LAVERKIN – Fireworks, water restrictions and police check-on times were addressed at Wednesday’s LaVerkin City Council meeting.
Fireworks
At the mayor’s direction, the LaVerkin City Council was asked to choose between allowing fireworks on city streets and city parks or limiting fireworks use to the city parks.
Councilwoman Chantelle Browning asked City Attorney Kevin Bennett who would be responsible if a firework caught a field or structure on fire, and if the city would have to bear that cost.
“If it is found that you are negligent – which is not that hard to do with aerials now, the state legislature made it so you can fire them off – but they cannot land in the wrong place,” City Attorney Kevin Bennett said in response. “We have run into issues like this before with the state or BLM, with property within our jurisdiction catching fire where the state incurred some costs and wanted us to pay for it. Now we have a little more control of our fire suppression being a part of the district.”
The council voted unanimously to keep fireworks limited to the Wanlass and Vintage parks inside the LaVerkin City limits.
Police check-on
Another issue of concern brought by the City Council was that of when and where the city’s police officers check-on, check-on triggering paid time.
Councilman Randy Reeve asked Police Chief Benjamin Lee where he expected his officers to be before they check on for duty on a regular patrol shift and Lee said they check-on within the boundaries of LaVerkin or Hurricane.
“Not necessarily in the city limits themselves,” Lee said. “The reason for that is a lot of our officers begin their duties before reaching the city of LaVerkin.”
For example, one of his officers was able to stop a vehicle being looked for by another agency, Lee said, on the officer’s way in to the city last week.
“I understand the incidents where you need to check-on to handle those type of issues,” Reeve said, “but on a regular basis, are they in LaVerkin when they check-on for duty?”
“I have directed some officers to check-on around the area of the jail,” Lee said.
The concern, Reeve said, is that by allowing officers to check-on from outside the city, they are getting paid for patrol time that should be spent in the city not on their commute.
Discussion closed with no action taken on the query.
Water restrictions
The City Council opted not to impose watering restrictions at this time but encouraged citizens to water their lawns only during the hours of 6 p.m. and 10 a.m.
“We are trying to avoid telling people when they can and cannot use the water,” Mayor Kerry Gubler said, “and if the citizens cooperate it will help us a lot.”
Next meeting
The next LaVerkin City Council meeting will be held on July 2 at 6 p.m. at the LaVerkin City Council Chambers located at 111 S Main LaVerkin.
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You guys hired Lee deal with him. You hired the wrong guy, you should have hired one of the local applicants. Why do we pay a officer to check on outside of our city when we have all the problems we do in this town. They need to start and end their shift in LaVerkin. All of you council members need to work a bit harder if you want to keep my vote. Was Lee really ever a Police Officer. I am seeing more and more that he doesn’t have the experience to do this job and be a leader.