. So we are not, for example, going to put ourselves in a situation where we're going to construct new buildings and place them too close to the right-of-way. We envisioned and anticipated that. In addition to that, we also anticipated future utility infrastructure and servicing of such as part of that as well. So we're doing our best to preserve the right-of-way in a way where expansion of the right-of-way, if necessary, can work, while at the same time allowing businesses and uses along the State Street corridor to continue to grow and develop in a way that they need to.

This is the mayor. One thing I wanted to bring up is that UDOT— and Eric, you can correct me if I'm wrong— is committed that this road will stay a 6-lane road, 3 lanes going each direction. So that will not change even if the road is widened. Is that correct, Eric?

Yeah, that's a pretty good assumption. In Utah County, one of the things we're lacking of is a good robust grid network. State Street is really the alternative that we have to I-15, and so we need to preserve that functionality or that flexibility that we have in our system, as well as we need to continue to grow that system.

Sure. The other question that I have is some money has been Set aside in for Orem to put in some dividers. You'd ought to put some dividers down State Street for traffic calming, for landscaping, etc. I could see us ending up and doing this in the next 3 years and then have that be totally in the way of our new bus rapid transit going down State Street and have to tear it all out again. Is there any coordination going on between what we're envisioning and the money for the dividers and what's happening there and forward-looking to combine both projects so we're not ripping the road up twice?

I would suggest that those center medians are being put in for safety improvements. as much as anything, maybe more so than traffic calming. And they will provide a benefit for whatever time, even if they were only in for a year, they would provide a benefit to the public, a safety benefit. But chances are those center medians that are being designed right now will likely have to come out with this project.

So the reason I bring that up is that's a tremendous amount of disruption To State Street, which is one of our major traffic haulers through the city. And I would really encourage UDOT and UTA and Orem to get together where we don't have to rip that road up twice. I know our residents would have a heartache over that, number one. And number two, timing of it would be very disruptive to businesses along You know, State Street. So I think some consideration really needs to be given there, and some meetings need to be had to consider how can we do this without having to rip up our major corridor twice in the middle of the city.

Fair enough. We meet with city staff monthly, so we can put it on the next meeting agenda and talk about how to move forward.

I think that needs to be brought up now to be forward-thinking.

Mayor, this is Ryan Clark. If I could add—

Sure.

And Eric can correct me if I'm wrong, but that median construction would take place during the evening hours to not disrupt businesses. You're absolutely right. We don't ever want to install something and just tear it back out again. Unfortunately, the thing we're facing right now is we're trying to improve safety on State Street. And sometimes when it comes to saving lives, it's a different discussion. You may recall UDOT put the cable barrier down I-15 only to take it out a few years later to do the I-CORE project. However, I don't think we know how many lives that cable barrier may have saved while it was in, and it's kind of hard to put a price on safety. But we definitely don't want to be wasting taxpayer funds. We want to make sure we do things right, but we are having those discussions.

Well, I just know how much effort went into the University Parkway and University Avenue for UVX and all the disruption the businesses had that occurred in downtown Provo and in Orem. And I think with some diligent planning, we could look at this and say, what makes sense here? I mean— Anyway, I think it's important that that be considered.

Mayor, without doubt, we will continue our conversations. In fact, we have a meeting, I believe, tomorrow afternoon, and we'll certainly be talking about that with Jamie and team and Eric and myself and others. So we all want to try to do the smartest thing. I mean, it's a really hard thing right now. 500 West in Provo is being torn up, and now we're talking about bringing this project down that street. And how do we do that and minimize disruption? That was years in the making, that project, and we hadn't started Central Corridor. So we just have to keep talking to each other.

And it's been a couple or 3 years in the production to put that together. So it's torn that area up a lot. Cause a lot of heartache down there anyway.

Tom, it looks like you had your hand raised.

Yeah, do the— I had also put my note in the chat. Do the lanes get more narrow?

I believe that the existing lanes are 12 feet along State Street. And so we're proposing to go to 11-foot lanes for the vehicles. So yeah, they would— they'd be narrowed up by a foot.

But the cross-section that you're showing right now is 11 feet.

Yeah, I, I'm not— I need to double-check that, what it is today. So our standard is 12 feet, but we, we do go down to 11 feet on certain areas.

