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Wells residents comment on cartway

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Jun 21, 2021

Angela Kalis, with her husband Nate behind her, speaks to the Wells City Council about her and her husband Nate’s plans to build a home in the new proposed addition on the west side of Wells and the need for a cart path access.

Approximately 40 Wells area residents showed up at last Monday night’s Wells City Council to attend a public hearing concerning a possible cartway.

Many of those present spoke both for, and against, building the cartway.

The construction of the cartway is being requested by the developers of a housing addition located on the west side of Wells.

The issue is that while the cartway would be inside the Wells city limits, the addition is outside the city, located in the township.

Todd Reddick, of Nordaas American Homes, spoke on behalf of the developers. He called the creation of more housing in the development a win-win situation for the city and the people who would build homes in the addition.

Angela Kalis, along with her husband Nate, both spoke in favor of the cartway being constructed. She said they are planning on building a new home on one of the four building sites in the Cardell Addition.

“Nate and I really want to build our forever home here in Wells,” Kalis said. “We fell in love with this location.”

Several others spoke in favor of the cartway being built, with several pointing out the importance of having new housing being constructed.

Several others, however, spoke against the cartway. Some questioned why the taxpayers of Wells should pay for something that would be used by people building homes outside the city limits.

Some others thought it should not be a gravel path, but instead should be paved street with curb and gutter. They also thought the developer should be paying for the access street.

City administrator CJ Holl read a letter from a couple who could not be at the meeting, and they questioned why this issue was even under discussion as the council had decided long ago against cart paths and non-public-owned streets.

Nate Kalis said they were at the meeting to hear a decision, and that decision could affect the future of Wells. However, the council decided to postpone a decision until later, and which might be done at a special meeting.

The issue was that there were just three council members present, with two members, one being the mayor, absent.

“I think this is too important of a decision to make with not all of the council members here,” John Herman, who was running the meeting as the acting mayor, said.

In other business at the Monday night meeting, the council:

• Heard that the city had a successful sale of $3.78 million in bonds. The monies will be used to finance the North Broadway and Third Avenue projects, as well as do a refunding of two of the city’s other general obligation bonds which will save in interest payments.

The interest rate for the bonds averages out to 1.89 percent, according to the report. Holl said that was due to the city having an A+ bond rating.

Council member Brenda Weber questioned the change from the bonds originally being at $3.6 million, but now were at $3.78 million.

The answer had to do with making the bonds a better sell, and would in the long run not affect the payments.

• Agreed to allow several streets to be blocked off for parking purposes for a Freedom Run motorcycle ride. They also approved parking being allowed along the street into the USC School during the Wells Gun Show on July 10 and 11.

They also changed a previous decision to let Hope Church have an activity at Half Moon Park, and now have it at Thompson Park instead.

• Approved the hiring of Kylie Neubuhr at the Wells Library and Paige Roberts and George Martinez at the pool.

• Passed a resolution officially conveying the ownership of a lot to Christopher and Tammy Brandt at a price of $15,600.

• Discussed creating a new ordinance dealing with the amount of time boat, camper and other trailers can be parked on city streets.

The council had received an anonymous letter questioning why so many trailers are parked on city streets.

The matter was sent to the Planning and Zoning Committee to come up with an ordinance.

• Accepted a proposal from Braun Intertec to perform testing processes for the upcoming 2021 street and utility improvements. Total cost was listed at $33,057.

• Discussed conflict of interest issues. Council person Brenda Weber had asked about possible conflict of interest happening not just by council members but also by members of the city’s committees, boards and commissions.

She said she will give a list of possible conflict of interest cases to city attorney David Frundt.

• Learned the next Wells Council meeting will be on July 12, unless there is a special meeting on the cart path before that date.