All city council members were present at the last city council meeting except for Rich Jesperson, who had a tree limb removal accident. He was home from the hospital and healing from a concussion. All three of the city employees were present, including Tim Labuda, Larry Geyer, and Wendy Kleinsasser, the city clerk. Also present at the meeting, Sherriff’s Deputy, Dennis Hale, who had no official report but was asked about the high-speed car chase that went through Big Sandy around 2:30 AM.
Susan Brurud from Bear Paw Development and Luke Laliberty from KLJ also joined the meeting by phone and zoom to discuss the latest developments for the Storm Drain project on the main street. Mayor Shaud Schwarzbach had been informed earlier that KLJ had made an error in the cost estimate and that they currently believe the price will increase by 3 % for a total of $35,000 in increased expenses. We won’t know the actual cost of the storm drain project until it goes to bid. They wanted a complete estimate before the town meeting on Wednesday, September 15th. They hope there will be a good representation of the residence, especially the business on the main street.
They also talked about the grant application for City Hall improvements. The grant application task order for CBDG COVID for a public facility is worth $3,500. The plans will be discussed further as there were a variety of options discussed.
The city will also once again apply for the Lippard Clawiter Grant for park and recreation expenses. They also discussed several ideas asking Tim to give Wendy the costs of doing each project to help them decide what they should request.
The city financial audit has been completed. Ask Wendy if you would like to see the audit; however, be aware the report is 100 pages long.
Shaud reported the waterline would go to bid in November, and construction could start next summer. “We are still a couple of years out before we get water through the pipeline here in Big Sandy.”
On the agenda, every time at the city council meeting is the Junk Ordinance. It was noted that except for two residences whose comments at the beginning, which started the discussion in the first place for the need to have a junk ordinance, no resident has been present to discuss what they would like to see the junk ordinance address. Their fear is after a couple of years of research and debating the wording with lawyers and months of discussion amongst themselves that they will finalize the ordinance and present it to the city residences in a town meeting only to find a significant push back on the wording. Now is the time to go to a city council meeting to let them know what you want the ordinance to address. They would like the council meeting to be full of Big Sandy Residence who are concerned about the Junk Ordinance.
