Council retreat covered plenty of topics

De-annexing a portion of Electric City was one topic of discussion at a retreat its city council held March 18 to discuss various matters.

The council and mayor reviewed with the city attorney the process for de-annexing a large part of the city that was added several years ago, moving the boundary further south and encompassing land on the other side of Osborne Bay on Banks Lake.

Kohout said the city will ask the council, probably in June or July this year, to consider a resolution to put the matter on the ballot for the November general election.

“It does require a public vote to make a change like that,” she said, “so there will be some, I’m sure, public meetings that will have to take place as well before November on that.”

Kohout said the council also reviewed the city’s land use fee schedule, which is mostly close to those of other cities, Kohout said, but process fees for actual applications should be looked at for possible revision.

Kohout said a city park project committee is meeting again and will make a potential plan to put forward to the council. “Hopefully that will get done fairly quickly,” she said.

The city’s contract to sell water to Grand Coulee was also up for discussion, Kohout said, as was the idea of consolidating law enforcement agencies in the area.

Other topics included filling potholes, equipment needs for the public works department, and street sweeper rental options.