So, Mayor and City Council, this is, this is Jamie. If I may just add a note and I don't necessarily want to have UTA and UDOT put the brakes on a, on a project, but I think we need to kind of think as to, okay, best-case scenario, when might we see this project come to pass? And I still think we are, by the time we work through the environmental process and we get into the engineering process and we go through a bid process, Then we have a financing effort underway to afford this project. You know, the best-case scenario I see is, is probably 5 to 7 years, and we are probably too optimistic at 5 years. And I know, for example, we have several on the line who have built projects for both UDOT and UTA that could probably speak better to that. But, you know, some of the issues we're grappling with today along State Street are safety-related that require immediate improvements. What we're talking about today is something that we hope will come to pass when all the pieces come together in 7 years.

Well, certainly that's something to be considered and looked at, but I think it's important we look at it now.

Brent, you raised your hand.

Brent Sumner, are you wanting to speak?

While we're waiting, we'll have Brent go out to State Street real quick and measure the lanes. So with the tape measure.

Very good.

Go ahead, Brent.

Yeah, just looking at those, the diagram you had on the 2 bus lanes, you know, and I know nothing's engineered or settled, but it looks like you'll take approximately 3 to 4, if you divide it equally, 4 to 5 feet off each side of the street. I'm just— and again, I know you haven't gone this far, but it looks like you're going to eliminate a lot of parking along State Street.

Yeah, the cross-section that we show shows that we retain the on-street parking. But that would be a design refinement that would happen at a future date. The design work that we've done to date has been pretty basic and needs quite a bit more refinement. The environmental will take us to a approximately 30% design. And then if the project gets funded, then the real design refinements start to happen and you start to look for opportunities to minimize the impacts as you move into that final design process.

Yeah, I know I'm way ahead of the project, but I think you need to watch very carefully the elimination of a lot of that State Street parking. It would be devastating to several businesses. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions or concerns?

Well, thank you, Eric.

Thank you for the opportunity, and, and the partnership we have with Orem, UTA, MAG has been wonderful. Thanks. Thanks so much.

It's great to work with you. Thank you, Mary. Always love having you on board.

Lovely to be here. Excited about the project. Thanks, everyone.

Yes. All right, well, let's go ahead and move on. I did want to mention that Councilmember Debbie Luray is on board with us. I think she's on a cruise ship somewhere, but, but anyway, good to have you on board. Let's go ahead and move on to our city retention schedule discussion. And Jody Bates, our city recorder, is leading that, so we will turn it over to you, Jody.

Thank you, Mayor and Council. This again is getting— we are actually getting towards the end of our retention schedule. We are getting into the city manager's department. This is just to review the human resource, redevelopment, risk management, and the CDBG retentions that we are suggesting. Again, at any time, if you have any questions, please feel free to give me or Jackie a call. These will be on the consent calendar next City Council meeting.

Great. Any questions from anybody? All right, well, let's go on to our agenda review. So David Spencer will be giving the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. And we have an Arts Council report from John Reinhardt, the Arts Council Chair. And then we have 3 consent items. The first is approval of City Council meeting minutes, September 29th, 2020. Appointment to boards and commissions, the Natural Resources Stewardship Committee, Hillary Hungerford, Any of you know her on the council? Okay. Are you okay having her on board?

I have a question, Mayor. Is this committee aware of her appointment?

I do not know that.

Yes.

Okay. I know at our last meeting they were, and that was just 10 days ago or so, they were they were putting the word out. So I'm impressed that that happened so quickly. So thank you.

Yeah, they did reach feelers out and they did apply based on the feedback that they got from the committee. So I don't know if they know her, she's being appointed tonight specifically, but she was asked to fill out the application based on one of the commission members.

Okay, yes, and I think she works with UVU and she's passionate about water, so I think she'd be a good Everybody okay with that? Yeah, I'm not hearing any nays. Yes. I'll consider that a yay. Our 3rd item on our consent is the approval of certain section of the City of Warren Public Works Department retention schedule. So is everybody okay with the 3 items on the consent agenda? Yes. Okay. Then we go on to our scheduled items. The first one's a public hearing on a resolution. The city will receive public comment on the Community Development Block Grant projected use of funds for CARES Act funding and consider approval of a substantial amendment to the 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan. So I don't know, is Ken Ransom there?

He isn't. They'll both be on the 6 o'clock call, but I can speak to this.

Well, yeah, I was just going to mention this is additional funding from the CARES Act for the CDBG funds, I believe. Is that correct, Steve?

That's correct.

