MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 1, 2022 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
MEETING WAS HELD AT HOT SPRINGS TOWN HALL 109 MAIN STREET, HOT SPRINGS, MT 

and via Zoom

CALL TO ORDER BY Mayor Woods at 7:00 pm

ROLL CALL Present-Weatherly, Smith, Aldridge, Graham, Woods, Gray

Also present: Steven Sheffield, Starla Rice, Ron Smerzgalski, Scott and Ladonna Vollmer, Cody Scott, Emmitt Tucker, Maura Williams, Tina Bouquet 

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES Smith/Aldridge 4-0 pass

PRESENTATION OF CLAIMS Woods explained claims that were not regular monthly claims. Magda Nelson did the AFR for FY21, and the State of MT is the filing fee for the AFR. Power Industries is the company we bought the new sewer jetter from. Amy explained an increase in expenses to ME Labs due to an increase in shipping fees for water and sewer samples.   Motion to approve claims  Smith/ Graham 4-0 pass

FINANCIAL REPORTS for December Aldridge/Smith 4-0 pass

REPORTS

MAYOR We have been busy with end of year and beginning of year stuff. We applied for a grant through MT Coal Endowment and have been awarded $15,000 to help with the sewer PER. At the same time, we applied for some of the pot B ARPA funds and have been approved for $22,000 to help with the sewer PER. The Town will use Pot A ARPA funds to pay for the rest of the SEWER PER. This PER is going to focus on the lagoon liners and sewer line from A Street to the old sewer plant which is the main line going to the lift station. We have done a great job maintaining things over the years but things have exceeded the life expectancy by more than double and are starting to fail. There are rotting pipes in the lagoons and the blowers are starting to fail. We will see a resolution at the March meeting to request the Barsaa money for this year. We have received some information about insurance you can buy for your personal sewer line through Montana Rural Water. If you are interested, contact us regarding that information. 

PUBLIC WORKS- Employees have been sanding, salting, plowing and continue to work on other issues around town. We purchased a new jetter and the crew was scheduled to go to Salt Lake City for training. Dan was unable to attend due to his bus schedule and Mark was sick so Wayne Lytton went with Mike. They used our jetter during the training so they were able to see a live demo of how to operate our own jetter. They showed them how to use the camera as well. The jetter has an antifreeze package so you can use it when it is cold and then put it away and the antifreeze recycles to winterize it and keep it from freezing up. 

FIRE DEPT has has a couple of traffic accidents. We also had a practice fire and burned down an old house. This made us aware of some things we need to do with the trucks for cold weather. 

POLICE report provided by Chief Pfleger, presented by Mayor Woods. A couple of our officers went to IED (improvised explosive device) training. 

CLERK Spoke with Torgersons regarding the excavator. The couplers were backordered but are supposed to be here at the beginning of March. 

Training coming up for Court Clerk, Clerk Institute, and Mike went to training for lead and copper

LIBRARY presented by Starla

ZONING COMPLIANCE 1 permit request by someone who wants to put a garage on her property on E St. Zoning Compliance permits are used to make sure you are doing things correctly before you do them.

COMMUNICATIONS/PUBLIC COMMENT FOR EACH AGENDA ITEM WILL BE ALLOWED

NEW BUSINESS

OPEN CONTAINER REQUEST FOR BANDITOS WEEKEND Smith/Weatherly 4-0 pass

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT CONFLICT OF INTEREST FOR RANDY WOODS 

Smith/Aldridge 4-0 pass

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT CONFLICT OF INTEREST FOR ED WEATHERLY 

Smith/ Graham 3-0 pass Weatherly abstain due to conflict of interest.

FY20 AFR ADJUSTING ENTRIES Smith/ Graham 4-0 pass

FY20 AFR  Aldridge/Smith 4-0 pass

PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDA ITEM

Woods called for public comment on non-agenda items

Bouquet discussed that she would like to see the suicide awareness training that was provided by  Whiteline Consulting and Frederick Lee a few weeks ago presented at the school. She also stated she didn’t understand who to ask for help getting this out to the public and indicated she would like the town to be more involved. 

Woods explained that the town had nothing to do with the activities that occur at the school and that it would need to be something set up between the school and Mr. Lee and it wouldn’t involve the town. He explained that when the trainer was here he explained some of the resources he has seen available in other areas. He asked Ms. Bouquet if she was asking the town if they would put a group together and sponsor a meeting to which she replied yes that is what she wanted. Woods said we could look into it and see what interest was out there. 

Woods asked if there was any other public comment on non-agenda items, there was none.

ADJOURN  8:00 Smith/Weatherly 4-0 pass