| Cottonwood
City Council meets
Mayor Denis Duman reported at the March 13 meeting of the Cottonwood City Council that they have a problem with ownership of part of East St. Apparently when the Fairview Addition was vacated back in the late 20’s, not all the streets were vacated. And East St. from Smith to Front wasn’t in existence. It was extended after the baseball field was abandoned but rights of way were not taken care of. They will be working to get this cleared up. The matter came to light when the Riding Club Arena was being surveyed. The surveyor looked into the history and discovered the problem. Rick and Laurie Workman presented a proposal to lease the city property above the ballfields to pasture horses. Max Nuxoll made a motion to accept the proposal and directed Land and Buildings Commissioner Shelly Schumacher to work out the details. Water commissioner Bill Hill reported they pumped 2.9 million gallons of water last month and sold 2.3 million. About 20% leakage, which is better than it has been. Mayor Duman reported they had a bad probe in well #5 that was replaced at a cost of $845. It was quite a challenge getting it 490 feet down the hole to where it could do its job but once installed it showed that the water level is remaining stable. They have the new software installed for the telemetry system but were informed their radio systems are already obsolete. The company they are working with will try to find a compatible radio to use as a spare if one of the current ones should go bad. In his sewer report Nuxoll said he got a response from the Division of Environmental Quality on the need for a lagoon seepage test. He was told to wait with it until the state legislature is done rewriting the rules. He reported they are still looking at options on what to do with the trees in the agriforest. Shaun Maxey of Ida-Lew Economic Development reported the market for pulpwood has bottomed out. He is looking for alternatives and once possibility is the pellet fuel plant at Grangeville. When the agriforest was planted, the market for pulpwood was good and the city figured they could make enough selling the wood to help fund replacement trees. That isn’t the case anymore. Jack Duman reported he’s still waiting on results of grant applications. They should know by the end of the week on the Broadway St. request. It’ll be May before they know on the sidewalk grant. Schumacher reported she’s working to get together with the Prairie Youth Sports on the upcoming baseball season. A request was granted to allow the Cottonwood Drifters 4-H Club to use the basement room in the hall for their meetings. They would likely meet twice a month. The Cottonwood Riding Club lease was discussed but there are some issues they’d like to clear up. Their 10-year lease expires April 1. Nuxoll moved to extend the lease at the current conditions for 60 days to allow time for the issues to be addressed. The matter was then tabled to the April meeting. Mayor Duman informed the council that the city van blew its motor. They are looking for a replacement vehicle as replacing the motor looks to be cost-prohibitive. Nuxoll mentioned a possible source for a used motor. They will look into it. Larry Kidd sent in a letter announcing he was resigning as the Cottonwood representative to Ida-Lew Economic Development and also as treasurer for that group. Maxey gave an update on Ida-Lew’s activities and suggested the city get a replacement representative as soon as they could, preferably by their next board meeting, which will be at the end of April. He reported there will be a meeting sponsored by the North Idaho Travel Association this Thursday at Orofino on public access issues. He also reported the telecomm study is nearing completion and he is working on a draft of that report. He is still working with the Prairie Schools on the “Fuels for School” program. He will be meeting with the school board on that at their next meeting. He reported an entrepreneur training course is going on at Grangeville. He is also working on technical training courses for the summer with area schools. Also being worked on is making Commerce and Labor training courses more user friendly. The council adjourned to an executive session. The next regular meeting will be Monday, April 10 at 7 p.m. |
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