The Cottonwood City Council had a full agenda for their September meeting held Monday, Sept. 12.
School Superintendent Jon Rehder appeared and requested the city look into a crossing sign similar to the one on Front and Lewiston for the East and Foster intersection. He also asked about one at the crosswalk from the school across East Street. Streets Commissioner Kristy Holthaus said she has been looking into grants that would pay for them. One of those is due Thursday and needs lots of supporting data. There is another that won’t have funding available until next year. Cost estimates come in at about $4500.
The school currently got permission from the Idaho Transportation Dept. to use a crossing guard.
Ralph Wassmuth, of the Ferdinand city council, appeared with a request that the City of Cottonwood help with water testing. He doesn’t currently have a necessary license and former councilman Ron Riener, who had been doing it, let his lapse. Wassmuth felt he was too old to want to go through the licensing process again. Samples are pulled once a month for Chloroform and once every 3 months for Nitrates. Other testing is done only once every 3 years. City maintenance supervisor said it would take less than an hour to run over there, pull the sample and come back. As far as the testing facility collecting samples, Ferdinand had been dropping theirs off to be picked up at Cottonwood anyway. The council decided to have city attorney Joe Wright draw up an agreement that they could vote on at their next meeting. Cottonwood would probably charge Ferdinand $100 per sample which Wassmuth said was fair.
Wassmuth also asked about any playground equipment the city is not planning on moving to the Wimer Fields when they get ready to install the new equipment in the Cottonwood City Park. Ferdinand would be interested in obtaining those items. Land and Buildings Commissioner Linda Nida said what items would be available and since it is city to city they would donate them if Ferdinand would remove them. Wright would work up the proper paperwork to make that happen to be voted on at the next meeting.
A water plan contract with JUB Engineering was approved.
Walco’s 10.6% rate hike request was approved. Since it is more than 5%, it has to go to a public hearing. Since they need to hold a public hearing anyway, the council looked into some of their other fees that should be changed. Water commissioner Debby O’Neill proposed to have the water connection fee go up to $3,000 or costs, whichever is greater. The corresponding cost for out-of-town new connections would also go up and remain at 175% of in town rate. Holthaus proposed raising the fee for ag spraying outfits at the airport from $300 to $500. She also proposed the lease rate go up from 3 cents per sq. ft. to 5 cents per sq. ft. Those rates haven’t changed since 1983. Nida proposed changing Park Cabana to Park Pavilion and raise the rental to $50. City Clerk Lynn Thompson felt the lates fees on billings need to go up They are currently $2.07. She suggested $5. There was discussion on charging for hanging disconnection notices and raising the re-connection rate. A motion was passed to raise late fees to $5, charge $25 for the hang-tab (disconnection notice) and raise the re-connection rate to $50. All of these proposed increases will be part of the public hearing set for Sept. 27.
The council voted to give Cottonwood Youth Sports the go-ahead to install drain tile on the south Wimer Field to address the standing water problem during rainy weather.
Prairie Mountain Nutrition put in a couple of requests. They want to install permanent wiring for a new double stack convection oven and install internet. They would pay for them but need the city’s permission. The council voted to let them go ahead with both items.
Three resolutions were passed. One was the Waste Water Facility Grant Resolution. The second was the Waster Water I/I Evaluation Grant Resolution and the third was the Water Plan Grant Resolution. Each allows the mayor to sign for the city on necessary paperwork.
The council decided to decline the JUB agreement for the park project. They felt this wasn’t worth the $24,000 cost estimate.
Thompson presented some bad debts to the council for review. The council voted to write off the two extrication charges that weren’t covered by the respective persons’ insurance but leave the rest on the books.
Vacant building with health concerns were discussed. Wright said he would look into the state statutes on nuisances to see what course the city can take.
In reports O’Neill reported the city pumped almost 8.6 million gallons of water and sold over 8.3 million gallons for a loss of just 2.9%. She also reported she is looking into a DEQ source water protection grant. This money would be used to build a fence around well #4 at the north end of the city park.
Sewer commissioner Lynn Guyer said they haven’t been sprinkling in the agri-forest due to the high bacteria counts resulting from the extremely hot weather. The Chlorinating is unable to keep up. Also a new sewer line was recently installed in Elizabeth St. to service the new Park Pavilion.
Streets commissioner Holthaus reported the streets have been patched where they were cut into to access service lines. Also Elizabeth St. was repaved after the new sewer line was installed.
Nida reported that Oct. 11-14 they are looking at pulling the cabana, bathrooms and playground equipment at the City Park. The Pavilion will be going out to bid probably in November.
Holthaus reported they need some reflective signs installed on the runway at the airport. She reported she and airport manager Clint Riener got together to discuss raising the lease and agriculture rates. She said the helicopter firefighting crew staging from there have been using the Gun Club’s restrooms.
In the Fire Department report Nida said they had 3 calls since the last meeting. An assist on a tree falling on a power line; a stove fire and an accident on Graves Creek.
The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. A public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 27 at 7 p.m.