By Linda Kor The Snowflake Council met in person on May 5 at the council chambers for a brief meeting. Included on the agenda was the lease purchase of 30 golf carts from Club Car for the Snowflake Municipal Golf Course in the amount of $144,233. Town Manager Brian Richards stated that the current golf cart lease is set to expire in September and the Snowflake Municipal Golf Course currently leases 30 carts for a four-year period. The current lease totals $1,932 per month. Over the past two years, additional carts were needed through the months of May, June, July, August and September due to increased play. During those months, additional carts have been rented at a much higher rate as short term cart rental is more than double the lease rates. Last year the town spent $45,879 in cart lease/rental. In his written report, Richards noted, “If we continue to do that over the next 10 years, we’ll have spent more than $450,000 for rentals. If we were to purchase 30 carts and lease 30 carts we’ll have invested more than $350,000. If we chose to purchase 60, we’d have less than $300,000 invested. Ten years is not an unreasonable amount of time for the life expectancy for a golf cart. Although 60 carts would be optimum, we may be able to get by with 50.” Proposals were solicitated from the three major golf cart vendors, Club Car, Yamaha and EZ-GO, with Club Car as the lowest bidder. The council approved the purchase unanimously, with Vice Mayor Kerry Ballard and Councilwoman Allison Perkins excused and not present. As part of the purchase process, the council also approved a lease purchase agreement in the amount of approximately $145,000 with Zions Bancorporation for the purchase of the golf carts. The term is for five years at 3.5 percent interest rate. The council also approved the expenditure of $145,000 in general funds to provide interim financing for the golf carts in order to enter into a lease/purchase agreement, the interest on which will be exempt from federal income taxation and to use proceeds from the bank to reimburse the advance. In other business, the council: * Approved for first reading a zoning map change from Agricultural 5 Acre (AG) to Residential 10,000 (R-10) zoning for property that is approximately .59 acre in size and is located at 381 S. First E. St., Parcel No. 202-13-058C in Snowflake. Property owner Lamar Willis intends to separate the home from the farm. Because the farm is zoned as AG 5 acre and the house lot was only about a half-acre in size, they were told it had to be rezoned so the house property lot could be split off from the farm. Planning and Zoning previously approved the request. * Approved a zoning map change for two separate properties from Residential 2 Acre (R2A) to Residential 1 Acre (R-1A). These properties are each approximately 3.32 acres in size and are located at 637 N. Apple Blossom Lane, Parcel Nos. 202-36-019C&D in Snowflake. Property owner John Ballard seeks to create properties of approximately one acre in size. He wants to build single family homes on the property. Planning and Zoning previously approved the request.
