City Council Talks Pool Repairs, Gym Use for Public Events

At 5 p.m., Mayor John Demarais led the Council members and those in attendance in the pledge to the flag. In attendance at the meeting were Shane Carnahan, Marilyn Taylor, Heather Simonson, Nancy Ereaux, Crystal Lett, Angel DeVries, Kaden Bedwell, Patti Webb, Kourtney Simonson, and Ashley Stuart. All four Council members were present.

The minutes to the last meeting and the agenda for the meeting were approved by unanimous vote.

PWD Jim Truelove provided a report which included the parks are all open, the grass containers have been placed and the crew is working on hot mix repairs around town. The alleys on the west side of town have been bladed and the crew will finish the east side next.

The sweeper has been busy, preparing areas for the application of the hot mix asphalt.

Truelove stated that work will begin on the pool next week, and that TruGreen provided a bid for lawn treating and he will provide the bid to the office; he stated the bid for this year was slightly higher than last year.

City Clerk Lorie Bond gave her report: the application submitted for the use of funds under HB355 had been approved. Part of the funding will help with the repair/sealing of the street to the north of the Elementary School.

Bond received permission to close the City Office from 11-12 on Wednesday to allow her to take her assistants to the salad luncheon at the Little White Church.

A new rental agreement had been drafted for the use of the City Hall gymnasium and was enclosed in the board member packets.

Three individuals had been interviewed for the position of groundskeeper at the City Dump with one being hired.

The Mayor reminded the Council; the dump is to be closed if the wind is stronger than 20 mph; the dump will now be open on Saturdays.

Demarais stated he will be having a variance meeting and some decisions would be made on City-owned lots that are for sale.

Kaden Bedwell of Interstate Engineering (out of Wolf Point), was present to give a report on the swimming pool situation. His firm had prepared a report in 2018 for ideas, three options for the current pool which included rehabbing the current pool, replacing the pool with a new one on the current site and the third option, which was to build a new pool on a new site. He stated with the estimated loss of water in the pool by city officials being approximately 5,000 a day, the actual cost should also figure in the cost of the chemicals that are flowing out as well. The pool filters are also getting extra sand run through them. The estimated cost to do the repairs and updates proposed would be about $750,000 to 1 million dollars. A new pool would cost twice that amount.

Bedwell said, “If you wanted to do something in the mechanical room it would add cost. If you were going to do a big project I would recommend replacing some of that stuff; instead of having one boiler, you have three. Instead of one filter you have four filters, so there are some inefficiencies.” He spoke about a grant that Glasgow received for for their pool. He thought Big Sandy received a $700,000 grant; Chinook secured a Town Pump grant for $50,000 with matching funds and also had a private donation of $100,000.

Council members visited Resolution 1346, Rummel made a motion to pass the ordinance and it was seconded by Hicks. Roll call vote was taken and all four Council members voted “nay” and the Resolution did not pass.

The Council was then presented with a revised rental agreement. The proposed agreement sets the rent of the gym at $300 a day. In addition, there will be a deposit required of $200 if food and beverages are brought in, $100 if the tables and chairs are used, $50 for use of the sound system and $100 for cleaning. The deposit fees are held and if the gym is left clean with no damage or need to hire someone to clean it following an event, the $450 is returned to the individual. The motion to accept the Resolution was seconded, and passed unanimously.

It was suggested by an individual in attendance that part of the money be placed in a fund to start building toward gymnasium upkeep and repair.

Demarais commended the people for coming together on the matter. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease, you just proved that. You came in here and changed my mind, without too much hassle, and thank you for that. I am glad it didn’t go much further because then we really have…well…my steel shorts were chewed through and we don’t have a machine shop in this town anymore so…that kind of sucks.”

Another recommendation was to check out The Montana Historical Preservation Grant site, which could be a possible opportunity for funding; PhillCo has helped with The Simanton Square getting funding for their recent renovation. An individual in the audience stated the Winnett School put a new gym floor in for $80,000.

Rummel stated he had an article about the grand opening of the City Hall gymnasium, which was held on July 31, 1937. That puts the age of the gymnasium at 87 years old in about three months.

Discussion was held on the possibility of having the option to accept donations toward an endowment for the gym.

An application from The First State Bank to close the street for the car show on June 1, 2024, met with approval of the board members.

A pool manager has been hired and individuals have picked up lifeguard applications.

The next meeting of the City Council will be Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 5 p.m.