Malta City Council final July 28 recap

At the final Malta City Council meeting of July, the Council heard updates and reports from various department heads.

Malta Public Works Director Jim Truelove reported that some people had been living in Trafton Park but had been asked to move along and were now gone.

Director Truelove said that the Municipal Pool was looking good and at the time of the meeting (July 28) as long as lifeguards were available to work the pool would continue to stay open this summer. (Since then, the first known positive cases of the COVID-19 virus in Phillips County has shuttered the pool and all Malta Parks and Rec activities.)

Director Truelove reported that the City Crew was busy cutting brush away from the dike in Malta.

In new business, Malta Mayor John Demarais informed the Council that Darleen Cummings is seeking to place a bench in Veteran’s Memorial Park in memory of her late father. The request was approved by the Council unanimously.

Toward the end of the meeting, under other comments, Councilman David Rummel stated the he had heard many positive comments about the Municipal Pool and Councilman Bill Hicks said that the new “sponsor the day at the pool” program being led by Malta Municipal Pool Manager Kelly Cederberg were going “great."

Mayor Demarais said that the proposed chicken ordinance has been completed for further discussion and said the pool house construction was coming along nicely.

IN the last bit of news, Councilwoman Bonnie Wiederrick attended the July PhillCo Economic Growth Council meeting, PhillCo announced that they had been helping Phillips County businesses write grants and are looking into the Main Street Montana program. That program, established in 2005 and currently serving 34 communities across the state, is a collaborative effort between the Community Development Division and the Montana Office of Tourism at the Montana Department of Commerce, the Montana.Gov, Community Development Division, website explains. The program helps communities strengthen and preserve their historic downtown commercial districts by focusing on economic development, urban revitalization, and historic preservation through long-range planning, organization, design, and promotion.