Brian Muir, Administrator for the City of Kemmerer, called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Thursday, July 9 for his monthly report. Muir gave an update on approved policy regarding the potential for temporary housing, or man camps, built in the area to house construction workers building the TerraPower nuclear facility. Muir also touched on various other items impacting the City of Kemmerer.

(0:00) Joining me live over the phone now is Kemmer City Administrator Brian Muir with his monthly (0:04) report from the City of Kemmer. Brian, good morning. You staying cool in southern Lincoln County? (0:10) Yeah, perfect weather.

Can’t beat it. You know, that’s why everybody likes to come here in the (0:15) summer for sure. Absolutely, absolutely.

Well, appreciate your time as always, Brian. And kind (0:20) of a cool announcement made earlier this week. ExxonMobil donating some trees to the City of (0:25) Kemmer and they’re going to be planted by the fishing pond to re-establish Tree City USA.

(0:31) Yes, we did have our City Tree USA elapsed a little bit. So we’re trying to get back on the (0:39) groove on that. So, but yeah, we appreciate their donation.

And yeah, I think it’s Friday. You may (0:45) know better than me that they’re trying to have a little celebration over getting those trees. So, (0:54) and you might be able to find that on Facebook or call the City Hall.

We can try to get you (0:58) more details. So I think it’s at 9am is what the City said. So, but yeah, cool thing for the City (1:04) of Kemmer to get that donation.

Brian, a couple of other items. Of course, last time we talked, (1:08) we talked about the temporary housing potential and that was heading into the meeting last time. (1:13) And of course, the City Council met since we’ve talked and did kind of establish some regulations (1:19) for possible temporary housing.

Kind of walk us through this process and where things stand now. (1:25) Yes. So what the City Council did is they passed, approved and adopted an ordinance (1:35) that allows, that creates in a light manufacturing district or zone, if you will.

(1:44) Obviously, you can have a workforce hub there based on a conditional use permit. So that code (1:51) has been correct, approved, if you will. So at this point, someone would need to actually apply (2:02) for a conditional use permit.

We don’t have such permits and they would need to go before the (2:08) zoning board to get approval. There would be a, one of the things that was important to both the (2:12) zoning board and to the City Council is making sure the public has all the time in the world to (2:18) comment. And there would be a public hearing before anything would be approved.

And so the (2:26) people’s feedback could be considered. And so that, but right now, yeah, we’re just kind of (2:33) just in a holding powder, I guess you could say, because what drove all of this was that there was (2:40) an RFP submitted by Bechtel and there have been people who have responded to that RFP and some of (2:49) those properties are in city limits. And so if any of them are approved for such RFP by Bechtel, (2:59) then those people would need to come before the zoning board for an application for the site that (3:06) they want to go with.

So, and then they would, the zoning board would consider it. They could put (3:12) all the conditions that they would be needed to mitigate whether it’s, and one of the things that (3:18) was required, if there is an application and is there needs to be a six foot fence all around (3:25) perimeter fence around it, they need to take into account all of the, anything to do with traffic (3:33) or noise or anything like that. And to try to mitigate any of those things.

So there’s all kinds (3:41) of code in place to, to try to prepare for such a contingency. So at this point, that’s what we’ve (3:48) done just, just in case, I guess you could say. So, so Brian, you said, you mentioned there, (3:54) if an application, so, so to your knowledge up to this point, no official application has been (4:00) filed.

Is that correct? I know for sure that no conditional use application have been, has (4:06) been submitted to our offices because probably because there have been no, the RFPs have not (4:14) been approved by, by Bechtel. So until that happens, there wouldn’t be any applications (4:21) anyway, but we do not have an application before us. Sure.

Okay. And, and of course this, (4:26) this did have some public pushback and, and some concerns. And you mentioned (4:29) this process to help mitigate some of those concerns.

Any, any other concerns that you, (4:34) that were addressed that you’d like to touch on today and how the city would, (4:38) would address those through the application process? (4:42) Well, yeah, I think one of the concerns is the density. There is a language in there now that (4:49) says any temporary workforce housing facility shall have a maximum of 50 dwelling units per (4:57) acre. So that was something that was established as a standard, but that’s a maximum of that means (5:04) the zoning board would have discretion to go less than that.

And, and if they wanted to, (5:09) if they wanted to recommend less density. And then it, another thing to point out is (5:15) it’s just a condition, a temporary residential area. It’s not a permanent residential areas for (5:20) the life of the project.

And, and I mentioned the fence, but also think site and sound proximity (5:28) and other criteria that have to do with the health and safety of the public, (5:33) including residential buffers and the scale of the facility, the hours of the employees, (5:40) those are all things that would be taken into consideration (5:45) and to try to make sure that it’s as positive experience. So (5:51) Kemmerer city administrator, Brian Muir this morning on the weekday wake up. All right, (5:54) Brian, appreciate that update.

And we’ll see where it proceeds. If anywhere from there, (5:59) anything else happening in Kemmerer that you’d like to mention? Of course, we have some big (6:03) events with Oyster Ridge on the way, but any, anything else you’d like to touch on? (6:07) Yeah. Oyster Ridge is obviously 24th and 25th.

That’s exciting. It’s Friday and a Saturday. (6:12) That’s our biggest event, bringing outsiders from outside of Kemmerer to Kemmerer and our (6:18) downtown’s looking great for that event.

We just celebrated the fourth and we had a bouncy house (6:25) that we sponsored over there at the Diamondville park. And that was a great success. And we also (6:31) have these coins that are available to commemorate.

We want to keep celebrating this (6:37) wonderful time of patriotism in our country. We have some coins that you can get by calling city (6:46) hall. There’s still some left, some commemorative coins to celebrate the event.

There’s also a golf (6:53) tournament this weekend. It’s a fundraiser for a father that passed away, Jeremy Erickson. He died (7:04) young and has a wife and children that need some help.

And his friends have put together this (7:09) fundraising tournament and people can call the Fossil Land Golf Course if they would like to (7:15) participate in that. So what else is going on? Dirt is moving on our gateway PUD phase 1a. The (7:23) street has been cut out.

The first big street I think is called Madeline Ray. And they’re getting (7:29) ready to start putting in, cutting in to get ready for storm water as well as water and sewer lines. (7:37) So they’re digging that.

That’s next. So infrastructure is moving along and it’s making (7:43) progress. I think they’re on schedule as far as I know.

So they’re still trying to get some homes (7:48) in place by the end of the year on pads and sold. So that’s their objective. Excellent.

Well, Brian, (7:55) as always, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. And we’ll be in touch.

We’ll talk soon. (7:59) Thank you. Yeah, you’re welcome.

That’s Brian Muir this morning, (8:03) Kemmerer City Administrator. It’s all part of the Weekday Wake Up on SVI Radio.