OK. So we had received $410,000 before and now we're receiving an additional $220,000 from that funding. The next one is a resolution designating 1200 West Street as Wolverine Way and 1200 West. Jason, you're the presenter. Anything you want to mention?

No, we just wanted to go from 1600 North all the way down to University Parkway. It'd be a great entry feature for University. So—

Jay?

When that comes up, I'd love to make the motion.

All right, well, speak up when we're doing it and that'd be great. All right, Jamie, you have any items you want to bring up?

Mayor, just a couple of items. Members of City Council, you may have seen earlier today Governor Herbert held a press conference and the mayor has forwarded information to each of you regarding changes to the state's COVID monitoring program. We are moving away from a color-coded system and moving to essentially a 3-tiered restriction level system with a high, moderate, and low level of restrictions based on a number of key metrics.

They call that their Transmission Index Program on their website.

Several of us around the office commented that this is the wear a mask plan. So I think in all of the categories, there is strong encouragement or requirement to wear a mask. So we are going to come together as a staff. The documentation that the governor has provided to date is not as detailed, as past information. So for example, we're wondering how does this relate to, for example, our recreation programs, the swimming pool, some of our day-to-day operations here in the city. We find ourselves in the high-risk category. So of the 3, we are in the highest risk category. And we'll need to be mindful of that. That category and that essentially assignment is something that we will have for at least 14 days. Thereafter, the governor will have an opportunity to adjust on a county-by-county basis where we will be in the future. I just wanted to let you know that we're in the process of making some changes consistent with what the governor has encouraged. And I anticipate that some of these changes will be welcomed by some of our residents, and in turn, there will be others who will not necessarily appreciate these changes. And you may hear, I'm sure, from both. We are drawing to the conclusion of our library project. We do have a number of things that are outstanding. We had looked to an October 20th finish date. It looks like we're gonna have to push that back by about a week or so. Charlene and her staff are working on a November 10th ribbon cutting that we will be certain complies with the high-risk category that we are in for purposes of COVID Okay. And we will obviously send some information out to you as soon as, as we can, but we're excited to share this new facility with the public and to invite them to participate in activities when we can, consistent with our COVID situation. But I express appreciation specifically to Ryan and Charlene who have been working hard to get things ready and on track for a November 10th ribbon cutting, so to speak. If you're interested in taking a tour, I know you can please reach out to Charlene, and I know she'll be happy to walk you through and share with you where we are. It's a little bit of a— well, it's a busy beehive of activity right now. If you give it a few more days, It probably will be in a little bit better shape than it is right now. We're still laying carpet and getting things ready to go for the contractor to turn the building over to us in a couple of weeks. And that is all I have. Thank you.

Okay, thanks, Jamie. Just one addition to what you had mentioned as far as what the governor has come out with. I had sent forward what Ralph Clegg From the health department has put out as far as our data from last week for not only the county but the city. So North Orem, and I don't know what North Orem means, actually has one of the highest rates in the county, as does Linden. Not sure what that means, but Ralph's going to get back to me and tell me what North Orem means. Anyway, so we wanted to go back and wanted to hear a report from Terry Peterson on his committee assignments.

Okay, so I have 3 committee assignments. I have the Utah League of Cities and Towns Legislative Policy Committee, the UVU Community Outreach, and then the Planning Commission. So first on the ULCT, Legislative Policy Committee. We have a meeting this Monday. They're a Zoom meeting on Monday. And just checking in with them the other day, there's a lot of things that they're always involved with. There's some— they are very closely watching what happens with the state legislature and bills that will be passed that could affect us as a So there's some land use issues they're hearing about. There's also some issues with municipal fees and some issues that might be coming out from the state on that. So just a couple of things, even though the legislature on the state level is not meeting right now, they're constantly watching committee meetings and what's going on. So I'll get an update on Monday on anything new. Thank you. Everything really starts to heat up in another couple of months. But UVU Community Outreach, there's a new lady, her name's Donna, in that group. We've played phone tag, so I want to reach out to her and have her update me and get me involved in what's going on there. I wanted to make a comment about the Planning Commission. Yeah, I really enjoy serving on as an assignment listening to the Planning Commission. There was just something that happened this last week, which I thought this is kind of cool. There was somebody who had, they had bought a lot next to their home and they wanted to merge that into one lot. Well, it's not a big deal except that they wanted to put a swimming pool, I believe, or do something like that on the other lot. And I thought, this is, this is neat that the city helps people do things that are their dreams for their, for their property and for their family. I've seen that happen with other multiple, multiple generational situations where there was a father's home and a child's home and, and just watch how Jason works with the people to help make, you know, their, their wishes and hopes work. So I enjoy serving on that, watching that assignment as well, and see Jason and his group try to make things work for people that have wishes in their community. So I mean, that's kind of brief, but, you know, that's how— brief's okay sometimes, Mayor, right?

