Gus Hoene was appointed to the Cottonwood City Council at their May meeting Monday, May 13.
Hoene replaces Debby O’Neill, who resigned last month.
The meeting opened with a short public hearing on the amended budget for FY2024. There were no public comments so the hearing was closed.
During the regular meeting the council voted to approve Ordinance #264, which is the amended budget.
The Oak Street property lease was discussed. This is for a mobile home on Madison Street that is located partially in a platted street that has never been opened. The lease was approved for another 5 years.
Cottonwood Credit Union requested an exemption for water and sewer services at 1702 Lewiston St. This is for a house and property purchased adjacent to their Lewiston St. branch. They will be demolishing the house. The request was approved.
Some ordinances dealing with proposed city code changes were presented to council members by city attorney Joe Wright. They will deal with camping, parking and storage containers. Wright suggested tabling these until at least July due to a Supreme Court case about homeless camping. That case should be ruled on in June.
In reports, Terry Cochran reported he did not get any of the grants he was hoping to get to help fund another officer. He had one applicant for the position. He noted the new cameras at the park pavilion are really good. He can access those with his phone or office computer and has alerts set up on his phone if something is detected after hours.
Mayor Keith Holcomb gave the water report stating they pumped 2,556,400 gallons of water and sold 2,162,000 gallons for a loss of 18.61%, which is kind of high. They received the block grant for well #5 and the water tower repainting. Pat Enneking reported they will have a dive team go into each reservoir to clean them. Once they are cleaned they will flush hydrants. It appears the new pump and motor will be installed on well #2 about the end of May. It may be another couple of weeks before it can be back in the system though as they would need to wait for test results to come back.
Brett Miller reported they have started sprinkling in the agriforest. Pipe and manholes are coming in for the big project scheduled for this fall. Enneking said the sewer project won’t get started until the street project is finished.
Kristine Holthaus reported the streets have been swept. Culverts and catch basins are coming in for the street project. She reported she attended the West Camas Transportation group meeting. She said their biggest concern is water availability from Cottonwood. Enneking said he might talk to them about having a water truck to collect water from when they flush hydrants because otherwise that water is wasted.
Linda Nida reported they are working on a donor wall and 2 park entrance signs for the park project. She reported the playground area is ready for use but that the splash pad would have to wait until the city well is fixed. They will be looking at picnic tables. She is getting an order list of trees ready to be paid for with their Arbor Day grant. Marv Wimer is just about ready to turn the keys over to the city for the Pavilion. They are looking at getting some air hand dryers for the new restrooms. She said she attended the CEDA meeting and got the chance to talk about the park project.
Nida also reported they are looking into grants to help pay for the fire station roof. They will also meet with the Rural Fire Department about contributing as well.
The fire department had 2 calls in April. One was for a pickup rollover and the other was for a stove hood fire at Rodonna’s.
The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m. The next regular meeting is set for Monday June 10 at 7 p.m.