The City Council met in the City Hall’s big room, with appropriate spacing, even though some still attended the meeting by Zoom, including this reporter. There were three city employees and two guests present.
The meeting started as usual with the pledge of alliance and the reading of the minutes.
No Sherriff’s deputy was in attendance.
KLJ Engineers presented the Water Certification Survey with the request to purchase ½ an acre for building a building for the new water system. The new building will be for a meter and treatment. They have suggested a$4,000 price tag. Before approving the request, the council will wait for the request to be presented to them in writing.
The New Water Ordinance is mostly finished. It is mostly the same, except vacant property will be charged a base free. The fee structure has a slight fee increase on the sewage side. When the water reaches Big Sandy, there will be an increase in the water fee.
They discussed the creation of a Junk/Abandoned/Hazardous Ordinance. Rich Jespersen has researched this matter by talking to towns about their ordnances and compliance with the ordnance. It was recommended to use the Montana State Ordinance. The next step will be to visit with Steve Gannon County Attorney about the state law. Larry Ophus has been asked about burning down hazardous buildings within the city limits and if the Fire Department would be willing to burn them down for no charge. It was noticed that there are plenty of areas needing to be cleaned up.
Next on the agenda were the two streets where students arrive and are pickup up after school. There is some concern for the safety of the children with unorganized congestion at both schools. It was discussed creating one-way streets or blocking it off while children are getting to and out of school. That decision will wait until the Big Sandy School Board can address the issue.
There is interest in working with an interested partner who wants to buy and remove the old hotel on the main street. The town will look into a Brownfield grant to help with its removal. The business owner would help pay for the partial cost of its removal because if this can be accomplished, a new building for a new business will be built.
Chlorine pumps will need to be replaced.
Lastly, Big Sandy received a grant to fix the bathrooms at the City Park.
