| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council held their regular August meeting Monday, August 13 and passed Ordinance #230 which amends the speed limit ordinance. The ordinance removes the school speed zone on Lewiston Street past the former Elementary School and establishes the only school speed zone in town as that portion of East St. between Jenny St. and Foster St. The electronic speed zone signs that were on Lewiston Street have been moved to East Street. The council also discussed a request from the Fair Board to close King Street between the park and the Fair Grounds for the Fair as was done for Ride Idaho. The council decided making it a 1-way street heading north during the Fair would be more effective than closing it. Also under discussion was the open burning and burning permit ordinance. There are still some tweaks that need to be made clearing up some conflicting language. The matter was tabled to the next meeting. Another discussion started at the last meeting was the open container portion of the liquor ordinance. Once city attorney Joe Wright pointed out that the “public ways” portion of the ordinance refers only to streets, alleys and sidewalks and not the city park or the community hall, that took away most of the concerns the council had with the ordinance. In reports, Pat Holthaus noted they had lost about 616,000 gallons out of 5,426,700 pumped for about an 11% loss. Fire chief Greg Sonnen pointed out the fire department flushed the hydrants this past month accounting for some of that loss. Roy Uhlenkott noted also that the water line that was abandoned when the Oak Street project was completed was definitely leaking and that is not part of the system anymore. Jack Duman reported as well that a citizen told him of a possible leak on Hogan Street in the portion that is west of Lewiston Street. Laurine Nightingale and Donna Wassmuth of the library appeared with a proposal for the city to buy a “beverage dispensing unit” also known as a bar, for the hall. They felt it would be handy for the Hall to have its own rather than tracking one down each time one is needed for a hall event. Donna purchased a nice looking unit from her daughter for $100 that she offered to sell for the same amount. The library would have purchased it themselves but had no place to store it. The council agreed to the purchase with funds coming out of the land and buildings budget. Jack Duman reported the sealcoating went great and that it came in under budget. During the street report Roy Uhlenkott noted he has been receiving concerns about the dead tree along King Street near Garrett St. The house it is located by is under foreclosure which makes things difficult. Joe Wright will research the ordinances to see if there’s something that addresses this. Ron Grant said it is a public hazard and needs to be taken down. In the fire department report Grant noted their only call during the month was a vehicle on Highway 95 on the day the phone service was out and City Clerk Carol Altman was doing the dispatching for Cottonwood. Mayor Denis Duman informed the council that Suddenlink, the local cable TV provider is getting bought out so they may have to address the franchise transfer. The council adjourned to an executive session at 8:20 p.m. |
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