Castle Country Radio was able to sit down with Mayor Lenise Peterman to talk about the happenings taking place in Helper. She came in to discuss river restoration, NRCS Funding and needing volunteers at Sally Mauro Elementary.

The River Restoration Project has recently started Phase 6 which is near Gigliotti’s Pond. They are working on the boulders in the river to accommodate Blue Head Sucker Fish. “With the funding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department has provided to us we’re really looking to recover an endangered species fish and allow it to migrate both up and down the river. It kind of has a hard stop at the dam so we’ll be taking down a portion of that dam, and replacing it with more of natural grade with boulders, that actually will include the fish passage, so that the Blue Head Sucker Fish, which is an endangered species fish, can transverse the river up and down,” explained Mayor Peterman. Once the river work is completed, they will finish repaving the Gigliotti Pond parking area. The city is excited to work with Dave Meyer with Redoubt Restoration.

The city recently received funding from NRCS, which is money for emergency situations to assist the city with flooding issues with the culvert on North Martin Road. “So their purpose is to protect infrastructure. So they are providing funding to us to protect that culvert, to get it cleaned up. So that as we experience the Spring run-off, we’re in a better place and don’t have the flooding that we experienced in August,” stated Mayor Peterman. The city is very appreciative of the funding and its just a waiting game at this point. Once funding is received, a contract will be signed and the city will have 220 days to get all the work completed. With the Spring run-off not far away, the city will be working diligently to complete the project so they ask for citizens to be careful in that area.

Mayor Peterman is urging folks who have some free time to assist with reading at Sally Mauro Elementary. “We are looking for adults who can participate and schedule some time to have the children at Sally Mauro read to them, specifically our second graders. Which good, bad or indifferent, they’re kind of the COVID kids who missed out with a lot of school outages, with masks. So we are finding that group behind on their reading skills so we’re wanting to have adults who can come by, spend an hour,  and have a child read to them and it will benefit both the child and the adult,” said Mayor Peterman. Adults who are interested in volunteering will have to pass a background check with the school district, and the fee will be waived as this is a community service project. Interested individuals can contact the school district at (435) 637-1732 for further information.