Handyman Services in Millville, Utah

Cattle herders called the area Elkhorn Ranch when the Garr brothers arrived in the spring of 1855. In 1859 Esaias Edwards forded the Blacksmith Fork River and built the first sawmill in Cache Valley, which gave the town its name. Shingle, lath, cider, molasses and grist mills followed, many in Millville Canyon or built of rock quarried there, and Millville incorporated in 1902.

It stayed a farm town and still feels like one. The 2016 general plan calls Millville primarily a rural agricultural community, says new lots generally run a third to half an acre and one-acre lots are common, and recalls the 1995 slogan, Country Living at its Finest. The population grew from about 1,200 in 1993 to 1,867 in 2014, with more than 230 homes added.

Census estimates for 2020 to 2024 count about 630 homes, almost all single-family and mostly owner-occupied. The 1970s were the biggest building decade by far, with about 28 percent of today's houses, and the median home dates from 1981. About one in ten was built before 1940.

Big lots mean sheds, shops and the pads beside them. Millville's accessory building packet says a building under 200 square feet needs no permit. Anything larger goes through a zoning clearance: the development coordinator checks the application, it goes on the agenda of the Planning and Zoning Commission, which meets the first and third Thursday of the month at 8 pm as needed, and once it is approved and paid, the clearance goes to Cache County for the building permit. All building inspections go through the county.

The packet sets accessory building setbacks of 30 feet from the front property line and 5 feet from the rear, and the city returns its refundable deposit after a public works inspection.

A concrete pad for a shed or trailer is formed and poured on a leveled gravel base, with tooled control joints so the slab cracks where it is meant to. In Millville, check two things before the forms go in: where your septic tank and drain field are, and whether the spot is near the grassy swale or irrigation ditch along the street, which the packet says can't be filled or changed without approval.

In 2016 Millville had no sewer at all; homes ran on septic tanks, which is why the general plan set a 14,000-square-foot minimum lot size to leave room for drain fields. The city's new sewer system is now ready for home connections, with no deadline to connect, and the health department sets the rules for decommissioning an old tank. The hookup itself is work for the contractors on the city's list.

That matters for any project that digs. Drain field lines sit shallow, and a fence post, deck footing or pad over them can crush a pipe or smother the field. Locate the tank and field before marking post holes, and have buried utility lines marked too.

The 2015 Bear River regional hazard plan, attached to the general plan, records Blacksmith Fork flooding in Millville and Nibley in 2003, describes that stretch as canal-like with built-up banks, and finds the Lower Millville Providence Canal too small for a 10-year storm at four points in town. It also maps moderate to high wildfire risk along the east bench and in the southwest part of town, where much of the tree canopy grows, so keep firewood off decks and away from fences there.