| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council held their regular April meeting Monday, April 12 with a report that the State of Idaho was canceling their contract for building inspections. The State was canceling their service to all communities due to budget restraints. Steve Meshishnek, who was the state’s local area building inspector, lost his job in the process but has offered to contract out his services to the area communities he served. There were questions from the council members on where liability would fall. Before it was to the state. Now it would appear that it would fall to the city as Meshishnek would be a contracted employee of the city. A contract for Meshishnek was approved by the council but they asked to have city attorney Joe Wright look into the liability issue. In other business the council approved a waiver of the 2011 lease fee for the Cottonwood Riding Club as they had to move their main gate due to the cell tower. The city has waived a portion or all of the lease fee in the past when the Riding Club made improvements to the arena. Two requests were approved for hall use at no cost. They were for the Relay For Life fundraiser and for a Volunteer Training for NICI. Pat and Cheri Holthaus appeared before the council to see about the water and sewer connections for the additional condo units they are looking to add at the hospital. Discussion was that it would probably take just one tap for water service then split it out for each unit. They would also need an additional tap for the fire suppression sprinkler system. Cost would be what the materials and labor come to. In the sewer report Ron Grant reported work is going well on Lewiston St. They were able to finish up in front of the school during Spring Break and have since moved north. He also reported they received their sewer cam and have made good use of it already. It is well on the way to paying for itself. In the street report Jack Duman reported they are gearing up for mag chloride application. This year, for the first time in 3 years, they have no grant money to pay for it so instead of all the streets getting serviced they will hit the problem streets then do a split with property owners for any others that want it done. Cost is estimated at about $120 for 300 feet of frontage. Also the bid opening by the state for the Lewiston St. paving project is set for Tuesday, April 20. In the land and buildings report Shelli Schumacher said the railing should be going up this week or next on the front steps to the hall. The awning should also be going up in the next week or so. An additional problem that has cropped up is with the roof. An open house for the hall and in particular the library is set for May 6 as part of an After Hours event put on by the Cottonwood Chamber of Commerce. Grant reported they had no fire calls this past month but did respond to a call at NICI, which was holding a drill. The drill gave the firemen a chance to familiarize themselves with what’s there in case there’s a real emergency. Mayor Denis Duman said that he would take Shaun Riener’s place as the Ida-Lew representative for the council as Riener has a conflict on the Ida-Lew meeting nights. The budget hearing date was set for Sept. 7. The council adjourned at 8:28 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday 10 at 7 p.m. |
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