Brief's fine.

We don't often find it. But anyway, that's— I'll know a little bit more about UVU when Donna and, you you know, we can talk about the community outreach and where they're at with what she's going to be doing in the future.

Great. Well, thank you, Terry. Thank you for your service on those committees.

Thank you.

One thing I wanted to bring up, which maybe you've read in the newspaper, University Mall has tied up leases with 5 brand new stores, which is pretty exciting. 3 of them are clothing stores, One's a popcorn facility restaurant, and the other one I'm not totally positive on. But it's nice to see that activity increasing. And as Jamie brought up before, our sales tax revenue last month was up. So that's pretty amazing in a COVID-19 situation because many cities are not seeing those kinds of things happen. But our city continues to grow and our revenues continue to grow as well. So does anybody else have anything at the moment? All right, if nothing else, let's go ahead and adjourn our meeting and we will start back up at 6 o'clock for our regular council session. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, very good. And honestly, if you need to find— we just never had an issue at this point. Okay, so yep, thanks. Thank you.

This is Kenna. Thank you for choosing Mariana Chow. We would like to— Oh, I'm using— Oh, it was? It says it's off.

I'm sorry, I heard Good to see you on, John.

This is a little strange in a way, but with all the Zoom meetings everyone's been doing, I guess it should be just commonplace.

Yep, it's how the world rolls these days. So where are you, Debbie? Okay, you're on mute. You're on mute. Hi, I'm on mute.

Is screen sharing set up?

Have you hit audio? Little thing on the left bottom says audio. I did. Try speaking now. Nope. Can you hear us, Debbie? Okay. Well, if we take a vote and we can't hear you, You can just do a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Hey, Dick? Yeah. So, uh, Taylor's gonna give the prayer and Julie's gonna give the pledge. Okay.

Why don't we have Maddie do the pledge? Maddie, come do the pledge. You're on. Um, so do we have anywhere tonight to go, or this is it? Because I'll probably go out and start throwing out. Squash, squash.

Tell Maddie she can't be laughing in the background. All right, now 6 o'clock and we'll begin our proceedings. I would like to read a notice. This is a notice of an all-electronic meeting and opportunity for public participation, and I am Mayor Bruntz. Pursuant to Mayor Richard F. Bruntz's proclamation dated October 5th, 2020, the Orem City Council meeting on October 13th, 2020 will be an all-electronic meeting. There will be no anchor location for the meeting. The meeting cannot ensure the recommended minimum of 6 feet of social distancing for meeting participants at the usual anchor location in the Orem City Council Chambers. Therefore, holding the meeting at the City Council Chambers would present a substantial risk to the health and safety of all those who may be present at the meeting and may contribute to the spread of COVID-19. There will be no public access to the Orem City Council Chambers. Those desiring to view or participate in the meeting must do so electronically. To view the meeting, please go to aurum.org/meetings. To make a comment, please submit your comment through aurum.org/comments or citycouncilpubliccomments@aurum.org. Comments will be accepted before and during the meeting. All comments received will be entered into the record and forwarded to each City Council member for review. Comments will also be read aloud during the live meeting when required by law or when time permits. Once an item has been voted on, that item will be closed to additional comments. We thank you for your cooperation during these challenging times. We now would like to call our meeting to order. And would like to have Taylor Spencer give the opening prayer, and then the Pledge of Allegiance will be given by Julie Spencer. Taylor, we'll turn it to you.

All right, that's right.

Our dear kind Heavenly Father, we come humbly before thee at this day to thank thee for our many blessings. We ask thee for thy help and thy safety as we go throughout our lives, and we ask that thy field of the Spirit will be here as we go through the city council meeting, that all will be well. We ask you to please bless all the members of the city council and our mayor and all the people of Orem. And we ask you that things will be able to get done in this meeting, that all will go well. We say these things in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Thank you, Taylor. Julie, we'll turn it to you. Everyone could please rise.

