The Price City Council met on Wednesday, Aug. 14 for their regularly scheduled City Council meeting. Addressed in this meeting was the honoring of city employees, a performance from the Ambassadors for Hope Children’s Choir and a proclamation declaring Sept. as suicide prevention and awareness month in the city.

Opening the meeting, the Council wanted to recognize Tamara Gray and Kamra Davis, two supervisors of the Desert Wave Pool, “Your commitment to sharing lifesaving knowledge, not only empowers our youth,” spoke Mayor Micheal Kourianos,” but also ensures a safer future for everyone. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to making a lasting impact on the lives of everyone.”

Gray and Davis accepted the recognition, but also took the time to recognize the pool employees,” we give them tools but they’re the ones who have to act and be vigilant.”

Next on the agenda for the council was a proclamation from Mayor Kourianos declaring Sept. as suicide prevention and awareness month in the city. Amanda McIntosh, a suicide prevention specialist with the HOPE Squad of Carbon, Emery and Grand Counties and the Southeastern Utah Health Department addressed the council,” Every year for the last couple of years, I have written a proclamation to apprise each City within our three counties of what our current suicide rates are and how we are trying to combat and reduce the stigma for seeking mental health care.” McIntosh continued,” We know that I’m passionate about it and super loud about it because I want to see change and I want our communities to never have to live the life that I do as a survivor.”

After this presentation, the proclamation was read and Sept. was declared suicide prevention and awareness month. When put to a vote, the Council approved it unanimously.

Up next on the docket was a request from the Ambassadors for Hope Children’s Choir to waive the fee for the group’s use of the Price Civic Auditorium for rehearsals. Councilmember Layne Miller took the lead and explained to the council members,” If you’ve ever been there when they’ve been practicing, they sound fabulous.”

Wendy Grant, the choir conductor, spoke to the council,” We so appreciate Layne Miller for his support and oversight of the choir.” Following those remarks, Evelyn Palmer, the group’s president read the mission statement of the group,”. Our mission is to inspire and uplift young voices through the power of music. Using the tri-curriculum we are dedicated to fostering hope, resilience and teamwork among our members. While building a strong sense of community by coming together, to create harmonious melodies.”

Following this the group performed ‘Memories’ by Maroon 5 for those in attendance and were granted the fee waiver.

Next for the Council was an ordinance amending the city council meeting schedule, moving the meeting time from 5:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. An amendment which passed unanimously.

Closing out the meeting, one item was pulled from the consent agenda, which was the International Days time off bonus for city employees. Council member Miller wanted the item discussed saying,” We started to think about how not only are the people who are directly involved working hard, but because those people are away from their jobs, then the people who work alongside them have to pick up the slack … we came up with this to where we can give all of our employees some time off. Based on whether they are full-time or part-time. And we just wanted to let them know how much we appreciate what they do.”

Again, the council moved and approved this bonus unopposed.

When it came to unfinished business, Mayor Kourianos wanted the media members in the room to know that starting this school year, crossing guards within the city will be equipped with bodycams to help identify drivers who are creating an active threat in school zones.

The next scheduled meeting for the Price City Council will be Wednesday, Aug. 28 starting at 5 p.m. in Price City Hall. For more information on what’s happening in Price City, you can visit the city’s website here.