| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council barely had a quorum for the December meeting Monday, Dec. 13 with both Mayor Denis Duman and councilor Max Nuxoll absent. In their absence councilor Martin Fowler presided over the meeting. In his water report Fowler said they are doing very well. 3.5 million gallons were pumped in November which is below previous Novembers. They don’t have all the data to figure loss to leaks but Fowler’s best guess is that they are down to about 20%. He said there were no new leaks found in the past month. Fowler also reported that it appears the aquifers under wells 2 and 4 are regenerating. In the absence of Nuxoll, city maintenance supervisor Roy Uhlenkott reported that they have videotaped a couple of problem areas in the sewer system and cleaned them up. On Front Street near Gary Riener’s house some tree root infiltration was found and cleaned out. King St. between Church and Bash Streets was also taped. Uhlenkott said they have a new pipe cleaning company they are working with that appears to do a much better job. They do very good video work and video the lines again after they do the cleanup to show what was done. Jack Duman reported the grant applications for a street sweeper and for magnesium chloride are in the works. Both are consortium efforts amongst the city and surrounding highway districts. The mag chloride application is headed by the Keuterville Highway District. If granted the city would be liable for $15,000 for their share of the applicator truck in the first year but the next couple years would be out only a couple thousand per year for additional chemical. A resolution regarding dust abatement was read and approved later in the meeting as part of the grant application process. The city spent about $17,000 this past year in co-pay with citizens to hire out for dust abatement application on the city’s gravel streets. Duman also reported work is proceeding on the sidewalk plan. A grant application needs to be in by January 31, 2005 with funds not being granted until 2008. Fowler is working on the sidewalk plan as well and reported the idea is to create a sidewalk route that would connect downtown with the two school buildings in town, the city park, fairgrounds, Wimer ballfields and Lions Club ballfield. Prioritizing will be done at the next Planning and Zoning meeting which would be Monday, January 3. If you have a concern about a certain area and want to get it pushed to the top of the list, this is the meeting to attend. If the grant is funded, all sidewalk work would need to be done to federal specifications regarding width, handicapped access, etc. In the land and buildings report Shelli Schumacher reported the upstairs at the hall has been painted and that the prison crew did a good job. No bids were received for the old grader. A couple of parties who had shown interest will be called, otherwise they’ll hold it until the equipment auction in the spring. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 p.m. The next regular meeting is set for Monday, January 10 at 8 p.m. |
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