The Thompson Falls City Council tackled several projects at its December meeting on Monday. The first was filling a council member vacancy that has been advertised for several months. The Ward 1 position vacated when council member Lynne Kersten moved out of state finally had an applicant who was approved Monday night. The new member, Larry Lack, is 84 years old and has been living in Thompson Falls since 1999. He worked as an outdoor guide for many years and had volunteered with the Boy Scouts for 12 years and with several schools for over 45 years. Lack was voted in unanimously and took his seat among the other council members to start work throughout the month of December. His term will end next year when the position comes up for re-election. Lack said he does not think he will try to run for re-election.

Another big project to get its initial start is the city’s wastewater treatment project. The project has been in the works since 2016 when the city started looking for the funds for a preliminary engineering report. According to Mayor Mark Sheets, the city has been aware of the need for the project for well over 20 years. Sheets says that it has been kicked around until recently, and they could wait no longer. On Monday, the city announced that the bid winner for the project was Razz Construction, out of Bellingham, Washington. According to the council, the company has people in both Plains and North Idaho. The project bid came in at $11,461,686.50. The bid was for phases one and two of the project, and they are set to begin work next month. Razz will be working on various parts of the wastewater treatment project, including replacing mains, adding emergency controls to lift stations, adding specialized filtration and disinfection. They will also be improving aeration for the city’s lagoons and adding covers and improving sludge removal. The first two phases of the project are estimated to take around 14 months to complete.

The city is working with a state program to cycle in new police vehicles. Several of the vehicles are in dire need of repair, according to mayor Sheets, and “are constantly in and out of the shop.” The current vehicles are also only two-wheel-drive, and the new perspective vehicle that the city is looking at cycling in will be one with four-wheel-drive. The funding will come from a five-year loan from INTERCAP, which is a government funding program with low interest rates. Sheets said, “it would be wise for us to be proactive, before the cost of repairs gets too high.”

The city will also be putting in several new signs along thoroughfares in the city limits. Mainly on Silcox and Haley. They are adding a yield sign at the intersection of Golf and Eddy, and stop signs at Eddy and Haley, Silcox and Aspen Court and Aspen Court and Southwood Court. They hope that this will allow free movement along the main travel ways.

Finally, the city is working to receive a grant from a DNRC Program called Tree City USA/Arbor Day Grant. This will allot $750 to upkeep trees within the city limits. Sheets says that this will allow them to do more than usual this year, as they spend about that much annually anyway.