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Council again pitches annexation

Havre's long-held plans to annex properties west of the city limits took a small step forward Tuesday.

City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution of intention to annex 15 properties west of the city limits.

Properties to be annexed under the proposal include the Holiday Village Mall, Triangle Communications and Hill County Electric, the Super 8 Motel, Havre Ford, G&B Toyota, My Canvas Auto and AmericInn.

A public hearing on the proposed annexation is set for Monday, Oct 3, at 7 p.m.

Before the vote, council member Brian Barrows asked if the city had "everything in line this time" to proceed with the annexation process.  

"I sure hope so," Mayor Tim Solomon said. "It went on long enough. I hope we learned."

For years the city has worked to annex properties south, east and west of its limits that receive city services such as garbage collection and sewage if they can. The move would allow the city to collect tax revenue from those properties.

However, the attempts have met resistance from some of the owners of properties to the west of the city, resulting in complaints and litigation.

As a result, earlier attempts to annex properties included in the latest proposals were started at least twice only to be halted.

Havre City Council President Andrew Brekke said that since the last halt in annexation, the city has been in talks with affected property owners and have made efforts to ease the concerns of Hill County officials.

Brekke said the annexation process has been broken down into seven phases and that the latest attempt to annex property represents the fifth phase.

He said there could be a possible eighth step, since new properties were built after the last attempted annexation.

People can speak about the proposal at the Oct. 3 meeting.

The resolution also requires the city clerk to mail notices of the public meeting to owners and purchasers and advertise the meeting in the Havre Daily News. The resolution establishes a 45-day period after the hearing during which affected property owners can submit written comments to the city expressing support or opposition to the annexation proposal.

• In other business taken up by the council, a request by Highway 2 Association President Bob Sivertsen to be included on the agenda at the council's Sept. 19 meeting was defeated in a 4-4 tie vote broken by Mayor Tim Solomon.

Sivertsen, a former state representative, has been a longtime advocate of revisiting an environmental impact statement that calls for an improved two-lane highway between Havre and Fort Belknap rather than a four-lane highway, which is what he advocates.

An effort by Sivertsen to get the Havre and Chinook city councils to endorse a letter from the Highway 2 Association requesting a meeting with Montana Department of Transportation Director Mike Tooley was defeated by both councils last month.

The Hill and Blaine county commissioners did offer their support for the letter.

Havre City Council members said that while they would support a four-lane highway in theory, if the EIS is revisited and a different conclusion was not reached, it would only serve to delay the project with no benefit.

Solomon said he did not see any additional information to suggest the federal government would reach a different conclusion if the EIS was revisited.

• The council opened a hearing on the fiscal year 2017 city budget, which was recessed until a continuation of the meeting starts tonight at 7 at which the council will discuss and vote on the budget.

 

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