| City
facing crisis with downtown culvert
The City of Cottonwood looks to have a major project coming up soon whether they like it or not. Jack Duman reported the Cottonwood Creek culvert from the grate at Lewiston St. to at least the Tire Guy lot and quite possibly beyond that, is collapsing and he doesn’t think it will last through another Spring run-off. He had been looking at some options but it appears they may need to do something sooner than planned. The culvert looks similar to the one that had to be replaced under Maple Street. Duman said, “I’m amazed it didn’t blow out already!” In addition to the possible flooding problems, the 16 inch water main under Main St. could be threatened. This will be getting a lot of attention in the upcoming months as they work out what they can do and how they can come up with the funding to do it. On the positive side Duman reported the sidewalk project is nearing completion with only a couple of minor hitches. Mag chloride application will be completed this week and some street sealcoating is coming up next week. In other business Sheriff Doug Giddings and Trudy Slagle of the Idaho County Sheriff’s Dept. were in attendance to answer councilors questions. Giddings said he loves what Jason Rambo does and the service he provides but there are some logistical problems when he is at the high school which is in the county and not the city. Similar problems with his “party patrols.” The ICSD and the city will work together to get this ironed out. The other concern the city had was the charges for answering city calls when the city police are not available. Former mayor and current Idaho County Commissioner Denis Duman was in attendance and said that Terry Cochran, Giddings and himself got together a few years ago and decided being able to fill the gaps in Cottonwood’s police coverage at a manpower and materials cost from the city to the sheriff’s department was much more cost effective than the city hiring another officer. It was just a verbal agreement though and now they are looking at getting something in writing. The Sheriff’s Department and city attorney Joe Wright will get something worked out. Ben Munger was in attendance with some questions about city services to some city lots he’s looking at buying. Ordinance #248, which addresses conditional use permits, was adopted. The text of that ordinance appears on page 7 of this week’s Chronicle. The council approved a catering permit for the Cottonwood VFW. This will be for their Idaho County Fair Beergarden and will be obtained through Keuterville Pub & Grub. The council also approved a cabana rental waiver for Terry Cochran’s barbecue to honor the county and city people who covered for him when he was laid up. In reports Pat Holthaus reported 3 million gallons of water were pumped with about 2.8 million sold for a loss of about 6%. Ron Grant reported they are getting set up for a seepage test of the sewer lagoons. Linda Nida asked about applying mag chloride to the road going into the airport. Roy Uhlenkott said yes, they usually do that. Grant reported there were just 2 fire calls this past month, both rural. One for a field fire and the other for a possible vehicle fire in a rollover incident. He said they are also awaiting word on a FEMA grant for new airpacks. If they don’t get it, they will need to budget for a couple of new ones. The council has a budget workshop set for Monday, July 31 at 7 p.m. The next regular meeting will be Monday, August 14 at 7 p.m. |
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