City council approves selling lot to private party

By Anna Jauhola
The Hallock City Council agreed to sell a city-owned parcel to Ron Anderson during its regular meeting on Monday, Nov. 4. Anderson has approached the council about purchasing the portion of this parcel that is not in the floodplain over the last three months. Since the October meeting, Anderson found out the lot itself is valued at $1,300 and a new abstract of the new property lines would cost as much as $800. Also, Moore Engineering reduced their price for having surveyed the lot to around $6,000. The lot is located along the gravel road that cuts from Forest Avenue South to Birch Avenue behind Kittson Healthcare.
He also found the city has set the zoning requirements for a sewer system – whether that be a lift station or a mound system.
Bob Anderson, who also owns property along that gravel road, asked whether it’s legal to sell a city-owned lot without putting it up for sale first.
“The last time we investigated this, it was legal so long as you sold it for the assessed value,” said Mayor Dave Treumer. “One of the reasons I asked if we had a bunch of interested parties, is if we had all of a sudden four people that came in and wanted to buy it, and they came to this meeting, we might have to put it out on bids. It’s kind of a fine line.”
Ron Anderson offered $8,000 overall for the lot, and reminded the council he plans to immediately build a house on the lot.
Anderson asked whether the cost of surveying the housing addition on the south end of town is passed on to homeowners.
“No, that’s something that should have been done normally when you sell a property, but this is a special case. We had to get the floodplain out,” Truemer said of the lot in question. “So Mr. Anderson, I plan on soaking you for that amount along with the property. I don’t think that’s out of line. But that’s up to the council.”
Councilor Naomi Larson made a motion to accept Anderson’s offer of $8,000 for the portion of the lot that is not in the floodplain; Councilor Jen Peterson seconded. The motion included that the sale includes that a house must be built on the lot.
The council will work on a purchase agreement with Anderson and bring that back to a future meeting for approval.
Dilapidated houses
Police Chief Mike Docken told the council three houses in town now meet the city’s abatement protocol. One in particular he’s been trying to work with the owners, but they have stopped talking to him. That house is on Fourth Street, where Councilor Kevin Waller has adjoining property, and he admitted the house smelled all summer.
“Our abatement protocol is, if they don’t respond, we can take them to court,” Docken said.
The council instructed Docken to expedite the process, get papers served on the owners and go from there. The house is a safety and health hazard, Docken said, mostly due to broken windows, no doors, trash and feces. The property owner is supposed to board up the building, and the city does not have legal authority to do it.
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Other properties in town are on Second Street North and at Second Street South/Forest Avenue. A mortgage property cleaned out the garage on Second Street North of floor-to-ceiling garbage, and cleaned up the yard. Docken said the toilets are broken and the house isn’t livable. The home at Second Street and Forest has a hole in the roof and the porch is unsafe. Docken said the owner has tried to get a contractor to fix it, but no one will work on it.
In other business, the council:
• The council agreed to form a committee to review information provided by DDA Human Resources regarding a job compensation market analysis. The council heard details of the analysis in a workshop, but still weren’t clear on everything by the time of the regular meeting. Waller and Peterson will work on the committee and bring a recommendation back to the full council later.
• Paid the bills, but amended a check to Anderson Excavation to only pay for phase 1 of reconstruction work at the Hallock Dam for $111,641. The company won’t do phase 2 until the spring, which is $68,330, and the council did not pay that portion.
• Approved a quote from Bakken Construction to install missing ceiling panels in the new hangar at the airport that were never installed during original construction. Bakken had the low bid at $78,732. The other bid, from ProContractors was over $89,000.
• Approved appointing Bollig Engineering as the airport engineers. This was redone because the city did not have a master airport layout plan when they first advertised for bids for a new engineer. Bollig was the only entity to submit a bid.
• Approved the 2024 General Election judges – Sharlene Klegstad, head judge; Chad Larson, Michelle Warnke and Diane M. Younggren.
The next regular meeting is Monday, Dec. 2 at 5:30 p.m.