| Cottonwood
City Council meets
Butch Walker of Walco, Inc. was at the June meeting of the Cottonwood City Council Monday, June 12, with a new rate proposal. The council tabled action on the request until the July meeting so that they could review it. Rising fuel costs were cited as the major reason for an increase. A public hearing was held regarding a request to vacate the alley that runs between Emmanuel Baptist Church and their new building so that a breezeway could be constructed between the two buildings for access between them. At their June 4 meeting the Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended denying the request as there is sewer service partway through that alley and sometime in the future it will need to be run through all the way and fix some connection inconsistencies in that area. The council followed that recommendation and denied the vacation request. It was recommended to Pastor Dan Coburn of the church that an easement would be a better solution. Mayor Denis Duman wouldn’t guarantee that the easement would be granted but said that it looked very likely. Coburn said the church was willing to work with the city for the best solution and would get the paperwork started on an easement request as soon as possible. During his police report police chief Terry Cochran showed off the new thermal imager that the department received. It is a $20,000 piece of equipment that the city received free providing that Cochran had to attend a training session in New Orleans, which was also at no charge to the city. Christine Frei of the Clearwater Economic Development Association (CEDA) and Gil Bates of IdaLew Economic Development did a presentation on a telecommunications consortium initiative that CEDA is proposing. The initiative is mostly aimed at providing better access to high speed internet service in the area. They have already done a study funded by a grant and are looking at a 3-year initiative to implement what was uncovered by the study. The idea is to work with public and private providers to get the infrastructure in place to provide more and better access to high-speed internet, especially to areas that currently don’t have any kind of access. They are asking for a $1,000 per year contribution from the City of Cottonwood for the 3-year period. Mayor Duman said they would look into it during their budget process but stated they could only budget 1 year at a time. Jay Hinterlong reported that the water report wasn’t as good this month as last as a large leak near the Elementary School cost them a lot of water. The leak has been fixed but they showed a 25% loss of water pumped for the month. Jim Steinke reported they hope to get the bug traps out in the agriforest in the next few days so they can find out what kind of bugs they are dealing with and take appropriate measures. Jack Duman reported the mag chloride application is proceeding well with more citizens participating this year. The price came in a little lower this year as well. He did ask that people not abuse the treated streets (no tire spinning please) so that the mag chloride can do its work throughout the summer in keeping the dust down on the gravel streets. Shelli Schumacher reported some new benches are being placed around town. She is also looking into some of those exposed aggregate garbage containers to put along King Street, hopefully to help keep the littering down. Denis Duman reported the new public works buildings are nearing completion as the large building has been tinned and the side walls are up on the smaller one. Hinterlong said he was by there and it looks very good. Duman said an NICI work crew helped tremendously. They will be getting the electricity, water and sewer to the building soon. In the Planning and Zoning report Jack Duman said the proposed Verizon Tower was discussed but was tabled to the July meeting. Hinterlong reported that IdaLew will be holding a meeting in Cottonwood on July 24, probably at the Country Haus. There would be a no-host dinner with the meeting to start at 6 p.m. A lease agreement was approved for Eric and Erin Smart who bought the trailer house from Casey and Jenny Arnzen. Part of the property encroaches on a platted street necessitating the lease agreement with the city. The council adjourned to an executive session at 8:45 p.m. The next regular meeting of the council will be Monday, July 9 at 7 p.m. |
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