| City
awarded $650,000 in grants
It was announced at the May meeting of the Cottonwood City Council Monday, May 11, that the City of Cottonwood has been awarded $650,000 in grant monies. $150,000 of that is a block grant applied for through the Clearwater Economic Development Association (CEDA) that will help pay for renovations to the Community Hall. The other $500,000 is a stimulus money grant that will help repave Lewiston Street from North Street to Camas Drive. The council will have a special meeting next Monday, May 18, at 7 p.m. to go over some issues with the grant paperwork and get things on both projects. Plus they hadn’t yet received the Idaho Department of Commerce contract for the block grant. They did approve Paragon as the engineering consultant for the Lewiston St. project. Paragon had helped with the grant application and was one of the firms on the State of Idaho Department of Transportation’s pre-approved list. Once this project is in motion it will be mostly a state-run project. Mayor Denis Duman applauded councilors Shelli Schumacher and Jack Duman for their work in getting these grants. There’s no way either could be done without a much increased burden on local taxpayers. Lewiston Street has been in need of repaving ever since the water project was concluded several years ago. In other business the council adopted a new ordinance that would remove the International Fire Code from the city’s building code. This had been reviewed and approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission with the appropriate public hearings held. Mayor Duman said the IFC has a lot of language and requirements in it that just don’t fit our community and it wasn’t intended to have been included when the Universal Building Code was originally adopted by the city. A request to vacate a portion of Washington Street was tabled as there is some action in the works between property owners that may make the action unnecessary. The P & Z had recommended denying the request due to the possibility of blocking access to a parcel or two of property. In reports Jay Hinterlong reported there was a lot more water pumped this April than last year but that the pumps and wells are still working just fine. A leak detection company will be here June 8 to see if there are any potential trouble spots. Ron Grant reported an inmate crew has been cleaning up the agriforest. He and Roy Uhlenkott will be attending a wastewater conference soon. Grant reported the fire department had only one call in the past month, a grass fire at the historical site south of town. He said they will have several firemen attend a state fire school at Kamiah and will possibly have a couple of new recruits to send to that as well. The council approved waiving the hall rental fee for a Relay for Life fundraiser set for May 30. All money raised from the event goes to the American Cancer Society. The council adjourned at 8:20 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, June 8 at 7 p.m. with a special meeting set for Monday, May 18 at 7 p.m. |
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