Town councilmen, manager point to finances on stormwater issues

Thursday, June 9, 2022
Cloverdale Town Hall

CLOVERDALE – With Town Attorney Richard Shagley unable to attend, the Cloverdale Town Council did not address various items relating to contracts and local laws at its regular meeting Tuesday evening.

With other items on its agenda, though, council members spoke on frustrations with road deterioration and flooding throughout the town due to persistent stormwater problems.

“Quite frankly, we have enough chuckholes that we can use a whole dump truck-load of fill,” developer Don Gedert said to get the discussion going. “Some of them are larger (and) can almost swallow a VW.”

Summing up the argument at the start, Gedert dictated that stormwater is contributing to the roads’ deterioration, and that the focus had to be on addressing drainage before paving them in the future. In response, Councilman Greg Jay said that Town Manager Jason Hartman – who was present – had been working on “putting some numbers together” on potential projects.

The subject ultimately came down to expenses and whether the town could seek grants or other financial means. In the meantime, Jay provided, patching and chip-and-sealing were acknowledged as temporary fixes until major repairs are feasible in the next few years.

“We have some pretty major funding available in the stormwater board,” Gedert said, with it being specified that Cloverdale’s stormwater board has about $300,000 – collected over many years – in its coffers. Jay emphasized that this “would not even begin” to cover repairs in the Stardust Hills subdivision or elsewhere.

Hartman said the town had a stormwater study done in 2008, in which $4.7 million in projects were considered. This amount, he estimated in terms of inflation, is likely worth at least six million now. He noted further that this was town-wide. This study, he said, is now being revised with an engineer to potentially go for a $500,000 grant through the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA).

“There is a lot of work that Jason’s been doing, and it doesn’t come out in these meetings,” Council President Rick Dearwester put in. “It takes time to get these grants, the funding right. A lot of it we don’t know for sure. We’re just trying to get all the eggs in one basket.”

“And we want to do the project right,” Jay added. “We’re not going to fix drainage for free.”

Professing that he was a realist, Stardust Hills Owners Association President David Fish said from the audience that he would be OK with digging out ditches in the subdivision while funding is procured. Even so, standing water continues to flow back up into homes.

“I understand the long-term solution is to put drainage systems in. That’s going to take time, but I need a short-term solution now – we do,” Fish said. “It (digging ditches out) may not look pretty, but it’s better than losing our homes and losing half the town because we all have to move out because they’re destroyed by water.”

Hartman said stormwater has “hands down” been the most consistent complaint since becoming town manager. In the end, he said the stormwater board will have to make an executive decision on what repairs to do and how to fund them, though this might not go far initially.

In other business:

• Hartman gave an update on the progress of the Doe Creek Meadows subdivision, saying that curbs would be in “any day now.” He added that there had been relocation issues with a water line and a storm drain, but noted that the latter was in the county’s right of way. He provided that new homes would be installed between now and into next month.

• Clerk-Treasurer Kelly Maners stated that she had tapped Sept. 13 and Oct. 11 to hold a public hearing and an adoption hearing, respectively, on the town’s budget for 2023. The hearings would be attached to the council’s regular meetings scheduled on these dates.

Dearwester volunteered to sit on executive sessions when Maners and department heads will discuss needs. She said Councilman Brandon Tancak was willing to also sit in on these meetings.

• With insurance for town employees set to expire at the end of the month, the council approved to go with Aim Medical Trust for four-year health, dental and vision policies. With Maners having gotten three quotes, she said rate increases would come with each of them, but that Aim’s was the least expensive with positive feedback from other municipalities.

Maners noted that out-of-pocket expenses are half of the current ones, and that renewal would occur Jan. 1 instead of mid-year. As such, with Maners saying the funds were available, it was also stipulated that the town would cover premium changes for the rest of the year.

• Town Marshal Steve Hibler related that Cloverdale police have recently dealt with aggressive dogs loose in the town, especially in Stardust Hills. With a newly revamped ordinance giving more leverage to police with unattended domestic animals, he asked for help from the public getting the word out about citations being issued.

“We had that under control pretty well, and all the sudden here it’s starting (to get out of control),” Hibler suggested with agreement from Jay.

With Shagley absent along with Tancak and Council Vice President Larry Fidler, Councilwoman Cindy Holland joined Hartman, Dearwester, Jay, Maners and Hibler for the meeting.

The next regular meeting of the Cloverdale Town Council is set for Tuesday, July 12 at 7 p.m. in the Cloverdale Town Hall.

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  • I did not know Gedert was director of the Cloverdale Town board. Sounds like it. Maybe the elected board members should all show for the monthly meetings.

    -- Posted by becker on Fri, Jun 10, 2022, at 9:18 AM
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