| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council approved the tentative budget for fiscal year 2015 at their regular August meeting Monday, August 11. A public hearing on the budget is set for Wednesday, August 27 at 7 p.m. Zone 2 county commissioner candidate Jerry Zumalt talked to the council about why he is running and asked for support. In the reports, police chief Terry Cochran noted a raccoon problem in town. They seem to be taking up residence in culverts and a good rain would help to wash them out of there. Pat Holthaus reported 7.7% water loss on 7.5 million gallons of water pumped with 6.8 million sold. The percentage loss is lower than in past months due to the high volume of water sold due to it being a very dry month. No matter how much water is pumped each month there seems to be about 500,000 gallons disappearing somewhere. They have been selling quite a bit of water to the fire crews. In the sewer report, Ron Grant said things are going well. The Maple St. culvert replacement is waiting on word from CEDA about possible grant funding. They are also looking into problems that developed behind Rieners’ Grocery after the spring flood. Jack Duman reported they are patching potholes in the streets. He also put a notice in the paper about the overhanging tree problems but so far nothing seems to have been done. Shelli Schumacher said she is looking into ideas for improvements at the city park and the hall. She reported Dorothy Arnoti wants to put a better library sign up, mostly to indicate that the library is downstairs. Where to put it is a problem. Grant reported the fire department had 1 city call that turned out to be a false alarm plus 3 rural calls, all with round hay bales in common. One was a hay pile fire, another was a truck fire that was carrying round bales and the third was an extrication from a truck, that also happened to be carrying round bales. The department is looking at a replacement fire truck and Roy Uhlenkott has done a lot of searching and come up with a great possibility at Whidby Island, Wash. They want to replace Engine #10. The Whidby Island department actually has 2 identical trucks and the Cottonwood Fire Department has enough in their truck replacement fund to get both and replace both #10 and the Beck engine provided they get close to what it is estimated they could get selling the old engines. Mayor Denis Duman commented that having two identical engines helps a lot with training the crews. They had an opportunity to do that when the Beck engine was purchased but did not have the funds at that time. Grant also reported that they received a grant worth $29,000 to replace extrication equipment. He had forgotten all about making the application as it was sent out 2 days after the deadline and he was told it was a longshot at best. Apparently it was put into the next cycle of funding and came out on top. Pat Holthaus asked if it would be possible for the city to clean up after the parade if the fair board can’t find someone. Mayor Duman suggested they have each organization responsible for a horse entry in the parade provide someone to help clean up. The meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. |
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