ENOCH – The city council approved a bid for an engineering firm to work on the capital facilities plan during its Oct. 7 meeting.

City Manager Bryan Dial headed the committee to choose a firm and was “very pleased” with how the process ran. The process awards points based on measurable factors, such as cost, as well as general opinions of committee members.

In an attempt to provide greater benefit to local businesses, any firms that held a business license and had a staffed office in Enoch were given extra points.

The committee chose Horrocks Engineering, a firm from Salt Lake City. Councilor Robert Dotson said that he hopes within the new system for accepting bids that local companies whose bids were rejected would come in and talk to committee members in order to know what the real needs of the city are.

The council also set a date for a public hearing concerning allocation of funds from the Community Development Block Grant and the Community Impact Fund Board (CIB). The CDBG funds are provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development while CIB funds are from the selling of natural resources. Both funds require a public hearing to receive input for projects.

The public hearing will take place at the Oct. 21 council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. at the city offices.

The city council also expressed concerns around a letter they promised to write to residents of the city’s newly made annexation boundary. During the Aug. 19 council meeting the city council promised concerned residents, who would be incorporated into Enoch’s annexation boundary, that they had no desire or will to take any of their property to construct roads.

At the Oct. 7 meeting Dial passed out such a letter for the city council to sign, though many members of the council said they could not sign it as it was written.

Councilor Gary Wilcken said he felt the letter’s indication that the city would not take their lands unless every other option was exhausted was not good enough and that the language should be changed to indicate that the city council does not approve of the government taking private property under any circumstance.

Councilor Steven Clarke said the letter was too general and did not directly address the needs of the individuals who asked for the letter in the first place. Councilor Celesta Lyman was concerned that the signed letter may be used legally against the city at a later date and questioned the motives behind those who requested the letter.

Gary Kuhlmann, the city’s consulting attorney, shared in Lyman’s concern saying that the letter could “rear its head of the city had any reason in the future to claim eminent domain.”

In light of these concerns, Dotson said he would visit with the residents who requested the letter to discuss options and what their motive may be.