Recycling fee raised to $120 yearly Nine year old addresses City Council about the need for a local dog park
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At the November 21st meeting of the city council, members heard from a nine-year old about the need for a dog park within the city. The council also doubled the price of the monthly recycling fee from five dollars to ten dollars.
Riley Unruh addressed the council with a prepared statement and a map of what her group is proposing to become a dog park on city land. Riley told members of the council “that there is a need for a dog park in the city.” She went on to describe the need for dogs to be able to run.
Her map proposes to fence in an area just east of the tennis courts at Hinman Park that would allow dogs to run and also have a few picnic tables and rest rooms for adults. She indicated that her group would try to finance the project with donations of materials and funds.
After some discussion and several members of the council thinking that rest rooms would be needed, the council unanimous approved allowing the land to be used as a dog park.
Higher Fees
In short order the council approved doubling the monthly recycling fees to ten dollars a month. This fee is now five dollars a month and is added the water utility bill each quarter. The new rate of $10.00 per month will become effective after the December 2022 utility bills are processed. The council did not talk about why the new rate was needed.
During her report to the council, Librarian Rochel Karlson noted that Santa would be at the library on December 3rd and the library would be closed from December 8 through the 17 for the installation of new shelving. Her report stated that, “All our programs have been going well and the numbers have been staying steady.”
Clearing Sidewalk Snow
Over the many years that the City’s main street has existed there has been the problem of snow removal off the sidewalks along the main street. What happens is that the city crew clears the snow off the street very early and the business firms shovel the sidewalk snow into the street gutter where it ends up and freezes and makes a hazard condition for people getting out of their vehicles and walking into a store.
Joan Bartz appeared before the council telling them that she and others have talked to many of the business people and they are willing to finance having the city crew remove the sidewalk snow before the street is cleaned. The council hashed over that proposal and they would get some figures together and come up with some sort of solution.
No Public Comment
A month ago the council made a decision that it would no longer accept citizens verbal comments at the regular council meetings and instead would accept only written comments that were turned into the clerk’s office before 3 p.m. on the day of the meeting. Then the written comments would be read at the meeting. That move by the council seemed to stop anyone from making a comment because for the first time in this century, no comments were received by the clerk’s office or heard at the council meeting.
In other action the council enforced a city ordinance that forbid the dumping of waste concrete and asphalt at the city’s compost site. Apparently over the years that ordinance was over looked and many tons of waste material was deposited at the site and the council put a stop to that.
The council approved the granting of operator’s licenses to Austin J. Nelson and Amberlynn K. Sugita.