Okay, please repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to the flag Of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Julie. Okay, we will now go to a report from the Arts Council, and John Reinhardt, the Arts Council chair, will be giving us that report. John, we'll turn the time over to you. Uh, we can't hear you, John. I don't know if you're on mute or not.

Okay, let me— had to unmute myself. Let me share my screen again.

Okay, thank you. Looks good.

Okay, so everyone can see that?

Yes.

All right, so we'll sum it up. We're just 2020 year in review. Uh, pretty much all I have to do is say COVID-19 and I think we're done, right?

Really?

All right, so we had a few membership changes with Linda Van Orman, who completed her term as an Arts Council member, and we thank her for her service and appreciate all that she's done. And we've added Nathan Christensen, who joined the Arts Council in Linda's place. And of course, just by way of review, Linda— sorry, Debbie Lauriette is our City Council representative. One of the main things that we did, and I'm not certain exactly how we got to pull this off, or, you know, in the age of the virus here, is we had the summer concert series, which went through July and August. And you can see we There's one of the bands, and that was the Tri-Chevys. And if you look at the crowd, it looks a little crowded, but then when you look at it from a different angle, we were able to have the social distancing there in the park. So we're grateful that we were still able to have the concert series and provide some enjoyment for the citizens. We also had the 7th Annual Orem Stories Project there. It was on display in January and February at the Orem Public Library, and there goes an example piece. You just can't beat children's art there. So that is tied to an Orem story. And then lastly, We're continuing our efforts to work on utility box art. We're hoping to take, we're hoping to take a box like this that's at the back of the Serra, and this belongs to Utopia, and turn it into something that looks more like this where we replace some art. Now this, this art is done by Cassandra Barney, and this is examples. We're not exactly certain what it's going to The final piece is going to look like, but again, this is just an example. We were able to, with the help of the city attorney's office, have a signed memorandum of understanding with Utopia that we could do the vinyl art on this set of boxes, and this is going to be kind of our trial run, and we'll see if we can get it in and on there before the temperatures get too That's beautiful art.

Yeah, well, we're— she does a good job, and we're hoping again that transferring that onto here will work well. Again, it's a test.

There's a lot of things that we're figuring out what needs to be done, and hopefully if this is successful, we can expand our efforts. We're also hopeful that with the help of the traffic light department and such that we'll be able to do another box that's owned by the city. Everyone's just been exceptionally busy in that area during these last few months, so we're putting a lot of energy here into getting this one to happen. So that's, that's pretty much the 3 items that I have on here for the presentation. Any questions?

Any questions from the council?

All right, well, with no questions, we'll call that a presentation then. Thank you very much for all your support.

Well, thank you, John, and thank you to the Arts Council. Good work. We'll now move on to the personal appearances portion of our meeting. Steve, are you there?

Yeah, Mayor.

Have you received any comments from anyone?

We do. We have a couple comments which we'll read in. The first one is submitted by the Orem Fraternal Order of Police and the Orem Employee Association. Mayor Brunson, Orem City Council, the Orem Police Department Fraternal Order of Police and Orem Police Department Employee Association would like to publicly express our sincere appreciation to City Manager Jamie Davidson and his department, as well as Human Resource Manager Carrie Rugg and her department, for the diligent work and service that was put forth on behalf of the Orem Police Department as well as the citizens of Orem. Last week, City Manager Jamie Davidson announced the presented the new compensation adjustment that was implemented on October 4th, 2020. Previously in City Council meetings, statements were made which communicated and referenced that the Orem Police Department was not necessarily a destination agency as it once was in the past. We strongly agree that on October 4th, 2020, that perception and realization has changed. Thank you, Mayor, Council, for your continued support of the Orem Police Department and in approving the proposed compensation change that Jamie and Carrie have set forth. We are excited for this new chapter in our department and believe we have all the tools necessary to make Orem a career destination for current and future law enforcement officers. Again, thank you in alphabetical order to Mayor Brunst, Councilmember Jeff Lamson, Councilmember Debbie Larray, Councilmember Tom McDonald, Councilmember Terry Peterson, Councilmember David Spencer, and Councilmember Brent Sumner. Special thanks to City Manager Jamie Davidson and HR Manager Carrie Rugg. Regards, Orem FOP and Orem Employee Association, dated October 13, 2020.

All right, and do you have another one as well?

Yeah, this one is from Douglas and Carol Hinckley. I used to be a loyal Orem city resident.

