REGULAR MEETING
JANUARY 10, 2023
MINUTES
The First Regular Meeting of the Dinosaur Town Council was brought to order by Mayor Blakley at 6:00 p.m. Those present were Mayor Richard A. Blakley, Trustees Jeremiah Gray, Marshelle Gray, Michael Taylor, Robert Essex, and LeRoy Trujillo. Absent was Trustee Darcie Rocque.
Trustee Essex made a motion, seconded by Trustee Taylor to accept the accounts payable as presented. Ayes: 6. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
Trustee M. Gray made a motion, seconded by Trustee Taylor to approve the minutes from December 13, 2022, as presented. Ayes: 6. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
A Resolution Designating a place for the posting of notices of all public meetings and public hearings was read. Trustee Taylor made a motion, seconded by Trustee Essex to approve the Resolution as read. Ayes: 6. Nays: 0. Motion carried.
A Resolution approving the 2023 Strategic Plan and Budget from the Moffat County Local Marketing District (“MCLMD”) as its operating plan for the year 2023 was read. Trustee Essex asked what it they disapprove it, he said that they could not deny us access to it. Mayor Blakley said that they are not going to disapprove it. Trustee Essex said that he thinks it is a sham and wrong. Mayor Blakley said that he needs a motion to accept it, and if anyone wants to see it, he has copies. Trustee Essex made a motion to deny it. Mayor Blakley said he made a motion to and if they don’t want it, they vote no. Mr. Elarton said that the LMD Board shares the wealth. He said that the lodging tax that the town pays goes into the pool with the rest of them. Trustee Taylor said that we probably have the potential to get more money out of it then what we put into it. Mr. Elarton said that they have in some years and some years they haven’t. He said that last year they supported some of the paintings at the liquor store and a grant for beautification. Mayor Blakley said that they have asked the town to put in for the money. He said that they donated a bunch to the Stone Age Stampede. Trustee Essex said that it is expensive enough to live on the road, and then to rob a guy to rent a room in our neighborhood. He said that it is wrong to take money from someone living on the road. He said that the money is not used as priorities. Mayor Blakey said that for him it may not be, but for the tourists it is. Trustee Essex said that it is the tourists that are paying for it, and it is wrong. He said that it is wrong to rob people that are coming here to work or play through taxation. Trustee M. Gray made a motion, seconded by Trustee Taylor to approve the Resolution as read. Ayes: 5. Nays: 1(Essex). Motion carried.
Mayor Blakley said that a lady had asked him if people could pay an extra $10 or so on their water bill to put into a slush fund to have someone follow the snowplow and clean out driveways, for the disabled and elderly. Trustee Essex said that he pretty much does that anyway. He said that everyone is faced with the same dilemma. Mayor Blakley said that he told her that he would bring it to the Council. Trustee Taylor said that we do not have a lot of manpower. He said that maybe hire someone to do contract labor. Trustee Essex said that they cannot expect the snowplow driver to do this. He said that the town employees do not have that time in the day to do that, and it would be taken on liability. Trustee Essex asked if they could see if the County could let us use some of their equipment to clean up some of the corners. He said that if they could get a machine, they could clear up some of the snow. Trustee Taylor said that we may need to hire someone with a dump truck and loader to haul it all off. He asked if there is a construction company that can do this. Mayor Blakley said that Big D’s cleans main street in Rangely. Mr. Elarton said that what she was looking at is to put it into a savings account to hire someone to do that. Mr. Elarton said that he would investigate snow removal. Trustee Taylor said that he is disappointed with the states service. Trustee Essex said that he thinks they are doing a good job with what they have. Trustee Taylor said that they have cut their hours and employees.
