| Cottonwood
City Council meets
The Cottonwood City Council approved an agreement with the Red Cross to use the Community Hall as a disaster shelter at their March meeting Monday, March 12. Autumn St. Amand of the Red Cross was in attendance to answer any questions the council members had on the agreement. This is something Police Chief Terry Cochran has been working toward for several years. The Council approved waiving the hall rental fee for the St. Mary’s Hospital Volunteer appreciation luncheon. They also voted to waive the fee for a tabletop disaster training April 18 to be held prior to a disaster training set for Fenn. Mayor Pepper Harman asked if we’d ever charged a government entity in the past. They didn’t think so but city attorney Joe Wright said if they pass a motion they would be covered. Bids were opened for the paving project on Broadway and 2nd South Streets. Herco’s bid was $111,000 and Poe’s bid was $110,460. Poe is the apparent low bidder subject to review to make sure the bid is compliant with all the specs. A catering permit was approved for Rodonna’s for the St. Mary’s Hospital Mardi Gras event. The annual Cottonwood Community Cleanup will start March 26 and run through June 1. A rolloff will be placed near the City Shop at 1st St. and 2nd South Streets to be used for spring cleanup items as well as tree, shrub and yard waste. The CEDA Comprehensive Plan contract was discussed. The current training is free. When done they could then either write it themselves or CEDA would charge $2500 to write the plan for them. Jack Duman said that sounded like a really good price as there is a lot of work that goes into a comprehensive plan. Any action on the contract was tabled until they finish the training. In the reports Pat Holthaus reported the city pumped 2.3 million gallons and sold 1.7 million for a 25% loss. Some of that may be due to estimating amounts for many customers as their meters were buried under snow. All the tests came back good. In the sewer report Lynn Guyer said everything’s good. Roy Uhlenkott said they redid a pump motor that will be used when they start sprinkling in the agriforest. Duman reported all the streetlights will be changed over to LED lights by this summer. They had a fan rebuilt on the street sweeper at a cost of about $10,000. It should now pick up more of the gravel. Linda Nida reported the handrails and gutters are still needing to be installed at the south end of the hall. Uhlenkott reported those are being built at this time. Clint Riener reported he was told they need to get grant applications done in 2019 for the slurry seal and turnaround area work to be done in 2020. He said he was told they should have a great chance of getting the grants as the state aeronautics people are aware of the need. Also the capital improvement plan needs to be done. They are looking into paving the grassy area behind the Gun Club. Mayor Harman said CJ Air may be willing to help with the cost of that. Cochran said we could look into hazard mitigation for that which would open up more grant possibilities. Particularly if it gives Lifeflight another option. Nida reported the fire department had 1 ambulance call and 1 fire call during the past month. They also received 100 smoke alarms that will be made available to citizens of Cottonwood. See article elsewhere in this week’s Chronicle. Riener reported they got their new gear in, the turnouts and airpacks and air bottles. They would need to get a new compressor to be able to fully charge the new bottles which take up to 4500 lbs. They have a grant application in for a new one. The current compressor, at best, could only do about 3000 lbs. Lewiston FD has offered to recharge any spent bottles in the meantime. In other business Duman reported he had been contacted by the County about a truck and snowplow. The city is looking at upgrading the truck and the plow that goes with it hasn’t been used in several years. Duman will look into it further. The council adjourned to an executive session at 7:50 p.m. The next regular meeting of the Council will be Monday, April 9 at 7 p.m. |
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