In The Middle of Everything MIDVALE CITY DIRECTORY City Hall Finance/Utilities Court City Attorney’s Office City Recorder/Human Resources Community Development Public Works Ace Disposal/Recycling Midvale Historical Museum Midvale Senior Center SL County Animal Services Police Dispatch Unified Fire Authority Fire Dispatch Communications
801-567-7200 801-567-7200 801-567-7265 801-567-7250 801-567-7228 801-567-7211 801-567-7235 801-363-9995 801-567-7285 385-468-3350 385-468-7387 801-743-7000 801-743-7200 801-840-4000 801-567-7230
MIDVALE CITY ELECTED OFFICIALS MAYOR Marcus Stevenson 801-567-7204 Email: mstevenson@midvale.com CITY COUNCIL District 1 - Quinn Sperry Email: qsperry@midvale.com District 2 - Paul Glover Email: pglover@midvale.com District 3 - Heidi Robinson Email: Hrobinson@midvale.com District 4 - Bryant Brown Email: bbrown@midvale.com District 5 - Dustin Gettel Email: dgettel@midvale.com
WHO TO CALL FOR… Water Bills Ordering A New Trash Can Reserving the Bowery Permits GRAMA requests Court Paying For Traffic School Business Licensing Property Questions Cemetery Water Line Breaks Planning and Zoning Code Enforcement Building inspections Graffiti
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EMERGENCY OR DISASTER CONTACT Public Works Fire Dispatch – Unified Fire Authority Midvale Police Precinct or Police Dispatch Unified Police Department EMERGENCY
801-567-7235 801-840-4000 385-468-9350 801-743-7000
911
MAY 2022
City Hall – 7505 South Holden Street • Midvale, UT 84047
CITY NEWSLETTER
Marcus’s Message
By Mayor Marcus Stevenson
It’s officially been over a quarter of the year since I’ve been our city’s Mayor. I almost can’t believe that much time has passed, but in that short amount of time, I’ve learned a lot about the interworking’s of our city and the many constraints our city has. In this month’s message, I’d like to talk about what I’ve learned so far regarding zoning laws, budgetary restrictions, and the importance of a city’s relationship with other entities.
ZONING LAWS Zoning laws are likely the most controversial area a city deals with. Though proposed development projects, such as a new restaurant, apartment complex, or office building, are likely to stir up emotions of all sorts, I’ve learned a lot about the realities a city faces when determining its future growth. Once an area is zoned for a certain type of development, such as single-family, high density, or business, the city has very little say in what exact project goes into a specific area. For a city, it can be frustrating to not have the say in a design concept as we try to plan our city, but the State of Utah and federal government have certain restrictions in place for fairness and equity reasons. As an example, if a city was able to choose each individual development that came into the city, it could put city employees and elected officials in a place to financially benefit their friends or their own businesses. Restricting a city to only being able to choose zoning creates a free market to determine how a city is shaped, which has both positive and negative consequences. It’s important to keep this in mind because even as an unpopular project goes through the city, we usually legally must approve those projects if they meet our zoning laws and other applicable ordinances.
BUDGETARY RESTRICTIONS Midvale City’s yearly general fund budget comes in at just over $20 million, which is more money than many of us can comprehend but is a smaller budget for a city. After you consider our contract obligations with the Unified Police Department, which takes about 50% of our entire general fund budget, it leaves our city with roughly $10 million to take care of most of the city’s needs over the period of a year. This money goes to essential services such as roads & sidewalks, parks, and other critical areas. I’ve now seen firsthand, as we go through this year’s budget process, just how tight our city’s budget is as we work to provide essential services while keeping taxes low. As our council, staff, and residents hope to see larger exciting projects come to fruition, such as a community pool or new recreation center, it’s important to keep in mind that our budget does not allow us to build these projects on our own, and instead need the help from other entities to secure the needed funding.
ENTITY RELATIONSHIPS In my few short months of being Mayor, I’ve had a focus of ensuring our city has strong relationships with entities that often interact with our city. These entities include our State Legislature, surrounding cities, Salt Lake County, and others. Other entities can be critical in helping to secure needed funding for large projects, collaboration on projects that may cross city boundaries, or even ensuring that impacts from outside projects either benefit our city or have a minimal negative effect. Much of my time has been spent building these personal relationships so that our city has a seat at the table, because as the saying goes, “if you’re not at the table, then you’re probably on the menu.” These relationships can help keep our taxes low, such as when working with the Unified Fire Authority or Canyons School District and can help secure funding for other projects, such as a recreation center through Salt Lake County, as I mentioned earlier.
“Name that Fire Station”
VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE NAME FOR THE NEW UNIFIED FIRE AUTHORITY FIRE STATION #125 Construction of a new building to replace Midvale Fire Station #125, currently located at 7683 S. Holden Street, began in the Summer of 2021. The new station will be located at 655 W. Center Street and construction is anticipated to be completed in late August 2022. The new station will include three bays and 10 dorm rooms. This will allow space for Unified Fire Authority to increase staffing as the community and call volume increase in future years. Unified Fire Authority encouraged Midvale City to solicit input from the community to name the new fire station. On March 16, 2022, the city launched the “Name that Fire Station” campaign on Engage Midvale. Twenty responses were received. On April 19, 2022, the City Council narrowed the names down to four names. The following list of finalists has been shared with the community via Engage Midvale to choose the official name of the new building. JoAnn B. Seghini Station Midvale Memorial Station
Midvale Center Station Midvale Fire House on Center
The deadline to vote via Engage Midvale is May 11, 2022. Be sure to visit www.EngageMidvale.com to vote on your choice for the new station name!