Council ponder infrastructure issues, waivers

Town council continued . . .

Due to space constraints, last week’s report on the March 12 town council meeting was unfinished. The other items discussed (besides the proposal for policing services by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office) are reported below:

The council also heard from Kennet Bertelsen, representing the town’s contracted engineering firm USKH, who had studied the barriers to mobility-impaired residents and visitors within the town of Odessa under a grant awarded by the four-county government entity Quadco. He and his crew took an inventory of the sidewalks (or lack thereof) on routes through town connecting all public facilities, including the school campus and athletic fields, the park and pool and the medical campus.

He said his office has completed a report which can be used to apply for grants to help get the problem areas fixed. The goal is to have all of the problem areas made accessible to those with disabilities, including adding wheelchair ramps, installing new sidewalks where there are none and so forth. ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance grants are also available for such projects, he said.

The Department of Transportation has some funding available, Bertelsen said, and in fact the town has already submitted a request for full replacement of Fourth Avenue from the school to the athletic fields. The cost is expected to be about $1.1 million. The project is still working its way toward the top of a list of DOT priorities.

Bertelsen told the council to keep requesting the funding, even if they are turned down at first, because persistence is also a factor in the funding process.

Waivers

The council, after some discussion, reluctantly waived the rental fee for the community center for the Ladies Night Out event put on by the Preschool Parent Cooperative.

Mayor Doug Plinski reminded the council that utilities for the properties owned by the town add up to about $1,800 per month (for the Old Town Hall, the community center, the police station and the city shop). He urged members to meet and establish some firmer guidelines for rental and usage of the town’s assets.

Commercial kitchen

Chairperson Lindsy Starkel reported to the mayor and council that the FBLA/Chamber fund-raising Valentine’s Day dinner raised approximately $2,000 to go toward the commercial kitchen in the community center. Current plans are for a 20 x 20-foot addition to the building, so as not to reduce any of the interior space. In addition, she has applied for additional grant money from Farm Credit Services.

Starkel will now direct the designer she has been working with to rough out the plumbing and electrical work on drawings. Work on the addition is expected to begin by the end of April or beginning of May.

FAA charges double

Plinski reported that he has been informed by the FAA that municipalities must now pay 5 percent of airport costs, up from 2.5 percent. This is, of course, double what was budgeted for, so the council will have additional difficult decisions to make to find the funds needed.

The council’s next meeting is Monday, March 26, in the Odessa Public Library at 7 p.m.