City Council Talks City Pool's Future

On Tuesday, July 9, the Malta City Council met at 5 p.m. and opened with the pledge to the flag; in attendance were Mayor John Demarais and all four council members: David Rummel, Bonnie Wiederrick, Bill Hicks and Laura Pankratz. Also present were Sheriff Jerry Lytle, Undersheriff Faith Robinson, Deputy Matt Roberts, James Sintler, Melissa Moog, Shonda Jenkins, Mary Oxarart, Sascha Lulloff, Marilyn Taylor and Kayla Warren.

Mayor Demarais announced that the City Council minutes are now required by State law to be posted within five days of the meeting and that the minutes were being recorded.

Comments from the Mayor included that Pankratz and himself had attended a meeting of the Hi-Line Foundation in regard to the city pool.

Demarais then asked for public comment; there was none.

The first item on the agenda was PWD Jim Truelove. He stated he would be spraying along the trail routes for weeds.

He also stated the mosquito truck has been out, he has slowed the truck down some and even if it is above minimal temperature, he is going to send him out, being the mosquitos are so bad. There may be a time when his schedule is switched to mornings to get a good kill before it is too hot to spray.

Truelove reported that the compacter at the landfill is back and in business. He said, “Levi is doing a heck of a job at the landfill.” Demarais added, “I was up there and it looks good.”

Clerk Lorie Bond stated she had provided each council member with a packet containing the items for the evening, including a copy of the current check register, June financials, shut-off list, payroll and overtime sheets, sick leave and vacation report.

Bond stated the Montana Leagues of Cities and Towns meeting will be Oct. 2-4 in West Yellowstone and requested permission for herself and Truelove to attend. Rummel made a motion to allow them to attend and Hicks followed with a second; motion passed.

Demarais announced that the gatekeeper position had been filled with Ben Campbell, he had started Friday.

Sheriff Jerry Lytle was present to give the Law Enforcement report, he provided a handout with the stats from his office. His report included a comparison to the report from last quarter. The calls for this quarter was at 840 for the county from April 1 to June 30, which is 5% higher than last month. There was an increase in sexual assaults, DUI’s and partner/family member assaults.

“There was a lot of drug stuff. We did do a couple drug busts within the city, pretty substantial seizures.” Law enforcement took just shy of five pounds of marijuana.

“Marijuana is legal now, but you can’t sell it in Phillips County and that is what he was doing,” Lytle said.

“Oh, I did not know that, that’s a new one on me,” responded Demarais.

“Medical is okay, but recreational cannot be sold here, we voted that down, they have to go somewhere else.”

“The total reported crimes and cases was 67, which is up 17.5% from last quarter. He stated that over 64.2% of the crimes occurred within the city. There was a substantial increase in arrests, to over 58% higher than last quarter, a total of 27; of those, 15 were in the city and 12 were in the county, which accounted for 55.5% of the arrests.”

Lytle said traffic stops were down 68% due primarily to time being spent on the investigation of crimes. The office staff participated in 222 hours of training. He said, “It seems like business picks up in the summertime.”

Deputy Matt Roberts then spoke, he is the lead canine officer and narcotics officer as well. He stated as per a text he received last night, the cartel has a heavy presence on the reservation at Hays. He said the meth is coming from Texas and the fentanyl is coming from south of the border.

Lytle was asked about the recent arrest in Dodson (for a 1984 murder), he replied, “He had been there several years, that kind of came as a surprise. How that came about was he and another inmate in Wyoming had escaped from the state prison and pretty much hid out on a semi on the trailer, and he drove to Oregon, and they ended up killing the truck driver there and made their way down to Texas. And the victim down there, the same thing, met up with this guy and killed him and buried him and they were caught in Florida. Both of them were taken back to Oregon, were convicted there, given life sentences and he was paroled after 25 years and ended up moving to Dodson. So, the State of Texas found out about that and said, well, we still have this open case; they have a pretty solid case.

“They took it to a grand jury and got a warrant for his arrest.”

Lytle said, “…with the information I have, I don’t know how they won’t get a conviction down there. As you know, Texas has a death penalty, he will probably more than likely sit in that chair for the last time.”

Melissa Moog asked of Sheriff Lytle, “This might be more of a District Attorney question, I don’t know. You were talking about the drugs and narcotics; do you guys work with any of the local AA and NA groups? I know it used to be people got sentenced to attend AA or NA meetings and though I know that doesn’t make someone get sober, but it does plant the seed.”

