News

City Council holds its May meeting

By Scott Wagar

05/13/2014

The Bottineau City Council held its May meeting on the sixth of this month and discussed a variety of issues with one special young man who represented the Bottineau School District as the mayor of Bottineau for the evening.

MAYOR GABRIEL

Bottineau’s mayor, Ben Aufforth, handed over his gavel to Gabriel Deschamp, a third grader in Bottineau’s elementary school, who won an honorable mention by the North Dakota League of Cities’ Mayor for a Day essay contest.

With the accolade, Aufforth invited Gabriel to oversee the city council meeting with him in May. Gabriel’s first order of business was to read his essay to the council members, which dealt with recycling in our city and the importance of Annie’s House in our community.

DOG ORDINANCE

Alderman Tim Sanderson started the first discussion of the evening when he questioned the new dog ordinance that has been placed in the city’s books. He stated that he had concerns over the ordinance because it stated that the city can do nothing about a dangerous dog until it acts out.

He also questioned whether or not the pit bull ordinance is still in place, which makes its illegal to own pit bulls in city limits. The ordinance committee stated to him that the law was removed from the books and that all dogs were under the new dog ordinance.

Sanderson then stated that he had a number of complaints from constituents and asked the ordinance committee to reconsider the ordinance to state if a dog showed dangerous characteristics, the city would have to deal with the animal.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Sanderson said. “If we know it is dangerous, it should be acted on before it attacks. We have to take a look at the ordinance.”

It was decided by the council to have the ordinance committee re-study this ordinance.

GATEWAY REQUESTS

Deana DeFoe, director of Bottineau’s EDC office, made Gateway fund requests concerning two local day cares in Bottineau.

The first request was for Lindsey Guss, owner of the Building Blocks Learning Center which is located in the new day center on the campus of Dakota College at Bottineau. DeFoe requested on behalf of Guss a loan for $2,500 at zero percent interest for five years for start-up cost; and, a second loan for $2,500 at zero percent interest for five years for operational costs. The council approved both loans.

DeFoe then requested that the city waive the possessor interest tax for Guss’ Building Blocks Day Care,which was approved by the council.

In another issue concerning the day care building at DCB, DeFoe, on behalf of the EDC, requested if the council would consider granting her office a $25,000 gift for the overage cost of the building, leaving the EDC’s Gateway funds out of the request for future EDC projects.

Tim Sanderson stated that he was in support of the day care at DCB, but was not in favor of granting any more money to the project due to the fact the council had other requests they needed to focus on.

Swain Benson, city attorney for Bottineau, said it was illegal for any council in the state of North Dakota to gift money because of an anti-gifting clause in the state constitution.

With that, DeFoe asked for a Gateway grant of $25,000 from the EDC’s Fund #8300, which was approved by the council.

The second day care requested from DeFoe was for Heather Belcourt’s Little Rascals Day Care for $2,500 at zero percent interest for five years. Belcourt is planning to open a new day care at South Brook Trailer Court that will consist of  a mobile home and needs the financing for fencing, other safety issues and additional costs. The council approved the requests on the contingent that her license for the location is approved.

CITY PROJECTS

Matt Johnson of Wold Engineering, came to the council to discuss the progression of city projects, but stated that the projects were on hold due to the weather being inclement. He also stated that the energy impact grant for future projects had been completed and mailed; the feasibility study was being conducted for future projects, which include a new fire hall, an arena and possibly a new pool; and, a letter sent to Roger Riley of the preserve development which stated the action items that have to be completed before the development could be paved.

When it came to the sewer line expansion project and the present eminent domain process, which started due to the Gagner family protest over the project on their land, Benson stated the vendor who was to conduct the process opted out and that he was in contact with another vendor with hopes the vendor would take on the job.

PLANNING COMMITTE

When it came to committee reports, the planning commission brought a request from Lynn Evenson and Leann Mellum to rezone land due south of the Golden Keys Apartment from an R-4 to a B-2 to allow them to construct a touchless car wash. The council approved to have a protest hearing on the rezoning request in the city office on June 2 at 7 p.m.

The committee also brought a rezoning request with special conditions for Jamie Pladson from an R-1 and R-2 to a B-1 on property he owns on Ohmer Street which will allow him to place a garage on the property before he places a home on the land. The garage will be utilized to assist Pladson to construct his home.

The aldermen approved the requested.

STREET COMMITTEE

Councilman, Diane Lorenz, stated that letters would be sent out in May to certain residents on Sinclair Street for sidewalk replacement on their property.

UTILITY COMMITTEE

Keith Fulsebakke, city superintendent, will have the city crew deliver the new garbage cans at the end of this month. The new rates for garbage will go into place on June 1. Letters will be sent out to the residents about the garbage cans in the near future.
The utility committee also stated that new water rates will be going into effect in the near future.

The Swimming Pool Board informed the aldermen that the prep work for the pool has started. However, it was also brought up that no individuals have sent in applications to be the pool’s manager or lifeguards. It was decided by the council that if no applications come in, the pool will not open this summer.

OTHER NEWS

In other city news, the city council approved the Conveyance of Property to become the owners of the State Bank of Bottineau on Thompson Street after the State Bank moves to its new facility on Highway 5. The bank building was a gift from the State Bank’s board. The cost of the building to the city was $10. A possible idea for the bank building is to place the city staff and its offices in the building.

Rebecca Herbel, owner and operator of the Stadium II with her husband Kevin, requested to the council to allow the MSU Beaver Boosters to operate the gaming site at the bar with the Fort Abraham Lincoln Foundation leaving the bar for other locations in the state. The council approved the request pending the approval of the permit on a four to one vote with Sanderson voting against it and Council member Jeff Hall abstaining.

The final item on the agenda was the field east of Walmart, which is covered with plastic bags from Walmart and Shopko.

Complaints have been made by local residents that the bags are an eye sore to the community; and, local farmers have stated the bags get into their machinery when working the land.

Through a visitor in the pubic forum, that person stated that Walmart had a good neighbor policy which called for cleaning up such messes in a community.

The council decided to send letters out to Walmart and Shopko requesting that they clean plastic bags from the field. If the two discount box stores do not clean the field, the council said the two stores would meet new ordinances to force them to clean the field.