News

City Council holds November meeting

By Scott Wagar

11/12/2013

The Bottineau City Council held a rezoning protest hearing during its November meeting where the vote went down to one vote but failed in the end to pass.

In the October City Council meeting, Larry Bossart, requested that 720 Rail Road Ave. (it is also referred to 720 Alexander St.) be rezoned from a “R-1 and R-2” to “M” to allow him to construct a storage building, which the council called for a protest hearing.

On Monday, Nov. 5, the council held the protest hearing on the property. Five property owners in that location filed protests again the rezoning of the area, which called for six council members (three-fourth of the vote) to vote in favor of the rezoning to pass.
On the vote, Jeff Hall, Diane Lorenz, Gary Mortenson, Fred Kainz and Tim Sanderson voted yes, while Greg Bernstein and Harley Getzlaff voted no.  With only five council members voting in favor of the rezoning the motion failed.

In other city news, development and city utilities were the primary discussion of the evening.

Matt Johnson of Wold Engineering spoke on the sewer expansion project, which should be concluded in two weeks.

Mayor Ben Auffourth brought up some issues on the sewer project, which included damage to an easement on Walmart’s property, the untidy appearance of Shopko’s parking lot and clay that was left on some dirt. Johnson stated the issues would be cared for.

The next discussion was that the utility committee will have to meet to discuss how far the water loop line should extend during the summer of 2014. The issue of the city contacting All Season’s Water (ASW) to confer about territory rights owned by ASW where the city wants to develop land in the east end of town was discussed. It was determined the city will be contacting ASW to see if they can come to an agreement with the rural water utility company.

The final discussion with Wold Engineering was to re-bid the west lift station for repairs in the near future, which was agreed upon.
The city’s Park District requested that the city care for the grants and maintenance for the city’s trails expansion project, which was agreed upon and passed by the alderman.

Letters have been sent out to the owners of the Cobblestone Inn and the Preserve Development about development agreements that need to be cared for by the owners. Cobblestone needs to extend the water line to the end of its lot so the next developers can build.

Kainz, who heads up the planning committee, is working with Kersten and an attorney in regards to the development plan of Kersten’s newest addition on the east side of town.   

The Preserve needs to raise the manholes higher and match up the curve near the lift station for that development.

Cobblestone and the Preserve are responsible for the costs of these items.

The next monthly meeting for the council will take place on Dec. 2, at 7 p.m. in the Bottineau Armory.