Mayor Stiles had a great deal to say about the regular City Council meeting held at City Council chambers on February 3.
There were seven visitors
Minutes were approved and there was no public comment.
There was a deputy in attendance but no Sheriff’s Report was given.
Regarding the Waste Water Treatment project, Mayor Stiles said, “On Vernon Avenue work stopped due to a winter stoppage on December 30. As of now the project is substantially complete which means there is about two weeks of cosmetic work to do in the spring. There is gravel work and we need to verify compaction over there.”
With the Water System Improvements the Mayor and Council are still waiting to see if they can get some grant money from Rural Development. Rural Development does not have their allocation yet so Big Sandy officials don’t know what is going to be happening at this time.
“Looking at the project right now it is going to be a 2017 project instead of a 2016 project,” said Mayor Stiles. “Best we can hope for now is to go to bid in February of 2017 and that is if all works well.”
Regarding the proposal for a new Big Sandy Pool, engineers have come up with preliminary drawings for the pool. The City is making changes as needed, then going to return the drawings and engineers will then figure costs of a new pool.
Clete Ophus came to the meeting. According to Mayor Stiles his main focus was he wants better drainage at Big Sandy Creek as proposed by Hydro Solutions who did a study of the area for Ophus. Mayor Stiles said that the Hydro Solutions solution might possibly benefit Big Sandy. There is no funding for such a proposal at this time added Mayor Stiles.
“What people need to understand is that each step proposed in the Hydro Solutions study has to be evaluated on its own after completed, then move on to the next step. Everything out there is inner-related,” said Mayor Stiles.
Mayor Stiles will be attending the Mayor’s Executive Session in Bozeman March 2, 3 and 4.
Lifeguard pay was set at $8.55 as a starting base and goes up 25 cents each year for returning life guards. Mayor Stiles said that pay was about what most towns with a pool pay for lifeguards.
Big Sandy signed a contract for 3500 yards of gravel in the spring. Some will be applied directly to the streets and some will be stockpiled.
Tyler Smith of Lakeside Construction is crushing and delivering the gravel which will cost $18.00 a yard delivered.
The Council talked about the Sheriff’s Contract and is wondering whether to cancel it or not. The Council has not made a decision at this time. All the Council feels that Sheriff Burdick is at this time in violation of the contract. Mayor Stiles said the Sheriff will enforce some violations and not others.
“He is picking and choosing,” said Mayor Stiles.
Colby Baumgarn and Mayor Stiles visited the old hotel with the people who are charged with assessing the condition of the building.
Mayor Stiles said these people have to make a map of the entire building and hope to get back to the Council with a recommendation after that.
Big Sandy hiring a Code Enforcement Officer was discussed. It was pointed out that the officer would only be able to enforce civil codes but most of the codes which might be violated are civil to start with.
There were no committee reports.
In Public Works, the Mayor commented that the water shut off list is getting very long.
In Correspondence Sheriff Burdick answered the Mayor’s letter to him about funds that had been used for travel by the Sheriff. Sheriff Burdick wrote that that was all voted on by the Council and not his responsibility what account the money came from.
Mayor Stiles said, “I would like to put in the record that Sheriff Burdick identified the account three years ago and he gave the Council false information about how that money was supposed to be used.”
Claims and vouchers were paid and the meeting was adjourned.
The next regular Big Sandy City Council meeting will be held March 9.
