| Cottonwood
City Council meets
John Watson of Riedesel was present at the August meeting of the Cottonwood City Council with preliminary designs for the sidewalk work to be done in fiscal year 2017. The work will be paid for with a $444,000 grant that was awarded to the city along with a 7.3% local match. When done there will be new sidewalk on the west side of East Street from the Ironwood Housing to Business 95, then along Business 95 to Hogan. Myrtle Street will also get some new sidewalk. Watson said he should have the final design by the end of the month as it has to be submitted to the Idaho Transportation Dept. for review. The environmental impact review has already been submitted to the EPA. Also in attendance was Jessaca Austad, who is the new economic development specialist for Ida-Lew, replacing Melisa Bryant, who had resigned. Austad said she has been getting herself up to speed with what’s going on. When asked about the old Elementary School she said she has added it to a listing service that gets the word out about commercial properties like that much more broadly than local real estate agents could. In reports Pat Holthaus said the city pumped about 4.5 million gallons and sold about 4.2 million for an 8% loss. He said he contacted the DEQ on the concern about applicators and the city well. He is still waiting for a definitive answer. Ron Grant had no report from the sewer department. Jack Duman reported they got the 2 shots of oil on East Street plus the concrete base. It will make for a good surface and cost considerably less than asphalt paving would have. He complimented the city crew for their diligence and numerous man-hours in getting it done. They will likely get a third shot on East Street either next year or the year after, depending on which year he looks at getting Broadway done. He is looking at delaying Broadway until 2018 to give the city crews a break so they can work on other projects. Shelli Schumacher reported the senior citizens met in the hall basement for the first time August 2 and were pleasantly surprised for the most part that the ramp wasn’t as steep or as long as many had feared. Linda Nida reported she had asked JUB Engineering to check out the airport runway needs. She is not getting any luck in getting anything more than a 50-50 match on funding runway resurfacing. The last major resurfacing was done in the early 2000’s when there was 100% funding available, which is no longer the case. Jack Duman wondered if it’s something they could adapt the local highway district’s chip sealing trucks for. Watson said you need a slurry truck and you have to go to Boise or Spokane to find one of those. In the fire department report Grant said they had 3 calls in the past month: a grass fire, the fire on Main Street (see photos and article) and an extrication near Pine Bar. In unfinished business it was decided to send a 60-day notice of lease cancellation to the airport hanger lessee who is in arrears. He has been without the required insurance since April and is behind in his lease since July 1. The conditional use permit for Cottonwood Credit Union to expand their parking area into a neighboring lot was approved. The tentative budget was approved after some discussion. The budget hearing is set for Monday, August 29 at 7 p.m. Also approved was recover the foregone allowable property tax from 2015 in the amount of $8,699.00 to balance the budget. The public hearing for that will also be on August 29. In new business sewer lagoon testing needs to be done within the next 3 years. Uhlenkott called for quotes and Horrock Engineering, who did it the last time, came in with the lowest price by a good margin. The council voted to have Horrock do the work pending Horrock’s approval of the minor changes made to the agreement by the city attorney. The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Their next meeting will be the budget hearing on August 29. The next regular meeting will be Monday, September 12 at 7 p.m. |
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