City Council: Burger King still en route to Havre

Editor’s note: This version corrects the spelling of Val Murri’s name.

Havre City Council heard Monday that — contrary to rumours flying on social media — the company planning to build a Burger King in Havre is still bringing the restaurant to town.

“It’s still in the works,” Public Works Director Dave Peterson said.

He added that the latest information from Meridian Restaurants, which is opening the Havre franchise, is that the company will put the project out for bids in November with a planned construction start date in April or May, depending on the weather.

The issue came up at Monday’s meeting during the public comment section at the end, when Havreite Val Murri asked whether Burger King was still coming to Havre.

Council President Andrew Brekke said he has had many people asking him about Burger King coming, and he has been talking to Mayor Tim Solomon and Peterson about what is happening.

“There has been a lot of disinformation, I think, on social media about what the city has or has not done,” Brekke, who chaired the meeting, said. “ … Everything they’ve requested of us we’ve provided or dealt with in some way that we’ve been able to meet in the middle, somewhere.

“I think that needs to be said to the community that it’s not the city of Havre that’s the issue,” he added. “We welcome them to Havre, we want them to build here, we want their jobs, we want their economic activity.”

Peterson said the city will be connecting water to the site in October in preparation for the business coming in.

Murri asked if the city is requiring the company to pave the streets around the site, located between First and Second streets west and Fifth and Sixth avenues west.

Peterson said that is required of the avenues, parts of which already are paved, but not Second Street West.

That is normal with any new business construction, he added, and Meridian Restaurants did not indicate that was any problem.

It’s up to the property owners to do the paving. The city doesn’t pave unpaved streets,” Peterson said. “They’re paved by the property owners either through (special improvement districts) or paying it outright out of their own pocket.”

Council member Lindsay Ratliff thanked Murri for bringing the question up for clarification.

Brekke said coming to council meetings, or talking to appropriate department heads, is the proper venue for issues like the Burger King question.

“It’s a lot better than making broad assumptions on social media,” he said. “ … I was out of state last week, and when I came back and started reading the comments it was, like, ‘Wow, what has happened here,’ because there was hardly any truth to any of them.”