Malta City Council Meeting recap

At last Tuesday's Malta City Council meeting, council members voted in favor of three resolutions which, if passed after public hearings, will raise water and garbage rates to residents of the City of Malta and change how items will be charged for disposal at the City Dump.

Resolution 1204 describes the intent of the City of Malta to modify the basis of water rates for those who use the municipal water system. Malta Mayor Shyla Jones explained the proposed rate hike to water rates would be an additional $18.50 per month, making the total, base water bill $40. Water users for their base-rate, will be given 11,000 gallons of water May through September and 6,000 in the other months. She explained individuals with larger water lines will have multipliers on them. The multiplier on a 2-inch line would be $2, for a 3-inch line would be $5 and the multiplier on a 6-inch line would be $6. Mayor Jones said the other significant change to water bills would be people who have lines to their properties, but no water connected, will now incur a monthly user charge of $30 per month.

"We have to pay for infrastructure," Mayor Jones said. "And everybody needs to pay for infrastructure, not just the users, it needs to be everybody who has water available to them."

Resolution 1205 describes a rate increase in garbage rates to City of Malta residents. The proposed increase would raise garbage rates by 38-percent.

"Unfortunately, our landfill has expenses so we need to increase our rates for that as well," said Mayor Jones. "It will be a 38-percent increase because not everyone is charged the same rate per month because it depends on the volume of garbage."

Mayor Jones said the average user can expect an increase of $7 per month to their garbage bill if the resolution passes.

The City of Malta is currently in the process of opening a new cell at the City Landfill that the City will be taking a loan for in the future. Resolution 1206 explains the new charges for tires, demolition materials and other items that are dumped at the landfill.

Mayor Jones explained that a new fee for metal items like bikes, barbeques, engines, mowers and the like, which weren't an extra charge in the past, will now include a $5 per load. She said that the old fee for tire disposal was dependent on the various size of tires. The new charging method would be $5 for tires 20-inches or less and $7 for tires 21-inches or larger, tractor tires would be $25 and tubes would be $25 per load. She added that a new fee for asbestos disposal would be $125 per load and lastly, appliance disposal will be charged $5 each.

During the Public Comment of the night's meeting, a Malta resident inquired to the siren that goes off each evening at City Hall at 6 p.m. Her specific question was why it was started and when it started.

Mayor Jones explained that it was initially used as a warning siren to alert folks of fires and such. She said it is still set off each night as a back-up to the Phillips County Sheriff's 911 system and because it is such a dated siren, it has to be rang each night to make sure it is working.

"Something as small as a cobweb in it can make it not ring," Mayor Jones said. "It's a warning system and what we always tell people is if you hear it go off at a different time than 6 p.m., turn on the radio because there should be something coming on (the air.)"

During the New Business portion of the night's meeting, the council voted to re-hire Bear Paw Development as the administrators of the Water Project grants, $70,000, and approved the contract with Ballantine Design Associates for the preliminary design for a potential new facility for Malta Opportunities Inc (MOI).

"(Ballantine) will be doing the architectural design to determine if (MOI) is going to stay where they are at or go elsewhere," Mayor Jones said.

Members of the Malta reACT Crew, including the group's president, John Waters, and supervisor, Sonia Young, attended the City Council to ask the City for permission to post anti-tobacco signage around Malta City parks and trails.

"We want to do this because it will promote health among us," Waters explained. "It will also reduce litter. We see tobacco butts and empty cans of chew everywhere you go here and it is disgusting and gross."

The sign the group brought to the meeting read "Young lungs at play, no smoking" and the group hopes to post similar signs around town.

"We are not requesting an ordinance or resolution or a policy," Young added. "This would just be self-enforcement and we are requesting that we have the permission to put these signs up in the parks and along the Malta Trails System."

The council unanimously agreed to allow Malta reACT to post the signs.