Council Fields Questions/Complaints on Building Permit Issues

During the public comment part of the meeting held on Tuesday, October 26, Willy Hammar, along with his wife Joyce, talked to the council about recent building permits and what rules are being followed.

“My concern is how we are going about our building permits,” said Hammar. “About 15-16 years ago, we had some issues happening on 7th Avenue West. So we got together with a lot of people from the community and worked with the planning board. We came up with some rules that we thought would help and not pick on people at the time. Recently, we’ve had a new building move in that doesn’t meet those rules. I’ve heard a lot of people that are not happy with the process.”

Hammar went on to say, “I understand there are instances where you have to make considerations for people. But we’re not playing fairly here and I kind of hold you guys to that.”

Mayor Demarais said, “In this last instance, I made a mistake. I made a mistake on the square footage. That is on me. We can’t go back and change it now, but that mistake of 40 square feet is on me.”

“You need to figure out if you’re going to enforce the rules, and if you are, you have to backtrack. If you aren’t, you need to take a look at who’s down there and allow people to build on to and add on to their places,” said Hammar. “We need a better system that serves the public. I don’t think we should keep denying people from fixing up their properties in a good way if it doesn’t upset their neighbors.”

The council is going to start the process of looking into how things are done with building permits and allowing variances in the future along with the planning committee.

“This will take some time,” said Demarais. “With this, public hearings will have to take place. I think this system needs to be looked at entirely. We’ve got new types of houses that can start showing up and need to be accounted for as well, such as the mini houses. It’s time we looked at the whole thing.”

In new business, Bob Church of Great West Engineering updated the council on the ARPA money that was applied for to replace the Trafton Lift Station.

There were over 300 applicants in the first round, and they awarded the top 73. With the way the committee rated each project that was applied for, Malta’s project ranked 111th.

Church suggested that the city move forward with the engineering design for the project. This would add more points to the total.

“I feel there is a really good chance Malta can get the money in the second round of payouts in January,” said Church.

The council voted 4-0 to move forward with the design project.

The council approved the purchase of the Old Armory (Malta Event Center) from the Department of Military Affairs for the appraised value of $225,000.

They also approved the request for out-of-town garbage pick-up for Loy and Ed Pekovitch.

In his report to the council, Public Works Director Jim Truelove said that the crew is currently, and will continue, vacuuming up leaves until the calls stop coming in.

Truelove said that the city crew will also continue to trim trees around town.

He said he is waiting for a replacement conveyor belt for the street sweeper. When the belt comes in, that will be out as well.

Truelove told the council that he was forced to close the rest area due to damage.

He also reported that the lagoon had been winterized.

PWD Truelove reported that the city had a state labor inspection on Friday, October 22, for water and wastewater.

“It went well,” said Truelove. “They found a couple of minor issues. That is why they come and inspect. To find things. It was nothing major and the problems have been taken care of.”

Truelove informed the council that the city crew had painted lines in the parking lot of the Malta Event Center. Lights for the hallway and a couple of rooms were on order also.

He added that Central Lock would be coming to install a key fob system and that a push-button for handicapped accessibility needed to be put in at the front door as well.

Truelove said that the Trafton Lift Station was down to one pump at the moment, but it should be going again by the end of the week.

Lastly, he added that the City Landfill would be on winter hours within the next two weeks.

City Clerk/Treasurer Lori Bond gave the council the usual reports. The current check register, current shut-off list, and the budget vs actual revenue vs expenditures report.

She showed the council that they had received two Thank You cards as well as an invite to A Night at the Museum on Friday, November 5th, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum, and an invite to the celebration for the return of the Malta-Zortman Stagecoach to be held on October 28th at the PC Transportation Museum at 3:00 p.m.

The Meeting was adjourned at 7:06 p.m. The next Malta City Council meeting will be on Tuesday, November 9, at 5:00 p.m. at City Hall.