Nancy Bommelman, Minot

So let’s talk gathering space. I don’t understand why we have to buy land and buildings from people downtown to build a gathering space. Some of the buildings aren’t worth what they want for them.

All the information that I have gathered at the Register of Deeds office tells me some people work for the city and are selling the building and land to the city. Isn’t this a conflict of interest?

People are afraid to speak up for the repercussion that would come later. Well I’m not. Instead of spending money foolishly on land and buildings and then build again, why don’t the city council members or whoever is in charge of this fiasco look around for land that we don’t have to buy and sell and trade for. Let’s take a look what I believe is available in the city of Minot. How about where the old Lincoln school was, or Washington School. I believe the city owns the Lincoln area so we don’t have to spend money and buy that land. Lots are vacant and are for sale so why not buy what we already have and utilize what is there. Yes, yes, yes, we all know it’s free money coming to us and we HAVE to spend it.

I get that, as unnecessary as it is, we have to spend that money. I don’t understand why we have to build downtown ALL THE TIME. It’s not as great as it use to be. We have all shopped downtown and got what we wanted. Then we had to build Town and Country Shopping Center and that took away from downtown. Now the city wants to go backwards and promote downtown again. How come we don’t concentrate on bringing a business to Minot that will be well served?

We tried for a Sam’s Club and that didn’t go well with North Hill. Try and get a Sam’s Club back. Hell, we can put it between Surrey and Minot and people will still go there. People travel 1 1/2 hours to Bismarck now for Sam’s Club, they will travel 6 or so miles I’m sure to support it. Let’s get our resources together and try and get them back. Look at all the surrounding areas that can support it.

The apartments above the parking ramps is a real topic of discussion wherever I go. It’s going to cost $1.25 million to build the apartments. Why, who is going to be able to support those apartments. If the apartments are going to be that much to build can you imagine what the rent is going to be? I know I can’t afford that. I work for a living. I couldn’t afford those apartments. There are people that can’t pay their rent now and getting evicted. We have more than enough apartments in town vacant. We do not need to build them. I say take the $1.25 million dollars and bulldoze the parking ramps. What did we have before the ramps were built? I remember – A PARKING LOT!!!

There was nothing wrong with the lot before, more money well spent. If you go in the parking ramps you get stuck in there and have to wait for somebody to come and let you out. We have got to do something about all this, but what do we do? We go to the city council and complain to deaf ears, and we vote things down, and they get built anyway.

Like the Maysa Arena, didn’t want that, it was built anyway. Didn’t want the tent at the college, that was voted down and it was built anyway. STOP THE INSANITY!! Listen to us, I’m directing this to the city council, WE AS CITIZENS OF MINOT ARE SICK OF THE TAXES AND THERE IS NO ACTION OR PROGRESS… Stop spending our money.