| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council approved a conditional use permit for Cindy Schultz to run a business out of her home at their regular February meeting Monday, Feb. 13. She offers a new kind of healing therapy and said it would be very low-impact on the neighborhood. A public hearing was held on the matter prior to the regular meeting. Councilman Ron Grant asked if she had looked into any of the vacant spaces downtown and Schultz said she had but it really wasn’t financially feasible at this time. City attorney Joe Wright still has to write up a justification for the conditional use which would then have to be approved by the council. The motion to approved passed 3-1 with Grant being the lone dissenter. When Wright was reviewing the zoning ordinance as to what can be allowed in Residential Zone A they came across a couple of things such as gravel pits and bus terminals that the council may want to look into changing in the ordinance. Doug Ulmer from the Idaho County Sheriff’s Dept. gave his monthly update from the department and thanked the city for the donation of surplus chairs that they were able to use in the search and rescue building. In his police report Terry Cochran passed around photos of a new piece of equipment he was able to obtain from government surplus for the fire department. Pat Holthaus reported that 2.5 million gallons of water were pumped. It was estimated that 1.9 million were sold with a loss of about 22%. With snow and ice covering many of the meters the city estimates water use this time of year. Roy Uhlenkott reported they had a bad water test at the Elementary School and a re-test came up okay. He said with the larger pipes they’ve installed the water doesn’t flow as fast and they will likely need to do more chlorinating in the future. The city crew did chlorination checks at each hydrant in town over a couple days after the last chlorination to see how well it disperses through the system. He said he has some great data to work with now. Grant reported everything’s working fine with the sewer department. Jack Duman reported he received some info on the Cottonwood Creek drainage change he was looking at. It would be about a $4.7 million project to re-route the creek under streets instead of its current route under buildings. He is looking into a FEMA grant but even if you get that you still have a 25% match. They are looking at other possible grants to whittle that number down. Snowplowing ate into his budget this year and some potholes are developing that will have to wait until things dry out before they can be repaired. Shelli Schumacher reported the concrete work at the south end of the hall is at a standstill due to the weather. When asked about the noise factor in the basement she reported they have received some acoustical tile but just need to find time to install them. Linda Nida reported the airport paving project has been pushed back to 2020 due to lack of funds at the state level. Grant reported the only fire call received was an out of district one. He said the firefighters have been doing some training on communication and airpacks, especially for the newer crew. In new business the city received 3 bids for the sidewalk project of $281,005, $367,807 and $373,323.50. John Watson of Riedesel Engineering will review the bids to make sure they meet the specs and will make a recommendation to the council next month. Schumacher talked about a GEM grant application. The school district is looking for a feasibility study for the old elementary school and this particular grant is one that is best if the city serves as a sponsor. CEDA will be writing the grant. This would look into what would be the best uses for the building. A motion was made and approved to sponsor the grant application. The council meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, March 13 at 7 p.m. |
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