Council approves Chamber receiving tourism promotion funds

A resolution recognizing the Havre Area Chamber of Commerce as the city’s Convention and Visitors Bureau was passed 7-0 by the City Council at their Monday night meeting, making the Chamber eligible to receive state funds to promote the city as a tourist destination.

Council member Sarah McKinney was excused.

Passage of the resolution recognizes the Chamber as the local nonprofit that will receive and spend money from the state’s 4 percent accommodation tax on hotel, motel and campground occupancy. The funding will be used to promote Havre.

After the meeting, Chamber Executive Director Jody Olson said the Montana Office of Tourism and Business Development projects that Havre will be eligible later this year for $18,500 from the tax.

Olson said she will next complete the required paperwork and come up with a marketing plan.

Council President Andrew Brekke, who also sits on the Chamber Board, said the Chamber was considered a CVB in 2010 and 2011 after hotels west of Havre had been annexed. After the city went into litigation and was forced to undo the annexation, Havre was then not able to meet the requirements to receive state funding,

Olson said the last time the city received money from the tax was 2012.

In other business, the council voted 7-0 to order a public hearing to consider raising city water and wastewater system rates.

Montana law requires that a municipality hold a public hearing before rates, charges or classifications are established, changed or regulated.

Havre Clerk/Finance Director Doug Kaercher said the proposed increase is pretty modest and will come to less than an additional $4 a month for the average water and sewer user.

“It works out to be about $2 on the water and $1.85 on the sewer,” he said,

The proposed increase, Kaercher said, was initiated because money set aside for water and sewer projects is nearly depleted.

“So if you have any large projects, we are going to need some (money) to build up, even if we have to bond we have to have some type of funding for that,” Kaercher said.

The council also voted unanimously for a Community Development Block Grant drawdown of $36,827.60 for renovations for the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Dave Brewer said that though he knows budgets are tight, the streets are pretty bad as a result of the ruts in the road as well as the ice and snow.

He added that he saw many people post on Facebook that they wanted to come to the council meeting but couldn’t because they were unable to get out of their driveways.

Mayor Tim Solomon said the city is open to any solutions.

He said it is not practical to plow up and down the streets, when the slush and ice will melt away within a week.

Brewer said that maybe the city could have cleaned up the roads sooner.

Council member Terry Lilletvedt said she thinks “the city has done a hell of a job” in clearing the streets of snow and ice.

“I mean honestly, I am amazed at how well, I think, they have done,” she said,

Havre Deputy Director of Public Works Jeff Jensen said that plowing is a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario.

He said that when he plows where he does, he gets backlash from people whose vehicles get plowed in.

“So most of it in town is not practical to plow, because if I do go in with my big piece of equipment, you are not getting out of your driveway, you are not getting your car out of your driveway,” Jensen said.

He added that at least the roads in their current condition are somewhat passable.

Jensen said that, in the past few days, his crews have had to fix water breaks and clean up storm drains plugged up by snow.

Brekke, chair of the council’s Ordinance Committee, scheduled a meeting of the committee for Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in the little conference room in City Hall.

The council’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday, April 2.