The City of California Board of Aldermen addressed a number of issues during its regular meeting April 4. Several discussions became intense before they were either resolved or tabled for future discussion.
The council accepted a bid of $16,800 from Iseler Demolition for demolition of the 105-year-old water tower at the corner of Owen and Patrick streets. The company bid the project at that rate as long as the tower could be taken down at the same time the city-owned water tower at Cargill is demolished. The Department of Natural Resources has been urging the demolition of the Owen Street water tower for many years for safety and environmental reasons. The tower has not been used since the million-gallon tower on Russellville Road was put into service.
The Russellville Road water tower is being cleaned and repainted at this time. This project began after the new water tower on the west end of town near the high school was put into service. Well No. 9 and the new well house at the site of the new water tower are complete.
One of the more intense discussions was what can be done about parking along Latham Road. The road is narrow and a snow route, so parking on it would be a possible problem in winter weather. In addition, traffic is expected to increase tremendously since a new subdivision is going in at the intersection of Latham Road and Rice Boulevard. The council discussed whether to eliminate parking on one or both sides of the street, with a decision deferred to a future meeting.
Installing street lights along Cedar Street was also a matter of vigorous discussion. No resolution was reached at the Monday meeting on whether to put street lights on long stretches of Cedar Street with no residences or to put them on other streets in the city with many residences that have long been without adequate street lighting.
Proctor Park's shelter house reservation system was also discussed. Currently, a number of families, groups and organizations have long-standing annual reservations - some as long as 20 years - at one of the four shelter houses. Plans are to begin an annual reservation system. A person wanting to reserve a shelter house for an upcoming event would contact Shirley Hayes at the California City Hall.
The council also discussed the dusk-to-dawn lights installed at a couple of the shelter houses. The new east side shelter house has 52 LED lights, which are on all night. At least one resident has complained about the lights at night.
In other business, the council approved the purchase of $7,835 reel trailer Vermeer Great Plains for the electric department. Approval was given to seek bids steel drum roller for the street department, as well as for release of the delinquent tax list. Delinquent personal property taxes on the list are $10,947.40, and delinquent real estate taxes on the list are $41, 055.73, for a total of $52,003.13.
The next regular meeting is May 2.