Cottonwood City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council held their September meeting Monday, Sept. 11.
The lease agreement with Donn Clark for the horse pasture was approved by the Council.
They also approved a hall rent waiver request for Carletta Allen who will be hosting an autism group.
A couple of resolutions were passed that are required for the Idaho Division of Environmental Quality Clean Water Grant they have been approved for. One is for a financial control policy and the other is to sign documents pertaining to the grant.
An agreement with JUB Engineering was approved also pertaining to the Clean Water Grant.
It was decided to table the order rescinding open burning and use of fireworks due to the continued warmer temperatures and dry weather.
A pay raise of $1 per hour was approved for a city employee who had passed an additional certification. Along with that, raises of $2/hour were approved for the city Public Works Supervisor and the City Clerk.
Aged receivable were reviewed and one extrication charge has been written off.
Several bids were received on the surplus property. Two bids were received on the Ford Expedition with Chad Core have the high bid. Kristin Frish had the winning bid on a wooden table. Rusty Lorentz had the winning bids on the covered park tables w/benches and the Bushnell binoculars. Bids were rejected as too low on the other park tables and they will instead be donated to Highland High School in Craigmont. No bids were received on the other items.
Ben Zumhoff and Steve Frei of St. Mary’s Health and Krista Baker of CEDA were present to request the city sponsor a grant the hospital is seeking for electrical infrastructure. Phase 1A of the project, seeking and installing a 300kW generator, has been completed at a cost of $137,500. Next up is Phase 1B which is installing electrical infrastructure from generator to maintenance disconnect and distribution panel at an estimated $260,000. Phase 2 is estimated at an additional $658,500 and is in the planning stage. The city sponsorship was requested for CARES grant funding up to $250,000 to go towards the project. The council approved partnering with them for the grant application.
Lynn Guyer was present to request alley access to a piece of property he owns at 503 Church Street that he can no longer access the way he used to. This item was tabled as he still has some background work to complete to continue with this request.
The St. John Bosco agreement was tabled again this month.
Amy Uptmor of JUB reported the video has been done on well #2 and no red flags showed up. The well has not collapsed and the static level has come up from previous readings. More data collection is being done. They will need to start getting quotes and decide what kind of pump they need to get.
The city will be putting out an information flyer for the bond election and will be holding a couple of open houses on the issue. The first is scheduled for Oct. 10 and the second on Oct. 26. More information will be shared on those as they get closer.
In the water report Debby O’Neill reported the city pumped 4,689,308 gallons of water and sold 4,522,020 for a net loss of 2.61%.
Data was also presented for water pumped over the past 17 years which shows and average of 7.76 million gallons pumped in August compared to 4.7 million this month. The city appreciates the public cutting back on their water use so they don’t stress out the city’s only currently operating well.
Brett Miller reported there have been no new compliance issues with the sewer system.
Kristine Holthaus reported striping and some curb painting has been done on the city streets. She is working on getting quotes for push button cross walk signs.
Linda Nida reported the park project is continuing with work progressing on the splash pad, playground equipment and pavilion.
The fire department had just 1 call this past month and it was a false alarm. They are working on hose, pump and ladder testing.
The meeting adjourned at 9:28 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.