Cottonwood City Council passes two ordinances
The Cottonwood City Council passed a pair of ordinances at their September meeting Monday, Sept. 9.
The first ordinance was an amendment to the city’s parking ordinance dealing primarily with people living in vehicles or containers within a city right of way.
The second deals with camping on city property. Both ordinances will be published in next week’s Chronicle.
A third ordinance on open container exemption on public property was tabled to the next meeting.
Discussion on a proposed ordinance on Recreational Vehicle occupancy was also tabled as City Attorney Joe Wright didn’t have that one ready yet.
The Ironwood Agreement was tabled again as Mayor Keith Holcomb had a question on whether the items addressed in the current agreement were ever taken care of. Wright suggested talking to former maintenance supervisor Roy Uhlenkott to confirm.
The proposed former schoolyard property development was also tabled as the landowner is still looking at designs that would meet city issues.
Christine Frei appeared before the council along with Jerry Zumalt to talk about the Idaho County Broadband Coalition. The state of Idaho apparently has over $580 million for broadband projects. What the coalition is looking for from the city is a representative from the city to sit in on their meetings help advocate for Cottonwood on getting broadband access.
Later in the meeting the council voted to sign the Memorandum of Understanding with the Broadband Coalition.
Amy Uptmor from JUB Engineers updated the city on the sewer treatment system project and presented an amended contract spelling several items out for the current stage of the project. She said they are looking at some options for a new reservoir in the treatment area. Possibly acquiring some additional land to do so. Later in the meeting the council voted to approve the contract amendment.
She was asked about the NRCS. She reported this has been slowed down by some transitions in the state office. She is hoping it gets forwarded to the national office later this month.
Rick Johnson and Dave Frei of the VFW appeared and pointed out some good and bad and had some suggestions for the Pavilion. They said there is an issue with the hot water as it doesn’t get hot. This makes for problems when doing cleanup. Johnson suggested the city get some kind of scheduling program to be available online for the Pavilion. They said they feel they can get the okay at their meeting on Wednesday to fund 2 more cameras needed for coverage of the park.
They said they left a freezer at the Pavilion after their beergarden and felt adding a refrigerator would be a good thing.  Also an ice machine might be a good addition. “We would just like to keep improving it,” said Johnson.
They also noted the toilet in the men’s restroom doesn’t flush like it should.
They reported that Cloninger’s and Simmons Sanitation have committed $1,250 each per year to help fund the water used by the splash pad. Kristine Holthaus also noted she has reached out to the school to suggest fundraising for the splash pad as a senior project. Johnson and Frei also suggested maybe a vending machine to help raise funds.
They also requested if it would be possible for the VFW to have a key.
In other action items the city voted to approved a cost of living increase in city employee wages of 3%.
The council also voted to write off an aged receivable of $190 that it doesn’t appear has any chance of being collected.
In the reports Terry Cochran reported the one person who had applied for the position advertised had withdrawn. He will readvertise the position. He reported there were few issues during the Fair with most of those being parking issues.
Gus Hoene reported the city pumped 7,624,100 gallons of water in August and sold 7,347,640 for a loss of 2.6%.
Brett Miller had nothing to report on the sewer other than what Uptmor had reported already.
Holthaus reported the city is doing patchwork on East Street and is working on installing culverts near The Hangout.
Linda Nida reported the Idaho Dept. of Health brought some sunshades and painted a caterpillar hopscotch among other things. She said she was against giving the VFW the key they requested as they already have issues with how many people seem to have keys for the Community Hall. The council agreed.
No new updates at the airport.
Nida reported the Fire Department has ordered 1 garage door opener. They started work on the fire station roof on Monday. They had 7 calls during the month, both accidents and fires. The city trucks also assisted at the Sonnen Meats fire.
Brett Miller asked about remotes for the doors. When they roll a truck out to a call they usually leave the doors open.
The council adjourned to an executive session to discuss acquiring an interest in real property which is not owned by a public agency at 9:33 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.