River Heights will replace water lines beneath road
April 14th, 2010 Posted in OpinionBy Tyson Thorpe
RIVER HEIGHTS–The City Council agreed Tuesday to allow city money to be used to lay new water lines underneath Stewart Hill Drive.
Mayor Bill Baker presented the idea to have engineers develop a plan for replacing the water lines. Some of the lines are in poor condition and four breaks in the lines have been fixed this year alone. The entire project will take a few years and cost between $250,000 and $500,000, he said.
Baker said he would like to go ahead with an engineering survey to find out what needs to be done to replace the lines. The council approved Baker’s proposal to move forward with developing an engineering plan.
The council also renewed the city’s contract with the Cache County Sheriff’s Office. Baker said the contract pays for animal control and law enforcement within River Heights. Councilman Robert Gines said it was required to renew the contract unless city officials wanted to start a police force, which they do not plan to.
Historically, debt collection for the city has been contracted out to a debt collection agency, RIVER HEIGHTS – The City Council agreed Tuesday to allow city money to be used in laying new water lines underneath Stewart Hill Drive.
Mayor Bill Baker presented the idea to have engineers develop a plan for replacing the water lines. He said some of the lines are in poor condition and four breaks in the lines have been fixed this year alone. The entire project will take a few years and between $250,000 and $500,000, Baker said. He said he would like to go ahead with an engineering survey to find out what needs to be done to replace the lines. The council approved Baker’s proposal to move forward with developing an engineering plan.
The council also renewed the city’s contract with the Cache County Sheriff’s Office. Baker said the city pays for animal control and law enforcement within River Heights under the contract. Councilman Robert Gines said it was required to renew the contract unless city officials wanted to start a police force, which they do not plan to.
Historically, debt collection for the city has been contracted out to a debt collection agency, city recorder Sheila Lind said. She said the city has had little success in collecting on debts through the collection agency. She said she discussed debt collection with Providence city officials and they suggested using small claims court.
“I’m just interested in trying something different to see if it works better,” Lind said. She said she does not expect large amounts of claims but hopes that collection efforts will be more fruitful through small claims court.
Council members also discussed their responsibilities regarding the city’s budget.
“Just because it’s in the budget, doesn’t mean you spend it,” Baker said. He said he worries that city money is being spent just because it was budgeted, and believes that purchases should be passed through the council.
Councilman Doug Clausen said the council should adopt a standard of bringing potential purchases of capitalizable items before the council before city money can be used.
James Brackner, city treasurer, said that capitalizable items are those over $500 that will be used more than a year.
The council agreed that the capitalizable items standard would be acceptable for future purchases.
NW
Tags: debt collection, River Heights, water lines
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