Quickies: East side report, candidate forum

* The low bid for that massive road repair project in East Grand Forks is in and it's gonna be $1.7 million. Special assessments will depend on the size of your property and where it is in relation to repairs.

Properties located on streets that need repaving would pay $33.36 per front footage. Properties on streets that need only recoating would pay $10.22. Indirect beneficiaries would pay a third.

* Council member Greg Leigh got the council to hold off on hiring a new parks and recreation director. He thinks the city ought to look into consolidating departments and downsize. If not that, he said, city leaders ought to take a new look at the director's functions. The thought is maybe park and rec can hand off lawn mowing to streets and reduce the director's pay.

* JGS has a traffic report on his blog. Hahaha. I'm from Seattle. You guys call this congestion?

* Don't forget to check out the League of Women Voters' candidate forum. It'll be at 7 p.m., Thursday, in Council Chambers at City Hall.

* Speaking of meetings, what is up with the meeting schedule on the city's Web site? I asked the Public Information Office today about a flood protection meeting and they said it had been cancelled, though no one told them. A Growth Fund meeting a week or two ago wasn't on the schedule and I only heard of it afterwards. There are no agendas listed for most of the meetings even though policy decisions are sometimes hammered out.

* The City Council race survey closes at noon today. The latest update still shows Tom Kenville ahead in Ward 2 and Art Bakken ahead in Ward 6.