City wants to move ahead with road paving

Belmond city officials are concerned about getting 150th Street paved this summer. Eighteen months ago the city and county agreed to share the cost of paving the gravel road from Highway 69 west to the driveway of the new Max Yield fertilizer plant.

City Manager Lee Ann Waltzing told the city council Monday night that the county engineer told her the work is not on the current county road plan -- that some jobs had been pushed back on the calender.

Whats the holdup? asked Councilman Harlan Tulp. Didnt we already agree to that?

We have a responsibility to our local industry, said City Attorney Gary Berkland. We promised Max Yield that paving job.

Several other city leaders express displeasure with the possibility that the project will be delayed again.

Waltzing said she will contact County Supervisor Stan Watne and Wright County Economic Development Director Brad Hicks about the matter. She promised to report her findings to the council at the next meeting.

In other business, the council:

--approved re-taking bids for sewer plant improvements. The bids will be opened January 15 at 2 p.m. and the council will have the chance to accept a bid on January 20;

--heard that public works employees are trying to keep certain parts of the sewer plant running the best they can, but there continue to be problems and breakdowns;

--discussed the website belmond.com which is owned and operated by the city, chamber of commerce and industrial development group. Someone is trying to buy the name belmond.com, using an attorney as a front. Local officials do not know who the person is or why they are trying to buy the name. All city leaders agreed that selling the name was a bad idea;

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City wants to move ahead with road paving