By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
PUBLIC HEARING • Mona Mayor Bryce Lynn addresses
the public hearing on annexation of new area into Mona.
The Council approved the annexation 4 to 1 after the
hearing.
A Mona annexation hearing held by the town council Monday
at 7 p.m. was attended by 84 people but only eight residents
and two council members took the opportunity to enter
comments.
The hearing was held prior to the council decision to
allow the annexation of property owned by Pat Painter.
In addition to all council members being present,
Attorney Phil Lowery, Howard, Lewis and Petersen, Provo, was
on hand to represent the council, and Attorney Jens Fugal,
Pleasant Grove, was there to represent Painter.
Doran Kay (D. Kay), council member, was the lone hold-out
among the council. All the others, including Mayor Bryce
Lynn, voted to accept the annexation petition and to approve
the ordinance allowing the annexation and the recording of
the plat map with the county recorder.
"As elected officials, we are entrusted with the
responsibility to protect the public interests. It is of
great concern to me that the public interests are not being
protected in the action proposed by Mr. (Pat) Painter to
annex property into the town of Mona for the purpose of
developing 90 to 100 residential units as noted in the
minutes of the town board meeting held Feb. 9, 1999," said
Kay.
A new storage tank for the water system has been
projected to cost, for construction and engineering,
$180,000 with another $70,000 to be spent for valves,
chlorinator, instrumentation and materials to plumb the new
tank to the existing tank.
"The town of Mona has recently spent $180,000 in drilling
a culinary water well," said D. Kay. "The process is not yet
complete. It is projected that this point of diversion can
yield enough source to supply water for 505
connections."
Rick Schnurr, council member, said he also wanted time to
address the people attending the hearing.
"I have not prepared a formal statement," he said. "I
have a forum once a month, at council meeting, to express my
opinions. I thought this was a place to hear the comments
made by community members."
However, he thought it was wise to comment that the
council has had a planner, at no cost to the community,
working to update the town subdivision and annexation
ordinance.
Schnurr said he had also contacted several cities and
obtained copies of their annexation ordinances. He had
talked with Glenn Greenhalgh, county economic developer, and
had learned that it was wisest to annex the Painter
property.
"Basically, I learned it would be like having a gorilla
on the doorstep with no fees and no revenue to assist with
infrastructure."
All those addressing the council were given three minutes
to explain their stand on the issue. D. Kay asked for, and
was granted, extra time&emdash;25 minutes&emdash;to express
his viewpoint.
Robert Steele, county commissioner, said that towns and
cities in Juab County had, in their master plans and in the
county master plan, indicated a potential growth area.
Those who come to the county commission seeking
annexation had to, if they were located in the growth area
of a town, abide first by the city's rulings and
specifications. Those outside the growth area had to meet
county specifications.
"If you refuse to annex, the county can still approve a
subdivision in the county," said Steele. "I for one, if you
delayed annexation while you were working on a policy but,
at some point, planned to annex, would not vote to approve a
subdivision until your policy was in place and you voted to
reject or approve the Painter subdivision."
At the last council meeting, council members were handed
a petition signed by 235 townspeople and 17 nearby county
residents. The signers requested an annexation policy be
instituted before the annexation be allowed.
One of those who passed the petition was Clive Buchanan.
He had since had a change of mind and was one of those who
addressed the gathering on Monday evening.
Buchanan said he had learned some mitigating information.
"It is the subdivision ordinance that really has to be
tight."
Some towns in the state have refused annexation through a
series of legal steps, however, they had not stopped growth
but had failed to benefit from it.
"Developers find ways to go through the county and still
create subdivisions which became their own towns," he
said.
Cedar Fort was an example of this type of growth. The
community still had to provide the basic infrastructure the
new areas lacked. "They traveled on Cedar Fort roads and
Cedar Fort had to provide fire service and so, the town
ended up with nothing&emdash;no tax dollars for
maintenance."
"If we annex, we have the control and that is the only
way we will have that control," said Buchanan. When property
is annexed, the city gets the money from water and gas
utilities but when the county provides gas for a
subdivision, the county gets the money from the gas
utility.
"They provide natural gas at the same cost Mona does," he
said.
Rick Kay (R. Kay) told the council he had concerns,
mostly with the water supply. Painter, he said, was
proposing to exchange irrigation water for culinary water
use.
That represented a change in flow. "We can end up in a
big lawsuit," he said.
"Let's have a growth policy," said Kathy Kay (K. Kay).
She said she thought the town should have a policy to fill
up the town (empty lots inside the existing boundaries)
before annexing property.
Several years ago, said K. Kay, she had been on the city
committee to propose a master plan. Interior growth first
had been a priority of the committee.
Quentin Kay (Q. Kay) said he was the one who presented
the council with the citizen petition requesting, among
other things, an annexation policy be adopted before the
annexation of the Painter property annexation was
approved.
"Rick Schnurr, council member, gathered up some
annexation policies from other towns," said Q. Kay, "and
those need to be studied and considered in drawing up an
annexation policy for Mona before the annexation for Painter
is approved."
Susan Kay (S. Kay), wife of council member Kay, said it
was her opinion the council needed to put into place an
annexation policy before allowing any annexation to the
town.
"I have gone through some of the other policies with
Doran (Kay), and think we need to have a policy of our
own."
Glen Gooch said he thought their was quite a discrepancy
between the value of the water Painter was contributing to
the town and the value of culinary water.
"There is quite a discrepancy&emdash;$20,000," said
Gooch. The disadvantage was to the town and its
taxpayers.
D. Kay said he had requested a feasibility study be done,
at Painter's expense, to evaluate the exchange value of the
proposal of exchanging five shares of Mona Irrigation Water
for culinary water.
"In essence, five shares of Mona Irrigation Water valued
at approximately $20,000 to $30,000 deeded to the town in
exchange for $100,000 to $150,000 worth of culinary water
rights needed to supply as much as 50 acre feet required by
state standards for inside use, is not fair to the taxpayers
of Mona."
Following the hearing, two actions were taken by the
council. The first, to accept the petition for annexation,
was made in the form of a motion by Darlene Fowkes, council
member, and was seconded by Rhett Thalman, council
member.
The second action was to enact the ordinance making the
annexation official and that motion was made by Thalman and
was seconded by Fowkes.
D. Kay was the only negative vote on both actions.
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