After
hearing a last night’s city council meeting and talking to a couple of people who
were present, it is frustrating to see that
some of our city leaders are simply against doing anything to bring people and money into this community. It was also good to hear from those city council persons who understand what it is going to take to better our community.
[by way of background: Some time
ago, the Chamber of Commerce worked with the Watonga Action Committee (WAC) to
come up with a program called the “Watonga Land Run”. Blaine County has many properties on their
rolls that are abandoned or had been deeded to the County for unpaid taxes. These
vacant lots have a negative impact
on our city and county. The County
was willing to transfer title to some of those properties to the City under the
“Land Run” program, which would in turn give the real estate to anyone willing
to build a residence. Changing the
character of empty lots into homesites would provide not only water and sewer
and electricity income to the City, but would also provide property taxes to
the County, not to mention other economic benefits to the community. After several months of getting the details
of the Land Run worked out between the City Attorney and the Mayor’s office, a
list of properties available from the County was approved by the City Council
to be transferred to the City. The
meetings where those matters were approved were on or about May 2012. ]
On the Agenda of last night's meeting were three items in connection with the Land Run.
Approval to transfer six specific Lots to the City for the Land Run was once again on the agenda. Although a list of lots was approved by City Council back in 2012, a recent review of the records at the County Treasurer’s office revealed that only a few of the lots approved for the Land Run were actually legally transferred to the City of Watonga. Now the matter has to be revisited by the City Council. The Watonga Action Committee reviewed the list of lots presented to the City Council in 2012 and weeded out lots that might not be appropriate for building for one reason or another, like being in a flood zone. Six lots were listed on this week’s agenda to be transferred from the County to the City. However, the property at 516 N. Montgomery was said to be in a flood zone. Harriette Nitzel stated that the property at 1015 N. Leach St. had already been transferred to the City, but the City Clerk could not produce a copy of the deed at this meeting. Additional research will be done by WAC committee members to determine the status of the Leach St. property.
Agenda item #9 was also miss-stated in the posted agenda. [Who asked for item #9 to be put on the agenda -- the WAC committee did not. The Land Run documents already approved by Dan Webber and City Council allow for land to be used as an investment-- the program allows for a house to be constructed and used as rental property.] The Land Run documents DO NOT allow for multi-family housing, which City Attorney Dan Webber pointed this in the meeting though not stated on the Agenda as the issue before the Council.
A request from Gene Pfughoft (from CORD) to acquire the property known as Block 4, Lots 1-4, under the Land Run, was tabled on the grounds that he wants to build “investment property”.
Doyle Province voiced his objection to property being “given” to an investor. [Disregard the fact that these lots are costing the City money to maintain while not being used -- and could generate hundreds of dollars in revenues if given away to be built on.] This item was tabled for further research as to what amount could be charged for empty lots in the City of Watonga. The figure of $500 was thrown out. Discussion and hopefully action will be put on a future agenda. Doyle Province wants to see what prices have been obtained for other empty lots auctioned off by the County. A compromise was proposed by a WAC member: that the City approve the building of multi-family housing on Land Run properties for a period of one year, and then reevaluate if such a program will benefit the City. That idea was dismissed.
[Auctioning off property for unpaid taxes is one thing, but when the property also has multiple unpaid liens from the City, the sales price generally does not cover both. For example, one particular property we looked at has unpaid property taxes from 2010, 2011, 2012 totalling approximately $1,000.00, but also has additional City liens of $300+ for mowing the property over three years. The building itself is abandoned, unoccupied, and open to the elements --a health and safety hazard to our community. NO ONE is going to pay $1,300.00 plus for a lot that will require an additional investment of over $2500.00 just to tear down and clear off the existing structure to get the lot ready to build on! This is a perfect example of a lot that should go into the Land Run program and given to someone willing to put money into it by building a house on it. Right now that property is costing the City money and generating nothing in the way of utilities or taxes. Allowing someone to build on it would not only remove an expense from the City and County but would also generate actual income for the County and the City in utility services and property taxes, not to mention sales taxes and income to local businesses! How hard is this to understand?] A lease of the city-owned property at 203 N. Weigle, previously leased to Phoenix Circle Foundation for use by Dr. Robert Spencer as the Watonga Medical Clinic, has expired. Mercy Hospital has asked to lease the property and use it as “Mercy Clinic”. The terms of the lease were discussed. Richard Hightower raised the question of responsibility for maintenance of the building. A motion as made and approved to lease the property for the sum of $350.00 per month, using the same lease that was used for Phoenix Circle Foundation. A copy of the proposed lease was not made available to the meeting.
Consideration
and discussion to address the sub-leasing of office space by Opportunities to
other parties was deferred to item #7 on the agenda, which was consideration to
renew the contract with Opportunities Inc. for use of property (the old police station) for $200.00 per month. The Council voted to renew the contract with
the proviso that any sublease must be approved by City Council. No written contract was provided for
councilmembers to review.
Donnie Dunn,
Park Department head, will be having shoulder surgery and unable to work for an
extended period of time, including the remainder of the summer season. TJ Douglas, who is a current part-time
employee with the Park Dept., will exceed the 1,000 hours allowed for a
part-time employee. The City does not
want to hire him as a full-time employee because it would cost additional
monies to provide health insurance and other benefits to him as a full-time
employee. Instead, the City wants to
enter into a contract with TJ Douglas for $760.00 bi-weekly (which is the regular starting salary for a full-time City employee), or $19,760 a year. [This "contract" is merely a tactic to get around state and federal labor laws.I didn't hear if this action was reviewed by and recommended by the Personnel Committee. ] The City
Council approved the contract with TJ Douglas in spite of "no" votes from
Richard Hightower and Brent Wilkinson.
Andrew
Gering from American Community Contractors made a proposal to the Council to
provide private Code Enforcement services for the City of Watonga. Mr. Gering was unable to satisfactorily
answer some questions from the City Council and he will return with more
information on the contract at a future City Council meeting. No action was taken on this item except to put it on a future agenda.
Edna Justice
was approved as Watonga’s CORD representative.
The Council had no information or specifications in order to approve advertising for bids for video
camera equipment to be placed around town.
There was also discussion about Code Enforcement and what Robert Daugherty has been doing, though no report was provided by him. No citations have yet been given out to Code violators, even after months of the Council telling him that they want citations to be issued.
[PLEASE COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR CITY COUNCILPERSON and/or attend City Council meetings to prevent actions being approved that may be detrimental to residents of Watonga.]
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