| Ordinance
is passed
The Cottonwood City Council passed the water/sewer connection ordinance at their April meeting Monday, April 12. The ordinance allows citizens to apply for an exemption from required water and sewer connections if they can show they are unnecessary to that particular property. These situations would be handled on a case-by-case basis. Mayor Denis Duman appointed an adjustment board of water commissioner Martin Fowler, sewer commissioner Max Nuxoll and himself that would meet probably once a month to review these petitions and make recommendations to the full council. If the petitioner disagrees with the board’s decision they can appeal to the full council. The board setup would keep these matters from taking up too much council meeting time. The council is also setting up a Community Cleanup Program for April 19-26. They would have Walco bring in a couple of 30-yard roll-offs and allow Cottonwood citizens to bring in objects they normally would have to haul over to the Walco landfill, at no charge. Walco would charge the city $100 for each full roll-off they haul away. More details are in "Notes from City Hall" below.. Melinda Harper of Idaho Rural Water was in attendance to give the council information on how a drinking water protection plan is developed. She actually does the majority of the work and recently helped Nezperce, Lapwai and Winchester set up their plans. Having such a plan in place gives the city more “points” when they apply for grants dealing with the water system. Mike Ayers, candidate for Idaho County Sheriff appeared and made his pitch to the council. In reports, Roy Uhlenkott reported they’ve replaced a water line near Henry Remacle’s and are looking at replacing leaky lines in a couple other places. One being near Phyl Hoene’s and the other on Front Street near the Lerandeau residence. The latter section may be taken on as a city project as it looks like they may have quite a bit to replace as it is old pipe that has patches put on top of patches. Duman reported the telemetry system is getting very close to completion status. They are now able to control and monitor all three wells now plus the outflow at the sewer ponds from city hall. Nuxoll reported that prison work crews are trimming trees in the agriforest and using the new chipper. This will continue for another day or two. Jack Duman reported they are working on a coalition with several local highway districts on chip sealing in an effort to bring the price down. He ahs a request for a yield sign at the bottom of the Front St. hill as it connects to Junction (behind Rieners’ Grocery and the bowling alley.) He and Uhlenkott will also attend a class at Grangeville this week to learn how to deal with water damage to streets and some preventative measures that can be used. Jack is also looking into working with the Department of Environmental Quality for grant money to help with dust abatement costs. He also shared some of the traffic flow numbers from the street study. Shelli Schumacher reported she looked into getting Uhlenkott certified for fertilizer spraying and determined is was more economical just to hire it out so she contacted Tom Gehring at Primeland about fertilizing at the Youth Sports ballfields, city park and airport properties. She also reported the city received the Arbor Day grant and since they have a dead tree to replace at the city park that they will put the trees there this year. They will also look at getting a prison work crew to help with painting the bleachers, benches and tables at the park. There was some discussion about the Youth Sports fields and comment was made that Prairie Youth Sports gets first consideration in using them. Mayor Duman said Youth Sports and the high school need to work things out between themselves. Uhlenkott reported there’s still some things to work out on using well #3 to water the ballfields. Something needs to be installed to step the pressure down. He also asked about putting a hydrant there that could be used for filling water trucks or for emergencies as this well has been completely disconnected from the city system. Mayor Duman reported the fire department sent 6 men to a training at Hanford that went very well. He also reported they took the Mack firetruck to Craigmont for their inspection. If Craigmont doesn’t buy it they do have a few other interested parties. The fire department has also applied for a couple more Homeland Security grants. 1 for the rural district and one for the city. The Riding Club lease was discussed and it was voted to void the $200 rental fee this year due to the over $1700 in improvements the club made over the past year. Language was put into the lease agreement the last time it was approved as incentive to keep the grounds up and help them make improvements. A budget hearing date was set for Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 7:30 p.m. Mayor Duman also informed the council that there is a meeting on May 11 at Craigmont from 4-8 p.m. on the Camas Prairie Rest Area. The council adjourned to an executive session at 10 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, May 10 at 8 p.m. Notes from City Hall Spring is in the air and it’s time to clean up after Old Man Winter. The City is sponsoring the first Community Clean Up Week. There are many activities planned that will afford residents an opportunity to clean up while efforts are being make in the public areas to tidy them up as well. So far the following items are scheduled: · Continuation of sidewalk and street sweeping · Placement of 2 roll off bins at the intersection of 2nd South and Idaho streets (by the old sales yard) for use by RESIDENTS to dispose of waste and unwanted items. These are not for trash, hazardous waste or animal waste and dumpster diving WILL NOT BE PERMITTED. They are for the use of residents of the City only. They will be there starting April 19th and be removed April 26th. Please take advantage of this great service. · The Prairie Wrestling club will be picking items up for those that don’t have a way to haul them or elderly residents that need a little help. Call Steve Lamont or Carol at City Hall if you need this service. A donation to the Wrestling club would be appreciated for this service. · Earth Day will be celebrated at the City Park with planting of trees there on Thursday the 22nd. · The Cottonwood Volunteer Fire Department will be available to remove unwanted structures through rapid oxidation of materials. Contact Chief Rod Behler if you would like to request this service. Please take advantage of this great opportunity to clean up around the ole homestead and help us make our town reflect the community pride that we all have! Respectfully, Denis B. Duman, Mayor |
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