News

Council holds December meeting

By Scott Wagar

12/11/2012

The city council spent time on Monday evening with council vacancies and an appointment to the council after Bottineau’s city council lost two aldermen in a one month period.

In the first order of business concerning vacancies was Troy Marsden who after the November council meeting resigned as an alderman.

With the resignation in hand, the council members voted unanimously in accepting Marsden’s resignation and declared a vacancy.

With Marsden’s seat vacant, residents in Bottineau now have 15 days of the council accepting his resignation to file a petition for a special election to fill his seat. After 15 days, the city can hold its own election, leave it vacant until Marsden’s term ends (which will be June of 2014) or appoint a local resident city wide to the seat.

The council then turned to Roger Nelson’s seat, which he resigned in November due to a health issue he needed to concentrate on. Mayor Ben Aufforth stated that no one in the community had called for a special election for Nelson’s position, and with no election called, Diane Lorenz had spoken with him about being appointed to Nelson’s vacant seat.

Alderman Greg Bernstein asked Lorenz as to why she wanted to be a council member. She stated that through attending meetings in the area she has obtained a keen attraction to city government.  

“I have been going up to meetings up at the lake for the last three years, and I work downtown and I hear a bunch of talk going on and I watched meetings,” Lorenz said. “I just became interested because I’ve been going up to the meetings at the lake and I am just interested in what is going on in the city.”  

With that said, Harley Getzlaff nominated Lorenz for Nelson’s seat, which was seconded by Jeff Kainz and was approved on a 5-to-1 vote with Getzlaff, Kainz, Bernstein and Brandt voting yes, while Tim Sanderson voted no.

With council vacancies and appointed completed, the city focused on city projects presently being worked on in the community by Wold Engineering.
Matt Johnson of Wold Engineering was present and requested an engineering service agreement from the council on the 2013 sewer expansion project and the 2013 west lift station upgrade project, which the aldermen passed. The sewer expansion will loop around the edges of city limits to Walmart, and then cross under Highway 5 north of Walmart and stop there for future expansion in the city.

Johnson also stated that interior work for the lift station which will be utilized in the new Preserve development in the west end of town was completed, but that they were waiting on electrical work to be finished before they could move forward with the station.

Gordon Wettlaufer in November requested from the city and Wold Engineering to find property lines for some lots he owns in the community.

Johnson stated to the council that after looking into the request, and considering the work to complete Wettlaufer’s request, Wettlaufer would have to hire Wold’s to do a private survey of the lots at a cost to him.

“It wouldn’t be fair to the other property owners in town in doing it at no charge to him,” Johnson said.

Johnson went to the next city issue, which was to let the council know that SRF Consulting has been gathering information for the engineering company for a comprehensive land use plan, which was moving forward.

The last issue the council and Johnson spoke on was grant writing. The council asked Johnson if Wold’s would have an interest in obtaining grant writers to assist the firm in gaining funding for city projects. Johnson said that they have individuals in the firm to write grants, but would welcome outside grant writers to assist them.

Bernstein, who sits on the financial committee, and who has been working with Deb Syvertson who has an interest in gaining a grant writing position with the city, stated the finance committee sat down with Syvertson earlier that day about the possible position and Bernstein felt that Syvertson would be a good addition to the city for obtaining funding for city projects.

It was also stated that Ulteig Engineering may be asked to assist with grant funding for the 2013 sewer expansion plan.

The council made the decision to give the finance committee approval on grant decision, but the council members were also asked to fill out a needs assessment for grant writers, too.

From city projects, the aldermen turned their attention for bids on a pay loader and snow blower, which the city needs in their work for the city. One bid was received from RDO for a John Deere pay loader at a cost of $92,000 with a trade-in allowance, which was passed by the entire council.
Three bids were open for the snow blower, which included RDO-RPM at $109,000 for RDO-Snowcete for $63,000 and Sanitation Products for $102,000. Keith Fulebakke, city superintendent, stated that a carryover model was also available in New York for $67,500 plus shipping. Sanderson made the motion to reject all bids from RDO and Sanitation Products and grant Fulsebakke authorization to purchase the snow blower in New York, which the council agreed to.

After the bids were open and decided upon, the sub-committee for a building inspector between the city of Bottineau and Roland Township that a draft for an inspector was sent to the township for them to review. The next meeting concerning this issue will be Dec. 18.

Tom Kessler last month was sent a letter from the city to learn his intention with the bowling alley. There is no answer yet from him, but last month Marsden said that he is still working on his insurance.