| Hall
refurbishing eyed
A proposal to seek a community development block grant to help fund refurbishing the community hall was the main topic of discussion at the Cottonwood City Council May meeting Monday, May 12. Representatives from the Clearwater Economic Development Association (CEDA) and the Horizons group were in attendance to answer questions about the process. Jenny Schacher from CEDA said all they are asking at this point is for the city to get the ball rolling on a grant application. There is no committing of funds until funding is actually approved and even at that point if the project isn’t to the city’s liking they can cancel it. The main thing to do to start the process is to get an architect to develop some costs of the project. In essence getting a quote since the architect doesn’t get paid unless the project gets funded. The Horizons multi-generational group worked with lands and buildings commissioner Shelli Schumacher in getting some preliminary proposals drawn up by a U of I architecture student. Items being looked at include extra restrooms, moving of the council meeting chambers upstairs, a handicap access ramp to the library and other basement rooms, adding windows among other ideas. After much discussion the council passed a motion to get the ball rolling by calling for bids for an architect to estimate costs. In other business a request by John Mager to vacate a portion of King St. to correct a past surveying error was tabled until more information is available and agreement with the state highway department is reached. According to an agreement signed between the city and the state department of transportation in 1976 when the bypass was built, the city can’t make any changes to the business loop right-of-way without DOT agreement. A request was approved for a transfer of lease to Seth Crane and Dawn Bower for the mobile home above the elevators that is in a platted street right-of-way. Transfer was approved under the same conditions as given the previous owners. Approval was given for the Prairie High School HOSA group to use the park cabana free of charge on June 14 for a fundraiser for the students’ trip to their national convention in Orlando. Mayor Denis Duman presented copies of the city of Grangeville’s ordinances dealing with ATV’s and UTV’s on city streets and asked the councilors to look them over. Currently the state statutes say they are not allowed at all on state highways and roads. Cities are allowed some leeway with their own city streets. Mayor Duman said also that skateboards and bicycles are developing into a problem on sidewalks downtown. He doesn’t really want to have to pass an ordinance on the matter but asked that they not be used on the sidewalks in the business areas due to foot traffic in and out of the stores. He said there have been some close calls already. In reports Jay Hinterlong said they pumped right around 3 million gallons of water last month. They still don’t have accurate figures on water sold yet as this past month is the first time they’ve been able to read all the meters in several months due to snow and ice. Ron Grant reported they had a group of prisoners helping with maintenance in the agriforest and maintenance has been done at the lagoons as well. Jack Duman reported they are still following up on the numbers for what came out of the meeting on the Terrace Addition drainage problem. He also reported they had a problem with an axle on the new truck. It has been fixed and they will be mounting a water tank on the new truck to use to keep the mag chloride fresh on the streets after it has been applied. They have already started some mag chloride application. He said some streets will have to be torn up and regraveled so that the mag chloride will work on them. They’ve had other products applied on them over the years that doesn’t work with mag chloride. Grant reported he will take care of the letter of intent on the next round of Safe Routes to Schools grant and will attend a workshop on it on May 30. Schumacher reported the new trees and shrubs were planted for Arbor Day. Also they had a slide break down at the park that needs to be removed. Friday, May 16 will be an open house for the new city shop and for the remodeled fire station. Grant said they are continuing work a fire suppression agreement with NICI. He will hand over what they’ve discussed with NICI to city attorney Joe Wright so that Wright could develop a sample agreement for the council to look at. The council adjourned to an executive session at 8:40 p.m. |
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