I hope all of you moms had a wonderful Mother’s Day last week!

Cathy and I spent Saturday afternoon with the family having a picnic down at the river on Mortimer’s Island. The weather was perfect. Others were down there fishing, but there was no feeling of being crowded or disturbed and the two rivers were right there giving a great backdrop. 

It was also good to be able to tell the family about the new trail going from the Weiser River Bridge clear over to the Snake River Bridge. This was of particular interest to one of our daughters who started a hiking group in Boise that now has over four hundred members. Weiser has a lot of great features that make living here so agreeable!

Now on to City business.

For those of you with sprinkler systems, Bill Taylor, the Water Department Supervisor, would like to remind you that it is time again to have your system backflow tested. For those of you who may not know, your sprinkler system has a mechanism to prevent unpressurized water in your system from flowing back into the main water supply. This keeps your contaminated water from being used by others for drinking. If you need a list of local individuals who are licensed to perform the test, just contact us here at City Hall. The telephone number is 208-414-1965.

In other news, I thought I would bring you up to date on current and future projects. 

This fall, when you go to tailgate at the football games, you will no longer be bumping up against the bollards at the top of the hill. Instead, there will be a nice, curbed sidewalk in their place. This is the beginning of a project to encircle the park with sidewalks. Thank you, LOR Foundation, for this funding!

Also, by this fall, the sidewalk project from the High School to Memorial Park and Downtown will be completed. Last year we had obtained funding to reach most of the way along Indianhead Road down to State Street then to the bottom of the hill. We have received an additional grant to go the rest of the way along Indianhead to the High School. Then the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill on State Street will continue down to Howell Street and over the Memorial Park and further down State Street to the Christian Church parking lot. 

With the exception of a two-block section from the High School over to W. 9^th Street, Weiser will have a complete loop of sidewalks from Downtown to the parks, to the northwest corner of town and back again. We will work on getting that two-block section completed later. 

When you read this the City Council will probably have approved at the last Council meeting a dog park to be established at the north end of the soccer complex. If not, we will probably have further discussions.

Other projects you will probably be seeing in the coming weeks and months will be chip sealing and water main placed under the railroad tracks from County Road 70 to W. 9^th Street. This line will complete a water loop and provide continuous pressure in case of a break in the line and for fire hydrant pressure.

On another note, please keep the merchants on Commercial Street in mind for your shopping needs. Your support during the road project going on is much needed and appreciated.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you are a walker, Weiser is becoming more and more a great place to live, work, play, and walk!