On July 11, Helper City conducted its city council meeting with all council members in attendance, other than Councilman Bob Olson, who had been previously excused.
The council did not have very many items to go over; however, during public comment, Pam’s RV Park Owner Harry Reddington wanted to address a few concerns with council regarding the recent construction that had been done. Reddington discussed some of the short comings from the engineer who was contracted. Reddington expressed that there were a few areas that they did not complete in which he had to go tell them to come back and fix it.
Reddington also stated that there was a larger culvert put in, which was needed, but once it gets down to his property, the culvert located near his property is too small to handle the large amount of water. Due to this, the water is beginning to level out the surrounding property and is causing the water to rise closer and closer to his property. Reddington stated he fears with monsoon season coming up that he may experience flooding.
Mayor Lenise Peterman discussed that the grant that Helper City received was not nearly enough and the city ended up over budget by approximately $40,000, but the city knew it was something that needed to be done. Mayor Peterman said she will reach out to a few different people to open up the conversation about what can be done, but unfortunately, she didn’t have a solution in that moment.
Councilman Dave Dornan discussed speaking with the representative of Blackhawk about the continued water concern that has prevented Blackhawk from being annexed into Helper City. Councilman Dornan shared that they discussed how Helper City could purchase as much water as they need to from the Price River Water Improvement District (PRWID0 if necessary and Blackhawk could possibly figure out a way to take on some of the financial burden of extra costs associated with needing to purchase water from PRWID. The council agreed that that is something they may be willing to discuss.
Mayor Peterman advised she would reach out to the League of Cities to see of any other city or town has done a contract like this that could guide them on the process and how a contract like this would work.