Orderville Town Board moves to first Monday of each month

ORDERVILLE—Following the regular opening ceremonies, the April 1 meeting of the Orderville Town Board started on the primary agenda, beginning with the planned shift in regular meeting times. Per previous discussion, the council proposed a shift to Mondays at 5:30 p.m., to avoid significant overtime concentrated on a single day imposed on city staff, as well as to avoid conflict with common times for municipal and school activities like youth basketball. The council unanimously voted aye, setting the next town board meeting for the first Monday in May.

The council then heard a report from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and SC Broadband. Zion Canyon Fiber Optics, designed and in the process of constructing fiber-optic internet infrastructure in the Zion area, opened the meeting to a Q and A and presented their project summary. Per the UDOT representative, “This is a project where we’ll be filling in the gaps in UDOT’s fiber network.” Connectivity and services would extend to include Orderville, and the UDOT team invited locals to ask questions and keep communication open through udotinput.utah.gov/ziontechnology, or by calling the hotline at 855-663- 6800. The UDOT team described deadlines as “fast and furious,” hoping to finish the project by 2026.

Following some business license approvals, the council recognized the presence of Kane County Commissioners Celeste Meyeres and Patty Kubeja and invited them to speak. Commissioner Meyeres spoke on incoming grant money for road projects in response to Zion’s closure to certain vehicles. Per Meyeres, “They’re looking at starting construction 2027, so there’s going to be a time period starting June this year, where if someone pulls up to the east side of Zion with a large vehicle, they’re going to be stopped … we’ve been working with the park, and with tour guide services, to renew shuttle licenses and services.” When asked if the public had any feedback for the commissioners, the general tone was gratitude for hard work on behalf of the tone.

The following item on the agenda was a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a dedicated attorney for the town. Said council member Shaun Sharkey, “I think it’d be better to have one, rather than waiting a month each time we need one to put ‘getting an attorney’ on the agenda.” The motion to put out an RFP was made and approved.

The council then considered the town culinary water master plan. The plan update included some important infrastructure projects, such as improved supervisory data acquisition, lines at the rodeo grounds and Thunderbird RV, new wells and an improvement on Valley View. Per the analysis from the city’s water contractors, “This analysis shows Orderville has sufficient water rights to meet the needs of its citizens throughout the planning period. However, much of the water right duly available to the town is underutilized,” indicating water rights that Orderville could better access through the installation of these planned wells and line improvements.

Toward the end of the meeting, city staff conducted a training on signing up for pa¬perless and automated bill pay on the Xpress service on xpressbill¬pay.com, encouraging locals to consider the service for efficiency and consistency in billpaying. A member of the public petitioned the council to consider a public cleanup day, after which the meeting adjourned.