Because of my professional career in public relations, I chaired the city's 2010 census committee and was chair of the Heather Ridge Neighborhoods in Action Committee for several years, all with no charge for my services to Orem City. Now, however, I am being harassed and am extremely heartbroken by your actions against me. My husband and I are being charged a $50 fee for being apartment managers for managing our basement apartment. The utilities for the apartment are in our name and are paid automatically each month by direct deposit. Several years ago, we made our apartment legal as per your city council statutes. So we know we have an apartment and are inflicting this charge on us for being honest. There are 3 homes in our neighborhood housing renters in illegal apartments. When you charge them the marginal fee, you can come after us, but until then, please stop sending us notices for this marginal fee. If you only charge honest people like me, then please stop sending us notices. Who refuse to pay this fee, come take me to jail where I can get free food and a good night's sleep. But send someone to take care of my husband in my absence. He has Alzheimer's and can't be left alone. That's the end of the comment.

Okay, so we do need to open this up for a minute for anyone else who wishes to make a comment. So we will go ahead and start right now.

Okay, we got another comment from Hillary Hungerford. She says, just wanted to say I'm excited to be part of the Natural Resources Stewardship Committee. And then we have another comment from an unnamed person who says, clarify event with organizational oversight. I am holding an event on Saturday. And those are the only 2 comments that have come in.

Okay. All right, our minute is up. Uh, have you received any additional comments?

No additional comments, Mayor.

Okay. All right, we'll close the personal comment portion of our meeting and move on to our consent agenda. We have 3 items on our consent agenda. If anyone wishes to to choose to ask that any one of these be put on our scheduled items, please make it known. If not, we'll move forward. The first item is approval of the City Council meeting minutes of September 29th, 2020. Item 8.2 is an appointment to the Natural Resources Stewardship Committee of Hillary Hungerford. Second. And 8.3 is a resolution approving certain sections of the City of Orem Public Works Department retention schedule. I move that we go ahead and accept all of these. Is there a second? Second. Okay, and then I would like to take a vote. Jeff Lampson?

Aye.

Terry Peterson?

Aye.

David Spencer?

Aye.

Debbie Laree? Thumbs up. Tom McDonald? Aye. Brent Sumner?

Aye.

And Mayor Brunstad? I vote aye as well. Our consent item agenda passes. We'll move on to our scheduled items. The first one is 9.1, which is a public hearing on a resolution. The City of Orem will receive public comment on the Community Development Block Grant projected use of funds for CARES Act CV funding and consider approval of a substantial amendment to the 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan. And I don't know if Ken Ransom is here or Kenna Matthews, either one.

We're both here. So Ken's going to do the— presentation tonight.

Okay, thank you, Ken.

Hello, Mayor and Council. Uh, can you hear me?

Yes.

All right, very good. I've, uh, I've lost count how many times I've, uh, appeared before the council this year because of COVID so here we go one more time.

It's always a nice thing when you're here because we're receiving funding.

Yes, that's true. So I appreciate the opportunity to represent the committee, and we appreciate the, uh, Help of the city staff, Stephen and Kenna, with our commission. All right, so the City of Orem initially received— that initial grant that was received is $411,983, and allocations to date are listed there totaling $209,950. And you can see the— those items have been approved. Uh, And then left to allocate from that initial allocation is $202,032. And then the city has received an additional allocation listed there at the bottom that will not be available until later this year, and the commission will make recommendations on that in the future. And the funds must be used for the coronavirus pandemic as listed on this slide. And next slide, please. And earlier in the year, the City Council listed the priorities for the CDBG funding that's received by the city.

You can see the 4 items listed there: projects serving Orem residents, first responder support, mental health, and domestic violence. Next slide, please. And so Geneva Elementary has requested $4,500 for plexiglass dividers for lunchroom tables to help with social distancing, to keep to help keep kids safer at lunch, assuming they don't necessarily follow all the other recommendations of the school. So our commission has recommended that the council approve this for Geneva Elementary, and that's our recommendation to the council.

Mayor, I didn't raise my hand, but could I ask a quick question?

Sure, go ahead.

Tell me why the school— Alpine School District wouldn't be paying for that instead of Orem City? I mean, we're now buying a school from Alpine School District. Seems like they have a responsibility for the school and we have the responsibility for cities and parks, etc.

So I'm, I'm, I'm just wondering why we would be paying for a school expenditure. Tom, this is Kenna. They are out of budget for these particular items, and so these are just additional things that they need. And that the school district does not have the budget for.

