Before swearing in the new council members at Thursday night’s council meeting, Sandpoint City Council President, Shannon Williamson thanked outgoing Councilman Tom Eddy for his service to the community.

“It’s been such a pleasure working with you,” Williamson said. “You’ve shown a lot of leadership and wisdom and showed me the way, for sure, especially in the beginning. And, I look forward to working with you as we go on.”

Eddy thanked the council and staff and said that he had run for city council in order to give back to the community.

“I really hope that I have given back to the community over the past eight years,” he said. “I hope I’ve helped make some good decisions for all of us. Council has really challenged me.”

With that said, Eddy vacated his seat and City Clerk Melissa Ward proceeded to swear in incumbent council member Deb Ruehle and new council members, Kate McAlister and Andy Groat. Mayor Shelby Rognstad, who was absent, had already been sworn in at a December meeting.

The first order of business was to elect the new council president and unanimously, Shannon Williamson was chosen to continue in that role. After applause from the audience, the council settled down to business.

City Engineer Dan Tadic and Dell Hatch with Bernardo Wills Architects updated council on the War Memorial Field project. Tadic said that there are lots of moving parts on this project but they plan to have a concrete plan and how to phase it in by the council meeting on February 5 when they will ask approval to bid the project.

“We are on schedule currently. Right now our schedule includes bidding from February 18 to March 10, with award on March 18, construction starting on April 1 and having a playable surface by July 31 to accommodate Festival from August 1 to 15; home soccer August 21, and home football by August 28,” Tadic said.

Hatch said that members of the public had voiced concerns about moving the Veteran’s Memorial and that the decision was made not to move it. Other solutions to concerns that had been voiced included minimal or no cutting of large trees, expanding boat trailer parking, making accommodations for concessions on the baseball field and addressing stormwater management.

He said that some of the field lights will need to be relocated, but that will happen before the ospreys come back to nest.

In more War Memorial Field business, Grants and Performance Management Administrator Linda Heiss told council that approval is needed to seek a grant to cover the cost of improving the boat launch. She said that they would seek enough funding to do the entire project that would include new docks, restrooms and a cleaning station.

“Hopefully we can get some state funding for the cleaning station,” Heiss said. “We also plan to build a kayak launch so we don’t have kayaks launching where boats do.”

Council approved seeking this grant as well as a grant to construct a pathway on the east side of N. Boyer Road. Funding was also approved for a new boiler at the wastewater treatment plant and for a compact wheel loader.

The next Sandpoint city council meeting will be on Wednesday, Jan. 15 at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1123 Lake St.