A zoning overlay to help protect the airport was requested at the Smithfield City Council meeting Wednesday night. Kelly Gillman of CRSA and Shawn Shuler of J-U-B Engineers, Inc. presented updates to the Logan-Cache Airport master plan. One of the concerns is how the air traffic is impacted by south Smithfield. Developments with lots of bright lights or tall building can cause problems for aircraft landing or taking off. They recommended the city adopt an overlay ordinance to protect against developments which encroach on the airport.

They also recommended that property owners be required to disclose that they are near the airport when selling their property so the buyers won’t be surprised by the noise and zoning restrictions.

They presented a vision for economic growth around the airport. South of the airport would be for residential areas. Growth on airport land includes more private and corporate hangar space plus land set aside for airport related industries. They said the airport leadership wants to collaborate with neighboring communities and the county to ensure the airport is protected the same way all the way around.

The airport master plan is not without controversy. The original plan asked for the closure of 4200 North. The Smithfield council was told it is now a dead issue, it will stay open, and it won’t be requested again. The original plan also asked for height restrictions without taking into account the hill that Smithfield is built on. The new city hall would exceed the height restrictions of the original proposal.

Tonight was only a presentation. More work is necessary before any ordinance will be considered.

Audit report

Michael Kidman and Jacob Barker of Jones Simkins CPA presented a detailed audit of the city’s finances. The bottom line? Smithfield City is in good financial shape considering the current global recession.

Kidman said there were only minor recommendations for the city including improving payroll summary reviews, more reconciliations. He also said the city’s fund balance is somewhat higher than the state recommendation but he didn’t really consider that a problem.

Kidman thanked the city employees for their cooperation and hard work. Mayor Downs, in turn, thanked Kidman and Barker for the excellent job they did.

Budget amendment

The council approved a mid-year amendment to the city budget. There were several revenue neutral changes — moving money in and out of the budget. Some of the budget changes presented by Gass include:

• a $13,000 increase in unemployment payments
• civic center improvements (armory) of $70,000 — offset completely by a Cache County grant
• a $2,400 reimbursement to the police for participating in DUI checkpoints
• grant monies of just under $10,000 to the police department
• reimbursements of $2,190 to the fire department for assisting in the canal collapse in Logan
• EMS grant pass-through of $13,000
• public safety expense of $21,000 for street signs, lights and striping ordered last year but not yet picked up by developers who will pay for them
• parks department capital improvement fund increased to $5,000 for trail benches
• they spent $6,537 to finish improving the equestrian arena

Gass also noted that they were expecting to only issue 40 building permits instead of the usual 70 because of the economy. However, they actually have issued 80 permits this year.

Mayor Downs opened a public hearing for input on the budget changes. No one spoke and the changes were accepted unanimously by the council.

Recreation fees

A couple recreation fees were changed. Volleyball league fees increased from $200 to $225 and reserving the equestrian arena for 3-hour block went from $35 to $50.

Dog licensing

Dean Clegg, Smithfield Recorder, asked the council to consider changes in dog and cat licensing. He proposed increasing the impound fees for unlicensed dogs to help encourage owners to keep their dog licenses current. He also proposed issuing discounted three-year licenses to dogs with a new rabies vaccinations.

He would like to eliminate licensing cats.

Golf course banquet room

The golf course administration is proposing to end their contract with Culinary Concepts as the preferred provider for the banquet facilities. Instead they would like to charge the same rate to all caterers who use the facilities.

Todd Perry

Todd Perry has submitted his resignation from the police department. He has finished a masters degree in psychology and is going to pursue a different career.

Planned Unit Development

Gass said he attended a city managers meeting where they discussed challenges faced with Planned Unit Development or PUD. The roads and other public facilities in some of these planned communities are not being maintained as they should. Problems cited are difficulties in finding people to run the homeowners association, collecting enough money to perform maintenance, or having a reasonable schedule to maintain roads and utilities.

It is cheaper to maintain a good road than to fix a bad one, said Gass. He proposes that the city work with PUD developers to assume ownership of PUD roads and utilities — where the roads meet minimum criteria such as widths and road types. Then the city would add them to their regular maintenance cycle.

Gass will put some ordinance wording together for a later council meeting.

Connie Crowshaw

The council discussed possibly putting in curb and gutter around the property owned by Connie Crowshaw. She wants to open an antique store in the old building at the corner of Center Street and 4th West. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to the structure before it would pass building codes.

The council discussed the idea of a “trigger point” in the progress of improving the building. If the trigger point was met then they would put in the other improvements. There is still more discussion and negotiation to do before a decision is reached.

Last meeting

And last, but certainly not least, Gass and the council presented Mayor Chad Downs and Councilman Dennis Watkins with plaques commemorating their service to the city. All the council members expressed their thanks to Downs and Watkins for their hard work. Gass said very few mayors have taken such an interest in their community as Downs has.

Early next month Darrell Simmons and Barbara Scholes Kent will be sworn in as mayor and city councilwoman.