PRIEST RIVER — The city council will continue social distancing through the virtual meeting model for the remainder of the month. The city’s two-week employee procedure was set to end on April 9, however, Priest River Mayor Jim Martin extended the end date to comply with Gov. Brad Little’s executive orders in response to COVID-19. The April 6 meeting began with a quick briefing on COVID-19 city updates.

During the Parks and Recreation department update, Councilmember Doug Wagner voiced concern of large groups of citizens visiting the city park picnic closure without following safe social distancing practices. Martin opted to keep the picnic area open unless the community abuses their freedoms.

“Some of the other municipalities have closed their parks, playgrounds and things like that,” Martin said. “I don’t want to get to that point but if people cannot follow the social distancing recommendations then we may have to come back and look at shutting down playgrounds.”

Martin said the Public Works department is doing their best to handle emergency calls as they come in. The department is operating understaffed, averaging one to one and a half employees working per day.

In addition, Administration committee meetings will be put on hold until the spread of COVID-19 is under control.

With the state of emergency declared, Martin explored options with the council on dealing with late payments and standard water shutoff procedure. Two of the three accounts who came into the city office and signed a payment extension agreement for the end of March have not submitted a payment or made contact with the city since their agreement. If the city shuts off their water, they will have to pay their account to zero balance before their water can be reinstated.

“We really don’t want to shut people’s water off right now because it is a crucial thing to wash your hands and practice good hygiene and be healthy, but people came in and signed these agreements to pay and then we never heard from them. It gets to a point where we are working harder to keep their water on then they are,” Martin said.

The council agreed that the payment extension agreements should be enforced as previously agreed upon.

The longest discussion of the evening was on the authorization of small Wireless Telecommunication Facilities (WTF’s) in Priest River. Priest River resident Anne Wilder urged councilmembers to cease and desist the operation and construction of these small cell networks or modify the length, height and power of the technology, for the health and safety of the community.

Wilder’s letter to the council states: “The anticipated, nationwide deployment of 800,000 additional sWTFs is clearly a federal undertaking, since the wireless industry licenses its wireless spectrum frequencies from the federal government … the wireless industry has branded small cells on street lights, utility poles or other street furniture … (This enables) not only internet data and voice and text transmissions, but also surveillance, crowd-control, and personal injury by means of pulsed, data-modulated, microwave irradiation.

According to Wilder’s research, small WTF’s have been linked with increased risk of physical and emotional ailments such as depression, melanoma, radiation in blood and memory loss to name a few. Wilder recommended Priest River either avoid business ventures with the industry altogether or assure appropriate safety standards – a vertical antenna at least 200 feet from the ground, a horizontal antenna at least 1,500 feet from occupied structure and a maximum of 0.1 Watt of effective radiated power.

“Currently we have no applications before us on this issue, so if something does come before us at least it is in the forefront in our mind,” Martin said. “Once we get an opinion back on legal counsel on what exactly these things say and what we can do in Idaho, then we will get you back here and ask you questions.”

This issue, along with a request for alley maintenance downtown hanging baskets, was tabled until further review.

Priest River city council unanimously approved $24,955 for Pioneer Waterproofing Company Inc. to repair the brick on north and east elevations of city hall. The city budget approximately $33,000 in preparation for this project, anticipating $15,000 to come from maintenance work funds and another $18,000 from capital improvements.

”Basically on the north if you look up when you walk up the steps you can actually see that brick is leaning," Director of Public Works Rex Rolicheck said. “They are actually going to take that down three feet completely (and) redo that three feet above the doorway. From the east side down six feet we have a lot of deterioration, all the joints are pretty much gone.”

Other building improvements will include window seals, a pressure wash and two coats of sealant to finish off the north and east side. Martin hopes to budget for south and west elevation repairs next year.

“I know from experience that if you don’t get these old brick buildings fixed when they start getting this way, it gets really really expensive,” Martin said.

Idaho DEQ’s water storage tank schedule, the updated emergency response plan for the wastewater treatment plant and Welch Comer’s pedestrian ramp upgrade project on Third Street were also unanimously approved by the council.