County puts funds toward planner for Jamestown area

Talk about it

The Stutsman County Commission voted to put $9,062 toward a planner who will focus on the city of Jamestown and the surrounding mile or two.

“Shouldn’t this be called the city/county (planner)?” said Commissioner Denny Ova after a brief presentation from Jim Boyd, who is coordinating the effort. “You just said the city (planner). We should have some name in this thing.”

Stutsman County will pay for 20 percent of the cost of the planner through the Jamestown/ Stutsman Development Corp., and the city of Jamestown will pay for the rest.

The planner will be hired for five to six months initially, and will produce a plan with three parts, Boyd explained. The first part of the plan will be developing a general land use or growth plan for Jamestown. That plan could include land one or two miles outside the city limits.

The plan’s second piece will be to focus on up to three areas for development, with more specific details for those areas, including what parcel sizes would be in that area, and mapping out places for interior road systems. The third part of the plan will be to deal with the public and also developers, providing technical assistance to them.

“In a nutshell, it’s about being proactive, not reactive,” said Gregg Greenquist, a land use planner with SRF Consulting, Inc., out of Bismarck. “(If) a new developer comes to the area, he will have a map that will guide the city and county in making decisions, instead of looking at things piecemeal, one at a time.

“This will help you manage your growth in the city and county,” Greenquist said.

Cindy Gray, a planner with SRF, has been named as the consultant. She has worked with the city of Jamestown before,

“I think we have a real sense of urgency here, to prepare for growth here,” Boyd said.

The commission unanimously voted to approve the planner.

The commission also went through staff evaluations for several department heads, using a system that graded them on a scale of 1 to 5.

County Auditor/Chief Operating Officer Casey Bradley received mostly 4s and 5s, as did County Highway Superintendent Mickey Nenow. Park Superintendent Dennis Lorenz received mostly 3s and 4s.

The evaluations will be tabulated for the next meeting of the County Commission.

In other news Tuesday, the commission:

* apologized to Dernel Denning, a sales representative with Central Business Systems of Jamestown. A miscommunication about an action at the previous county meeting led to the purchase of a copy machine without Central Business Systems having a chance to offer a bid.

However, the copy machine ordered from the other company had already been shipped, and Stutsman County would have had to pay $1,000 to return it.

“I’m sorry for the confusion, but I think our hands are tied,” said Commissioner Dave Schwartz. “We’ll look a little closer in the future … we didn’t do it intentionally.”

* authorized State’s Attorney Fritz Fremgen to hire an attorney to replace one who is leaving to work in Barnes County. The commission also authorized the hiring of an intern who could pick up some research work.

* changed the dates of its January meetings to Jan. 8 and Jan. 22 to avoid meeting on New Year’s Day.

Sun reporter Kari Lucin

can be reached at 701-952-8453 or by email at klucin@jamestownsun.com

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