Malta City Council Recap

At the final Malta City Council meeting for August, Malta City Clerk Lorie Bond asked the Council per-mission to open the City’s gym and weight room once positive COVID-19 in Phillips County got under a total of four, which —as of Sunday, September 5, it had — and the Council agreed.

A public hearing was held on the night to receive comments on the annual street maintenance as-sessment for the City of Malta. That total, according to Clerk Bond, is $118,432.37 for 2020-21. The an-nual street lighting assessment for $105,828.06 was also discussed. Motions were made and passed for both of the assessment later in the meeting. The annual garbage assessment for $295,424.00 was also discussed and passed.

During department reports, Malta Public Works Director Jim Truelove reported that all the crosswalks near Malta schools had been repainted ahead of the start of classes. Director Truelove concluded by reported that the Catholic Well House repairs had been made and the utility was to be turned back on.

Malta Pool Manager Kelly Cedarberg gave the Parks and Rec Report. Although the pool had to officially close almost two months early on August 8th this year, she reported that they came in just $1000 short of her goal of $10,000. She noted that the new programs they had this year, pool parties, and the sponsorship program, were a huge success. The pool averaged about 120 swimmers per day when counting kids receiving swimming lessons and 50-60 kids on average that were not taking lessons. There were 3 sessions of lessons before the early shut-down happened, and refunds will be given for the remainder of the third session.

In New Business, Kari Hould put in a request to put up a temporary display in Veterans Memorial Park for POW/MIA Recognition Day on Friday, September 18th. The motion passed by unanimous consent. Hould also requested to decorate the monuments with teal and purple solar lights for Suicide Aware-ness week, September 6-12. This motion also passed unanimously.

A special meeting was held by the Council on August 31 starting with a public hearing on Resolution 1294 to set the mills to be levied for the 2020-21 Malta City budget. Clerk Bond stated that 211.48 mills would be levied $2,454.384 each, generating $519,053 in taxes. Clerk Bond presented each Councilperson with a copy of the budget. Following the public meeting, the council approved the resolution —all Board members voting yes — before Mayor Demarais pre-sented the Council with the 2020-21 budget which was also unanimously passed.