City donates strip of land to MDT

The Montana Department of Transportation approached the city about buying a small strip of land along the eastern edge of U. S. Highway 2. At Monday night's Havre City Council meeting, the council donated the land to them.

The state wants to use the. 06-acre strip of land along the side of the highway, as a part of work to join the widened road in Havre with the more recent widened parts between Havre and Chinook.

The lot, just past the old Kmart, is needed to add a drainage pipe.

MDT offered the city $2,450 for the piece of land, but also asked if the city wanted to simply donate the land.

At first, council member Allen "Woody" Woodwick said that the city should sell if they can, to get anything for it.

The talk turned toward donation after council member Gerry Veis made a motion to simply donate the property, as a sign of goodwill to the department.

Both Mayor Tim Solomon and Public Works Director Dave Peterson said that MDT has done a lot for the city that they didn't have to, including painting lines on Havre streets, changing street lights on 1st Street and donating the rubble blasted off of Black Butte west of Havre to the city.

"It will probably come back tenfold, " Peterson told the council. "It's not like we're just giving it away. "