St. Ignatius takes bids for water project
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ST. IGNATIUS — The St. Ignatius Town Council received one sealed bid for the former food pantry building at its Oct. 4 meeting. Friday was the closing date for the bid. Don and Myla Bohne put in a bid of $6,700, but after some discussion, Don agreed to pay a minimum bid of $8,000.
Before the council accepted the bid, Don said he believed that four feet of the building was on his property.
“The legal description says 120 feet, and I am now at 116 feet. There (are) four feet that (are) missing,” Bohne said. The Bohnes own the property adjacent to the building being sold.
There was discussion about hiring a surveyor, to make sure this claim was accurate, but the council decided to take the bid of $8,000 from the Bohnes.
Mayor Charles Gariepy announced he appointed Susan Dodson as the new animal control officer. St. Ignatius has had a long-term problem with loose and sometimes aggressive dogs. Dodson started her new position Sept. 27.
Scott Morton, public works director, also updated the council on repairs that were made to the skate park. Some of these repairs included sealing cracks, cutting out pavement and figuring out what type of paint would be needed to cover graffiti. The repairs came out of the skate park maintenance funds.
Morton also said that St. Mary’s and Crystal streets were chip- sealed, but adding grates to some streets is needed.
“We need them grated, like in front of the bank, water just sits there and causes a lot of problems,” Morton said.
He also reported that a pre-bid walk-through was held Sept. 29 and conference calls with engineers and agencies on Oct. 3. A new well is being installed and work will affect Mountain View, Home Addition and Arrow Street. The city is working with Montana’s Great West Engineering, and the walk-through and the conference were to get bids from agencies that would put in 16 pipes. Morton said some of the agencies were concerned that the town does not have approval from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes to drill a well, and in addition an easement for Taelman Park is needed from the Diocese of Helena. Morton is currently working to address both of these concerns.
Morton also explained that these pipes are larger, which is affecting a large area, because it is required that public water systems that use groundwater as a source must disinfect full-time with chlorine. This rule was made in 2009 by the Board of Environmental Review, a rule-making board formed by the Montana legislature, which approved the changes proposed by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
A special meeting of the town council will take place Tuesday, Oct. 11, to discuss this project.
