Joan Hawbaker

Joan Hawbaker, a long-time nurse and community volunteer, has announced she plans to run for a seat on the Minot City Council in the June 9 election.

Hawbaker said she wants to bring new ideas for solving city challenges to the council.

“Sometimes a new set of eyes can bring in a new thought or a new idea,” she said.

Her guidance comes from Proverbs 18:17, which advises there are two sides to every story. Hawbaker said if she can present a second side to a story, it may lead to additional options for solutions.

One area where her view may be different is on the paving of Sunset Boulevard, Hawbaker said. Recently, the council voted 4-3 to pave the stretch from 19th to 21st avenues, which is outside city limits. She said she would rather see the landowner, who will see the most benefit, contribute to half the cost, with a requirement that the property be annexed. That kind of solution would benefit those who use the road, the landowner whose property value would rise, and the city, which would gain property tax revenue, she said.

She also supports city and county conversations around a library merger and around bringing municipal court services nearer to district court operations. She said she favors a plan that would locate municipal court in the Courthouse, eliminating the need to find space when developing future plans for the city’s police headquarters.

Hawbaker said the city also has unfunded major projects, such as the Third Street Bridge and 21st Avenue Northwest improvements, and other stresses on the budget that will deserve careful looks in light of a 3% cap on levy increases.

“With our 3% cap now, where is Minot going to start tightening the belt on the budget? I think we need some really hard looks at that in order to use taxpayer dollars wisely,” she said.

As a citizen who follows and attends meetings of local government, she added, she has been encouraged to run and to contribute to the conversation.

Hawbaker grew up on a farm near Portal as the seventh of 17 children. She received her nursing degree from the University of North Dakota. She spent 2½ years as a nurse and clinical nursing instructor in Australia in the late 1980s. She since has lived in Minot and worked for Trinity Health for nearly 36 years.

Now semi-retired from nursing, Hawbaker volunteers for the Matthew 25 Project and Dakota Hope Clinic and serves on the board of Come AlongSide Others (CASO).

The filing deadline for the June 9 ballot is April 6. The three seats to be filled are currently held by Paul Pitner, Lisa Olson and Mike Hayes.