Ronan council seeks to move forward with MREC
Daniel Martynowicz
City council members discuss the issues at hand during last week's meeting.
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RONAN - Council members had much to discuss during last week's Ronan City Council meeting.
Public Works Director Dan Miller nominated Sherrie McBurney, Ray Aylesworth and Robin Nelson to serve three-year terms and Kevin Kirsch to serve a one-year term on the city's board of adjustments.
Miller also nominated Jackie Smart, Karl Kaphammer, Julie Moore and Calvin Hardy to Ronan's City Planning Board.
The council accepted all nominations, voting unanimously to appoint the nominees to their respective seats.
In addition, Ronan library employee Dylan Carey was given a $1.50 per hour performance-based raise. Carey's position is funded by the Broadband Technology Opportunities grant. A federally funded grant administered by the Department of Commerce, BTOP is used to improve technology and technology-related training and expertise in underserved or unserved areas. It was created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
“Through this support, BTOP will also advance the Recovery Act's objectives to spur job creation and stimulate long-term economic growth and opportunity,” the grant read.
Library director Michelle Fenger said the grant expires after three years. After receiving the funding, it took Fenger three months to fill the position and another two months to hire Carey after the original tech left the library. The staffing delay meant there were five months during which no money was expended on the grant-funded position.
While Carey's raise was taken from this five-month surplus, Fenger said. “It was definitely a performance-based raise.”
In addition, council members held a discussion with the Pioneer Days organizers in reference to the 62-acre Mission Range Event Complex property that local officials have been trying to renovate for a number of years.
“What they're trying to do is get a joint deal together with Ronan Pioneer Days Company, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the City of Ronan and Lake County to turn (the MREC property) into a recreation site where they would have rodeos, baseball fields, all kinds of stuff,” council member Chris Hill said. “It's a great idea, and the fairgrounds (in Ronan) are just too small to accommodate what they want to do.”
The project has roots dating back to 2005 when CSKT, the City of Ronan, Lake County and Pioneer Days jointly purchased a parcel of land west of St. Luke Hospital. The council seemed to project a good deal of interest in creating such a complex, but there seems to be confusion at many levels of the process.
For example, there is an agricultural restriction on the property that would prohibit moving forward with design and building features. Mayor Kim Aipperspach said a request was sent to Lake County Commissioners to lift the agricultural restriction. Aipperspach said Commissioners responded in November with a proposal to split the property in half rather than lifting the agricultural restriction.
City council members never saw Lake County's response.
Council members expressed an interest to sit down with Lake County Commissioners and other decision-makers on the issue.
“I'd love to see it,” Hill said. “I'd love to see development, I think it would be a neat thing.”
