Malta City Council approves steps to add pool bonding to a future election

The Malta City Council unanimously voted in favor of passing a motion to continue looking into a vote asking for City-wide bonding in order to rebuild the Municipal Pool.

"I think that is the way we are going to find out how people feel," Councilman William Hicks said.

The City-wide bonding idea originated at a public meeting held by the City of Malta to discuss the 60-plus-year-old pool. At that meeting, it was reported that pool has cost the City of Malta approximately $220,900 since 2011 while generating just $41,650, she said (the total cost to run the pool since 2011 included several major refurbishment efforts.) Estimates on building a new pool range from about $1.5 million to $2 million (though it is believed that cost would decrease if the pool was rebuilt on its current site.)

At last Tuesday night's Malta City Council meeting, no decision was made on when the citizens of Malta would be asked to vote on possible tax increases to fund the pool project. Malta Mayor Shyla Jones said that the process of getting the bonding ready for a ballot takes many months and advised the Council that they could vote on when the bonding would take place at a later date.

The City Council passed Resolution 1240 at the Tuesday night meeting, the annual garbage assessment ($294,936 this year — $247,786.28 in 2017.) The garbage assessment passed 4-0.

During Department Reports, Public Works Director Jim Truelove informed the council that the Municipal Pool has been closed down for the 2017 Summer season and has been drained and chemicals have been removed. He said the Public Works crew recently re-painted all the crosswalks near the Malta schools and school zone signs had been posted on 7th and 8th Streets East and a sign that went missing in a different part of town was to be replaced before school started on Wednesday. Director Truelove also said that the areas around the schools in Malta would also be swept prior to school starting. Director Truelove said that tree cutting at Trafton Park would continue (as well as along the dike and near a few alleys around town.)

The City of Malta has plans to move the regularly scheduled Tuesday, September 26, council meeting to Monday, September 25, but will vote on the change at the September 12 meeting.

Mayoral candidates John Demarais, Gary Knudsen and Edward Haver IV were present at the meeting. Ballots for the September 12 primary election for Malta Mayor (a mail-in only election) were sent out last week. A total of four candidates (Kathy Bohn-Bagley being the fourth) are vying for two spots on the November ballot.