| Springville City 2007 Candidate |
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Phillip F. Bird
Candidate For Springville City Council ‘07
My wife Katherine and I are life-long residents of Springville. We both attended Springville schools. I later attended BYU and eventually spent 34 years with the Nebo School District. I taught at Springville High School for 21 years and was in administration for 13 years. We raised five children here and now have a number of grand children living in the community. We care about what happens in Springville and are willing to put our efforts into making a great little city even better.
As you know, Springville has experienced rapid growth and development in recent years. This growth has impacted our infrastructure, parks, facilities and how we do business in the city. Recent city councils have tried to solve complex issues related to these changes. Much effort was made to keep our decisions balanced and of value to the majority of our citizens. We have tried to be thorough in our study of each issue. In doing so, we have sought information from experts in specific areas and have invited the residents to give us their opinions on the issues. Our judgement and decisions have not always been perfect, but they have been made after much discussion, deliberation and fact-finding. We feel that we have made significant progress in many important areas. Some of them are:
* Establishing Priorities and Setting Goals: Like many individuals, cities tend to have infinite needs and wants, but finite resources to acquire them. Experts indicate that Springville will achieve a “build-out” population of about 60,000 people in the next few years. We need to look to the future as we establish our most important priorities and then set reasonable and achievable goals for attaining what is most needed for our residents. It is usually cost-effective in the long run to develop for the future when possible. We have been trying to keep this in mind as we build new infrastructure, roads, parks, facilities, etc.
* Water: We have worked to increase our supply of water and equalize the pressure in all areas by refurbishing some of our older wells, developing a new well, building new water lines (400 South), and up-grading and connecting older lines. We have plans to build two new storage tanks and possibly develop at least one more new well. In addition, we are considering the purchase of a working well that will add to our system. This is an on-going process that will require years to complete. A major plus for Springville is the fact that we have legal rights to more water than we need right now, and we are working hard to maintain these rights for future citizens.
* Electric Power: We have stabilized electric rates through efficient management of our system and carefully purchasing power when needed. Our current electric rates are lower than they were in 2001. We hope to lower future rates by aggressively seeking long-term contracts. These contracts are much more difficult to find now than in past decades. We are trying to diversify our system and currently use power generated by natural gas, coal, water, and wind. Because we have some ability to generate our own power, we could probably survive an emergency better than most cities in Utah.
* Sewer and Storm Water: A recent comprehensive study of our sewer system recommended an upgrade of our sewer plant and the lines feeding the plant. A TV surveillance system allows us to find deficiencies in our lines and do the necessary maintenance work to fix the problems. All lines will be checked and repaired on a systematic schedule. New lines and pump stations are currently being added to the system. We are now starting some major construction to upgrade our treatment plant so that it will be more efficient and capable of meeting the needs of a larger population. Growth in the city will help fund this construction. In the past, our storm water has been handled mostly by our creeks and irrigation ditches. A federal mandate now makes that system impossible to continue. We are now working with storm water experts and the Springville Irrigation Companytoimplement a comprehensive plan to create a utility system that will handle storm water for the city. Each resident will help fund the cost of the system with a $4 utility payment each month. Growth will also help fund the system.
* Parks: In the past two years we have purchased over 60 acres of park space, and are looking at additional acreage for parks, particularly in the Westfields. We are hopeful of purchasing adequate acreage for a new recreation center in the near future. Our new Parks Master Plan calls for a sports park (50 acres) in the Westfields area of the city. We have purchased the property and preliminary plans call for soccer fields, baseball diamonds, tennis and basketball courts, a skate park, a fishing pond, etc. Construction of this park will likely occur in several phases. We have also purchased 13 acres from the Wayne Bartholomew Family near the mouth of Hobble Creek Canyon. This area will be added to 10 acres that we already own adjacent to the Bartholomew property and the 23 acres will become a new non-sports park. It will contain paths, green space, two streams, a pond for fishing, picnic and pavilion areas, an arboretum, etc. This is a beautiful property that future citizens will enjoy a great deal. Our master plan also outlines development of other parks in the city to make them more beautiful and useful to our residents. Some of the new development will be paid from impact fees currently being collected as new homes are built in the city. (See www.springville.org for more city park details .)