Lytle responded, “We don’t, they do, they can…be sentenced to them (AA and NA) through court, and it is an incentive rather than send them to prison…to do rehab, but we don’t work that closely with AA - the alcoholic issue…the narcotics stuff we haven’t done that in the past.”

Moog offered to get information to Roberts as to the AA and NA programs available.

Marilyn Taylor inquired as to whether the counties who allow the sale of marijuana get money from the state; the response was yes, they do, however, it is like 1%. Phillips County had voted to ban the sales years ago.

Taylor then asked, “Has a date been set, is there a company coming to put the new line in for the sewer? August is going to be here, you guys.”

Demarais said, “Not yet…I am hoping it will done. It has been through DEQ, it has to go back for response; it will be a little bit more - I don’t know how much they tore it apart and then the engineers have a chance to respond to questions DEQ has. That’s all I can tell you, Marilyn.”

The second reading and adoption of Ordinance 458 regarding animal vaccination was next on the agenda. The Ordinance met with the full approval of the council; a motion to approve it was provided by Hicks, seconded by Pankratz and passed.

Next was Resolution 1355, adopting the updated recreation and parks job description. Wiederrick made a motion, seconded by Rummel to adopt the resolution; motion passed. Following that action, Resolution 1356 was reviewed and a motion was made by Hicks, seconded by Wiederrick and with a 4-0 vote it was passed.

On the agenda was what to do with the city pool. Demarais referred to several pages of pictures of the pool. One was the south end of the pool.

Demarais said, “As you see, there is major, major structure damage there. Major. Ok? Major. Ok?” Then (showing another picture), “I believe this is the one next to the lifeguard chair. Here you see the separation where the pool is falling apart. The next picture is between the south end of the pool next to another lifeguard chair, I believe another piece fell out of there and when that is happening, it is not good, you guys.”

The next picture he referred to was next to the lifeguard chair on the west side of the pool, he referred to it as “major, major structure failure.” He stated, “…there was a guy reaching down, this caved it…this fell in. If there had been someone there, it would have been major, major damage, you guys. So the pool has had it, its had it. The pool is now singing its swan song.”

Demarais looked the audience over and said, “Now comes the hard part for me. Ok, you guys. I hate to be the bad guy, but I am going to. The pool is singing its swan song. With that being said, I recommend the pool be closed permanently. We cannot have this pool, it is structurally unsafe, it is a liability and putting any more money into it is not, absolutely not worth it. That’s my own thought.

I would like to see this happen, if any more damage, any major pieces fall off, I would like permission to close the pool immediately. No matter what is happening. Close it up. Lock it up. It’s done.”

Demarais then went on “…to number two, not enough staff to operate the pool safely and number three, when school starts. When are we going to lose staff that we can’t operate the pool, Laurie (Barrett)?

Laurie Barrett, Deputy City Clerk, replied that the majority of them would be gone by the 10th of August.

After an exchange of information on the availability of lifeguards, it came down to that only two would be available after the 10th. It takes a minimum of four lifeguards to operate the pool

With the structure and safety issues, it is not a good outlook.

“I hate to say it, but once it is closed, it will never open there again, forever again,” Demaris said.

The records and a search of the minds of the elders present came to a conclusion that the pool was built in 1954, or there abouts.

After thoughts were shared and tossed out, Demarais asked the audience what they think should be done.

Sascha Lulloff said, “I just think that is a terrible decision! There is a rising epidemic of kids who are obese, kids who are sitting inside doing nothing. The City should have something for them to do!”

She was reminded that the City has a recreational program which offers programs on a full time schedule.

The next 40 minutes was spent in dialog between those attending and the council members and mayor. This is much too long of interaction and the level of voices raised enough that an accurate assessment of what all transpired would be difficult.

As a reader, you can go to the City of Malta, Mont., website by typing in: cityofmalta.com and when the page comes up, go to online documents and forms on the right side of the screen; then select meeting recordings.

Since this was the initial entry and almost an experiment, the meeting is online in five segments due to the length of the recording. The meeting was one hour and thirty minutes in length.

Demarais set Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Event Center for the community to come and provide input, ideas, and information about the future of the pool.

The final agenda item was whether the pool would be open after August 10. With no action taken, the item died.

Wiederrick made a motion to adjourn, the motion was seconded and passed.

The next regular meeting of the council will be July 23 at 5 p.m.