Junction (Utah) Council minutes, 1903-

The Junction town council is responsible for all aspects of town government including maintaining public services and utilities, appointing town officials and setting their salaries, establishing a budget, and regulating activity within the community. Municipal councils are required by law to keep council minutes which summarize all matters proposed, discussed or decided at monthly and special council meetings (Utah Code Unannotated, 1992, 52-4-7). Each set of Junction council minutes includes the date and time of the meeting and names those present. Minutes summarize the council's discussion and indicate the outcome of votes on council decisions. Junction council minutes reveal that municipal government's primary function has been maintaining the town water works.

Junction council minutes also include the minutes of board meetings for the Junction Water Works Company which was incorporated a decade before the municipality of Junction. Water Company minutes provide information aboutbuilding and managing the water works and town council minutes follow in the same vein. The minutes include information about individuals and their problems with service or failure to pay assessments, about water shortages, about maintaining or updating the water system, and about extending the water system to accommodate development. Early council minutes provide details about quarantines and other measures taken to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, including smallpox, measles, whooping cough, typhoid fever, rabies, and especially influenza in 1918-1920. The Junction town council built an airport in 1950. The council has had ongoing responsibility for maintaining city streets, a cemetery, a park, and for general community clean up. In recent decades the council has been very involved in planning community celebrations such as deer hunter's balls, visits from Santa Clause, and July 4th festivities. Council minutes also include information about the appointment of townofficers and itemize expenditures authorized by the council.