| Ballfields
dominate discussion time
The Wimer Ballfields once again dominated the discussion at the Cottonwood City Council meeting Monday, June 13. Several members of Prairie Youth Sports including president Scot Schlader along with Travis Mader who represented the high school softball team were in attendance and there was a lot of discussion held before it was decided to have councilors Shelli Schumacher and Max Nuxoll get together with Prairie Youth Sports representatives to work things out and get them down on paper. Others representing PYS in attendance were Pat Holthaus, Kevin Daly, Theresa Schmidt and Teel Bruner. Jack Wimer also attended and provided some history of the original plans and what was intended from the start. He apologized that he didn’t share some of this information when his involvement with youth sports waned. The concern for the city is that they are carrying the liability insurance for the fields and any proposed capital improvements, such as the outfield fence going up on the southeast field. The council had a concern about the fence. They preferred a removable one to keep the fields flexible for uses other than baseball and softball. Duman said there’s no intention to run anyone off the fields or ramrod anything through. They’d just like to get things in writing so that future councils and Youth Sports members know what’s been agreed upon. City attorney Joe Wright said they should also look at the agreement Grangeville has with their youth sports group as that seems to work well. In other business Martin Fowler reported the water system is still working very well. Water usage is down compared to previous years thanks mostly to the wet weather. He reported they’re still losing substantial amounts of water. The pumps and reservoirs appear to be doing very well. Max Nuxoll reported they had a sewer backup on East St. and had to use a fire hose to flush the pipe. He said they’re still looking for some 3 inch aluminum pipe to use in the agriforest. Jack Duman reported they are still waiting on the sign grant money. He also reported they have been told they were successful on the street sweeper grant request. It will be funded in 2007 instead of 2008 as previously anticipated. He needs to get a cooperative agreement drawn up and sent in as this grant was a joint application for Cottonwood, Ferdinand and several highway districts. The grant covers $171,000 of the estimated $185,000 cost of a new sweeper. He reported that they missed out on the sidewalk grant. 17 of 58 total applications were granted and Cottonwood’s grant request stood about 23rd. They will work on it and see if they can’t improve the worthiness of their grant request in the future. Another successful grant request was for some mag chloride and an applicator truck that will be funded in 2008 and service the local highway districts and the city. Since mag chloride will be the dust abatement chemical of choice in the future, Duman said they would start using that this summer. He wants citizens to be aware that those that took part in the dust abatement last year will be expected to participate again this year unless they contact the city otherwise. Also anyone wanting to participate in the dust abatement program that hasn’t previously needs to contact the city. They have contracted with a firm in Grangeville this year. Denis Duman reported that the extra rural trucks have been moved into the green storage building so that they are now undercover. Duman reported the new rural pumper truck proved it’s worth on the recent fire east of town. Prior to the regular meeting of the council a public hearing was held on a request by Steve and Lois Lamont to have the portions of Goldstone and Euclid Streets platted in on the hillside above their home vacated. After some discussion about retaining utility rights on Euclid and whether or not they’d even have access to that because of the railroad right of way, it was decided to send the matter back to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They will also contact a title company about the railroad right of ways. Gabe Hinkelman was approved for hire as summer help. The council scheduled a special meeting for Wednesday, June 15 to approve the cooperative agreement on the street sweeper as that needs to be sent in by that date. The next regular meeting of the council will be Monday, July 11 at 8 p.m. |
 |
