Plains council members sworn in

Members of the first town council meeting of the year in Plains had a busy night with more than a dozen items on their agenda, with Danny Rowan at his first council meeting as mayor.

The fire and police department chiefs were both on hand, along with four of the five council members. Missing was anyone from the general public. Just the same, it was a busy night for the council.

Three of them – Chris Allen, Joel Banham and Audrey Kolbeck – were sworn in by the mayor for new four-year terms. Chad Cantrell was appointed to fill Rowan's Ward 3 vacancy. Cantrell, who has lived in Plains for some 20 years and is a member of the Sanders County Sheriff's Office, will serve two years left on Rowan's term. Allen, the most senior member of the council, was voted to fill the slot of council president, formerly Rowan's position.

Fixing the town streets was one of the main agenda items last Tuesday at City Hall. With funds mainly from the new Road District Tax, the council unanimously voted to start with Farmer Street, which is in the worst condition. Rowan said one of the problems is drainage, which causes a large pool of deep water after snow melts and heavy rainstorms. He said they've looked at two options. One is to have it drain under Railroad Street to a site on the greenway, which means the town would have to get permission from the railroad and get state permits, which Rowan said could take a long time.

He said the most viable option is to purchase a lot west-north-west of Farmer Street, which is the direction it naturally slopes, and use that as a draining site. He said it would be less expensive and no permits would be needed because it would be owned by the town. He hopes to begin work in the spring or early summer. Rowan said he'd like to tackle roads on the south side of Railroad that empty onto Railroad Street after Farmer is done.

The sewage lagoon is another major concern for council members. Forty-five feet of the shoreline was lost to the Clark Fork River last year, said Rowan, who added that they have about another 110 feet before the river gets to the lagoon. The town is working with KLJ Engineering from Kalispell to rectify the problem, but he said it might cost more than $1-million. Rowan said they don't have the funds in the budget and are looking at applying for four government grants. He said they presently don't have any plans to borrow funds and he's unsure at this time whether or not sewer rates will go up.

It's also grant money that Fire Chief Anthony Young is hoping to utilize to get a new fire hall built. The present building, which the department shares with public works, is too small and in need of electrical and structural work. Young has met with an architect and is awaiting preliminary plans. He believes it will cost about $400,000 to build it on a parcel of town property on Fourth Street. Young said the present building is only about 1,000 square feet. A new building, which Rowan said would be around 5,000 square feet, would be large enough to house all four of their vehicles. It's an endeavor that Young said is a couple years down the road.

Young told the council that the department is joining with the Plains-Paradise Rural Fire District to conduct hazardous material training this month. The training, being put on by the department's Capt. Tom Zeigler, will include classroom instruction and a field day exercise.

"We don't have a lot of people in this area that are hazmat operational," said Young, who's been chief for a year and is hazmat certified. "We are doing the hazmat because we want to be prepared in the event of a hazmat call, I don't want my guys going into something they are not trained for," said Young.

Police Chief Shawn Emmett is also planning to have government grants help pay for new patrol cars at a cost of some $85,000, which would replace his eight-year-old car and Ethan Harvey's 2008 vehicle. Emmett said the rural development grant would pay for 75 percent of the total cost. "If the officer does not have a reliable vehicle, it is a safety hazard for not only the officer, but for the public in general," said Emmett.

The council discussed placing nearly a dozen one-way road signs on some of its alleys/lanes, including Scott Lane, where a gate blocking the entrance at one end was taken down by public works in November. Four residents of Scott Lane asked that the gate be put back up. Council member John Curry talked to members of the ambulance service, police department and public works to get their input on the gate and all preferred it to be down.

Because members of the public got out of hand at the December meeting over the Scott Lane gate issue, Rowan said they will be enforcing the Roberts Rules of Order at council meetings from now on.

The council also voted unanimous for the Plains library to transfer $52,226.11. The money was supposed to go to the town, but Sanders County had mistakenly transferred the tax money to the library by the county last July. Town and county officials have been trying to iron out the problem ever since. Rowan said the issue has escalated to the point of talking about suing the county. He said it shouldn't have taken this long to get their funds and believes someone at the county should be held accountable for the mistake.