Trustee Essex said that he is concerned that we must put chemicals in our water, for the few houses that are below standard. He said that they state that the chemicals are harmless to us, but they have said a lot of things in the past that are not true. He said that we are going to have to process our water and then take extra test. He said that it is the houses below standard not the town water system. He said that the lead is in the pipes, and the older houses should be brought up to date. Instead of us having to put chemicals in our water. Mayor Blakley said that we must do this. Trustee Essex asked why we couldn’t make those property owners fix there lines. Trustee Essex said that we would have to talk to Mr. Blakley about the chemical and its agents, he said that he does not know what the MSDS is on it. Mayor Blakey said that they have pulled it up and read it and it is being used in quite a few cities around the nation. He said that it is Ortho phosphate, it has not had any affect on humans.
Trustee Essex asked how it would counter act to lead. Mayor Blakley said that it goes through the pipes, and it seals the lead and copper. Trustee M. Gray asked if they are treating this at the head. Mayor Blakley said that it will be treated at the tank.
Trustee Taylor asked if there is an avenue to get a grant to re pipe those homes. Mayor Blakley said that the can get a grant to put in the plant. He said that there is tons of money for this and we are highly eligible for it. He said that this was our second hit. He said that we are going to have to put it in or pay $1000 a day fine for not conforming to the rules of the Feds and State.
Mayor Blakey said that the injection plant will go above Davis’s house. He said that there is a manifold and they will injected it there. Trustee Essex asked how many houses do they think have that kind of plumbing in it. Mayor Blakey said that he had to run surveys on all the houses. He said that some of them have been changed out. He said that later they are talking about having everyone dig up their service lines and check them to see it they are lead. He said that about 30-40% of the homes have those lines.
Trustee Essex asked if it is practical to put the injection system in or have the people fix their house. Mayor Blakley said that he thinks it is practical to put it in, and it shouldn’t cost us anything with the grant. He said that they will put in for $25,000, and they figured it was the top dollar to have it put in.
He said that he does not know what the chemicals are going to cost. Mayor Blakley said that he would like to put in a first tap to take samples so that he is not bothering the Davises. Trustee Essex asked what the deadline is on this. Mayor Blakley said that it needs to be done by June 21. Mayor Blakley said that they had the plan drawn up after the first hit. He was told that they would have to do this if there was another hit. Mr. Elarton said that it should be a personal choice of the home owner. He said that they consider the chemical a food grade additive.
Mr. Laurance Elarton mentioned that he has hired Mr. Monty English. He should be coming in and will be working a week on and a week off. Mr. Elarton mentioned that they have found him a place. He said that there is another gentleman that is in the testing process of his employment. He said that they will be bringing him and his wife up to look at Dinosaur. And then they will go from there. Mr. Elarton mentioned that Mr. English is from a small town on the eastern slope and he has known him for almost twenty years. He said that he worked with him before.
Mr. Elarton said that a couple of guys came in and talked to him, they do the treasure hunts in the Uintah Basin. He said that they hide a treasure chest that had $20,000 of silver in it. Then they give out clues for people to try and find it. He said that they are wanting to do that again this year. He said that they are looking for donations. He said that they would like to get support from Dinosaur. He mentioned that it brought in a lot of people. Mr. Elarton said that don’t need to make a decision tonight that they have time to think about it. He said that they have until May 20th to get there donations or if we want to get them a logo for the support. Trustee Essex said that they should come talk to the Council. Trustee M. Gray asked if the donations are for advertisement. She asked if they showed any tiers. Mr. Elarton said that they didn’t get to that. He said that they were pretty sure that they would reach their goal of $30,000 on their own. He said that he thinks they want a government agency supporting them.
Mr. Elarton said that the meeting with KJL went well. He said that it was for the feasibility study. He said that they sent a bunch of info today to get a head start on the funding. He said that it is going to be a lot of work for Mr. Jim Evans and Ms. Karla Distel.
Trustee Taylor asked if they are going to call someone to get some of the snow removed. Mayor Blakley said that he will call the county tomorrow. Mr. Elarton said that he will look to see if he could find a loader. Trustee Taylor said that we also need a dump truck to haul it away, he said that the corners need to be cleaned out, some of the corners are becoming a visibility issue.
Trustee Essex made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:45 p.m. all were in favor.
TOWN OF DINOSAUR
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Richard A. Blakley
ATTEST:
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Tamara Long, Town Clerk