HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – After Havre’s City Council meeting last night, the Streets and Sidewalks Committee met to discuss ways of raising funds to address Havre’s crumbling streets.
Denise Brewer led the meeting and said they had done an informal survey of other towns, asking them about how they raise money for their streets and sidewalks. They specifically asked if they charge more from the downtown businesses to help with street maintenance, how much they charge for out-of-town business licensing, and what methods they use for generating income for the streets.
Terry Lilletvedt said that after two failed ballot measures, they need to look at alternative ways of raising the money they need, like Special Improvement Districts. SID’s are paid for by the people who live in the area they are trying to improve. Unfortunately, it has been so long since the City has issued an SID, that no one currently on the Council knows how it works.
The Committee decided they need more information on SID’s, so they will try to bring in a group that can explain this fundraising mechanism to the public and the Council.
Paul Tuss from Bear Paw Development said that finding grants or other funding for repairing streets is tough and creating the applications can be expensive. Even if they were able to get some funding through grants, it’s likely to cover only a fraction of the total costs.
