EVANSTON — Uinta County Museum Director Kay Rossiter and curator Mary Walberg were first on the agenda for the Feb. 11 Evanston City Council work session. They gave the council an update on the Joss House renovation project and wanted to let the community know why the Joss House is closed.

“The Joss House is now closed and we are currently removing all of the items and cases to prepare for the renovation,” Rossiter said. “We estimate that we will hopefully be able to reopen by Oct. 1. The roof will be repaired, the inside of the building will be renovated to be more like the original Josh House, and will have new lighting and new artifact safe cases.”

Rossiter said she and Walberg had applied for grants from the Wyoming Cultural Trust Fund, the Wyoming Community Foundation and Pacificorp. They had divided the renovation into specific projects for each grant application. The total estimated cost of the complete renovation is $43,253. 

Walberg said they will place a banner on the outside of the building listing the donors and the possible date of reopening.

Once completed, Rossiter said, all of the artifacts at the Joss House will be catalogued and will be part of the museum’s online connection to the digital Public Library of America. People across the world will be able to view the artifacts online.

Next on the agenda was Evanston Community Development Director Rocco O’Neill, who discussed the need for the city to have a website specifically designed for economic development.

“It is critical to have a separate website that focuses entirely on economic development,” O’Neill said. “Corporations hire people (site selectors) to search for sites, and they rely heavily on websites. Seventy percent of decision makers develop short lists through searching websites. Site selectors have a two-click rule: if what they are looking for takes more than two clicks, they move on to another community’s website. It saves them time and money.”

O’Neill used a computer-generated program to demonstrate his points. He gave a list of what companies are looking for when they search for a site: community demographics; workforce information; incentives, such as tax benefits; commercial real estate available; major employers and the business climate. They also compare competitors regarding location and risk management, consider the quality of life and look at the availability of transportation.

“A major factor they look at is what they estimate they will make over a 10- to 20-year period in that location over another,” O’Neill said.

O’Neill explained that the Uinta County Economic Development Commission had been reviewing presentations from website designers and had determined that the Golden Shovel design team out of Minnesota was the best option for what Uinta County needs. 

Golden Shovel focuses entirely on economic development and offers both setup and maintenance, monitors and provides an analysis of the data, integrates with social media, provides monthly reports and has a working relationship with site selectors.

The one-time cost of developing the website is $17,500, and $4,800 for the copyright. There are annual fees of $3,600 for maintenance; $4,800 for marketing; $3,600 for tracking and lead generation, with those annual fees spread out over a four-year agreement period. The annual cost would then be $17,575 per year for the first four years. After the four-year commitment, Golden Shovel will redo the website for free and the overall costs drops to about $1,000 a month.

Brent Hatch, chair of the Uinta County Economic Development Commission (UCEDC), said the commission doesn’t have the revenue for the project, and no full-time employee to monitor the agreement; that is why commission members approached the city council and said they would like to work together with the city on economic development. Hatch added that Golden Shovel also understands “opportunity zones” and how to utilize those.

Mayor Kent Williams asked, “Does this proposal utilize the study that was done? What about the county’s involvement? We don’t want to sever our relationship with the county, as what benefits the county also benefits Evanston. We also need to protect that relationship with UCEDC.”

O’Neill responded, “Evanston has the tools to carry this out and bring it all together and can better manage it. We have the staff, the revenue and the resources. Obviously, we would include the entire county on the website.”

City attorney Dennis Boal said they would need to talk to Evanston Treasurer Trudy Lym to see if there is a line item on the budget that would qualify, then bring up the request again at a regular council meeting.

Councilman Mike Sellers asked O’Neill how many industry contacts the city gets in a year.  O’Neill said approximately six referrals from the state, but none have been successful.

Last to be discussed was a sketch plan review of the Riverbirch Addition. Evanston Senior Planner DuWayne Jacobsen and Evanston Director of Engineering and Planning Dean Barker said they wanted to provide the council with early input and an introduction to the plans for the addition. 

The Riverbirch Addition is located at the end of Burns Avenue off Yellow Creek Road and at the end of Gardner and Marshall avenues. There are already plats 4 and 5, with a potential for 10 lots which will be sold outright rather than through a developer. The landowner, Mike Pexton, has already been before the Evanston Planning and Zoning Commission and is requesting the property be vacated.

They have to provide a legal description of the areas to be vacated and are working on that. Jacobsen explained that the owner will have to provide access and utility easement — it is located outside the subdivision boundaries.

“The request for vacating the property will be required to go through a public hearing three times and, if approved, then the final step will be an ordinance,” Jacobsen said. “They would like to start construction in May.”