Hills commits to fixing lighting problem in the Legion building

By Lexi MooreThe city of Hills will remodel a portion of the Hills American Legion building.For years, City Council members have been discussing options for making the Legion’s meeting room brighter. During October’s meeting they decided to look into installing a drop ceiling and fluorescent lights.Councilman Ross Metzger told the council, "We’ve got to do something."Councilman Elbers agreed. "We haven’t spent money on that building in years and we should try this solution and see if it works."Council members asked Connie Wiertzema, city clerk, to request bids from area electricians and contractors.The deadline for submitting bids was the start of the council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday.Although the city had contacted a number of businesses, they had only received three bids at the start of the meeting. Bids from DeHaan Construction, Verhey Construction and RB Electric were presented to the council.Keith Elbers made a motion to accept the bid from RB Electric, since it was the only one, and DeHaan Construction because it was the lowest submitted. The motion was seconded by Pete Hoff and approved by the council.When budgeting for 2006, the city added money to the capital outlay fund to cover the costs of the remodel.In other city business:
Christmas tree pickup in the city of Hills will begin on Jan. 8 and run through Jan. 10. Christmas trees placed on the curb will be picked up by the city.
The city of Hills contracted their garbage and recycling with Town and Country for another two years.Town and Country Sanitation will charge the city an additional three percent each year during this period. The increase is largely due to the rise in gasoline prices.The city made the decision to increase the amount residents pay for garbage and recycling service to help cover the additional cost.