The relocation of residents of Parkview Mobile Home Park in southeast Minot to make way for future construction on the flood protection project has been completed, Chris Plank, administrator of the city’s National Disaster Resilience Program, told the Minot City Council Monday.

“I”m happy to report that all residents have been relocated. Anybody who is eligible for the relocation assistance, that has been received, and they have found other places to reside,” he said.

The council had met in executive session Monday to consider its strategies in a pending eminent domain court case against the park owners, Parkview MHP, LLC.

Steve Wolsfeld with CDM Smith, the city’s consultant, said 13 properties still are being acquired in the MI-4 and MI-8 portions of the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project. Acquisition offer meetings were held for two owners and nine additional meetings are scheduled through Monday. The remaining two are a commercial property and apartment complex that will take more time, he said.

Wolsfeld acknowledged delays in the acquisition process, explaining further at the urging of council member Mike Blessum.

“We made the decision in November,” Blessum said. “Especially in MI-4, the properties that were going to be acquired were told at that point that they were going to receive information in January. That didn’t occur, as far as I know. In fact, as far as I am aware, there was no communication made whatsoever to those property owners until at least April 13.

“For me, as a new council member, as we go into additional acquisitions if needed for properties, I need to be assured of what’s going to happen,” he added. “Because when I talk to property owners, which I did in this case – I talked to nearly every one of them – what I told them was this may not be a happy time for you, but you will be treated well. And for me, this is not being treated well.”

Wolsfeld said a combination of issues occurred, including appraisal delays and problems with environmental approvals that didn’t come until mid-March.

“We at CDM Smith here, our acquisition team shoulders some of the blame for not pushing these things through as expeditiously as we should. And I agree with you 100 percent. Your constituents deserve topnotch communication,” he said. “We believe we rectified some of the things that led to these delays, and they will not be happening again in the future.”