| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Community Hall renovation program is nearing completion with the Cottonwood City Council voting to dip into general fund reserves to complete several small projects that didn’t get covered by the grant or donations at their regular May meeting Monday, May 10. Projects remaining on the list were the sidewalk on the south end, new steel doors, light replacement in the main hall and heat pump replacement. After some discussion it was decided to do everything but the new doors. They were the costliest item remaining. They are still in the process of seeking donations to help with some of the costs. Schumacher also reported the awning and railing are finished and the lift will be operational as soon as it passes inspection by the state. They couldn’t have the inspection done until the railing was finished. Inspection is set for Thursday morning. Library Board members Donna Wassmuth and Laurine Nightingale appeared before the council to thank the council and especially Shelli Schumacher and Carol Altman for their help and cooperation in the library renovation. They have an open house set for this Thursday, May 13. Bobbi Tidwell of the Cottonwood Riding Club appeared to present the club’s case for easing of the club’s lease payment for the next year. In the past they have had the lease fee waived when renovations have been done. This year they discovered they needed to move a couple of the gates as access was hampered with the new cell tower placement. Cost of this has come to about $300-400. Schumacher moved and Jack Duman seconded the motion to waive the lease fee for one year. Also visiting the council were Kathy Ackerman, candidate for Idaho County Clerk and Nancy Hoobler and Keshia McClure of Disability Action Center. Hoobler and McClure were in town providing information on a volunteer transportation driver program where volunteer drivers for seniors or disabled people can get reimbursed for their mileage. They pointed out how many senior citizens have possibly had to cancel important doctor appointments because they weren’t able to drive themselves or had no one available to drive them. The hope is to build up a pool of volunteer drivers who can be called when needed. You can call 1-800-475-0070 if interested in the program. In the water report the city is showing a 33% loss but sewer commissioner Ron Grant said a lot of that was water being used in the sewer line project on Lewiston St. Roy Uhlenkott said they also had a couple of leaks that were fixed this past month. Grant also reported the Lewiston St. sewer line project is nearly completed. They ran into a few difficulties and some added expenses but he feels the sewer fund reserves should cover it. He expressed a huge thank you to Uhlenkott for his work on designing the project and keeping it on track. Grant also reported he has been working on a stormwater grant which would help fix a couple of problem areas. Jack Duman reported the bid opening for the Lewiston St. paving project was held April 20 with the apparent low bidder still being about $68,000 more than was budgeted. The good news is that with many other stimulus projects coming in under budget the Idaho Transportation Dept. has agreed to fund the difference so they won’t have to scale back the project any more than has been done already. With that shortfall and the extra funding needed there will be an extra delay for the proper paperwork to get done so it will more likely be done later in the summer than planned. Duman reported the sign grant is still on hold as the legislature has not approved the budget and they can’t go ahead with it until they do. In other business a request from the Mini-Village to add a wine license to the beer license they already have was approved. Also it was approved to give the Chief of Police use of a city credit card when attending out of town trainings was approved. This way he wouldn’t have to pay out of his own pocket and wait up to a month to get reimbursed. This system has worked well for the council and other city employees. The city clerk keeps close tabs on making sure the receipts and charges add up. The council meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, June 14 at 7 p.m. |
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