The Cottonwood City Council had a full agenda at their July meeting Monday, July 11.
The Council approved water/sewer base rate increases of 3% each which will take effect with the October billing. This amounts to an extra $3.08 per month.
Pat and Marietta Holman of Walco, Inc. were in attendance and asked for a 10.6% rate increase to help cover the cost increases in fuel prices. This would amount to $2.20 for each residential customer. The city will look into this request and possibly act on it at the August meeting.
Steve Frei of St. Mary’s Health appeared and informed the council of a block grant the hospital is seeking that would upgrade their air handling system. For this type of grant they need a sponsor such as a city or county but otherwise there would be no financial affect to the city. Dodd Snodgrass of CEDA informed the council there would be some paperwork involved for the city but he could help them through that. This upgrade would bring the hospital’s system in compliance with current codes. This would be a 100% grant requiring no matching funds. The council gave their go-ahead to proceed.
Snodgrass then gave an update on a grant the city is seeking saying they need to refresh the Fair Housing assessment and appoint a Fair Housing Resource Person. City Clerk Lynn Thompson was appointed to that position later in the meeting.
Audrie Johnson and Serena Lockett gave an update on Summer Fest. They were working on maps of downtown on placement of road closures that Police Chief Terry Cochran could present to the Idaho Transportation Dept. They also had a map of the Wimer Ballfields and the boundaries for open containers. Cochran said they gave out a ton of warnings last year. This year there will be citations. He said to be sure all teams are aware of this.
Johnson said they have looked into security firms and it appears most have gone out of business. The one they were able to find is asking $50 per hour per man which would be way out of their budget. Lynn Guyer suggested talking to NICI employees. Maybe some of the off-duty officers would be willing to help.
In relation to the open container issue downtown, a public hearing will be scheduled for Wednesday, July 20 on this matter. This is required by city ordinance.
In a related matter, a catering permit request for Summer Fest was tabled until July 20 as it would be affected by the outcome of the hearing.
Brandy McElroy, representing Cottonwood Youth Sports, requested permission to place the Burger Barn at the right field corner of the south field of the Wimer Ballfields. She also said due to vandalism they are looking at closing the bathrooms and using them as storage. They plan to rent a couple of porta-potties. The council gave their approval.
Apparently the city is also looking at re-locating the current city park playground equipment to the ballfield area once they get the new equipment in.
Rick Johnson and David Frei were in attendance representing the American Legion. They said they are trying to revitalize the local chapter. Their request was to get the water/sewer charges waived or reduced as the Legion Hall hasn’t had running water in about 8 years due to pipes freezing and breaking. The Council passed a motion to waive the fees subject to review every 5 years or until the issue is fixed.
Tim McDonald of Ida-Lew was present to introduce himself and his vision for Ida-Lew going forward. He says the biggest needs are more housing, especially workforce housing. Another thing coming is electric charging stations for electric vehicles. There are ones going in at Grangeville and Kamiah with others possibly being added. The good thing about these is it brings Tesla owners into the area as tourists with their money.
In other business the council approved the FY2021 audit as presented at last month’s meeting. They also approved the same firm doing the FY2022 audit at a cost of $10,800, $300 more than this past year’s. Zwygart John & Associates, CPAs, PLLC is the auditing firm.
The council also voted to approve a DEQ water grant of $140,000, 50% match to map the city’s water system.
They also approved a DEQ sewer grant of $100,000, 50% match to do an I & I assessment on the city’s sewer system.
Both grants have the matching funds in the city’s FY 2022 budget.
The Council also approved the FY 2023 tentative budget. A budget hearing will be held at the August Council meeting.
In reports Debby O’Neill reported the city pumped 2.37 million gallons of water last month and sold 2.11 million gallons for a loss of about 10.7%. Some of that can be accounted for by the city’s mag chloride application on city streets and use at the airport that hasn’t been billed yet.
In the sewer report Guyer said he saw where Washington state has passed legislation requiring “flushable” wipes to no longer be labeled that way in the state. He suggested the city contact the Association of Idaho Cities to push legislation to do the same in Idaho. “Flushable” wipes are a huge problem in the sewer treatment system as they clog things up.
Kristi Holthaus reported the mag chloride work is finished. The city crew will be painting crosswalks and curbs this week. She also reported that the West Camas Transportation group has approved going to an application system on approaches and utility access to roads and streets. Apparently they also approved using LTAC standards. City Attorney Joe Wright suggested they city might want to adopt LTAC standards as well if they approve the application process.
There was no land and building or fire department report as Linda Nida is on vacation.
In the airport report Holthaus said she and airport manager Clint Riener have planned a walk through to get her more familiar with the airport and its issues. Eventually she would like to look into updating the ordinance dealing with leases as there are some inconsistencies with leases.
Prior to adjourning Holthaus said she would like to see Christmas lights at the City Park. Mayor Keith Holman suggested she get together with Nida to look into some ideas on how to do that.
The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.