City committee tables all FVA consideration

Talk about it

The Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee tabled any consideration of issues concerning the Frontier Village Association until January during its regular meeting Tuesday.

Buffalo City Tourism delivered a letter to the city on Monday expressing no confidence in the FVA.

Mayor Katie Andersen said officials wanted more time to consider the issue.

The FVA operates the popular tourist attraction with funding from the Buffalo City Tourism Foundation. The foundation operates with funds from Jamestown restaurant, lodging and sales taxes.

In October five of the nine board members of the FVA resigned leaving the board without a quorum. The four remaining members met on Dec. 9 and added an additional board member. The BCTF made its vote of no confidence on Dec. 16. At the time the foundation cited irregularities in reimbursement requests and payroll calculations. The BCTF has requested an audit and will not supply any further funds until the audit is complete.

The Finance and Legal Committee will revisit the issue during its Jan. 24 meeting.

The committee also voted not to reconsider a request by Clarice Liechty to review tax breaks given to Prairie Hills Apartments. Liechty maintains that Prairie Hills Apartments, owned by Marvin Brown, is not providing the assisted-living services that it planned to offer when it applied for tax exemptions and payment in lieu of taxes.

Her challenges were also made at the city, county and state level during the assessment process without success.

The move to not reconsider the issue passed on a 3-2 vote. Voting not to reconsider were Andersen and council members Ken Schulz and Ramone Gumke. Council members Pat Nygaard and Charlie Kourajian opposed the motion.

Andersen said the issue involved legality and the city had no legal grounds to reconsider the tax breaks issued earlier.

Nygaard disagreed.

“I thought we made a mistake with the original approval,” he said. “When you make a mistake you correct it.”

In other business, the Public Works Committee approved 2 percent rate increases for water, wastewater and sanitation for Jamestown residents. The rate increases had been planned as part of the 2012 budget.

The Public Works Committee also approved a $30,000 change order for the Water Treatment Plant project. The project is currently 90 days beyond its extended completion date and work still remains to be done.

“We’re working hard to get the contractor to develop a higher level of urgency on this project,” said Reed Schwartzkopf, city engineer.

Sun reporter Keith Norman can be reached at 701-952-8452 or by email at knorman@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news, jamestown