Malta City Council recap

To angle or not to angle, that was the question.

The Malta City Council last Tuesday approved a change to how people can park on portions of South 1st Street East and South 2nd Street West, moving from parallel to angle parking. The 1st Street East, angle parking will be allowed from the corner of 3 Sisters to the corner of Stretch’s Pizza with some handicapped parking available in front of First Security Bank. The angle parking approved on South 2nd Street will start in front of the driveway near the Villa Theatre, across the street from Central Avenue Pit Crew and in front of the Little White Church. The parking change comes nearly three months after several business owners in the area requested the change.

Currently, on 1st Street East, angle parking is permitted from the Great Northern Motel all the way east to Stockman’s Bar. That change was made as a 90-day trial period in July of 2004 (Council Agrees to three-month angle parking trial, Phillips County News, July 14, 2004) but a motion has never been passed to make the change permanent. The Malta City Council will be asked to vote to make the “90-day trial” a permeant change and discuss angle parking in front of the VFW Club and Patty’s Floral at the next meeting.

During the “other comments” portion of Tuesday night’s meeting, Malta Mayor John Demarais said the City will start running advertisements for a new city groundskeeper following the passing of long-time groundskeeper Ken Ulrich in January (the ad is on page 3B of this week’s paper.) Mayor Demarais said the lawn maintenance will be broken down into sections and those bidding for the positions will also be asked if they are willing and able to spray for weeds. Mayor Demarais also said that the City will also be looking to hire someone to do sprinkler maintenance around town as well as a seasonal gatekeeper at the City Landfill.

During the City Works reports, Director Jim Truelove told the Council that he had recently dealt with a frozen sewer main on 7th Avenue West and received word that the sewer line at the Milk River Pavilion had also frozen. Director Truelove said that the 7th Avenue freeze was cleared after several days of work with the help of an outside firm's steamer/pressure washer. Director Truelove said the Public Works Crew has the same type of steamer/pressure washer and it will be used to continue to clean sewers around town.

The next Malta City Council meeting will be on Monday, March 26 instead of its regular Tuesday time slot. The meeting will begin at 5 p.m.