But again, there are different taxing entities, so we're just being nice guys and giving them money.

Mayor, uh, this is Tom. This is Stephen as well. It was—

it comes to— they were, they were also recipients of CARES Act, but given the size of their organization and their service area, they, they did not receive near the amount of money in CARES Act that we did. And this care— this, uh, again, when you, when you make it all relative, the care— the CARES— the CDBG COVID has very limited use as to what it can go for. And to be frank, it's challenging for the city of Orem to find uses that we can. And so when we had a conversation with our Title I school districts, which is, which is identified in the most vulnerable neighborhoods for COVID-19 in the city of Orem. This was a way that we felt we could partner to ultimately serve the same population.

And we're not feeding— we wouldn't be able to spend them on, quote, city things versus school things is what you're proposing?

We, yeah, we've reached out to all of the nonprofits. We've done a lot with our senior center, which we were able to do with COVID money, but we can't do nearly as many things. The food bank, who we can support with this, has received their own allocation of CARES Act, and this It's a significant amount of money, upwards of $3 million. It's, it's just, it's challenging. And in our Title I schools where these were, when this conversation started, these were identified as kind of the hot— what was the— I can't remember the word they were using at the time, but kind of these hot areas of COVID And so it was, it was a way we thought we could partner with them. And Kenneth can speak to this. This still leaves a significant amount of money left for Orem projects as well.

We have close to about $500,000 that we still need to allocate.

Well, and this money is for Orem residents, and this is a good use for CARES funding to be able to allow the kids to social distance So I think it's money well spent.

So just a comment to go along with Tom's. This is Terry. Perhaps they could reduce the amount of money they're taking from us for the park since the money that they're taking from us doesn't stay in Orem. It's all going north and northwest of our city.

That's a discussion for another day. Go ahead and keep going on the presentation.

All right, thank you, Stephen and Kenneth, for your help with answering that question. And thank you for the question from the council member there. So HUD would like Orem to allocate the rest of that initial funding grant amount. The city can still allocate the funding to specific projects in the future. It does not tie the city's hands on— other than the initial the initial conditions set on that funding. So, but they do want the city to allocate that to public— we were— we are recommending to be allocated to public services, and we recommend that remaining $197,530—

$197,532,000— excuse me, I can't speak today. Anyway, that amount listed there that they were— we recommend that be allocated toward public services. And again, that can be reallocated in the future at the council's— the council would like that reallocated. Next slide. So if the $4,500 that we're recommending for Junieville Elementary is approved by the council, then that would— the remaining balance would be $197,532 still to be allocated. And our commission will continue to review requests and I think a future slide has some of the list of some of those requests that, that we'll be considering. And so this additional list amount listed here, I mentioned earlier in the presentation, this— we'll be making recommendations in the future on this as well, this additional amount that is not available till later, later this calendar year. Next slide. And so you can— future recommendations, we'll make some— You're obviously sound. Hello? Can you hear me?

Go ahead. Keep going. Okay.

I just heard someone say something. I didn't know if we'd had a problem. So, yeah, we— there's a list there on this screen of some additional items we'll be considering as a commission. and make future recommendations to the council. And the next steps is for the council to consider our recommendation and adopt a resolution. And next slide. Any questions?

All right. Well, thank you. This is a public hearing, so I would like to open it up to the public for any public comment. Uh, for 1 minute, and we'd like to start right now. All right, we'll go ahead and close the public comment portion of our public hearing. Steve or Pete, have you received any comments in?

No comments, Mayor.

Okay. Any comments from the council? All right, well, I would like to make a motion that we approve the projected use of funds for CARES Act CDBG-CV funding and approve the substantial amendment to the 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan. Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, let's go ahead and take a vote. We'll start with Jeff Lampson.

Aye.

Okay, Terry Peterson?

Aye.

Dave Spencer?

Aye.

Debbie Laree? She gives us the thumbs up. Tom McDonald? Tom? Tom, are you there? Brent Sumner?

Aye.

Mayor Brunstad, I vote aye. Tom, are you there? All right, the resolution passes. We'll move on to item 9.2, which is a resolution designating 1200 West Street as Wolverine Way and 1200 West together. Our presenter is Jason Bench, and we'll turn the time over to you.

