Fire District
From Chief John Staley:
The Lockwood Fire District welcomes new Board members Cliff Mahoney, Bob Bell, and Robert Guenther on May 6th.
The District will be putting the newly purchased brush truck into service in late April.
The District has ordered mannequins and supplies and will be developing a list of course offerings for Lockwood citizens this summer and fall in both CPR and Automatic Defibrillator training.
Water and Sewer District
From Woody Woods:
- Project 2015-01 will bid on April 30th. Successful responsive low bidder with be reviewed and upon approval of Engineer’s analysis and recommendation, contract will be awarded.
- Project 2015-02 is currently in design and is scheduled to be bid in late July/ early August. Construction is anticipated to start in the fall and be completed by summer 2016.
- Applicant’s for the manager’s position were interviewed and an offer made to one of the applicant’s. The Board will know by Friday the 24th whether or not he will accept the offer.
- Manager and Board president have met with the City of Billings to review the upcoming wastewater rates that the District pays to the City for treatment of Lockwood’s wastewater. After review by staff and the District’s Engineer, it will be reviewed again with the City to see if adjustments need to be made to our charges.
School District
From Tobin Novasio:
SB 107 was defeated on third reading today 52-48. This is rare but nothing has been typical with this bill.
We have several facilities projects getting started for summer. We are renovating an old locker room to provide more appropriate and conveniently located restrooms for events in Sturdevant Gym. This will also allow us to keep the public out of the classroom areas. We will be fully tied in to the sewer system this summer and are revamping our Primary parking lot in order to make it safer during drop off and pick up times. We are putting in an LED reader board and speed limit signs with radar readers along US 87.
We are in the process of interviewing for several teaching positions.
We also created a Special Programs Director position that will allow us to focus on more grant opportunities.
The PTA is actively raising funds for the Lion’s Lair 2.0 project.
Pedestrian Safety District
From Nic Talmark:
- We are going to be hosting a public meeting on Monday, May 11th from 7:00 – 8:00 pm in the Lockwood Middle School Commons area. This meeting serves a couple functions: 1) It is a requirement we need to fulfill in order for our Non-Motorized Transportation Plan to have regulatory teeth. 2) It provides an opportunity for the community to review the preliminary plan and provide comment and feedback. We will have an informational flyer made up here in the next couple of days with all of the details; I’ll get that to you once it’s ready. If you could distribute that through your email group it would be very helpful and appreciated.
- We anticipate the engineering will be completed shortly on the Hwy 87 path and we will begin the bid process in May. It is still our goal to break ground shortly after school gets out and be completed before school begins next fall (although it may wrap up shortly after school begins, but we are still pushing to get it done as soon as possible). Either way, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A SAFE PATH FOR OUR KIDS TO WALK ON!! And that is something worth celebrating! We plan to have a ground breaking ceremony with multiple officials and media present to commemorate the event.
- Multiple members of our board attended the County Commissioners meeting Tuesday and the LPSD supports the decision to move forward to Phase II, the comprehensive design stage of the TEDD in order to determine the true impact and costs of the TIF district. Through a LOT of hard work amongst BSED, YRPA, LPSD, MDT, and many others, we have come up with an alternate path concept that will keep non-motorized traffic off of the new bypass corridor and the TEDD seems to be an appropriate mechanism to facilitate the design, cost, and construction of that path system.
- The bike safety class was canceled and will be rescheduled for a later date TBD.
Irrigation District
From Carl Peters:
Intake: Applications for the required permits for intake work are in the review stage.
Pump Station: Repairs have been made to discharge check valves on pumps 2 & 3. Continued repairs will be made on the lower (60′ lift) canal discharge pipe.
Distribution System: Canal burning has begun today, April 21st.
Irrigation water users on open laterals are reminded to keep them clean. Maintenance of all laterals, open or piped are the responsibility of the property owners and users of the lateral. Maintenance of the two main canals in Lockwood are the responsibility of Lockwood Irrigation District.
Business work group
From Bob Riehl:
At our April 14th meeting we had Candi Millar share with us the work they are doing on Zoning in Lockwood. She explained the dotted maps prepared at the Lockwood Steering Committee Meeting in February and solicited input.
We discussed SB107 Status and work being done by Tobin Novasio and others. Thanks very much for all the work they have done. The outcome was a disappointment for many.
The TEDD and associated Pedestrian Safety District Activity. The TEDD was moved to Phase II at the Commissioners meeting on April 21st
–submitted by Bob Riehl