News

City Council holds monthly meeting

By Scott Wagar

04/14/2015

A number of items were discussed at Bottineau’s city council meeting by the council members on April 6, some of which included city projects, grant requests and a new restaurant in downtown Bottineau. 

Deana DeFoe, director of Bottineau EDC’s office, requested two grants during the meeting. The first request was for St. Andrew’s Health Center for $3,750 for matching rural health funds for a new nurse practitioner at the health facility. The council approved DeFoe’s request.

The second request by DeFoe was for a $5,000 professional development grant which can be utilized for business development, which the council members also passed. 

The council then turned their attention to future projects in the city and passed the 2015 street paving project, lagoon expansion project and the sidewalk replacement project which will target the sidewalks in the Newberger Addition and south Main Street. 

The aldermen also set April 30 for a public meeting concerning the feasibility study and surge fund money. The event will take place at the city armory at 6:30 p.m. 

From the public meeting, the council members opened the city’s cement bids with S&M Construction being awarded the replacement contract and Onarhiem Construction for new cement bids. 

There was one on-sale liquor/beer request, which came from Karsten Bartsch, who wants to open a restaurant at 605 Main Street (the Bergman building on the corner of Main and Sixth streets). Bartsch plans to open a restaurant in the front part of the building and utilize the back part of the building for his electrical business. The request was passed by the council. 

Al Wondrasek of the Bottineau County Veteran’s Memorial Hall discussed the veterans’ new building concerning its utility line. This winter, the veterans’ line froze due to the fact the land in that area of the city is flat and shallow, only allowing the pipe to be placed four feet into the ground. 

It was discovered by the veterans that the Bottineau Farmers Elevator (BFE) had the same situation the previous winter, but fixed its line by placing heat tape in its line, which the elevator paid for the cost of the project. 

The process of placing heat tape is a long and laborious and is estimated that it will cost $7,000. Wondrasek stated that the veterans do not feel it is their responsibility to pay for the cost of this project considering they were unaware of this situation and is asking the city to cover the cost.

It was decided by the council to wait another winter because the veterans moved into their new building in January and the lines might have started to freeze prior to moving in. It is the hope of the city that the pipes will not freeze again if the veterans are utilizing the pipes on a daily basis. 

So, it was decided between Wondrasek and the council to wait one more winter to see what happens. If the line freezes again, the two entities will go back into discussions. 

The next monthly council meeting will be May 4 at 7 p.m. at the city armory.