Thank you, Mayor. Members of the council, let me— there we go. Members of the council, we should have on the phone with us, or the Zoom meeting, Frank Young and Steve Anderson from UVU. So if you have any questions—

Frank has entered the meeting, and I believe— Oh, Mayor. Right.

Steve Anderson should be there as well. I think Val may be on as well, Val Peterson. Okay, the request tonight is to simply rename— well, not simply, but rename 12th West to Wolverine Way. But the original application— let me just show you an example of some signs, but from 1600 North all the way down to University Parkway, they'd like to rename that Wolverine Way, including the 1200 West on there as well. The original application was from Center Street South University Parkway. As staff, we considered that and recommended that we rename the entire length of 16th— or 12th West, excuse me, from 16th all the way down to the Parkway as Wolverine Way with 1200 West on there as well. If you look at their application, which is part of your review tonight, basically their reasoning, and this is on their application, which was required by the applicant, to do that is, you know, obviously UVU is a very significant generator of not only students but also employers or employees. We felt, and they felt, and we concur that renaming that street would be a way to— for recognition and also, you know, submit community pride along with everyone in the community.

Jason? Yeah. If I'm not wrong, aren't they the largest employer in the City of Orem?

I believe they are. Don't quote me on that, but I believe so. Just a reminder, the facility and street naming policy that the council approved a few months ago, the general guideline does allow the council to rename a street using a descriptive name as well as a coordinate name, as you see with what we've done with— go back to that— Canyon Parkway at 800 North and several other elementary schools. We believe We've renamed portions of streets in front of their schools different ways as well. So they're requesting that the City Council do that under Section B. The City Council, to promote community pride and spirit, can rename a street. And so we would request— the City Manager would recommend that the City Council, by resolution, rename 12th West Street as Wolverine Way and 1200 West. I'd be glad to address any questions. And I know Frank's on the line if you have questions for him.

Jason. Yes. Again, why, why are we going clear up to 1600 North?

Well, as part of our reasoning is that if part of the street from Center Street south is Wolverine Way and the north part is 1200 West, it may cause some confusion as far as directions and simplicity and signage, and we felt that the entire way would be just consistent with the naming and 12th West, instead of having different names as you travel down, you know, going from north to south, it would just make sense to rename the entire length.

But coming off 1600 North, people could get confused the other way as well. What, you know, not knowing what Wolverine Way is.

Won't it have both the number and the name, Jason?

Yes, as you see on the slide, it's going to have both. So the city policy requires not only Wolverine Way, but it also requires 12th West to stay on there. So they're not losing 1200 West, they both will be on there. So kind of like Courtesy Way, Warren Boulevard, those types of things where we allow the renaming, but we use typically both names so that people can realize that it's 1200 West as well.

Any other comments or questions? Appreciate having UVU here with us on the line. We love UVU and love what they're doing. Love our partnership with you, Mayor. Thank you for the consideration.

And if you're ready for a motion, Mayor, I'm ready to make one.

Any other comments or questions? All right, go ahead, Tom.

As a proud Wolverine, I'd like to move that the City Council by resolution designate 1200 West Street as Wolverine Way and 1200 West.

Is there a second?

I'll second that.

Okay, we'll go ahead and start with Brent Sumner.

Nay.

Okay, Tom McDonald.

Aye.

Okay, Debbie Laree. Aye. Okay, Dave Spencer? Aye. Okay, Terry Peterson?

Aye.

Jeff Lampson?

Aye.

Okay, Mayor Brunstad, I vote aye as well. The resolution passes. Thank you, and again, thank you to UVU, to Frank, and if Val's there as well, for all you do and having you here. Thank you, Mayor. We have no other items. Jamie, do you have anything you wish to bring up? Jamie, are you there? Or are you on mute? Okay, we're not hearing from Jamie.

Jamie is there and he's— it looks like he's trying to unmute.

Tell him to push the button on the left.

Glad you're here for technical support, Mayor.

Really, we got Terry Peterson worked out before the meeting. All right, Steve, uh, is he available or You want to go get him or what?

You know, Bren, if you can hear us, maybe go see if, uh, microphone troubles. Have maybe Jamie come into your office, Bren. No, nothing to report.

Okay. All right, thank you.

Well, his microphone isn't working, but he said he's, he's okay. Nothing to report.

Yeah, thank you, Bren. All right, uh, with that said, uh, I'd like to make a motion that we adjourn. Is there a second? Second. Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the meeting's adjourned. Thank you all very much. Appreciate it.