Committee talks about food trucks, snow and weed removal and SIDs

Havre City Council’s Streets and Sidewalks Committee met Monday to talk about several issues, including the creation of Special Improvement Districts to improve neighborhoods.

Public Works Director Trevor Mork said people are asking on a regular basis what can be done to improve infrastructure in neighborhoods, and he said people need to realize the difference between maintenance an improvements or rehabilitation.

City taxes paid by residents are used for maintenance of infrastructure, like repairing water main breaks or fixing potholes in the streets.

Major projects, like replacing water or sewer mains, rebuilding streets or sidewalks and curbs of gutter have to be funded in other ways, he said.

One method would be to implement a new city-wide tax that could be used for improvements, a proposal that was put forth last decade but defeated by the voters.

Another method, Mork said, that gives local residents more control over what improvements would be made, is to create a special improvement district.

SIDs can be created by city council but often are created by property owners in an area.

In an SID, residents of an area vote to create a district with specific improvements planned. The local government typically sells bonds or takes out a low-interest loan to pay for the work, then the property owners pay an additional tax over the period of the SID, such as for 15 years, to pay off the loan.

At one point, Havre had some 200 SIDs in existence, but as they expired new SIDs were not created. The city has had only a couple of SIDs in the last 20 years or so.

Mork said the process can seem confusing, and he wants to get the word out on how people can go about creating an SID to make improvements to their neighborhood.

He said they have created a document explaining the process, how SIDs are created, how they function and what benefits they can bring.

The document is available for people to look at at the Havre Public Works Department.

Some residents in the southern edge of Havre are in that process right now, taking the first step to potentially create an SID. They applied for funding to perform a preliminary engineering report to see what can be done to improve their neighborhood, what different options are and what the costs would be for different projects. They can then take that to their neighbors to see if they are interested in creating an SID to fund work on improvements.

The committee agreed to look at having a Town Hall meeting at some point in the future to give Havre residents more information, and to answer questions, about SIDS.

Food trucks on the highway

Committee Chair Josh Gomez said he had been looking at ways the city might be able to help a local food truck vendor to keep using his food truck on First Street.

He said Scott Adams had been parking his food truck on the 200 Block of First Street to sell his Hero Dogs hot dogs, but he was told by Montana Department of Transportation he had to stop doing so.

First Street is U.S. Highway 2 where it runs through Havre, and is maintained and under the authority of MDT.

Gomez said he had been in contact with MDT, and after several months of discussion and research it appears the city can do nothing about the issue, and said he was sorry for the situation Adams is in.

The bottom line, Gomez said, is regulation — potentially federal regulations, since it is a federal highway under the jurisdiction of MDT in Montana — prohibits for-profit businesses using highway right-of-way for sales, which basically extends right to the sidewalk in front of the businesses on First Street..

Under special circumstances, non-profit enterprises would be allowed, but not a for-profit business.

He said the city taking action or passing an ordinance would apparently not resolve the situation.

The committee discussed Adams potentially continuing to run his truck in the same area, but moving it to Second Avenue or Third Avenue next to First Street instead of on the street itself.

Weeds and snow removal

Committee member Sarah MicKinney asked about what can be done with residents who don’t keep the snow off of their sidewalks.

City ordinance requires property owners to remove snow from their sidewalks within 24 hours of the snowfall.

Lt. Lucas Ames of the Havre Police Department said people can file a complaint with the city and if the snow is not removed, the property owner can be issued a citation.

McKinney said most people do take care of the snow on their sidewalks, but some people are lax about it. She said it is both a hazard for people who need a way to walk from point a to point b and to get downtown to do shopping, and keeping sidewalks clear is needed to make the city more appealing and a good place to live and visit.

“You want to create the walkability issue so that people can just year-round plan on using their feet to get around town,” she said. “

Gomez said an issue is whether it is worth taking the time of police officers to deal with unshoveled sidewalks.

Mork said something he is looking into is bringing back a position Public Works used to have, an inspector whose job would be to watch for violations of week ordinance — people are required to keep their lawns at less than 6 inches tall, and Public Works will cut the lawn at the owner’s expense if they don’t — and the snow removal ordinance.

Gomez said doing that could take some of the workload off of the police department.