Council prioritizes projects

The Pine Haven Town Council came together with staff to discuss, prioritize and delegate projects and plans for the coming year last Friday afternoon. Councilwoman Karla Brandenburg led the conversation that covered around 20 items within a five hour window. The following are four of the items set for further investigation and implementation.

Drainage

Pine Haven suffers from serious drainage issues and the town will begin actively addressing the problem full scale this spring and summer.

Councilman John Cook, the liaison to the streets and alleys, reported that the maintenance crew will be starting on Harwood and Spruce Street "when it gets warm".

Schell stated, "For seven years they've been an issue that has needed taken care of."

The work on Harwood and Spruce will be extensive including new culverts and digging out the roadside ditch to handle the volume of water that moves through the area. "It's filled in over a period of time and it's almost level, almost flat,” said Cook.

The public works crew will also identify other problem areas and report their findings to the council by March 31 for budgeting purposes. While they conduct this operation, they will create a schedule to flush problem culverts.

The public works crew has been digging out and laying “rip rap” rock and “waddles” to slow the water and capture sediment in the barrow ditches around several of the overwhelmed and oft times undersized culverts residents have placed in an attempt to mitigate the problem of flooding in town and will continue to do so.

Any requisite replacement culverts leading to private drives should be to code, which is a 15-inch diameter, noted Cook as the group discussed needed changes to correct the drainage crisis. However, the suggestion was made that if the homeowner chooses not to replace to code or not to replace at all, the town will not maintain the culvert. There was not an immediate consensus to this idea so the question will be revisited at a later date.

Signage

Signage is an issue with which the town has been dealing for some time. With the available grants from the Crook County Promotion Board, the council hopes to buy and strategically install directional signs guiding people to Keyhole Reservoir boat ramps and camping that are accessible through town.

Brandenburg suggested the “positive” signage to balance the impact of the “negative” ones. “I like those signs; if I lived in that area, I would like that. But, if you drive through town, it’s so negative. If I’m a stranger driving through town I’m thinking ‘well hell, I can’t even get to the lake from here’.”

The council predicts that the affiliation between such simple illustrative signs and visitors’ GPS will keep the traffic to businesses active while alleviating the problem of the people following their GPS alone into private properties and dead end roads.

The “negative” signs will remain in situ as they will still protect residential areas.

The street signs also need to be replaced, Hardy reminded the audience, and residential address signage. “So when the fire or EMS comes up to your drive they know what number it is. I can tell you, it is not fun when you don’t know what that number is.”

Schell informed the governing body that her department had on hand several stop and yield signs to be placed in the spring as well. This topic will be revisited before the new budget.

Park equipment

The equipment at Waters Park is beginning to show some wear and there are parts needing repair, but, according to Schell, “It’s costing more in time and money to keep it working than it would be to take it out and put a different piece of equipment in there.”

A placement grant of $10,000 for park equipment as well as needed upgrades to the town’s baseball field is available with a catch, Brandenburg shared with the assembly. However, “The only way we can get this money is to attend the training.”

The placement training is in February and the requisite number of participants is 15 individuals from the community. Speed and Brandenburg will follow up on this possibility within the next couple of weeks.

Natural gas

Mayor Bill Cunningham advocates bringing natural gas to Pine Haven and the possibility is looking brighter. Powder River Energy has voiced their willingness to work with the town to do so.

To break down the numbers a bit, the gas costs about $250,000 per mile plus transmission. Pine Haven is only approximately five or six miles from the Black Hills gas line that lies south of town; according to Brandenburg. For five miles of transmission and tap in fees for the town, the cost will be approximately $3.4 million, which would get it to the house of anybody who wanted it. Residents would have to run a private line from their property line to their house.

Those with propane can change with just the cost of orifices and can result in a savings of around 30 percent.