Cottonwood City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council held their April meeting Monday, April 14.
The council approved purchasing a mini-excavator. Public works supervisor Pat Enneking said he had been looking for one for awhile saying one would be nice to have for use in alleys and other tight places that the city backhoe can’t get into. The dealer has a 2023 with very few hours on it meaning it is basically brand new. A motion was passed to purchase it taking funds from the dedicated truck fund.
Mayor Keith Holcomb suggested rather than having separate truck, backhoe, grader, etc. funds to combine them all into an equipment fund. City Clerk Lynn Thompson said she would need to run that by the auditor. City Attorney Joe Wright suggested doing it with the new fiscal year.
A budget hearing date was set fort he August meeting which will be August 11.
The St. Lawrence Subdivision was discussed. Amy Uptmor of JUB Engineers said she has had some back and forth with the developer and things that need to be resolved at this point are stormwater and water service on School Street.
Brandon Rehder and Stacy Lorentz of Columbia Grain were in attendance to talk about a new scale installation. They said the old scale is 30 years old and is in need of replacement. The new one needs to be 16 inches taller and due to that they would need to remove the augurs. They are planning a conveyor system instead that would reach out into 3^rd Street. The conveyor would be 15 feet high which would not cause any issue with vehicles when not in use. Wright said the city code allows this kind of thing and asked if they could bring a schedule to the city once it is installed.
In the reports Jason Rambo reported for Police Chief Terry Cochran and elaborated on one item saying a domestic call turned into a chase that eventually took out one of the Primeland gas pumps before they could get the suspect boxed in.
Gus Hoene reported the city pumped 1,744,100 gallons of water and sold 1,489,790 for a loss of 11.25%. Apparently no new leaks were found.
Brett Miller reported they had a meeting with landowners adjacent to the proposed new sewer treatment facility. Uptmor said the meeting went well. She said they will be sampling the water wells on those properties for a baseline. She said a concern expressed was possible odors. The city would work to mitigate that issue.
Kristine Holthaus reported she attended the West Camas Transportation Group meeting. They opened bids for dust abatement and it will cost a little more than last year. She also reported the city put some gravel down on each side of Lewiston Street in the northernmost part that doesn’t have any curbing.
Linda Nida reported she has submitted a grant application. They haven’t heard yet on the Arbor Day grant. Brush is being cleared at the park. They decided to moved the current picnic table roofs to the Wimer Ballfields and put new ones up in the park that match the Pavilion. The first roof was transferred to the Wimer fields on Monday.
She also reported that Enneking appears to have come up with a solution for draining the water from the fire station roof into the stormwater drain without cutting up the sidewalk.
Holthaus reported that the city crew spread gravel alongside the airport runway to deal with the dropoff.
Nida reported the fire department had no calls in March. They plan to do hose testing this month and Terry Cochran is working on a grant for equipment.
The meeting adjourned at 7:34 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday May 12 at 7 p.m.