Mayberry & chester
By Lynda Williams
Local Cacti by Lori Cole
The February 18th City Council meeting was long and complicated. Topics and conversations were often hard for me to follow and fully comprehend. I have tried to be accurate here but some items might need to be corrected. If that is the case, I would love to hear from City Council members on any topic that might need further clarification.
Public Forum
A Toquerville resident addressed an ongoing issue that she is having while trying to pay her bill with the online bill pay system hosted by Express Bill Pay. She would like to resolve the issue. Her comments can be heard here.
Business
1. the historic water tank and culinary water connection at T-125-A-1
Here is a Mayberry RFD story for you!
The problem: The silver water tank on Toquerville Blvd that sits on Van Kleinman’s property dates back to the 1960’s. You can hear the story here.
It seems LaVerkin needed land to place a water tank on for LaVerkin’s use. An agreement was made between LaVerkin and the Kleinman family that said they would exchange land or essentially lease the property needed to LaVerkin and in return- the Kleinmans’ would receive a water connection on that property.
There is not a formal agreement that has been identified in which the use of that tank and therefore the property exchanged was given to Toquerville. The tank in question is no longer in use by LaVerkin or Toquerville.
Eventually, the Public Works Department identified an unbilled meter and locked it out because it was unmetered. The Kleinmans then brought the problem to the attention of the city creating the current situation where there is not a formal agreement between the city and the now inactive and unused water tank.
History: In 1963 LaVerkin came to Van Kleinman’s father and asked if they could put a water tank on the hill. An agreement was worked out with them in 1963. It was a 99 year agreement that covered the lease of the land that the water tank is sitting on. LaVerkin built the water tank that now sits on SR9. They have stopped using the tank and no one is sure what was transacted between Toquerville and LaVerkin.
Back in ‘63, Chester was keeping the records. He stored them in the storage room of the old church. They burned in a subsequent fire.
Perhaps this is where I need to give newer residents some background on Chester. Chester acted as the city manager when we moved here more than 20 years ago. I’m not sure if he had a title. He was a one-man show. Everything went through Chester. He took care of all permits, city bills, and most everything else. The city office was his garage. We had a Mayor and Chester. Things were very loose back then and the good ‘ol boy system was in full force. It was nice in some ways, but clearly, Chester lost track of a few things.
So, back to Mr. Kleinman’s account. In 1998, Van Kleinman took a copy of the water tank agreement to the current Mayor of Toquerville, Dave Everett. Kleinman asked if the city would honor that agreement and provide a water hook up so he could water his stock on what is known as “Hill Field.”
The Mayor replied that he would take it to City Council. He also said they would form an MOU or something that would transfer the agreement from LaVerkin to Toquerville.
At that time, Toquerville was using the tank to supply water to the homes in Westfield. They continued to use that tank until the green tank located on what is known as the “race track” was built. Toquerville stopped using the silver tank.
Mr. Kleinman never heard back from the Mayor but within a month the city had installed a water hook up for Kleinman to use. That was 1998. He has been using that water for stock grazing on Hill Field.
Mr. Kleinman stated, “I was contacted by Lance Gubler at the direction of our Mayor who was Darrin LeFevre at the time. He wanted to know how I was going to pay for the water I was using. I made a copy of the agreement. He said he would talk to the Mayor about it. I never heard anything more from him. That was 2018 or 19.”
It is Mr. Kleinman’s opinion that if that tank is still on his hill the city should honor the agreement and provide the culinary hookup.
Mr. Kleinman then stated that with the new pump station that the Conservancy District has put on his property, he negotiated a secondary water hookup to water the animals. When that is provided he does not intend to use the culinary water unless there is a situation that the secondary water system is offline. If that happens he would fall back on the culinary system to water his animals.
Mr. Kleinman further stated that there is no question that Toquerville owns that tank. The city has used the tank and accepted responsibility for it so he thinks the agreement should be honored.
It seems the council is sympathetic to Mr. Kleinman’s position. They want to honor the agreement and leave the water meter there to be used but if secondary water is available, Mr. Kleinman will use that instead. The consensus seems to be that the city used the tank for a long time without paying rent for the land.
There was talk about the city’s obligation to remove the tank or not remove the tank. It was left that the tank should be removed by the end of the contract which will be 2062.
Councilman Todd Sands expressed disappointment that once again the the current council is put in a poor position because of past agreements that were not put in writing.
