County updated on Coldbrook project
By Curt Nettinga

HOT SPRINGS n Tim Temeyer from the Army Corps of Engineers was on hand Tuesday to update the Fall River County Commissioners on the Coldbrook Channel Project, planned to begin as soon as funding can be found for the disaster mitigation project.

Temeyer spoke to the commissioners at their normally scheduled Jan. 15 meeting.

The channel project will widen and deepen the existing channel, to insure that in the event of a heavy rainfall north of Hot Springs; the influx of water would be safely diverted.

“Our intention is to remove an average of two feet of dirt and debris from the channel,” Temeyer said. “With the existing channel, which is approximately 30-feet wide, we should be able to accommodate about 1,500 cubic feet per second of water, the equivalent of what the Corps terms as a 500-year flood.”

Temeyer noted that the overflow pipe in Coldbrook as well as the spillway on the east side will both flow into the channel in the event of a catastrophic rain in the area which drains into Coldbrook Reservoir.

“These are both safeguards,” Temeyer said. “They are designed to help insure that the dam itself doesn’t fail when a large amount of water is quickly dumped into the lake.”

Cindy Maszk from the State office of Emergency management was also at the meeting. Maszk handles pre-disaster mitigation funding for projects in the state and said that there are grant funds available for the project. She said she and Fall River County Emergency Manager Frank Maynard would be working on a grant application for the project.

“There are some grants available which would be on a 75-25 basis,” she said.

Maynard noted that the county’s 25 percent portion of the grant could include equipment, time and other in-kind services. He said work on the application should be completed by the end of the week.

Temeyer said that unlike a similar project being done by the City of Hot Springs, the county’s portion of the channel requires no purchase of property. “Since the channel had not been used for water for a long time, people in town had built in the channel and those buildings had to be managed,” he said. “Outside the city limits, there are no structures in the channel.”

The commission opened bids for the spraying of the county’s right-of-way this summer.

In December, only one bid had been received n from Mid-Dakota Vege-tation in Miller, for 600 miles of road at a total cost of more than $26,000.

That bid was rejected and the project was re-bid on a per-mile basis for approximately 500 miles.

Two bids were received; another from Mid-Dakota for $33 per mile and one from West River Weed Control of Newell for $27.50 per mile.

The commission voted to refer the bids to the county’s weed supervisor for a recommendation.

Maynard reported that the signs for the railroad crossings near Edgemont were in and he expected that they would be installed very soon.

In other actions, the commissioners:

• Agreed to a three year contract with Election Systems Software for election materials.

• Set a hearing for 9:50 a.m. on Feb. 5 for private road work by county employees. Private individuals who wish the county to do work would need to petition the county and the county would be limited to six hours per year for an individual.

• Set a malt beverage/liquor license transfer from Maverick Junction, Inc./Angostura Den to Angostura Den, Inc. for Feb. 5 at 10:50 a.m.

• Appointed Heath Greenough, Loyd Thomsen and Paul Charbonneau to two-year terms on the weed board and John Bogner, Terry Hammel and Jerry Wyatt to four-year terms. Charbonneau will serve as president and Greenough is vice-president.

• Appointed John Sides of Oelrichs to the county extension board and heard year-end reports from Sally Park-Hageman and Mark Fanning.

• Heard complaints from Tom Davis and Susan Henderson regarding snow removal in two places in the county.

• Heard the quarterly report from Tracy Bowman, county health nurse.