The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Board Votes To Keep Spray Park Open Longer Hours

By: Shirley Linder, Quill Editor

At the regular meeting of the Village of Stronghurst Board on August 7th, the trustees voted to have the spray park open from noon until 7 p.m. Ronnie Gittings said the spray park uses approximately 40 gallon of water per minute or 2400 gallon per hour.

Having it run for 7 hours a day will use approximately 85,000 to 90,000 gallon of water per day. The cost runs around $9 an hour for the water. There was a discussion about how much it is used and people are reserving the shelter house and want the spray park open for their families.

Chris Cooper of MSA Engineering said his firm has reviewed 5 packets of plans for the new water tower. The contractor has submitted a request to be paid for drawings and mobilization fees.

The request is for $49,875 which includes the drawings, mobilization and bonds.

On a motion by Amanda Kane, seconded by Bruce Caldwell the board voted to pay the requested amount.

The vote was then amended to pay the amount if the contractors showed up by August 14th as scheduled, since they have not kept their schedules previously.

Gittings reported there is not much known about well #4.

They do not know if it is cased or not, they do know it as drilled in 1959. Right now they cannot run the well for a full day at a time due to the water table.

He had received bids to rejuvenate it as discussed last month.

All bidders would check the well out with a camera before deciding the best course of action to rejuvenating it. The pump would be pulled and then the well would be chemically treated or air blasted depending on the best solution after seeing what was down there.

The bids came in at 1- $4,450; 2-$13,668; 3- $9,000 and 4- $8,888.50.

After much discussion the board decided if they were going to spend this amount of money on fixing up an old well they would prefer to look at the cost of a new one. Gittings will do some checking on sites and cost for digging a new well.

Police report for July included: 142.5 hours worked; 884 squad car miles; 4 traffic stops; 4 verbal warnings; 1 uniform ticket; 1 notice to appear; 5 service calls; 22 business checks.

In other business:

• Approved the minutes of the previous meeting
• Approved paying the bills
• Answered David Knutstrom questions regarding how to measure property for building a new house. 10 foot from neighbor's property line; 25 foot from street and 6 foot off alley.
• Bob Manning requested some asphalt in front of his drive to correct a problem where water stands.
• Approved Randy Jarvis laying 150 foot of sidewalk instead of the previous approved 100 foot.
• Heard village employer, Bryan Bohnenkamp's last day would be September 25th as he is moving to Texas.
• McIntyre property is about the same and Mayor Brendan Schaley instructed Police Chief Arbry Vancil to tell them not to park their vehicles on the sidewalk.
• Liquor license committee is slowly working on an ordinance. There is no working draft as yet.
• Heard Chase Gibb had attempted to purchase another building on Broadway, but it had fallen through so he is done unless there is some ground he can build on.
• Approved getting 2 wash stations an extra port-a-potty for the Fall Festival in the Stronghurst Park. At the festival there will be a bouncy house, live band, mums, meal, 30+ vendors and the Old Tymers will bring their antique tractors
• Jerry Nortrup said he had been asked if the stop signs at Dixon and Broadway could be taken out and replaced with yield signs. Board said no.
• Dave Vancil said there are more pot holes on North Street and Broadway Street.
• Bruce Caldwell said Monte Klossing had requested the ditch in front of Barb Klossing's be filled. Board said if Klossing wanted to park there they would need to buy a culvert to put in.
• Brendan Schaley instructed Arbry Vancil to work on getting old vehicles out of yards and off the streets.
• Schaley asked Gittings to get the golf cart signs up at the entrances into town.
• Schaley reported Small World is closing August 18th leaving approximately 20 families looking for child care.
• The village is required to have hand washing station in rest room at park. Gittings will take care of this.
• Morgan Lewis reported the board was $45,000 to the good this month.
• Discussed tree removal in the park and the replacement of trees by the Hubbard Memorial.

On a motion by Mike Bohenkamp, seconded by Bruce Caldwell the board entered executive session at 8:20 for the purpose of personnel.

Present were: Mayor Brendan Schaley; Trustees, Mike Bohnenkamp, Amanda Kane, Bruce Caldwell, David Vancil, Jerry Nortrup; (Shane Reed absent);

Employees, Morgan Lewis, Ronnie Gittings, Arbry Vancil, Attorney Bill Rasmussen; Guests, Chris Cooper, David Knutstrom, Lori Taylor, Bob Manning, Randy Jarvis, Shirley Linder.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 5th.