| Cottonwood
City Council meets
Sewer service to lots that got bypassed by the city’s system and aggressive dogs were the hot topics of discussion at the Cottonwood City Council meeting held Monday, Dec. 12. Wally and Wyatt Williams are looking to locate a doublewide in the lot between Joy Roeper’s house and the old McCarthy place (current Craig Hood house). The sewer line that services that location is apparently an old one that goes under the park and connects to the line in the fairgrounds and has at least partially collapsed. That line is not part of the city’s system. The Williams proposed running a 6” line from the city main on Butler Street to their lots and connect both the Roeper house and the proposed new house provided the city would put in the new manhole and bore under Butler Street. Williams asked if they could possibly waive the hook-up fee if he did the work of essentially adding a new main to the city system. According to city maintenance supervisor Roy Uhlenkott, anytime a sewer line has a second connection it becomes a main line. Sewer commissioner Ron Grant apparently wasn’t aware of that policy and argued against any compensation until he was made aware of that distinction. Mayor Denis Duman said it would fix the potential problem there would be if their current line collapses completely and they would then have to dig up the park to fix the line. Service would then also be available if a residence is ever located between the Roeper residence and Henry Remacle’s shop. The council passed a motion for the city to place the manhole and bore under Butler St. with Williams taking it from there in return for waiver of the sewer hook-up fee. As far as water, there is a connection there as there was a house there up until about 1980. Uhlenkott did not know if it was connected when the water line was replaced there in the early 1980’s. A water hook-up fee could not be waived. In other public input Ingrid Mader, Lori Mader, Marina Geis and Denise Mager appeared before the council about dog problems. Apparently there are a couple of pit bulls in one of the Kuther Building apartments. Geis nearly got attacked once walking past the apartment entrance to her job at Central Idaho Agency and was saved only when one of the owners grabbed the loose leash. Zara Hasselstrom and Carol Altman both got chased into the Farm Credit Service building. Mager reported she had the two dogs come up behind her once she got out of her car at home one evening. City attorney Joe Wright said there are state and local laws about aggressive dogs but contact needs to be made. Nuisance laws are a possibility. Police Chief Terry Cochran said to get complaints down in writing. In reports Pat Holthaus reported they had about 18% water loss this last month. Uhlenkott reported a big leak had been fixed up near the city maintenance shed Monday morning. A fair amount of water was also used flushing the new water lines along 1st Street South. In the sewer report Grant said he had a engineer review their system and make recommendations. They probably won’t be able to enact all the recommendations but the one that led to cutting the chlorine use in half should almost pay for the cost of the review. Jack Duman’s street report was basically that it snowed, they plowed and then it melted. In the fire department report Grant noted they sold one of the old trucks for $35,000. They may have to drop the price on the other one. They had a potential buyer but that fell through. They had one extrication call this past month and also one false alarm at the condos. Due to the lengthy discussion in the public input portion, action on a discharge of firearms ordinance and on the city’s vehicle use policy were postponed to the February meeting. Shelli Schumacher reported they are continuing the grant process on the hall remodel. She visited the Senior Citizens meeting and answered a lot of questions. The people with the senior nutrition program, who pay the rent for use of the Community Church for the senior citizen meetings, were definitely interested. Alcohol beverage licenses were approved for Cottonwood Foods, Riener’s Grocery and the Mini-Village for beer and wine to be consumed off premises and for Rodonna’s Country Haus for beer and wine to be consumed on-premises. They have yet to receive the fee and formal requests from either Doreen’s or Wolf Track Brewing. Mayor Duman informed the council that he met with the Forest Service about their proposed locating here this coming summer at the airport. There may be some problems that would need to be worked out. The council meeting adjourned at 9:17 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. |
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