Lind signs contract with Ecology

The Lind Town Council met on May 10 with a large group of citizens in attendance.

Alan Gay from Stantec began the meeting by advising the council he had the contract for the Stormwater project in hand from the Department of Ecology (Ecology) and it was ready to be signed by the Mayor pending council approval.

By signing the contract the Town can begin to incur costs to be covered by the grant and loan monies. The council approved the signage of the contract save for Councilpersons Paula Bell and Kathy White.

Gay also advised he began the process with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway for the exploratory test pit and advised it would take four weeks to process the paper work and cost $775.

After the test pit is dug in this location another pit will be dug on the Department of Natural Resources ground near Fourth Street and L Street. Once Gay knows what the ground looks like in these locations they can submit their final plans to Ecology after this summer.

Once approval has been received from Ecology, Gay hopes to begin the bidding process for contractors in the fall. He also advised the Town can go for bids on the culvert cleaning at any time now and have this cost covered by the grant.

The grant is a total of $558,000 and the loan is in the amount of $98,000 with a 2.4 percent interest rate. The grant funds need to be used by June of 2018 and the loan is a 20-year loan.

Gay then asked for the council to approve a payment to Stantec for the design fees already incurred. To date, Gay has used 60 percent of the design fees budgeted. The total funds requested were approximately $44,000. The council approved this expenditure with Bell opposed.

Mayor Jamie Schmunk advised the Town has hired seasonal help for the summer months. She also stated the service line on Sixth Street has been repaired by the town employees until grant money can be acquired to fix the street and piping system.

Schmunk then announced she represented Lind-Ritzville Schools in a Regional bus driving competition and received first place. She additionally was a member of the team competition where they earned second place.

The competition is held in Freeman and involves completing an obstacle course. Schmunk stated she is very proud of the accomplishment as it shows the safety protocols the schools adhere to for their students.

The Pacific Animals Society will be in Lind on May 20 to complete a feral cats trap and release program. They will capture cats, spay or neuter them and give them their shots and then release them. This helps to control the population of feral cats.

The Mayor then looked to the crowd to hear their comments, which circled around the topic of allowing chickens within the town limits.

Recently, a letter was sent to those residents who have chickens and are not in the proper zone. Most of the citizens who requested to speak were those who received the letter.

After hearing from the concerned citizens the Mayor and Council discussed adding verbiage to the current animal ordinance to allow six to eight chickens per household and absolutely no roosters. They also discussed specific pen sizes as a part of the requirements.

The council passed a motion to suspend the fines for having these chickens until they have further discussed the issue and possibly passed an amendment to their ordinance allowing the chickens.

Any residents who would like to participate in the discussion are encouraged to attend the next Town Council Meeting where the issue was tabled for on May 24 at 7 p.m.