Cleaning up for spring

The town of Riverside quickly moved thorough the agenda at its town council meeting on Thursday, working through a host of issues affecting the town as spring rolls into the valley.

Cleanup of dead and diseased trees in the park was underway and expected to be completed soon, and talk also turned to spring cleanup and maintenance of roads and other infrastructure.

At the time of the meeting, Mayor Leroy Stephenson said that of 28 trees scheduled to be cut down and disposed of, about 20 had been taken down and the remaining trees were expected to be cut up and disposed of by Monday. Stephenson also said the project would come in cheaper than expected since the town would not need to pay fees at the Saratoga landfill to dispose of the felled trees.

The town gets special consideration from the Upper Platte River Solid Waste District (landfill board) in exchange for billing landfill board customers in the area, he said. Because of the in-kind courtesy price, the fact that Riverside does not usually generate that much trash and the fact that the trees were to be burned and not placed in landfill or moved elsewhere, there would be no disposal cost to the town for the trees, Stephenson said.

The power lines to the park, which were temporarily disconnected for the removal of the trees, would have to be hooked back up for upcoming graduation parties, and that was expected to happen soon, he said.

Another issue that took a bit more time of the otherwise quick meeting was the grading of town roads. The town had already performed some improvements to the boat ramp approach, according to Fred Lorenz. Again, the project came in with a cost less than expected since no additional material had to be brought in to make the fix and the improvement was completed with material that was already on-hand.

Town roads would be graded as soon as this week provided that the weather cooperates, Lorenz said.

One other issue that comes with spring is mosquito abatement. The town had originally asked for $6,500 from the state for mosquito abatement and that amount was approved. However, the state later cut the statewide mosquito funding by 8 percent for every municipality.

Despite the cut, Riverside’s size means that the cut is not as detrimental as it might otherwise have been, the council said. The cut faced by Riverside is relatively minor, and is not expected to interfere with the mosquito abatement program.

The next scheduled meeting of the Riverside town council will be held 6 p.m., June 9 at Riverside town hall.