Cottonwood City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council approved alcohol beverage licenses for 2024 at their January meeting held Monday, Jan. 8.
License were approved for Cloninger’s, Riener’s, Rodonnas, Coyotes, An American Bar, The Cottonwood Hangout and Three Mile Group, LLC (Wolftrack). One approval was conditional on receiving all the proper paperwork.
Prior to the meeting a public hearing was held on the status of the Park Project Idaho Community Block Grant. The pavilion project is substantially completed with mostly just finishing work left, such as doors to the restrooms and storage areas, restroom fixtures, painting, etc.
Work on the playground equipment has been halted due to the winter weather.
The mayor and council members Debby O’Neill, Linda Nida and Kristy Holthaus were all sworn in. Brett Miller will be sworn in at the next meeting as he was unable to attend. All had to be sworn in as either their term was up at election time or they had been appointed since the last election and had to run again. All were unopposed so no actual election was needed.
Since it is a new council year, appointments need to be made and a council president elected. Nida was elected as council president. Appointments were all the same as they have been. O’Neill will be water commissioner. Miller will be sewer commissioner. Nida will be land and buildings commissioner and fire commissioner. Holthaus will be streets commissioner and airport commissioner. Mayor Keith Holcomb will be police commissioner. Terry Cochran was appointed as police chief and as emergency services liaison. Greg Danly was appointed fire chief, pending election of the fire department. Joe Wright was appointed as city attorney and Lynn Thompson was appointed as city clerk.
The street sweeper repairs were discussed. Mac Hankins of the city crew said they have gone through the 14 pages of needed repairs and are taking care of the ones they can do themselves. The big fan would need to be done by the dealer repair service. They are also looking into getting bids for a replacement just so they can weigh their options.
In reports O’Neill reported they pumped 2,094,400 gallons during December and sold 1,796,820 for a 13.14% loss. For the year they pumped 34,283,600 gallons and sold 30,567,110 for a 10.4% loss. That compares to an average loss of about 9.6 % over the past several years.
It was reported that about 2/3 of the new radio readers have been installed. Mayor Holcomb said it would be interesting to know how the total water pumped during the year compared to the previous years.
In the sewer report Hankins reported they are nearing completion of the East St. sewer line replacement project. They have installed over 1600 feet of pipe and have just 2 more connections to finish.
Holthaus reported they have been documenting their current signage to see what needs to be replaced. They have about $1800 worth found so far. They are looking into consolidating some signage such as putting stop and yield signs on the same pole with the street name signs.
She also noted Pat Enneking is looking into taking the new crosswalk signs to the Elementary School for an assembly to familiarize students with the new signage.
Holthaus reported they have finished upgrading the windsock to make it more visible. Also all the runway lighting has no been upgraded to LED lights.
Nida reported the fire department responded to a dumpster fire in December. She has also contacted Andrew Miller about the fire station roof.
A request from Clearwater County about using a specific radio frequency was approved pending information from Idaho County and Davis Communications.
The meeting adjourned at 7:33 p.m. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Monday Feb. 12 at 7 p.m.