Contributions coming in for study to move water from Stutsman County
Oct. 17—JAMESTOWN — Stutsman County Commissioner Jerry Bergquist said $70,000 has been contributed for the $122,100 local share for a feasibility study on how to move water from basins in western Stutsman County and Crystal Springs Lake.
The feasibility study will show the benefits of removing excess waters, how much of the 250-square-mile watershed is contributing to flooding, regulatory issues, alternative options to remove water and the cost to remove the excess water.
The study will also help determine what the cost is to move water in different directions. The county is looking to move water to the west to the Missouri River, north to Wells County where Pipestem Creek and the James River originate, or east from Crystal Lakes toward Pipestem Creek and James River.
The cost of the feasibility study is $222,000. The local cost share is about $122,000 if the State Water Commission approves an approximately $100,000 cost-share grant.
Bergquist told the Stutsman County Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 15, the contributions include $20,000 each from the Steele AMVETS and Crystal Springs Bible Camp and $5,000 from the All Vets Club in Jamestown. He added that the contribution from Steele AMVETS is from gaming funds.
He said a $20,000 contribution from BNSF Railway Co. is pending approval of an agreement with Stutsman County. BNSF also has a $20,000 in-kind contribution, which is Houston Engineering's estimate on what the value of BNSF's data is that Houston will use for the feasibility study.
Bergquist said the $70,000 amount also includes a $5,000 contribution from another organization that has yet to be approved. He said three other organizations could contribute funds for the feasibility study as well.
He said the county commission should not go ahead with the feasibility study until the county is notified that it is being awarded the nearly $100,000 cost-share grant.
Bergquist said Mayor Dwaine Heinrich missed an opportunity last year when the county commission asked him to sit down to revise or at least review the memorandum of agreement between Stutsman County and the city of Jamestown to provide joint library services.
He said Heinrich wanted to have a group of people to get together who were not associated with the Jamestown City Council or the county commission to review the memorandum of agreement and come up with ideas to make it better. He said the committee was not assembled.
"Now instead of doing what is in the agreement, it says, 'This agreement may be modified at any time by written mutual agreement of the governing authorities of the city and county,'" he said. "Instead of doing that, we are now dissolving the agreement. In the agreement itself, we are dissolving this relationship. There is no putting this together. We are taking it apart. If that's what the city wants to do, then that's what's going to happen."
Earlier this month, the Jamestown City Council approved providing a two-year notice to the Stutsman County Commission that the city of Jamestown will withdraw from the memorandum of agreement to provide joint library services.
The city would officially withdraw from the memorandum of agreement on Feb. 28, 2027. The city of Jamestown and Stutsman County would still have two years to discuss the memorandum of agreement and procedures.
The city of Jamestown and Stutsman County have provided joint library services under the agreement after voters approved a measure in 2008 to combine them.
Mark Klose, commission chairman, said the new Stutsman County Commission will need to make a decision on whether or not it wants to continue library services.
Klose and Commissioner Joan Morris are not seeking reelection.
Morris said it's her responsibility as a county commissioner to look at how taxpayer funds are spent.
She said Stutsman County pays $175,000 per year for joint library services. She said a contribution of 4 mills would mean the county would provide $375,000 per year, a $200,000 increase, for joint library services.
"I've gone through and I've done analysis after analysis trying to find why the library is spending so much money," she said.
Heinrich said the big flaw in the memorandum of agreement is that it does not include language specifying the city's and county's financial contributions to the James River Valley Library System, The Jamestown Sun reported. He said the City Council passed a resolution to enter into a memorandum of agreement with Stutsman County to establish the joint library board after voters approved the measure in 2008 to combine the city and county libraries. The resolution stipulated that funding would remain the same, which was 15 city mills and 4 county mills. The city and county mills are not of equal value.
Morris said she also looked at alternatives for providing library services to county residents. She said she talked with the University of Jamestown about a potential partnership and the cost to the county would have been about $125,000 per year.
"So to be in this group with the Alfred Dickey Library, it would cost an additional $250,000 to partner with them than with another vendor and I don't understand why and I can't get an answer," she said. "I don't think it's a good taxpayer spend."
She also questioned why the city is overfunding the James River Valley Library System. She said the library system's funding is compared to statewide and national averages
The Stutsman County Veterans Service Office is helping out-of-state veterans, according to David Bratton, county veterans service officer.
Bratton said the veterans he helped have referred other veterans to the Stutsman County Veterans Service Office. He said some of the veterans have gotten burned in the past with other veterans service offices.
Bratton said being a full-time veterans service officer and being proficient with his work are a couple of reasons why other veterans want to work with him. He said seeing out-of-state veterans does not jeopardize him helping county veterans.
He also said the county Veterans Service Office is by appointment only. He said his office is the busiest it has ever been and he needs time to process claims for veterans.
"We are doing good work over there," he said. "I'm proud of what we are doing."
