Government Briefs
Libby City Council members listen to a presentation about Chronic Wasting Disease before moving on to approve a couple city variances during their regular meeting, Monday in Libby. (Luke Hollister/The Western News)
Approvals
The Libby City council approved two city variances at their regular meeting on Monday.
Members voted to approve a noise variance for the Riverfront Blues Festival on August 9, from 12 p.m. until 1 a.m.
They also approved a street closure variance for the Logger Days Parade on June 22 from 6:30 a.m. until 12 p.m. The parade will be using Mineral Avenue, 2nd Street, Lincoln Boulevard, California Avenue and Louisiana Avenue.
Riverfront Park
Libby City Council members discussed approving a declaration of institutional control in Operational Unit 1 of the Libby Superfund Site (Riverfront Park), but decided to push the item to be decided on at a later meeting.
Libby Mayor Brent Teske said the approval of the institutional control is a sort of prelude or first step to delisting the site. “We’ve got to cross this hurdle before we move on to the next one,” he said.
Teske plans to make a request for someone from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to come down to the city and answer any questions. “We’ll table this for now until everybody’s okay with it,” he said.
MDOT
The Montana Department of Transportation will provide construction updates for the Swamp Creek project on Highway 2 at a public open house Wednesday, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the Venture Inn.
According to the MDT release, representatives will provide a construction update, as well as information about the construction techniques being used to add stability to the roadway.
Improvements along the Swamp Creek section of Highway 2 include: Widening the travel lanes to 12 feet, adding four-foot shoulders on both sides, replacing a bridge over Swamp Creek with a wider single-span concrete bridge, repaving the road surface, and using Geofoam blocks as part of the road base to limit the settling of the road.