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Similarly, staff is addressing a myriad of issues. We regularly find unpermitted construction or uses throughout town which violate our existing ordinances. The illegality of these uses is sometimes illogical, but in the past, instead of changing the governing ordinances they were simply ignored leaving us to choose between commonsense flexibility or essential credibility. I do believe we can have both, but in order to do so we much put in the extra work to change that which we deem out of sync with the needs of the day. We fully expect to continue to make logical changes to use and construction codes which allow for the most freedom and self-determination of residents within the community. There will also be a complementary increase in enforcement. From an administration point of view is based more on an evenhanded application of community expectations with will rub some people sour, but that is the nature of the office. Lastly, the municipal complex planning is on hold. This process began when I asked the previous Council in 2019 for a survey of the town boundary lines as we knew of multiple encroachments which would first need to be addressed. That Council chose not to proceed with this first and essential step. Thankfully, the present Council saw the importance of doing so and we now have a blueprint to start with. Currently, standing in the way are two sets of property encroachment. The first is on us. In 2003 the Town built a storage garage which we now know straddles the property line. We have begun conversations to correct this, but any formal agreement will ultimately end up in front of the voters to correct, so I wanted to start the conversation early. The second encroachment is present on over 1 acre of town owned land to the east of the town office. It includes part of a trailer park as well as a junk yard. This poses a bigger imposition to the development of plans for a future facility as this is valuable space necessary for a policy involving the relocation and separation of the Public Works layout yard from the recreation fields, which are currently comingled. There are various possible conciliatory actions regarding these encroachments, some which may involve moving property lines. Therefore, plans for this development will pick up again once these issues are resolved. Sometimes it is best to overlook disparities or avoid contentious conversations in order to move on as a community. Sometimes reconciliation without accountability creates a short-lived and tumultuous peace. Tim Harford, a financial columnist and economist contends "the price of credibility can be a painful lack of flexibility." What we see today is the unfortunate result of decades of "flexibility" in the form of lax enforcement, reactionary governance and overly accommodating zoning and approvals. This was the path of least resistance, and as Utah Philips reminds us, the path of least resistance is what makes the river crooked. This does not mean that this current administration does not wish to be flexible and accommodating but there is a necessary balance to strike. What we will do moving forward with this process is to lobby for logical and thoughtful change on resident’s behalf where needed and enforce the rest of our ordinances as required because for us, credibility and fairness are paramount.

All the Best,

Zachary W. Maher

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