Water Project to Start Soon
On Tuesday, February 10th, the Council City Council held their monthly meeting at City Hall.
Great West Engineering said they have a draft of the comprehensive plan. There is one more public comment period. The water project is moving forward after about a six month delay on the environmental clearance. They will likely have a pre-construction meeting next week with the contractor and should be going by the first of March.
The Ritter Subdivision South phase was approved last year, and they just submitted plans for the North phase to be approved. Comments were minor. The subdivision was originally platted in the 80’s.
Kayla Brown gave an update on the airport. The only item remaining on the pavement project is the permanent paint application. They are waiting for consistently good weather days over 50 degrees to do that. They are excited to get started on the lighting project and will schedule a pre-construction meeting soon.
Kathy Hughes said they are still working with the city attorney to get updated verbiage to establish city code for the airport. This will help determine new minimum standards and land lease agreements will flow out of that city code. The new hangar builder will be coming to the city for a building permit and is hoping to build this spring. They would like to have an open house in spring and are planning on May 2 but will confirm. They are expecting a lot of traffic for it. They are still waiting for the updated runway numbers. They have sold 418 gallons of fuel in the last month and had $30 in courtesy car donations. Tyler Power is helping design a new airport sign based on the logo and is having the kids at the school help design and manufacture it. They will bring it to the city for final approval on the design. They would like to work on the proposal to build a carport. The next Airport Commission meeting is February 23rd at 6:30 at Hangar #5.
City Clerk Ashley Scott said she and Caleb Shumway from Public Works recently attended a FEMA meeting in New Meadows. FEMA is trying to update flood plain maps and Council as a whole is going to see properties that are affected by that. They are working with the attorney to make sure the floodplain code is up to date. The meeting for final review of the comprehensive plan was scheduled for Thursday, February 12. On February 18 there is a meeting to start the process for updating the capital improvement plan for streets, which will include public outreach.
Building C in the Industrial Park was auctioned last Saturday and it went for $360,000 to Ted Demery with Ridge Country Underground. They will probably close within the next week or two. The City Hall remodel is going very well. The demolition part is complete. They laid a new subfloor and submitted building permits. There are still some questions about ADA compliance they are trying to clarify. Snake River Pest Control gave an update from the museum, they found one dead mouse and replaced bait traps.
Caleb Shumway, with Public Works, said that March 6 they are hosting a class about proper maintenance and rebuilding fire hydrants class. It is free and has continuing education credits so they reached out to nearby cities. March 9 Shumway will be going to a class by DEQ about the changing rules on PFAS, lead, and copper in the CCR’s.
The Boardroom at Wilson’s had applied for a Catering Permit for the Fourth of July. Bill Brown from Wilson’s was there and talked about their plans for serving alcohol. Council Member Mendy Stanford asked how it went last year, Brown said it went well, there were no incidents. This would be their third year doing it and they haven’t had a problem. Council member Dan Huter asked Sheriff Ryan Zollman, who was present, if it sounded like a good plan. Zollman said there is no open container law for the city. They had to pass a resolution and designate an area. He said it sounded like Brown had a good plan put together, but it did make it more difficult for them, especially as they would be even more spread out this year. He had concerns about allowing alcohol throughout the city and thought if it was something that was going to happen it was something that should happen in a confined area.
Mayor Wilson asked if it would be in the same location, Brown said yes and turned to Chamber of Commerce President Katie Church to confirm, she added this year they don’t have the Saw Contest downtown so they can easily make adjustments.
Mayor Wilson said his concern was they have his business, and also the Ace, and he personally didn’t think they needed another beer vendor 50 feet away from a different beer vendor and it would make more sense to him if Wilson’s was in a different location.
Katie Church said personally she liked that they condensed it to downtown for the open container. “We’re here to make commerce in the community, that’s what we’re here for at the Chamber and that’s why we put on this event, and he is a business owner in our downtown location and we just want to make the best for everybody so they can make commerce.”
