PONDERAY — The City Council unanimously approved several purchases, including an additional $142,537 for the Lakeshore Connection project at its Monday meeting.

KayLeigh Miller, Ponderay’s planning director, said the geotechnical work found a significant amount of groundwater in the area and funding from the 2020 BUILD grant has run out. The funding will come from the city’s newly approved and implemented local option tax, which Mayor Steve Geiger said has already generated $50,000 for the city. 

“They hit groundwater quickly and so much of it we needed to revise how to go about the retaining wall,” Miller said.

The council approved an application for the 2025 BUILD grant at its Dec. 1 meeting, which is due at a later date in January. Miller said the city and project designers, Welch Comer, are nearing a 60% completion of the design for the underpass. 

“At this point you’re kind of committed, aren't you? It’s got to be done,” Geiger said. “They spent basically $1.7 million to get where we're at. Seems crazy, but it does take a lot of money with all the different agencies and testing, things like that.” 

The council also approved a request for proposal for the Brownfields cleanup grant, following instructions from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s Steve Gill which the council received on Dec. 15. That project is planned to clean up the former Panhandle Smelting and Refining Company site, removing the lead and other harmful metals from the soil. 

Additionally, the council approved the purchase of a new police car, a follow-up from the unanimous support given at the council’s Dec. 15 meeting. Ponderay Police Chief, Joesph Kaufman, said he would bring an annual report to the council at its next meeting and move forward every year. 

In the annual report, Kaufman said he would be detailing the department’s yearly numbers not just to inform the public of the work they do, but also as a way of planning for the future. 

“It's a good way of keeping track of our numbers and showing our work, and it helps gauge past trends and may help us plan for the future,” Kaufman said. “I just plan on doing that every year so we can go back every year. You can go back to, you know, a few years back, and see, are we taking more calls, less calls? More serious offenses?” 

The council discussed restocking merchandise for The Pond, the city’s ice rink, including adding ballcaps in addition to the sweatshirts and beanies currently offered. Miller said the city was nearly out of sweatshirts, only having stock of small and medium sizes.  

“We're down to just the last handful of them,” Miller said of the sweatshirts. “We didn't continue to reorder at first, because they were very slow in sale last year. But this year, they've been selling.” 

In the end, the council approved the purchase of 24 hats and 24 beanies, alongside “around a dozen” sweatshirts per size from Sand Creek Custom Wear. The council’s next meeting is scheduled for Jan. 20 at 5:30 p.m. in council chambers.