During Wednesday evening's Williston City Commission meeting, city building office Doug Lalim raised concerns about the proposed ordinance restricting the storage of used tires, junk or garbage outside residences and businesses for no more than seven days.
Lalim raised concerns regarding the enforcement of the ordinance as it relates to monitoring the storage of tires.
"How are you going to monitor that," said Lalim.
Lalim also disagreed with the subsection requiring businesses to store tires no closer than 25 feet from any building, particularly those businesses located on Second Avenue West. "If you don't allow them to put (tires) within 25 feet of their buildings, (tires) are probably going to be out up front towards streets because they aren't going to have any room inside or in the back," Lalim said. "There are a few things that probably will be tough to monitor and may be a hardship on the business if we go that extreme."
Commissioner Jim Lawson made a motion to table Ordinance 913 regarding the tire matter to look at it more closely and the motion passed.
"I don't want to take away their opportunity to do business with these tires if that's what they need to do, so I agree with Commissioner Lawson to review some of this," added Finance Commissioner Brad Bekkedahl.
Ordinance 913 resulted from an ordinance review committee formed last year after Williston resident Patricia Lund addressed the commission with concerns of the overall messiness in the area.
Lund was at Wednesday's commission meeting and said, "I just think we need to do something with these tires."
While the second reading of the used tire ordinance didn't passed, a wireless telecommunications towers and antennas ordinance did passed Wednesday. The first reading of both ordinances took place at the commission meeting of Oct. 28.
Ordinance 912 establishes general guidelines for siting wireless telecommunication towers and antennas to protect residential and land areas from potential impacts of towers and antennas, promote siting in non-residential areas, minimize the number of towers and antennas throughout the community and encourage the joint use of new and existing equipment, among others.
Williston City Auditor John Kautzman said there is a company interested in siting three areas in town.
In an unrelated matter, the commission addressed a petition from Justin Parkinson to give the Williston Park District control over a sledding hill near the Williston Water Department building on Eleventh Street.
Giving control of the area to the park district, the city would not be liable for any accidents related to recreational activities on the property and would not be responsible for maintenance of the property.
"There is probably a need for this," said City and County engineer Monte Meiers.
Meiers raised concerns about what entity would construct the sledding hill.
Parkinson said several people have volunteered to assist with the construction phase of the project, including people in the Williston City Public Works Department. Parkinson is also expecting to receive equipment donations.
The commissioners approved the petition, subject to final review of the lease agreement by Williston city attorney Pete Furuseth.
"I don't think you're ever going to take away any 100 percent of the city liability; however, what they are proposing is a lot safer than what we have now, so I don't know how we can lose in this situation," said Furuseth.
"For those of us who take our kids sledding over there, I don't know how many kids you see sledding right onto the middle of the road by the ball park and this is going to make it better," he added.
Parkinson told the commission there is equipment available to make artificial snow, so people can enjoy the sledding hill on a regular basis.
"This is kind of exciting to me," said Commission President Ward Koeser. "We have a lot of people with young kids in town now, and it's a fairly safe place to do it."
The commissioners also approved the purchase of $59,680 in software to replace the existing system installed 29 years ago. The software conversion is to be used for utility billing, cash receipting, service applications, service orders, automated telephoning and accounts receivable. Two companies provided quotes – Black Mountains for $59,680 and $71,337.
Commissioners also adopt two additional resolutions. The first relates to increases in all cemetery fees.
Winter burial fees increased by $150, burial rights increased to $650 for standard lots and $700 for inner circle lots.
Commissioner Howard Klug said cemetery fees were not covering current costs of operating the cemetery.
"It seems like we are losing about $125, $120 every time we do a transaction out there," said Klug.
Cemetery fees were last increased three years ago.
"Since we are already looking at it once every three years, that's why these are going up higher than the $120," added Klug. "This obviously is not going to cover everything, but it will be at least enough to keep us from going in the hole."
The other resolution adopted establishes that no subdivision located within one mile of the city limits is to receive treated water without it being annexed to the city of Williston.
Upon recommendations by Meiers, the commissioners also approved the purchase of a new wheel loader for the landfill for $121,980 from Willliston based T & E.
"This is the workhorse of our fleet in the landfill. It runs every day and it puts the most hours of any equipement we have," said Meiers.
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