* Impact Fees: We feel that new development and growth should help fund the cost of new roads, water lines, parks, etc. Recently we have established new impact fees and raised existing fees to a level that will generate about $13,000 for the city with the construction of each new (average) home in the community. New parks will receive about $4,000 for example. These fees will be up-graded regularly to reflect cost-of-living increases in the economy. These impact fees will fund about 30% of the cost of needed new infrastructure, parks, police protection, water, sewer, etc. They will help to make growth manageable.
* Customer Service: We have resolved to “raise the bar” for customer service by defining high expectations for all staff and elected officials. We will hire the best people we can find for new job openings. We will place more emphasis on training everyone and we have adopted a new service logo which should say to residents, “We are here to serve you.” Our goal is to offer Springville residents the best community services possible.
* Needed City Facilities: Most of our major facilities were built for a population of about 7,500 people. We have outgrown our buildings and it grows more serious daily. Recent city councils have recognized this need and have operated on very tight budgets so that savings for facilities could grow. We now have about $10million saved. During the recent past we have worked with citizens and architects to develop a plan for building new facilities. In order to bring energy and growth to downtown Springville, we plan to build on property the city currently owns and uses. This necessitates using our old buildings and building new facilities on the same properties. We want to preserve our Heritage Trees, our statues, our park and green space. The new buildings will be designed to take Springville to a build out population of about 60,000 people. These are larger buildings! The smallest of the new buildings is the fire station. It will take much less space for building and parking than the library or the police/court/administrationbuilding. It is planned to build this station facing north on the north west corner of the current park. The new park will be larger and will be built to the south where there are established trees, etc. The new police/court/administrative building will be on the property which is currently 100 South Street and where the old Maxim building is. Once this phase is finished, all the old city buildings on the block east of Main Street will be razed. The only buildings left on that block will be the Credit Union on the northeast corner, and the Anderson property on the southwest corner. The plan is for a new library, parking areas and some park space to be built there, using the natural beauty of the creek to enhance the location. After re-locating the library to the new building, the old building will be torn down and will become part of the park and green space on that block. These facilities will be big enough to see Springville through its period of greatest growth and will be a vibrant city center with many new programs and services for our residents. We are also trying to purchase property for a much-needed new recreation center. We have recently received recommendations from the Recreation Advisory Committee and the Library Advisory Committeewith information pertinent to the construction of these two facilities. We are currently working on the phasing and bond elections required for these two facilities. (See www.springville.org for more details)
* Economic Development: We are actively working with the Boyer Development Company and others to attract new business to Springville. We are getting needed infrastructure in place to help attract new growth near the freeway and 400 South. Some of this construction will be painful for a while, but is very much needed in light of continued growth of the city. An example of this will be the reconstruction of 400 South. UDOT has agreed to build a five lane road with no stopping at any railroad crossing. This will make our commercial areas more appealing to companies wanting to locate in South Utah County.
* Transportation: Like many other local towns, we are grappling with the issues of safety and efficient traffic flow in our city. We are currently analyzing better ways to achieve these goals. Some of the questions are: which streets should become major arteries? how can we better design streets and intersections? how can we better utilize lights, signs, cross-walks, and speed limits? can we better utilize bus service? how can we get light rail in Springville sooner? While the reconstruction of 400 South is a good step, we need to answer these other questions and more in the near future.
* Beautification: Springville is a Tree City and our crews will be planting hundreds of new trees each year in various parts of our parks and park strips. With energetic volunteer efforts, areas like South Main Street look wonderful. Our new canyon road well site will be a very nice when completed. Our crews are working very hard to keep our parks, the Hobble Creek Golf Course, the Art Museum and other properties looking first class. Our goal is to continually improve.
If re-elected , I promise to:
* prepare myself to discuss and vote on important city issues
* actively pursue ways to make Springville a better place to live
* seek your advice and input on issues important to our future
Send your e-mail to Phil Bird