City council approves taxes, road closures, discusses road conditions

The Havre City Council passed a number of resolutions approving yearly tax levies and assessments on first reading, as well as road closures for upcoming events at their meeting last night, after which the council's ordinance committee recommended some amendments to the city's sign code regarding temporary political signs.

The council unanimously passed resolutions levying and assessing yearly taxes on property within city limits to defray the costs of maintaining street, street lights and for solid waste disposal services on first reading.

A second reading of these resolutions will be held early next month, said Havre Mayor Doug Kaercher, and he encourages anyone with questions to look online for details on the resolutions before then.

The council also voted to adopt a preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year, and set their yearly budget meeting for next month as well.

The council also unanimously voted on a resolution of intent to cancel this year's municipal general election for candidates who are running unopposed, which Kaercher said will save the city a bit of money administering elections that only have one possible outcome.

City Councilor Lindsey Ratliff said there are people who've chosen not to run who she will miss, but she's excited to work with those who will be taking their places.

"There are some really great community members who are willing to step up," Ratliff said.

Later in the meeting the council unanimously approved requests by the Steve Heil family to close Third Street between Second and Fifth avenues Sept. 15, 2023, for the 2023 Steve Heil Memorial Car Show, and by PJ's Restaurant & Casino to close Main Street behind the bar to host a street dance with live music Sept. 16.

The council also approved the usual raft of closures for the Festival Days parade route, Saturday Market and bounce houses as well as an open container waiver for a tribute band and Rock Lotto in the Town Square Area Sept. 16.

Chamber President Maia LaSalle said the bounce house closure on Fourth Ave. in front of Dyllan's Pizza wouldn't be necessary this year and the waiver will only cover Town Square and the attached parking lot.

She said she would submit an updated map to the council so they know were the closures will actually be, and apologized that said map wasn't done by the time of this meeting.

During public comments the council was also asked by Havre resident Bill Lanier about when the new crosswalk at North Central Senior Center will be done, and what is being done about the broken streetlights on 13th Avenue.

Havre Public Works Director Trevor Mork said the crosswalk at the senior center is coming as soon as possible.

He said they are also working to rectify the issues on 13th Avenue but that section of road is the only one in the city that isn't covered by a lighting district.

He said they are working with NorthWestern Energy to try to get that changed.

Lanier also asked if the name of U.S. Bank Park had been changed and was told by the council that it was changed to Veterans Park last year.

During public comments the council fielded a number of criticisms from a Havre resident named David who would not provide his last name.

The resident asked why the city was patching roads instead of addressing the underlying infrastructure, which is incredibly old and is the source of the problem for the poor local rod conditions.

Havre officials have repeatedly said that they want to address these infrastructure deficiencies, but to do so is incredibly costly and the city just doesn't have the money.

During the Monday meeting Mork said the cost of fully repaving a street is between $2.1 and $2.6 million per mile, and the city has 57 miles of street under its jurisdiction, excluding alleys, and addressing the infrastructure under those streets will push that number to between $7 and $12 million per mile and the city just doesn't have that kind of money.

The council has tried many times to raise taxes to pay for these updates, but they have always been voted down in elections.

The resident at Monday's meeting said if these levies keep failing the city should try something else.

"We can keep doing the same thing, but that's the definition of insanity," he said.

Mork and Ratliff said they agree that the infrastructure under the roads is incredibly old and in need of updates and they've had conversations about alternatives.

However, Mork said, the city's job is to maintain and repair, and any improvements to the system must come at the request and consent of the people of Havre and if these levies aren't going to get passed people can set up special improvement districts or appeal to their home owners association if they have one.

"The city of Havre cannot make, and will not make, those decisions for people," he said.

Special improvement districts, SIDs, are special taxing districts set up and approved by residents of a given area of the city to raise funds for services in that area, with the payments generally used to pay off low-interest loans taken to pay for the work.

Ratliff said one SID is being set up in the city right now, and Mork said his department is updating their information sheets on these district and how to set them up so others can do the same if they want.

The resident however said the people of Havre shouldn't need to do any of that.

"I don't understand why the taxpayer has to do or pay for any of that," he said. "That's why they hire you guys."

While the city does make use of state funds and grants when possible the primary funding source of local government is, and always has been, taxes.

The resident also asked why the city isn't using federal money coming into the community from the recent declaration by the Joe Biden administration to address flooding damage sustained during the rapid snowmelt in April of this year.

Kaercher said the worst of the flooding damage was sustained by roads in Hill County outside of city limits so only the county is eligible to make use of those funds, not the city.

The resident said he believes the language of the declaration allows the city to pursue that funding but Kaercher said he knows for a fact that that is not true.

The resident also criticized the city for not expending its entire repair and maintenance budget this past year when road conditions are still so bad.

After the council meeting the council's ordinance committee met to discuss some proposed changes to the city's sign code, specifically the regulations regarding temporary political signs.

Council President and Ordinance Committee member Andrew Brekke said that, in 2019, the sign code was amended to include a requirement that political candidates request permits for every sign they or their supporters put up in town.

Brekke said this is an incredibly cumbersome and atypical requirement that has caused a great deal of confusion for local and state candidates and, while he's sure the change was well-intentioned, it has proven very impractical.

Brekke said he, as the head of the Hill County Republican Party, and his then-Democratic counterpart Jacob Bachmeier, were both concerned at the time that they were not consulted about this change which he said puts an undue burden on candidates.

He said he did a cursory search for other cities' sign codes and he wasn't able to find one that required a permit at all, and all of them put the liability for potential code violations on homeowners, not candidates.

He said it doesn't make sense to have candidates shoulder that responsibility, since, while the signs are often given to supporters, the signs are placed by property owners.

Ratliff, a member of the committee and the current head of the Hill County Democratic Party, said she agrees that this 2019 change has made life unnecessarily difficult for candidates.

Brekke said its sensible to have regulations on political signs, but he thinks this particular one is an overreach and he thinks they should go back to how it was before the 2019 change.

Brekke's proposed amendment would remove the requirement for a permit and place responsibility for code violations on homeowners instead of candidates.

Under the current code temporary political signs are permitted to be up to 9 square feet large on residential property and up to 32 square feet in commercial and industrial areas, and that would not change under the proposed amendment.

The amendment would specify that signs are permitted from 60 days before their respective elections to 10 days after, though prior to the 2019 change the times were different for primary elections and general elections.

It would also remove the restriction that says homeowners are only permitted 12 signs total and only one per candidate, which he and Ratliff agreed was a problematic requirement.

Mork said if someone is filling their entire property with political signs it may constitute a valid nuisance complaint depending on the circumstances, but that would need to be handled on an individual basis.

The amendment would also add that signs cannot be placed on the boulevard, which is in state law, but was not previously noted in the city code.

Ratliff said she thinks this proposal addresses the issues she was seeing last year and the committee voted unanimously to advance the proposal to the council for possible approval.