by Ted Stone
staff writer

About 40 people turned out Sept. 28 for a public hearing on the City of Baudette’s proposal to annex land south and west of the present city limits, including the industrial park south of town and Lake of the Woods School west of the city.

A group of 10 residents has expressed interest in vacating a part of River Avenue, which follows the Baudette River along Baudette Bay on the west side.
Mayor Rick Rone said Monday night that a portion below the VFW Club has been vacated already.
Zoning Administrator Dale Tillery said that if the road is vacated, it would be treated like any other vacated road; half would go to the property owner on each side. That means the residents would get a bit more land and the river (or the Department of Natural Resources essentially) would get the other half.

Zoning Administrator Dale Tillery reported on the planning commission’s recommendation for a variance request. They decided that Cenex Co-op should get a one-year variance for the requirement for water and sewer hookup for a new building at the big lot.
Cenex is planning to have an auto parts store, and requested the variance so they would have some time to get the business complex running before installing water and sewer.

The Baudette City Council is finishing fall projects as the construction season winds down. They discussed the city park and two new ordinances at the meeting last week.

Park
There is progress on the bathrooms and showers at Timber Mill Community Park. The facility’s concrete was supposed to be in this fall. At the city council meeting Superintendent George Taylor discussed putting in a 4-inch water pipe to the park. The size of the pipe would provide the water supply to the park, even if there would be a need for more water in the future.

It’s the time of year that the city and county have to submit their levies and budgets, and both agencies did that at their meetings last week.
The city met Thursday night and adopted a levy of $211,817, which is $192,817 for the city and $19,000 for the fire department.

County
The county adopted a levy of $2,255,463. This goes to the revenue fund, road and bridge fund and welfare fund. In addition, $455,805 will be levied against unorganized townships. This is for township road and bridge fund, township fire, Williams and Northwest Angle.