The Columbia Falls City Council wrapped up its business for 2023 last week. The council heard from several residents who asked the city if they would be interested in forming a more concerted effort to work with the Environmental Protection Agency on a better cleanup plan for the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant.

The current proposed action calls for consolidating waste at the defunct plant and then putting a slurry wall barrier around a landfill that’s been leaking cyanide and fluoride into the groundwater for decades.

But most residents have opposed that idea and want to see waste removed entirely.

That hasn’t happened at other cleanups of aluminum plants across the West though and CFAC’s plan really mirrors many of those.

Resident Phil Matson suggested they could come up with a land use plan under the Superfund reclamation initiative and the city could be a partner in that.

But Mayor Don Barnhart noted that the city really spearheaded the Superfund push for the plant years ago, while the county did little and the city has stood for a good cleanup plan.

He suggested the group really look to the county commissioners, as they are the ones that the group should try convincing.

Barnhart noted the city was the one “that took the bull by the horns.”

In other news:

• Resident Tanna Friske spoke in opposition to a possible plan to convert at least some of a baseball field off Railroad Street to affordable housing. She said the city needed the park and open space. The city is considering putting some of the land toward housing in partnership with Habitat for Humanity and the Northwest Montana Land Trust. There were would still be land left for a smaller park, city manager Susan Nicosia has noted in the past.

• Council appointed Barb Riley and Mark Johnson to the Columbia Falls area board of adjustment. It also reappointed Steve Duffy and Sam Kavanagh to city-county planning board and Kelly King and Matt Bishop to the city tree board. That leaves one opening on the board of adjustment as one member did not reapply for the post.

• The city approved a two-year contract with Breck Law Offices. The firm handles all the city’s legal needs. The new contract runs from Jan. 1,  2024 to Dec. 31, 2026. The contract calls for an annual 5% increase or the greater Consumer Price Index to cover prosecutor and other costs. The city will pay the firm $47,052.30 through the remainder of the fiscal 2024 year, which ends June 30. The city will also pay an additional $205 an hour for “all litigation, arbitration and preparation therefor, including trial and arbitration preparation, trials, arbitrations, or appeals therefrom, and all civil non-judicial and administrative proceedings (to include real estate notice and sale foreclosures) and appeals therefrom,” under the agreement.

• City councilman Darin Fisher said his goodbyes, noting when he started he was the youngest person on the council and when he finished he was still the youngest person on council Fisher lost re-election in a race that featured four candidates for three positions. He reflected on some of the accomplishments during his tenure, including passing the city’s resort tax.