| Sidewalk
bid awarded
The bid was awarded for the sidewalk project at the March meeting of the Cottonwood City Council Monday, March 13. Chadez Construction of Caldwell was the low bidder with a bid of $281,005. The other two bids received came in a $367,807 and $373,323. Riedesel Engineering checked out the bids to make sure they met specs. Cynthia Schultz’ conditional use permit request to operate a business out of her home was approved. The decision as spelled out by city attorney Joe Wright was approved and the permit granted. The vote by the council was 3 to 1 with Ron Grant voting no. He had advocated for using one of the vacant downtown business spaces at the February meeting. Roy Uhlenkott was appointed as Fire Chief to make it official after the Fire Department volunteers had voted him in again. Reviewing the allowed uses in Zone A Residential areas was discussed with Jack Duman and Ron Grant volunteering to serve on a committee. It was also suggested to add a citizen to the committee, maybe a former planning and zoning member. Wright pointed out it’s better to go through a committee because if there is a quorum (3 or more council members) you have to advertise the meetings. Even all providing input through email can be considered as a quorum. The committee will report their findings at the next meeting and at that time other councilors and the mayor can provide input. A resolution was read and adopted to apply for an Idaho Gem Grant to fund a study for possible uses of the old Elementary School. A request by the Prairie Quilters for waiving the hall rent for their January breakfast fundraiser for Quilts of Valor was approved. Neil Bruegeman from Prairie Youth Sports was in attendance to both okay the agreement for another year as well as find out the procedure to go through if they want to make some upgrades. They have a donor that would like to see lights and a young kids playcenter added. The council said they would need a proposal that states exactly what they are planning on doing and how it will be funded. In the reports Pat Holthaus stated they are still estimating water use as many of the meters were still under too much snow to get to at the last reading. They pumped 2.6 million gallons and estimated selling 1.9 million for a loss of about 27%. They hope to get some more accurate readings for next month. Uhlenkott pointed out they used a lot of water for flushing the system when they chlorinated. In the sewer report Grant said they had to use the overflow lagoon due to the snowmelt runoff. Duman reported snow is finally disappearing off the streets but now potholes are showing up. He also reported he met with a FEMA representative on their proposed Cottonwood Creek project. She was in town when they had the last flooding from the creek and is aware of the problem. She informed Duman that 3 different plans are needed for grant cycles. One would be to return the creek to its original bed. Another is to culvert it all through town. The first isn’t really feasible anymore and the second is a last resort measure. The plan she said would be best would be to have an overflow bypass culvert run under the street and connect back to the creek east of town. Water would divert this way once it approaches flood stage. The meeting adjourned at 7:50 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, April 10 at 7 p.m. |
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