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City adopts management plan

The City of Kenmare officially has a plan, with final passage of its Comprehensive Management Plan at the city council meeting held Monday.

5/16/12 (Wed)

By Terry Froseth

The City of Kenmare officially has a plan, with final passage of its Comprehensive Management Plan at the city council meeting held Monday.

Alderman Todd Ankenbauer said he’d been told that if the plan remains as it is with the strip of property along the east side of US Highway 52 zoned commercial rather than residential, the property would never be developed.

Mayor Roger Ness replied, “This comprehensive plan does not rezone anything.”

Council president Chuck Leet added, “Passing this does not change any zoning.”

Ness continued, “It’s the best use according to the plan, but any changes still have to go through the whole process. This is just a plan. When someone comes into town, we can look at the plan and say this is where we want you to be.”

“Ness said, “This is a document that will be changing forever. A lot of time and effort has gone into this. No one is getting rezoned. This is just a plan.”

Annabelle Homes buys 78 acres
at east edge of town
Later in the meeting, representatives of Annabelle Homes had the council sign a plat of outlots 11 and 12 which consists of 78 acres north of the airport and east of US Highway 52. The property is within the city’s one-mile jurisdiction and the new owners needed the city’s approval of the platting in order to register the sale with the county.

Plan for new street lamps
around downtown square
Justin Froseth of Ackerman-Estvold Engineering presented a plan to replace street lamps around the downtown city square. A total of 24 new decorative street lamps could be installed at a cost of $236,925, according to the proposal.

Mayor Ness said, “We’ll have to come up with some funding ideas. We need to look at having something done by this fall.”

Froseth also presented plans to eliminate the problem of water pooling in a low lying intersection south of the baseball field, near the Faith Baptist Church. Three options ranged in price from $151,510 to $194,155.

City engineer Ryan Ackerman said, “There’s no cheap fix.”

The council took no action.

New water tower to be
painted maroon and gold
Ackerman informed the council that McGuire Iron was preparing to paint the new city water tower in the next few weeks. He said they would proceed with the initial plan of painting it gold with a maroon Kenmare logo with flying geese, unless they were told differently.

After some commentary on it looking like a giant sunflower, several council members expressed their preference to see the tower painted maroon with a gold logo. A motion to that effect was made and approved.

Building permits approved
Planning and Zoning Commission permits were approved to Trevor Melin to move in a house to a vacant lot; to Jen Mau to build a garage; to Duane and Sherry Golde to add a room to their house; to Triple H Properties to place two new modular homes on lots near the Pioneer Village; to Doug and Pricialla West for a chain link fence; to Sharon Harris for a privacy fence; to Gabe Ellis to build a house; to Jason and Rachel Zeltinger for a fence.

Zoning changes approved
A public hearing was held on changing of zoning for property south of the BNC Bank from residential to C-1 neighborhood commercial. The owner, Wayne VanWey, has intentions to build an office building with an efficiency apartment in the back.

Another property owned by VanWey (across from Sandberg Redi-Mix), at 404 NE 6th Street, was rezoned from residential to R-3 multi-family.

It was stated VanWey’s intention is to replace a double-wide mobile home on the property with a duplex apartment building.

City engineer Ryan Ackerman commented that the rezoning was not consistent with the comprehensive management plan. “It looks like patchwork zoning,” Ackerman said.

Council members mentioned other multi-family dwellings in the area.

Public works director Mike Thompson said one neighbor to the property had expressed concerns regarding parking and safety for children along the busy county road (6th Street).

Thompson said The Planning and Zoning Commission had recommended a “do pass” for each of the rezoning requests.

Council members questioned Thompson about the design of the apartment building and if it would be single level. Thompson informed them that no building permit has been issued. “You can shoot down a building permit if you don’t want it,” Thompson said.

Fund Itt grants include
$20,000 for movie theater
Fund Itt Committee action received the city council’s approval.

The Association of Commerce was granted $1272 towards purchase of three lighted “Merry Christmas” banners that hang across the entrances to town during the holidays. The Association of Commerce and Vet’s Gaming each contributed $1272, as well.

A payment of $482 owed for interest buydown when Alicia Livingston still owned the Chill ‘n Grill in 2011 was approved.

A business retention grant of $20,000 was approved to Kenmare Community Development Corporation for purchase of a digital projector for the Kenmare Theatre. The theater building is owned by the Development Corporation and the organization will own the new projector too.

Freeman Oil and Body Shop was granted an interest buydown of $187.90 on a loan to purchase a new automotive hoist for their shop.

BDEC and MDU
agree on agreements
Burke-Divide Electric Cooperative and MDU presented a public service map to the city council. The map details the areas that would be serviced by each of the power providers as the city of Kenmare expands.

Jason Brothen of Burke-Divide, and Ken Callahan of MDU expressed that both parties were happy with the service agreement.

The council approved the 10-year service area agreement as presented.

The council also approved 20-year franchise agreements for both Burke-Divide and MDU, which will replace the franchise agreement currently in place with MDU.

Brothen said the service area agreement will now be passed on to the Public Service Commission for approval.

In other action:
• The new city ordinance book was adopted on second reading, following some additions and corrections suggested by council member Terese Skjordal, concerning keeping of dogs and animals deemed dangerous, and limiting keeping of poisonous spiders and reptiles.

• Minot Hockey Boosters gaming fund donations to the Kenmare Post Graduation Party for $350 and to the Kenmare High School FBLA for $200 for two students to attend the national conference were approved. A request from the Kenmare School for $450 for 28 t-shirts to be used yearly for the math meet was denied.

• Kenmare Vet’s Gaming was approved for its gaming site at City Limits Bar.

• RTC informed the city it will be raising its rates June 1st for cable TV services, amounting to about $8 per month, Ness said.

• The mayor and public works director planned to attend a meeting in Mohall Tuesday at which they would be seeking $1 million in “open-ended” funding to support city expansion.

• Bid letting will be held in two weeks for sewer extension to the new 12-plex apartment buildings and the new Gooseneck Implement dealership.

• Police Chief Gary Kraft said a new transmission and engine have been installed in the Ford Expedition patrol vehicle.

• A crew is in town now to start patching and sealing city streets.