Mayor Demarais: "Now is the Time to Clean it Up."

The Malta City Council held their regularly scheduled meeting on July 12, at Malta's City Hall building.

Amongst the topics of discussion were Department Reports, updates to the Trafton Lift Station, and the approval of the June 2022 payroll. In New Business, the Council approved an Amended Plat of Lot 1, Tract A, Dobson Farm Subdivision NW ¼, Section 18, T30N, R30E, P.M.M., Phillips County, Montana.

The Council even okayed an office for the DES Coordinator to be in the Malta Event Center Building. But one of the most pressing issues that Mayor John Demarais brought up during the Other Comments Portion was the need for a part-time Compliance Officer to help with an issue that came to the council in mid-April.

"Due to many complaints about all of the junk vehicles in town," Mayor Demarais said to the PCN, the day after the City Council Meeting. "There will be other things coming around, but I am not going there."

There are around thirty properties in the city of Malta that have junk vehicles, according to Mayor Demarais, who has been taking on the duty of issuing citations.

"Now is the time to clean it up," he said. "The City will be hiring a compliance officer."

He said that the details of the job will be sent to the PCN. The job will be around 10 hours a week.

"We are going to clean this city up," Mayor Demarais said.

"If we can get a reserve office, fine, if not, then we will hire somebody," Mayor Demarais said.

Regardless of who the City of Malta hires, Mayor Demarais offered his assurance that the officer won't go yard by yard to check the height of lawns around town.

"Right now, it's about junk vehicles," he said. "If you have junk vehicles in your yard, there is a possibility that you will be getting a letter from the mayor, there will be X amount of time to clean it up, and if you don't clean it up, we will take legal action," Mayor Demarais said. "Our town never looked like this."

He said that he understands the importance of vehicles because he has three vehicles, but they are all running and are constantly being used.

"It's the ones parked that don't run and if they are parted out, we can't have that," Mayor Demarais said. "It just looks terrible."

During the Department Reports, Malta Volunteer Fire Department Chief Josh Newman said that he would request that the Billings Fire Department send their Fire Chief to train Malta's department in how to put fires out in Electrical Cars.

"We don't have the proper training to do that now," Fire Chief Newman said. "There have been a lot of (electric cars) in town lately. Just people driving through on vacation and I have seen a couple around."

Newman thought to himself, "if that was on fire, I don't know what to do," he said. "If you put water on it, it just makes things worse."

Malta Department of Parks and Recreation Director Sally Wright gave her report, stating that for past activities, the Color Fun Run held on June 3 had 34 runners. During their Soccer Camp from June 7 through June 9 there were 29 kids, Art in the Park, held from June 21 and June 22 had 25 kids. The department also held two sessions of Golf Camp in June that had 28 kids.

For present activities, Parks and Rec reported that Gymnastics has 64 children and ends on July 29. There will be four yoga workshops this summer. There will be two sessions of Boot Camp. The department's Skateboard Lessons started last week and has five students. They also reported the Co-ed Softball League is running smoothly and that they have been busy maintaining the softball/baseball fields.

Director Wright asked Public Works Director Jim Truelove if the sign at the entrance of the Tennis Court could be moved so that the street sweeper can enter the court.

Director Truelove said that the Malta Swim Meet went well with very few glitches. He also reported that the M-Trail was mowed last Friday. He also reported that some storm damage was done from high winds that hit 75 mph on July 9. There was minor flooding and the crew had to reset pumps and clear storm drains.

During the Lift Station update, Mayor Demarais said that he was on a phone conference pertaining to lending agencies to cover the $200,000 project. He is looking into a 20-year Cole Tax Loan that would have 2.5% interest.

"The other is Loan Forgiveness, but when we do that, we add a bunch of costs," Mayor Demarais said.

Two gentlemen representing the Bureau of Land Management office visited the meeting during Public Comment. The men, who are a part of an internship offered to help with smaller projects that the council might need to be done around town.