Nancy Bommelman, Minot

So let me get this straight. The city is going to pay Rolac almost a million dollars to put a roof on the parking garages, and if the city wants later, can tear it off and build apartments above them?

This was in the Minot Daily News on August 20th.

So why put a million dollar roof on the parking ramps and then rip it down? Boy the city sure can throw OUR money around like it’s theirs. It’s NOT their money it’s the entire city’s money.

That is the dumbest thing I have seen or heard in a long time. It also said in the article that the city of Minot is in a lawsuit with the builder of the ramp. So does that mean we have a lawyer sitting on their raggedy butt not doing anything. Just raking in our tax paying money. Don’t get me wrong I love my lawyer, he is the best, but some of these lawyers are just sitting around waiting for the very last minute and then do something and nothing comes of it.

So we are paying out more money. How much are we paying this lawyer? That’s public record isn’t it. I’ll look into this too. Why don’t we just take the million dollars and bulldoze the parking ramps? Remember, we had a parking LOT there before and nothing was wrong with that. People liked that.

I have talked to so many people that have complaint after complaint. I tell them it doesn’t matter what the public votes down it gets built anyway. “Build it and they will come.”

Come to what? No stores in the mall, roads that are ripped up and not fixed, sidewalks that are cracked, come to a city with no help. It’s disheartening. Business owners are wanting to open restaurant after restaurant. There is no help. We need a business that will be willing to come here. Like Sam’s Club.

We wanted that, but that got taken away from us. Hell, Sam’s Club could be built in Surrey or between Minot and Surrey and people will come to it. People drive one and a half hours now to go to Sam’s Club in Bismarck. I think they would go six miles to Surrey and buy things at Sam’s Club.

We needed a Costco here, but Bismarck got that.

Sam’s Club is in Bismarck too. What do we get?

NOTHING, because we can’t offer them anything. We have to make Minot PRETTY. If the city of Minot councilmen want to make Minot pretty, start with the parks. Benches are splitting, grass is unkept. Swings are broken. Trees are rotting. There are things in the river that shouldn’t be there. Things that would frighten fish!

Make the benches out of something that is NOT wood. Something that won’t rust.

We can’t do that because we have to make Minot pretty.