Plains Town Council meets

PLAINS – The Plains Town Council gathered together on Monday night to tend to business as usual.

The Town Council elected Carl Reeb as town council president.

The council discussed and looked over bids for the Plains Water System Improvement Project, going over the different bidders and deciding to leave out the asphalt for the construction project, saving $90,000 on the project.

“If we did a dura-patch repair like the chip seal, I think we could get well under $15,000, maybe $10,000 for the public works guys to do that,” said Mayor Mike Brinson as he tossed ideas out to keep the cost below the budget with money to spare.

“The thing is, there is money that can be asked for, but if we go over the $600,000, we get no more grant money,” said Mayor Brinson.

Although a decision was not made on a final bidder to head the project, the council was presented with all of the information needed in order to make that decision.

The Council also heard from the Concerned Citizens of Western Montana, which discussed how the Flathead Water Compact would impact 11 counties including Sanders County. The compact aims to relinquish water rights to the tribes, which would effect some 30,000 irrigators of both Native American and non-Native American descent. The group asked for people to help slow down the process so that a decision was not pushed through legislation too quickly, without communities being able to look over the condensed version of the 11,000 page compact which the Concerned Citizens of Western Montana condensed down.