| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council voted to grant a Diocese request to reduce the right-of-way and easement where the new Prairie Faith Formation building will be constructed. The request came about as they will still need to use the old building while the new one is being built and this would allow them to turn the old building 90 degrees to allow space for the new construction. Ceded was 5 feet of street right of way on the west side of the property and 10 feet of alley easement on the east side. The council included in the motion that was passed to do this for all the property owners along that block. This would leave a 50 foot right of way for the street and 10 foot alley easement. The city has never had these areas officially dedicated to the city so the public hearing process was not needed. Although the street is there it is not officially a city street. The alley access is at the edge of the city limits. The council also discussed a request by Avista to make the city clerk’s office an Avista pay station. Clerk Carol Altman said she discussed this with Arnzen Drug, which used to be an Avista pay station, and the City Clerk for Nezperce, which currently serves as a pay station for Avista. From what she learned the councilors decided it would be better not to and tabled the matter indefinitely. In reports, Pat Holthaus reported they had a 23% loss of water this past month leading to speculation they may have an undetected leak or two to try and find. They pumped 2.74 million gallons and sold 2.1 million gallons. Ron Grant reported they had some electrical problems with the pumps at the agriforest. Roy Uhlenkott has come up with a way to make them work but they are still puzzling out the original problem. Grant also reported that they have been awarded $70,000 for stormwater drainage work as part of a Cottonwood Creek basin-wide project grant initiated out of Orofino. This is to be put toward work on several of the steep gravel streets in town. Jack Duman reported most of the mag chloride application is finished. He also reported they will keep the speed zone signs on Lewiston St. for one more year as the Kindergartners and first graders will still be going to school there. Once they are moved to the former Middle School for the 2012-13 school year they will likely move the signs to East St. Duman also shared some of the data generated by the speed limit signs. On one Friday they had 695 vehicles in one direction past them. About 200 were over the speed limit but the average speed recorded that day was just under 20 miles per hour. Duman also passed along a request from the school district for us of the grader and a water truck to work on the high school parking lot access road. Grant suggested getting some kind of written agreement worked up but otherwise the council members gave the go-ahead. Duman was to get together with Uhlenkott to work up some details and submit them to city attorney Joe Wright so he can draw up an agreement. Shelli Schumacher reported they are looking at changing the border of the city park. The idea is to add more posts, closer together, and do away with the cable. She is also looking at getting several round plastic tables for the Hall which could also be made available for rent. The council set a budget workshop for Monday, July 25 at 7 p.m. The meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday August 8 at 7 p.m. |
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