Wellington City Council revisits debate on land sales in industrial zone

By Sun Advocate

The Wellington city council met Wednesday evening and again took up the issue of finalizing the sale of city property in the industrial zone.
Scott Johnson of Johnson Heating attended the May 24 meeting to receive final approval for the purchase of two acres of land on which to build a shop and storage facilities.
The council had approved the sale in principle at a previous meeting, and the final draft was reviewed and accepted. The council voted to approve the sale with condition that one small item be changed in the wording of the final document.
Johnson does not expect to be operating from the site this year, but will begin to build on the site in the next year or two.
In a related matter, the city council again took up the sale of 15 acres of land at the industrial park to contractor Larry Young.
City Attorney John Schindler presented documents for review, and the council debated the issue for some time. In the end, it was decided to table the issue for a future meeting. The council pre-approved the land sale in principle at an earlier meeting, and only the final details remain to be worked out.
The council had a request for a subdivision on the agenda, but the petitioner failed to show for the meeting.
In another matter, Wellington Fire Chief Scott Rowley gave the council an update on the condition of the volunteer fire department, and equipment and manpower issues were discussed.
The possible sale of an old fire truck was debated, and the city contract to supply fire protection into the county was reviewed.
In councilmember reports, city councilmember John Pappas said that he will be meeting with county planner Dave Levanger soon to review plans for the county-wide ATV trail. Possible staging areas and routes from the city to the main ATV trail north of town were discussed.
Councilmember Glen Wells reported on recent problems with the secondary water system. He said the city had experienced pump problems and a part of the trash-cleaning device had broken. He said that the problems were solved and the system was up and running again.
A scheduled presentation on city water development options was cancelled because two city councilmembers were unable to attend the meeting.
The city engineer had been asked to make the presentation, but will present it at a future meeting when the full city council is in attendance.
In other matters, the council voted to drop the discussion of a water service agreement with the Price River Water Improvement District from the agenda.
The council then voted to go into executive session with the city attorney to discuss the ongoing issue of the water service agreement with PRWID.