News
Veterans meet with the county commissioners
Scott Wagar
01/15/2013
The Bottineau County Veterans Board (BCVB) met with the Bottineau County Commissioners on Jan. 8 to discuss a number of issues concerning the Bottineau County Veterans Memorial Park and Building and its construction, which saw a positive outcome by the veterans.
“We wanted to meet with the commissioners to make sure everything was understood before we break ground for the memorial park and building,” said Al Wondrasek, a member of the BCVB. “We felt that we must have a Memorandum of Understanding between the commissioners and us and I felt we walked out of the meeting with both parties thinking on the same page.”
The veterans presented a number of items to the commissioners they felt should be studied by the commissioners before moving forward, which included:
- Before the first shovel of dirt is dug and ground breaking takes place, we must have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Bottineau County Commissioners and the Bottineau County Veterans. This was approved that we must have a MOU.
- County Building on city lease land:
A) Discussion on the legality of a county building sitting on leased land.
B) Present lease of the veterans and the city of Bottineau for 10 years. It is thought it should be 99 years.
C) 501 C donations to a county owned building.
- Ownership of the Building:
Discussions from the Veterans believe the Veteran Memorial Building should be owned by the county.
A) Discussion on if the building owned by the county, than the county assumes the maintenance.
B) Discussion held on the utilities of who pays.
C) Discussion held that if the County owns the building, proceeds of functions (example - wedding, etc…) would go to the County.
D) Discussion held that the building should be 25 feet wider. We will have to determine the cost of the building as the plans are now and what would the cost be if we made the building 25 feet wider.
E) Discussion of the veterans conducting an all-out fund raiser to some point, for example like matching funds to construct this building.
1) Presently the veterans have a building fund – proceeds raised from two raffles.
2) Veterans have memorial dollars donated for the sole purpose that the funds go to the building. While other funds and families would like to have a say in the purchase of items for the building and have a plaque or some source of recognition. (Example – soldier’s name served in the US Army WWII Oct 1943 to 1945.)
- Cost of the Building and who builds the building, which must be a reasonable price:
A) Does the county ask for the bids or veterans ask for the bids?
B) Plus and minus of bid out to contractor for the total building, and sub contract the elements of digging, gravel fill, cement, plumbing, general construction to raise the building.
C) Ask for separate bids (cost estimates)
1. What would it cost to dig the hole, fill and pack the sand – all prep work prior to the plumber laying in the floor heat. This could be beneficial for labor in kind as a donation to the veterans building. (Could be a lot more valuable than a cash donation)
2. What would the plumber cost be for the project?
3. What would the electrical cost be?
4. What would be the construction cost of the building be?
5. Can the veterans work with the contractor and be reimbursed the dollar amount for veteran or any volunteer labor?
D) Bottineau High School Building Trades (Al Wondrasek will look into the possibility)
E) Volunteer Labor to construct the building.
F) Decision not to put up a garage at this time. We will do it later and more than likely do it ourselves through veteran volunteer labor.
G) Raise as much as possible.
- Discussion on the legalities of a bar:
A) Veterans own and operate the bar. This is extremely expensive and not the intent of the Veterans Memorial Building.
1. No intent to establish bar to compete with the local bar establishments.
B) County would own the bar. Not a good idea for the county to be in the business of ownership of a bar.
C) Basically, no bar. If, an event is held, one of the local bars can transfer their license and operate a bar, just like the Bottineau Armory does with events.
- Discussion of Dan Nostdahl will be in Bottineau within the next couple of weeks to work on other projects.
A) Al Wondrasek is communicating with Dan to establish a time for a visit and discussion.
1. Discuss with Dan Nostdahl the steps and proceeding with full scale plans that a contractor can bid on or we the veterans.
2. Have Dan Nostdahl produce conceptual drawing of the building, thus providing visual three dimension drawings.
A) This would than allow us to set up a display and establish a program of raising construction funds. This display would be set up in the present veterans’ hall.
B) Al Wondrasek will coordinate with Wolds Engineering to stake out the building, thus giving us a visual of the layout.
When it came to the city lease land issue, it was decided that State’s Attorney Swain Benson would study these issues and get back to the veterans. The remainder of the issues the commissioners will discuss and all parties involve will meet again to decided what is best for each entity for the construction of the building.
Presently, the veterans are receiving one mill from the county for the construction of their memorial park and building. The mill equals $38,000 a year.
The purposed starting date for the Bottineau County Veterans Memorial Park and Building is this summer.
“If it isn’t this summer, it will be the next or whenever we can raise the money to get it constructed,” said Wondrasek, who added that he felt the meeting with the commissioners was a positive step forward in the veterans making their dream of a new memorial hall a reality. “It was a good meeting. I have worked with a number of boards over time, but the Bottineau County Commissioner Board has been the best board I have every worked with in my life.”