The house located at 203 First Ave. SE in Wells was once again up for discussion at the Wells City Council meeting on Monday, July 10.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, Brad Heggen said he was concerned about the abatement of the house.

“To his credit, Mr. Grant, the owner of the house, is current on his real estate taxes,” Heggen said. “My concern is the council is not treating Mr. Grant as equally as they have treated other people. He has only owned the property for six months.”

According to Heggen, there are other houses in worse shape which are not having action taken against them.

“I had a hand in the sale of the property. I have been in touch with him by email,” Heggen added. “I don’t want to be the middle man but I suggest the council give him until May 31 of next year, or maybe until the end of next year to get it fixed.”

City attorney Pamela Whitmore updated the council on what her office has done and then stated she would do whatever the council desired.

“Mr. Grant did not like the conditions we had asked for and then said he did not want our office to email or call him,” Whitmore explained. “He asked that we only contact or negotiate with him through the U.S. Mail.”

Many council members expressed the opinion that negotiating by mail is pretty hard, especially since he has not answered his mail promptly in the past.

“I really would like to give Mr. Grant a chance,” council member John Herman said. “But to correspond only by mail makes things difficult.”

Whitmore said nothing has been filed with the court yet and there is not a deadline for when the city would have to file.

“While negotiation by U.S. Mail is not impossible, it is very hard,” Whitmore added.

“Maybe he is pulling the wool over my eyes,” Heggen commented. “I try and believe everybody has good intentions.”

After the discussion ended, the council directed Whitmore to reach out to Grant one more time and give him the opportunity to explain his intentions.

Police chief Tim Brenegan was at the meeting and updated the council on the arrival of the new squad car.

“The news is we have no update on when the new Ford Explorer will be here,” Brenegan commented.

During his report to the council, city administrator Connor LaPointe shared that the city did not receive the Outdoor Recreation Grant for fiscal year 2024.

“They received $18.2 million in grant requests and only had $6.3 million available to grant,” LaPointe said. “I’m not surprised. We should have a better chance of being approved the next time we apply.”

LaPointe informed the council members that three companies, Kraus and Anderson, ICS and ISG had submitted proposals to conduct a facility assessment study for the city.

“Perhaps we could schedule a special meeting on July 24 to review the proposals,” LaPointe suggested.

The council agreed and set a special meeting for that date.

Donations totaling $1,825 for concession stand and field improvements at Thompson Park were approved.

“We are getting very close to reaching our goal of raising the money needed to install the lights at Thompson Park,” LaPointe said. “We are just short of $83,000 raised and I believe we have another $10,000 donation coming.”

With that in mind, LaPointe presented a proposal from Kunkel Electric of Mapleton to install an eight pole lighting system for the baseball field at Thompson Park at a quoted price of $94,200.

The council voted to accept the quote for the installation of the lights.

In other business:

• The council had a second reading of the proposed moratorium prohibiting the sale of cannabinoid products. A public hearing will be held at the August City Council meeting.

• Resolution 2023-36 was approved ordering a report on the improvement of County State Aid Highway 60. Resolution 2023-37 was also approved ordering a report on an improvement for Fifth Avenue SW, Fifth Avenue NW and Sixth Avenue NW.