This item was tabled pending a new agreement between the parties.
2. cost sharing with Trail Ridge Estates HOA for a Floodplain Development permit for repairs adjacent to the Trail Ridge Park.
Trail Ridge HOA President Lloyd Butler, another member of the HOA and Darrin LeFevre, Toquerville Assistant City Manager, met with Jared Bates, a city engineer, to talk about remediation efforts on the west side of the trail.The HOA intends to clean up to where the grass ends. They will need a mini excavator and a number of waste bins. There is a $700.00 application fee to get a Floodplain Development Permit from FEMA. There could potentially be more permit fees involved. The discussion can be heard here.
It is my understanding that Trail Ridge Park is owned by Toquerville City. The area West of the trail between the trail and the creek is Trail Ridge HOA property. All of the work planned is to be done on the Trail Ridge side only, nothing on the Cholla side.
Since it is a city park, used by the community, Trail Ridge is asking for a cost sharing plan from the city and possibly Cholla Creek or other HOAs in the area to share in the cost of the application fee. That permit is required before work can commence to clean up debris from the flood, overgrown vegetation, and invasive plants. There could possibly be other costs involved if more permits are needed.
A motion was made to approve a cost sharing partnership between Toquerville City and Trail Ridge Estates HOA in the amount of half the cost of the permit with a cap of $500.00 in case there are other fees involved. The motion authorizes payment to Rosenberg Engineering for costs incurred in connection with the city’s review and approval of the Floodplain Development Permit. This was approved via a roll call vote.
3. Change order #25 in the amount of $25,591.70 from JP Excavation for repairs in the water line.
Resident professional engineer (Bob Lambro?) for Toquerville Parkway Project said that the locations that are explained in the change orders were found to have leaks from the pipe that was installed as part of package A. He explained that they did a time and materials change order to go in and discover those leaks and repair them. The discussion can be heard here.
Councilman Wayne Olsen questioned why this is coming to the city when it is 10 months old.
This work was completed in April of 2025. This has to do with the pipes to the new water tank that were left empty for 10 months until the tank was online then filled with water. (I love that Wayne asks the obvious questions).
The gist of the conversation immediately following was this: the tank had no water supply so it was tested with water that was brought in by water trucks. They found numerous points of failure which were fixed at that time.
Again, Wayne Olsen asked some very pointed questions about the work involved that you might want to listen to or read on the transcript. Besides this $25,591.70 change order there will be another $40,000.00 or so coming in next month for miscellaneous changes and other refined costs.
A motion to approve the change order in the amount of $25,591.70 was unanimously approved.
Question: Is it just me or does it seem as though this entire “Bypass Project” is being paid for at least twice with all the cost overruns, engineering mistakes or “cost refined things” that need to be repaired or redesigned? How do things become “cost refined” after the fact? Why is there no warranty or guarantee on this work? I think the usual time is at least one year. Isn’t there usually a bid that is accepted and the job is expected to be completed for that amount and guaranteed? What is the industry standard?
Question: On the water tank, how does an inspection performed with water brought by a water truck pass an inspection? Could they possibly haul enough water to test the tank with a few truckloads of water? Then it sits for awhile until it is eventually needed and all sorts of problems materialize to the tune of $65,000.00? How does this happen?
4. an ordinance adopting Title 9, Chapter 5, Abatement of Dangerous Structures.
This ordinance was discussed at length during the February 4, 2026 City Council Meeting. The proposed ordinance was cleaned up, shortened, simplified, clarified, and made more efficient. There was not a lot of discussion on this but I guess the council was satisfied with the changes they saw in their information.
A motion was made to adopt ordinance 2026.xx and was passed by roll call vote.
5. a resolution modifying Toquerville City’s Uniform fee Schedule. Adding an annual registration fee for boarded buildings and land use application fees for hillside development and site plan review.
The ordinance that was just passed requires an annual fee and the hillside application fee was added. Preliminary site and final site approval was not in there so that was added. The non-irrigation resolution that was passed in January removes that fee for people that don’t have irrigation. That resolution was passed and needs to be removed from the fee schedule.
This resolution was passed unanimously.
Question: Could someone explain this fee? Are we to understand that if you own a boarded up building you will have to register it and pay an annual fee?
Calendar of Events
Spring Community Clean Up
Saturday, March 7th to Sunday, March 8th, 2026- Center Street Park, Westfield Park, TRE Park and Toquerville Heights will all have dumpsters.