Malta City Council Meeting recap

The Malta City Council held their bi-weekly meeting on Tuesday, March 26.

The Council addressed a few post-winter issues and discussed a couple of new topics in New Business.

As the City has thawed out, Malta Department of Public Works director Jim Truelove revealed that the City Crew has been diligently working to steam and jet frozen storm-water lines over the last couple of weeks.

Director Truelove claimed that approximate 60 bales of cardboard have been made in a week and a half from the cardboard that Malta Opportunities and the City had collected over the winter. Truelove also mentioned that all the old pool filters at the City Pool have been removed and that new filters were about a month out.

As far as street work, the City had planned on beginning street sweeping to remove dirt put down during the winter months and Director Truleove also announced that the City has ordered a pallet or 64 bags of asphalt to patch holes within the streets of Malta.

Truelove also announced that the 621 loader was sent to Billings because there was power lost. The machine was limited to two gears. Mayor expressed that the City needs to have a functioning loader, saying that it is one of the City’s most important pieces of machinery.

The cost of a new loader would be $175,000, but both Mayor John Demarais and Director Truelove believe that it is not necessary to purchase a new loader.

Mayor Demarais announced that he would be attending the Municipal Elected Officials Program, an annual training event for all elected officials in the state, which occurs in Bozeman early this May. Mayor Demarais had previously attended the event in 2018.

In New Business, an Amendment was signed for the plat of W17' Lot 42, Lot 43, Lot 44, Block one, Trafton's 1st Addition to Malta MT, and sent to the treasurer's office. The amendment is for extra parking near the City Hall building. The land was sold to the City by Lloyd’s Auto Parts.

Also, in New Business, the City renewed the contract for the lawn keeping services of Bryan Benton. Benton approached the council for a $500 increase, a bid of $12,920 that the City accepted and approved for the 2019 season which starts on Wednesday, May 1, and ends on Tuesday, October 1.

“You did a good job for us and I was very impressed," Mayor Demarais said to Benton.

In case the grass-growing season will last past October 1, the City agreed to reassess the end date on 2019 Benton’s contract. Benton will cut and maintain City-owned properties including Hillcrest Park, St. Mary’s Well House, the Woman’s Club House, the City Pool, the Rest Area and two extra spots, the Little League Field, the softball fields, Riverview Park, and the Robinson Well.

The City approved a Consultant Agreement for the professional services of Great West Engineering to determine the maximum amount of water that the City can safely sell daily to TransCanada for the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which was just pushed through by executive order by President Donald Trump on Friday, March 29.