Council Member Dave Tubridy said he had concerns. He said he was contacted by a couple constituents about an incident in the park where there was a run in with a Deputy Sheriff where they said Brown made fun of the Deputy Sheriff. Tubridy contacted the deputy to see what happened and he provided a written statement validating the incident.
Brown said he was aware of it, and he thought he was joking and having fun. “I didn’t see anything wrong with it,” he said, “and if I need to apologize to the deputy I’d be glad to, but it wasn’t mentioned in any disrespect.”
Tubridy said he was disappointed in the behavior and others didn’t see it in the same light. Tubridy said that he would be a no on this because he didn’t want to be condoning bad behavior and he was disappointed as a businessman and as a member of the Chamber that Brown acted that way towards a Deputy Sheriff and he thought it was out of line.
Brown thought that an apology would be very appropriate because he didn’t know he had offended anyone until recently. “I was joshing with an officer.” Tubridy asked if he was intoxicated. Brown said he had a couple drinks but he wasn’t intoxicated. Tubridy said the deputy’s opinion was that he was intoxicated. Zollman said he has seen the letter and spoke with the deputy. Zollman said he thought it was distasteful for any business owner operating a business of that high responsibility to have had any drinks. Zollman addressed Brown himself in a respectful manner and gave his opinion. “I think as a business owner, you have plenty of time to indulge in those beverages outside of that, you should not be doing that while operating a business in any way, that’s my opinion on it.” He also thought that the deputy probably wouldn’t have said much if others hadn’t brought it up first but was grateful that others were looking out for him. The city council clarified Zollman’s position about the location, He hoped that if it was granted it stayed in the perimeter that it had in the past.
Mendy Stanford moved to approve the catering permit, she also wanted to state that she wished that business owners would not be partaking while they are selling. It was approved with a 3-1 vote with Dave Tubridy voting no.
Next the council went over an audit presentation which was overall a “good clean, audit report.”
After this there was a bid and discussion for the City Park bathroom. An individual had reached out who was interested in completing work on the bathroom. The bid included new partitions, epoxying the floor, installing plastic sheeting on the wall so it could be easier to clean, removing old heat lights, removing and patching the holes, replacing the counter top with a sink, and new toilets and fixtures. There were a couple different bids, the first bid included stainless steel partitions and fixtures and was higher, the second included powder coated steel for partitions, and third one kept the current partitions. Currently, there was a $20,000 grant available and anything extra would come out of city funds. The council discussed the options. One concern was the toilets were plumbed for standard household toilets, not commercial, and they don’t have the budget to replumb them. The council liked powder coated partitions with stainless steel fixtures. They also were concerned about vandalism and said they would be looking into security cameras. They approved the bid from LaGrone construction for $29,600
They also applied for the Idaho Gem Grant which would provide funds for updating the roofing on the bathrooms and the museum, but don’t know for sure yet if they received it. Scott asked if they wanted to proceed to use the business park funds for that even if they didn’t get the grant. They approved the bid for the roof replacement for the bathroom regardless of the grant. They then had the same discussion for the museum roof. There are updates needed at the museum; they aren’t sure the extent yet. They were uncertain whether it was leaking. The council decided to have the county building inspector look at the building to see what repairs were needed. “This museum stuff’s important to me, it’s our history,” said Mayor Wilson. The council agreed and decided to go ahead with repairs to the museum regardless of the grant.
Next the council passed Ordinance 546 designating The Record Reporter as the official newspaper of the city of Council. The newspaper has not changed ownership, they were just cleaning up the code.
Then they passed a resolution designation numerical street names. This is nothing new as they were trying to clean up things since the plat maps are spelled out and they want to use numerical form. It doesn’t affect anyone, just makes it official. They also passed a resolution designating directional street signs, East side of Hwy 95 and West side, for Lucile and correcting it to only have one “L.” They also passed a similar resolution for Bleeker. The best idea they came up with was using the Weiser River Trail to designate East vs. West.
Finally the council appointed Mark Edwards to serve as the City appointee to serve on the Joint Board for the Joint Powers Agreement with Parks and Rec.
