| Cell
tower given go-ahead
The conditional use permit and height variance for the proposed Verizon cell tower was given approval by the Cottonwood City Council at their October meeting Tuesday, Oct. 9. Mayor Denis Duman read aloud the entire text of city attorney Joe Wright’s findings and conclusions regarding granting of a conditional use permit. The gist of the findings was that evidence against granting the permit was anecdotal and that there wasn’t any credible evidence given for denying the permit. The conclusion was to grant the permit. After the reading was done Jay Hinterlong made a motion to approve the conditional use permit. Shelli Schumacher seconded the motion and the council voted unanimously to approve the motion although Jack Duman thought about it for a couple minutes before giving a tentative aye vote. Conditions are that it me a monopole design. Air conditioning units would be on the side of the support building toward the highway to lessen noise problems. Also at least 10 trees, a minimum of 12 feet high at planting, would be put on the west side of the building, also to lessen noise problems. Verizon would also be responsible for watering and replacing if needed. The backup generator would also be enclosed to lessen noise and would only be tested during daytime hours. Verizon would construct and maintain an access road to the site. After the conditional use permit was approved the council voted to approve the height variance of no more than 126 feet. Class B residential zones have a 35 foot height limit. Although city codes do not address cell towers specifically, they resemble TV and radio towers closely enough that it falls under their requirements, which are allowed in Class B zones. The motion to allow the height variance also passed unanimously. In other business 6 Prairie High School who are members of the Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) club at PHS appeared before the council describing what HOSA is and does and requested that the mayor sign a proclamation declaring Nov. 4-10 to be HOSA Week in Cottonwood. HOSA students provided over 300 hours of community service in the past year including such things as helping out at blood drives. Students in attendance were Katie Nuxoll, president; Conner Rieman, vice-president; Kyle Daly, secretary; Sarah Arnzen, treasurer; Kara Guyer, reporter and Amber Frei, historian. Their adviser is Sheri Daly. Mayor Duman said he would be glad to sign the proclamation. In reports, Hinterlong reported the city pumped over 6 million gallons of water in the past month with a loss of 76,000 gallons just over 1%. He reported also there a couple of minor leaks the city crew will be fixing when time is available. Jim Steinke reported the irrigation is being shut down for the winter in the agriforest. He also said the city still hasn’t heard anything back on their permit. Jack Duman reported once they got some rain that they have done some grading on the gravel streets. They borrowed the Highway District’s roller as well and did some grading on highway district roads as in-kind payment for borrowing the roller. He also reported he is still working on some grants. He reported as well that he came across a dump truck in the surplus lists for $5500 that they have gone ahead and purchased. He said when they outfit the city’s truck for snow removal that it takes it out of service for other work. This would be alleviated by having a second truck at a relatively low cost. It is nearly identical to the one they had other than the color, which was forest service green. Schumacher reported the maintenance crew is now moved up to the new building with a hold cut into the side of the old maintenance shop for a new door. That space will be used to store some of the extra fire department vehicles that won’t fit inside the regular fire station. She said if you’re looking for the city crew, they’re at the new building, same phone number as before. Hinterlong reported that IdaLew is looking at by-law changes that would get more private sector people involved. Currently their officers are nearly all elected officials. Their next meeting is set for Kamiah. Mayor Duman reported there are problems with programming the touch screen control in city hall for the telemetry system. It would cost over $1600 to replace it, which he recommends as currently they need to have someone come in to re-program things and what it’s re-programmed to do doesn’t necessarily match what it says. The control screen allows monitoring and adjustment of the city well, reservoir and sewer system operations from the clerk’s office. Mayor Duman also reported they may eventually have to replace the radios as he was told they are obsolete and non-repairable if they should break down. At this time though they are all working fine. Hinterlong made the motion to buy the new control screen with Steinke seconding. The motion carried unanimously. Mayor Duman reported he has asked city maintenance supervisor Roy Uhlenkott to come up with a list of wastewater and stormwater projects so that they can prioritize them. The agriforest bond retires in about a year and Rural Development tells him they have 25% grant money and 2% loan money available. The mayor also said they are in need of another councilman. All four council positions plus the mayor position are up for election and currently there are only 4 people running. Two of the council positions are 4-year and the other ones are 2-year positions. Steinke has declined to run for election while Jack Duman and Schumacher have filed for re-election to the council as has Denis Duman for mayor while Hinterlong has filed for election for 2 years. He was appointed to replace Bill Hill who resigned. Steinke had been appointed to replace Max Nuxoll when Nuxoll moved out of town. The open position is a 2-year term. You have until Oct. 23 to file as a write-in candidate for any of the positions. The next regular meeting of the council is set for Monday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. |
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