Nov 8 council meeting

Well we seem to be getting settled into our new "Council Chambers" of the community center. I like that there is a lot more room, and I like that some of the council members no longer have to have their backs to the crowd.

Anyway, first up we chose a new city council member to replace Erin Varley who is moving away. And that new member is Doug Sargent. I think he will do a fine job, and I appreciate his interest in helping the community in this way. His term will be up on Dec 31, 2011, so I guess he gets a chance to see if he likes it, as he will have to file for re-election next fall.

Not a lot on the docket. Here are some of the highlights. We approved a direction for the city engineer to start determining a plan and getting bids for cleaning the ditch on North Cottonwood, and regrading Britson Park, to hopefully help with storm water runoff. As for Britson Park, once that is done, the Park Board will be able to get grass seed in the park next spring, and get some green grass growing there.

We had a bit of discussion about tree trimming. The council decided to waive the billing on some properties that did not request trees to be trimmed. That is something we as a council need to work on--communicating proper direction of work for city employees, and making a better effort on notification of how and what needs to be trimmed in homeowners yards. Hopefully next year will go more smoothly. We did note the huge pile of limbs and branches at our tree dump.

We approved a pay request for much of the new streets in west Roland. I walked out there tonite, and other than some work around manholes, and the intersection of Bryan and Industrial, we are looking close to done.

Also we found out that the collapsed sewer line on Logan Street is not as bad as previously mentioned. There is just one spot that is a bit troublesome, not a length of it as first reported with the first televising crew we hired. They had some outdated and oversized equipment that didn't work well. Nice to know we haven't paid them yet. A more modern company was hired, videoed the sewer, and we are in pretty good shape. Good news for the sewer rate payers of Roland.

And at the council meeting, we approved the 09/10 financial report. The city finished the fiscal year $9000 to the black, so that is a good thing. Yay!