Union-Bulletin

Members of the council are Eric Pickard, LaVerne Mitchell, John Shafer, Deborah Hayward and Carol Speed. Mayor is Charles Vickery. With all present Thursday the council:

• CALEDONIAN GAMES: Granted request from Caledonian Days group to be put on calendar for July 9-11. Unanimous.
• WASTEWATER PROJECT: Following a report from Chas Hutchins of Anderson Perry & Associations regarding water/wastewater project awarded bid to Premier Excavation, Inc. of Richland. Premier was one of 21 bidders. Bids ranged from $448,000 to 989,000. Premier's bid was $448,638. Unanimous.
• REMODEL: Learned Phase I of the City Hall remodel project is nearly complete. The council will decide in April whether to proceed with Phase II.
• PLANNING: Approved a fee increase requested by the Planning Commission requested for development permits if property owner proceeds without obtaining the permit before beginning a project. The cost will double to $80. Permits cost $40 if obtained before construction begins. Unanimous.
• GRANT: Approved resolution to receive a risk management grant. Unanimous.
• LOAN: Signed clean water state revolving loan fund agreement. Amount of the loan is $1,543,900. Unanimous.
• FRANCHISE: Renewed 20-year franchise agreement with Pacificorp at the present rate of 3.5 percent. Unanimous.
• FIRE PRACTICE: Learned the fire exercise on Currant Avenue was successful. Debris will be removed soon. Firefighters did a test burn on an apartment building that partially burned two years ago.
• POOL: Learned that applications are being taken for head lifeguards and assistant lifeguards for the summer swimming pool season.