Earlier this week the West Fargo city commission passed our preliminary budget for 2021. The budget that was passed included a zero overall mill levy increase despite staff’s request for an incremental 2 mill increase. City staff did a great job in finding areas to cut and tweak to keep our 2021 mill levy equal to 2020. Due to an expected decrease in interest and … Continue reading 2021 West Fargo Preliminary Budget
Over the last few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to deeply understand how divided our community is in regards to Covid-19. Our city commission has struggled with the appropriateness of having/hosting events during a pandemic. The most concerning of these events has been the concerts scheduled by Epic Events at the new Lights plaza. I have received dozens of emails and calls on this topic; … Continue reading The debate continues…
Do you wear a mask? I do sometimes but not as consistently as I should. As of late it appears that few do. I attended an opening celebration at the Lights on 32nd Avenue today and didn’t see a single person wearing one. I had a disturbing conversation with a person bragging about the 400 plus people at Bar Down last weekend and commenting about … Continue reading 2020 Public Events in West Fargo
Tonight’s city commission meeting includes a discussion and approval for the annexation of four properties that many people probably assume are already located in West Fargo…they are not. These four properties along the Sheyenne River south of the I-94 have never been annexed. This was an agreement the city made many years ago (to not annex these properties) so those land owners would agree to … Continue reading Annexation and Special Assessments
As a former business owner, I have a lot of empathy for all of our restaurants and bars in West Fargo (and many other businesses as well). Many of them are locally owned and all of them are doing everything they can to hang on to their business right now. It’s important for us all to help those businesses survive so when this is over … Continue reading 2020 Liquor License Fees
The West Fargo City Commission meeting last night (March 16, 2020) included a vote to approve both a TIF (Tax Increment Financing) and an additional city contribution of approximately $2.5 million. The combined $5 million (approximately) will pay for 2 out of 3 floors of public parking that will be included in the proposed Bell Tower project on Sheyenne Street. This proposed 8 story building … Continue reading Parking, TIFs and Economic Development
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