Marthasville is purchasing two small parcels of land as part of a project to straighten and widen a portion of Hiawatha Street.The city will spend $1,000 for each of the properties, located at a narrow S-curve one block from Highway D. Mayor David Lange described the properties as “triangles” that will allow the city to proceed with the project.Engineers with Buescher Frankenberg and Associates, of Washington, are working on a design for the realigned street. The city will begin accepting bids once a design is finalized and reviewed.“We are making some progress on Hiawatha,” Lange said.An ordinance approving the land purchases was unanimously approved at the Jan. 20 board of aldermen meeting.The properties are being purchased from Jay, Brenda and Jon Driemeyer, and Dierdre Murney and Kevin Witthaus. The Driemeyer property is the site of storage units.Other news• Also at the Jan. 20 meeting, Mayor Lange appointed Cathie Schoppenhorst and Don Deeker as co-chairmen of the city’s 200th anniversary committee. The city will celebrate its bicentennial in 2017. Lange said he hopes to have other community and business leaders take part in the planning.“I would like to celebrate,” he said. “I think we should celebrate it. Several citizens also suggested it.”The appointments were approved by a 4-0 vote.• In his mayoral comments, Lange was thankful December’s near record flooding had little effect on the city. He commended MoDOT for keeping access to Washington open for motorists and for local firefighters who assisted in flood recovery efforts in High Ridge.“We are thankful it wasn’t worse than what it was,” Lange remarked. “I think we got lucky. Like to thank everyone for doing an outstanding job. A lot of people were not as lucky as we were.”• An ordinance allowing the lighting of streets, alleys and other public places in the city by Ameren Missouri was unanimously approved.Marthasville