News

Residential appraisals delayed one month at Vanguard's request

By Scott Wagar

02/11/2014

The Bottineau City Council held its February meeting on the fourth of this month and discussed a number of items, which included Vanguard Appraisals and the mailings of the company summer appraisals that have now been delayed another month before they are mailed out to Bottineau’s residents.

VANGUARD
 
Although it was planned to have last summer appraisals from Vanguard be mailed out in February, the mailing will now be delayed until the first part of March. According to Penny Nostdahl during the Feb. 4 council meeting, she stated that the request to delay the mailing came from Vanguard, which asked that the mailing be sent at a later date so residents wouldn’t forget to attend the equalization meeting set for April 16.

Nostdahl also stated that the council should be prepared for the protest that could take place because they are normally difficult meetings due to the nature of appraisals. She added the aldermen should remember that during the protest if they plan to accept and change a value for a homeowner, they have to make sure it has to do with specific rules and regulations. Examples would be not measuring square footage correctly, the grade of the property and things of this nature.

NEW COUNCIL MEMBER

In other city news, Mayor Ben Aufforth stated that Matt Seykora made a request to fill the council seat left by Steve Brandt, which was approved by the council. Seykora will finish out Brandt’s term, which ends in June. At that time, Seykora will have to run for the seat again in the city wide election.

CITY PROJECTS
 
Matt Johnson of Wold Engineering spoke to the council about a number of projects taking place in Bottineau, which included accepting the council approval of phase two of the plans and specifications for the water line loop and the call for bids on the project. The council approved the request.

The next order on the agenda was re-bidding the modification for the sewer lift west of town, which was passed.

Johnson also told the council members that there will be another round of impact grants for city projects, but the deadline was the end of February to apply for them. The aldermen made the decision to move forward with the application process and will apply for two grants, which includes phase three of the water loop line and the lagoon cell expansion project.

KERSTENS

Gene and Clyde Kersten were at the meeting and made requests to the council to approve their development agreement for Kersten’s Ninth and 10th Additions, which was passed.

The council also approved the final reading to annex plats in the additions, along with the first reading of platting and rezoning lots one through seven in the Ninth Addition and lots one through eight in the 10th Addition, which were passed.

FORESTRY CONTACT

The council members discussed the upcoming forestry work for the summer and made the decision to enter into a contract with Wayne Miller, owner and operator of Wayne’s Tree Service, to conduct the city’s forestry needs.

TELEVISING MEETINGS

The final order of business for the council was to discuss whether or not the city should continue on with televising the monthly city council meetings due to the lack of quality sound.

Although no decision was made on whether to continue with televising the meetings, it was decided to expand up to $10,000 to upgrade the sound with the condition that research is conducted on a wireless option to operate the system.

NEXT MEETING
 
The next city council meeting will be March 3 at the Bottineau Armory. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the auditor’s office.