Colby council gets update on projects

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Colby city council received updates on a number of current and upcoming projects at their regular August meeting last Tuesday. Work on the new Venzke Drive and East Frontage road continues, with about 20 percent of the project complete at the time of the meeting. During the report, it was noted that progress on the project had slowed recently. According to the engineer’s report, telephone cables needed to be relocated by Frontier Communications, which delayed other work on the two new streets between Highway 13 and Community Drive. An old barn foundation on the location also needed to be excavated, which took additional time.

It was also noted that one of the businesses that had initially agreed to purchase one of the lots on the new East Frontage Road has since backed out. The developer, the Overland Group, LLC, initially offered to purchase one of the lots for $80,000 with the intention of building a Dollar General on the lot. The Colby council agreed to the deal at their February meeting, but the developer has since dropped out.

The council also approved an easement for Xcel Energy to bring electricity to 500 Industrial Drive. Last November, the council accepted a developer’s agreement from ND Real Estate Holdings, which at the time the company stated plans to put an office space for its trucking business on the land. For the initial building, single-phase power is needed, while there is currently only three-phase power in the industrial park.

In order to reach the property, the easement has to go across city property and thus needed approval from the council. It was stated that it would be an overhead line until reaching the industrial park, which brought some concern regarding the potential future development of the city land that these lines would stand on. However, it was noted that the lines would run along where a road would be put if the land were ever developed, rather than going through the middle of a lot.