News

Council holds January meeting

By Scott Wagar

01/14/2014

The Bottineau City Council held its January meeting this past Monday evening and discussed a number of items that concerns the future of Bottineau.

EDC

Deana DeFoe, the director of Bottineau’s EDC, requested from the council that they consider restructuring Brian Boppre’s outstanding loan concerning his one Bottineau business, Sew Worthy. DeFoe requested that Boppre’s loan be converted into a personal loan for five years and five percent interest. The council approved the request.

DEVELOPMENTS

Matt Johnson of Wold Engineering discussed with the aldermen a number of development projects.

Johnson started with Utility Systems of America, which will be corresponding with the council members on the sewer expansion project.

Johnson then turned to the approval of the Engineering Services Agreement for the water loop line project in 2014, which is with Wold Engineering. The council approved the agreement.

When it came to the sewer lift upgrades on the west side of town, the bids didn’t meet the city’s requirements. The city initially estimated the bids from $225,000 to $250,000; however, all the bids came well over the estimate. The process will be re-bid and opened at the February council meeting.

CITY PROPERTY

The city will be painting the armory’s gymnasium and the National Guard has agreed to cover 25 percent of the cost of the project. The cost for the project is $10,000. Larry Haugen will be the painter for the project.  

ANNEXATION

The aldermen approved two annexations in the council meeting.

The first annexation was Gene Kersten’s development project on the east side of town, which was approved, but only on the approval of the city’s agreement with All Seasons Water Users to provide water to the development.

The second annexation was for Roger Riley’s second phase of the Preserve Development on the west end of Bottineau. The annexation was the same as Kersten, which included the water agreement between the city and rural water. The motion was carried.

Both Kersten and Riley will plat and zone this property at their pace.

STREET

Diane Lorenz, chair of the street committee, discussed the Dec. 10 street committee meeting. Lorenz stated the committee’s plans are to replace or repair seven blocks of sidewalk on Sinclair Street in 2014. The blocks with sidewalk replacement/repaired are random and depend on the condition of the sidewalks. Residents will be notified if work will be conducted on their sidewalks.  

She then turned to the replacement of a yield sign on Railroad Avenue at the community arena with a stop sign, which has taken place.  The replacement of the sign took place as a precautionary measure due to traffic on Seventh Street and Railroad Avenue and the large amount of pedestrian movement that comes and goes from the rink.

Lorenz’s final topic was a future decision the council will have to make about the purchase of attachments for the city’s Bobcat, or the acquisition of a new Bobcat to keep the Hiking and Biking Trail clean in the wintertime. For now, the city will clean the path with a four-wheeler.  

The next city council meeting will be Feb. 3 at the city armory. The meeting will start at 7 p.m.