The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Official Newspaper for Foster County
The Foster County Commission voted to have David Utke take the chairman's seat for 2024.
During the meeting held on Tuesday, December 19, Scott Beumer was voted in as vice chairman.
The commission rotates four of the five seats each year and 2024 is Utke's turn to lead.
In other business:
• The board heard from Lee Wahlund, who attended the meeting to discuss his petition to vacate a section line north of Carrington and 813 Sales, just west of Agriliquid off of 66th Avenue.
The legal description is: SE¼ section 13-146-67 & NE¼ Section 24 146-67.
Wahlund noted that, from his perspective, three concerns may arise in the progress of the petition.
First, he believes a precedent was set when Williams County and Stutsman County both closed a portion of a section line.
"Number two...does the section line meet the North Dakota Century Code criteria?" asked Wahlund.
Third, he noted that the city may have concerns about closing a portion of this section line, since the property lies in the extraterritorial zone of the City of Carrington.
The North Dakota Century Code (NDCC) states in Chapter 24-07-03 that section lines are considered public roads open for public travel to the width of thirty-three feet on each side of the section lines.
Regarding the second concern, Wahlund said there are four criteria listed in the NDCC to close a section line.
The first is that the section line has not been used in at least 10 years. He said his family has owned the property for 60 years and it has not been used in the past 10 years since he has owned it.
The second criteria is if the section line is not used for travel due to natural obstacles or difficulty of terrain.
The third criteria is if the section line is not required for public travel due to readily accessible alternate routes of travel, or is intersected by interstate highways causing the section line to be a deadend.
Wahlund argued that it sounded like the NDCC requires only one of the criteria to be used to close a section line.
He asked if the city or county would hold a public meeting as required by the NDCC.
Utke told Wahlund that the county cannot move forward until they receive information from Foster County State's Attorney Kara Brinster.
• The board heard from Jerome Zink who attended the meeting to discuss a Lake Juanita lot.
• Chris Thomas of EAPC attended the meeting via phone to discuss the award letter to the contractor for the basement project.
They discussed the next steps needed to move forward on the project such as demolition and moving furniture, equipment and county social services employees to another part of the courthouse during construction.
• The board agreed to hold a special meeting on December 29 at 8:30 a.m. to approve year-end bills.
• Precinct and polling place for Foster County for the primary and general elections will be the Carrington City Library once again next year.
• Liquor licenses were approved for the Hi-Way Off Sale and Cows & Co. Creamery.
• Due to the general election, the Foster County Commission meeting next November will be held on Thursday, November 7 instead of Tuesday, November 5.
