Voters may get revised streets plan

A plan to overhaul Havre city streets may be on the ballot again next year, but it may or may not be the one that was voted down this year.

City Council members Pam Hillery and Terry Lilletvedt called on council Monday to resubmit the proposal that was rejected by voters in November, but said they would be willing to listen to other proposals.

Council member Matt Boucher, the chair of the Streets and Sidewalks Committee that first submitted the proposal this year, said he still sees the need for a massive repair program, but questioned whether the same proposal should be submitted.

“I think we should make some tweaks,” Boucher said.

“The voters said no,” he added. “I’d like to see some modifications.”

He said he would call a committee meeting after Jan. 1 to consider options.

Lilletvedt said she and Hillery thought the streets are in urgent need or repair and are getting worse all the time.

“We are not unaware that it (the proposal) went down,” Lilletvedt said. “But nearly 1,000 people voted for it, and that’s pretty exciting.

“We need to bring it to voters again,” she added

Hillery said 2016 is a presidential election and voter turnout will be higher.

Hillery said she would be open to hearing any modifications or alternate proposals, but said it was incumbent on opponents to come up with new proposals.

“We are not against other ideas,” Lilletvedt said. “But we haven’t heard any new ideas.”

She said she was against modifications if they involved scaling back on underground infrastructure.

Council member Brian Barrows said when he lived in Sunburst, Montana Department of Transportation agreed to reconstruct Main Street at a discounted rate because it was building a nearby interstate.

The state got the new street, but the next year a waterline burst and Sunburst had to tear up half of the new street.

Lilletvedt vowed a vigorous campaign on behalf of whatever proposal is submitted to voters.

“I don’t mean to scold, but we need to do something with our streets, and voters have to be informed,” she said

The only opposition she heard from people to the defeated proposal was that the city should come up with another way of funding the proposal or that the city should do more street repairs.

She said that doing more would cost more, adding that, as far as alternative funding sources go, “we have very limited options.”

Mayor Tim Solomon said City Clerk Doug Kaercher is investigating other options as far as creating special districts that can fund repairs in their areas. Those are usually funded by establishing special assessments for property owners in the district.