Malta City Council approved new Rodeo Committee, Suicide Prevention Walk Route

Items discussed at the first September Malta City Council meeting including the approval of Sunday’s Suicide Prevention Awareness Walk, the approval of a new Rodeo Arena Committee, and a report from Phillips County Sheriff Jerry Lytle.

Phillips County Health Department’s Jenny Tollefson was at the night’s meeting and said that, if approved, this year’s Suicide Prevention Awareness Walk will start and stop at Malta High School gym and make its way through the streets of Malta with registrations starting at 1 p.m. ahead of the 3-mile walk which starts at 2 p.m. She said that there is no registration fee to enter the walk but added that all donations received will be given to both the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention as well as local Suicide Prevention organizations. Each donation of $50 or more receives a walk t-shirt and anyone with questions is encouraged to contact Nurse Tollefson at 654-2521 or via email at [email protected]. The Malta City Council approved the walk route.

At the second Malta City Council meeting of August, Malta’s Jerey McEwen approached the Council and asked if he could help form a new Rodeo Arena Committee with eyes on taking over the maintenance of the rodeo arena in Trafton Park in hopes of hosting rodeo events there in the future. The City Council first dissolved the old Rodeo Arena Committee and approved and installed the new committee which will consist of members McEwen, Kelly Orahood, Guy Simanton, Ken Salveson, Tom Niebur, Thayne Mackey, Travis Rhodes, Janni Wiese, and two silent CPAs who will handle the finances.

Malta Councilwoman Bonnie Wiederrick, who sat in the mayor’s chair for the meeting as Malta Mayor John Demarais was out of town, asked McEwen if the bleachers would be fixed at the arena and he assured her they would be, just as soon as some money was raised. McEwen told the council that the new Rodeo Arena Committee is considering hosting a consignment auction at the Trafton Arena at which people could sell their goods auction-style and take home 90-percent of the auction sale while the arena would take the rest. McEwen said that anything not auctioned would be up for sale after the event and anything not sold then would be taken and sold for scrap to Randy Shores (who also told committee members he would donate his time welding and helping to get the grandstands back in order.)

During the Sheriff’s Report, Phillips County Sheriff Lytle reported that the office is busier this year than last as far as case files go, as 2018 at this time last year saw 96 new cases in the City as opposed to 121 so far in 2019. He said that criminal citations are down a bit this year (49 last year and 45 this year) and added that traffic citations are up 169-percent in 2019 as opposed to ’18.

“Last year we had only written 15 tickets in the City limits and we are at 35 right now,” Sheriff Lytle said. “I think that is because of the school zone and I don’t think people like getting tickets there, but it did slow people down.”