| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council held their regular January meeting Monday, January 9. Joel Wasem of Primeland appeared to discuss Primeland’s sewer bill. He maintained that taking the water usage average from March through May and basing the entire year’s sewer billing on those 3 months led to an excessively high billing. At that time of year they provide a lot of water to farmers that does not go into the sewer system. City councilors were in agreement they didn’t want to set the precedent of doing things differently for each customer. It was suggested just taking an annual average, then you would City maintenance supervisor Roy Uhlenkott said the city installed a separate water meter on the standpipe where water is loaded. If that water is metered it could be subtracted from the amount used to determine sewer rates.Wasem said he was not aware of that but would look into it and see if it is still there. Doug Ulmer of the Sheriff’s Department was in attendance and thanked the Cottonwood Police Department for their help with the highway closure. Mayor Shelli Schumacher said she opened the community hall for stranded motorists. A VEBA representative was contacted during the meeting about the city employee insurance plan. He talked about an alternate plan but afterward it was decided to leave things as they are for the time being. Legally the city is covered since they offered a program to the employees. In new business alcohol beverage licenses were approved for Riener’s Grocery, Cottonwood Foods, RoDonna’s and Wolftrack. They did not yet have applications from the Mini-Village or Doreen’s. Jack Duman reported the West Camas Transportation Group is looking at purchasing an oiler truck. He would like to use some of the truck fund money to pay a one-fifth share which would amount to $12,500 and allow the city to use the truck. City attorney Joe Wright said he spotted some problems that need cleaned up in the agreement. The expense was approved by the council pending cleaning up the questions Wright had with the agreement. Duman also said he would like to look into a Cottonwood Creek bypass. He would like to get larger culvert and either run the creek under Front and Junction Streets or down Main Street and then dump back into the creek bed before it goes under the highway. The idea is to get the creek out from under buildings and under the street instead to help mitigate flooding. Uhlenkott said the north side of Main Street has the fewest utility line conflicts and would also be the shortest route. Duman said he would like to see what would actually be needed and if it is even feasible. In the water report the numbers were estimates because the city can’t read a lot of the meters because they are buried under snow. The city pumped 2.4 million gallons of water and estimated that they sold 1.9 million for a 20% loss. There was nothing to report from the sewer department. Duman reported the East Street sidewalk project is going out for bids. He also has some thank you cards he wants the council to sign so he can send them to the Idaho Transportation Department for clearing the snow out of the middle of Main Street. There was no report from either Land and Buildings or the Airport. Ron Grant reported the fire department had one extrication call since the last council meeting and 1 lift assist. There was no training scheduled so they used their meeting time to do maintenance work on equipment. The council meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. |
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