LOGAN – At the regular meeting of the Logan Municipal Council on Sept. 15, Public Works Director Paul Lindhardt got to briefly juggle the hot potato that no on else in the city government seemed to want to touch.
In response to questions from Canyon Road residents and Council Chair Mike Johnson, Lindhardt said that he had received a draft of the controversial Canyon Road right-of-way document on Sept. 14.
He added that the document is now being reviewed by the city attorney and a third-party surveyor, but should be available to members of the council sometime during the week of Sept. 21 to 26.
Minutes earlier, Canyon Road resident Bill Bradford had appeared during the question and comments session of the meeting to renew the demand by his neighbors for the city to produce documentation proving its claim to a 99-foot right-of-way along that thoroughfare.
Local resident Megan Carollo also pointedly questioned the outcome of a Sept. 1 closed-door session by members of the municipal council and city staff.
The ongoing legal battle over Canyon Road began Aug. 18 when Carollo appeared at a meeting of the Logan Municipal Council to challenge city officials to produce documentation proving that the city has a 99-foot right-of-way on Canyon Road.
Begun in spring of this year, the Canyon Road Reconstruction Project focuses on the roadway, sidewalks and surrounding areas that are being redesigned in the wake of the First Dam Tank and Waterline Project. The reconstruction effort – including the planned installation of a eight-foot wide sidewalk on the north side of Canyon Road — would impacts the stretch of road from 600 East to approximately 1500 East (in the vicinity of Herm’s Inn).
Carollo backed up the demand for right-of-way documentation with a petition signed by more than 50 resident of the Island neighborhood, citing both the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, Section 22 of the Utah Constitution.
Absent the requested documentation, that petition requests that city officials pause all improvements beyond the waterline’s scope and meet with affected residents before any further design decisions are made.
That seemingly straightforward request obliged Mayor Mark Anderson to officially recuse himself from decisions or advocacy that could represent a conflict of interest as he is one of the property owners impacted by the ongoing reconstruction project on Canyon Road.
The mayor also issued a Sept. 1 executive order delegating administrative, decision-making authority in those specific matters to Logan City Finance Director Richard Anderson, in accordance with the city staff’s normal chain of authority.
Regarding Carollo’s query about the council’s executive session on Sept. 1, Johnson assured her that the closed-door meeting was “informational in nature” and that no decisions about the Canyon Road controversy were made that that gathering.