Dec. 19—JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown City Council unanimously approved on Tuesday, Dec. 19, during a special meeting authorizing the city engineer and city administrator to work toward a guaranteed maximum price with Ferguson Waterworks for new radio-read water meters.

The water meter program selection committee of four members unanimously recommended to the Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee to select Ferguson Waterworks which represents Neptune Technology Group, said Travis Dillman, city engineer.

The city of Jamestown is looking to replace current water meters with radio-read water meters because they don’t give accurate readings of how much water is being used.

The water meter program selection committee scored and ranked four businesses and its products, including how they will be installed, for the project.

The water meter program selection committee consisted of Joe Rowell, water superintendent; Rhet Fiskness, a registered architect; Dave Hillerud, a licensed contractor from the city of Jamestown, and Dillman. In addition to those four members, eight city employees also sat through interviews and asked questions so the committee could make an informed decision for the best interest of the city, Dillman said.

Dillman said the four firms were ranked according to the construction manager at risk process and the North Dakota Century Code. The committee members assigned different values to questions to help rank the companies for new water meters.

Other firms that made proposals for the new water meters included Dakota Supply Group representing Kamstrup, Metering and Technology Solutions representing Badger Meter and Core & Main representing Sensus.

A price was not stated for the new water meters.

In other business, the City Council unanimously approved a quote from Civic Plus to build and host a new website for the city. City Administrator Sarah Hellekson was also authorized to sign the quote.

The city of Jamestown received two quotes — one from Civic Plus and the other from Granicus. The quote from Civic Plus is more than $95,000 total over five years and is a yearly contract with options to add more modules. The quote from Granicus is just over $116,000 for a five-year contract.

The current website has crashed a couple of times, including once in May, Hellekson said at the City Council meeting on Dec. 4. The current website is also not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Jamestown Civic Center and Promotion Committee chose to further discuss plans for the caboose located at Frontier Village.

Mayor Dwaine Heinrich said three parties —one from the Jamestown area and two from Mandan, North Dakota — contacted the city about the caboose that was originally owned by New Haven Railroad and purchased by Midland Continental Railroad. He said the city has not heard back from either of the three parties after they were invited to look at the caboose.

Heinrich said he wants to contact the three parties to see if they have any interest in taking the caboose before a final decision is made to dispose it.

The Civic Center and Promotion Committee recommended approval in September to dispose of a caboose at Frontier Village that was originally owned by New Haven Railroad and purchased by Midland Continental Railroad. The city of Jamestown owns Frontier Village but Jamestown Tourism manages it.

The caboose has been closed to visitors for at least the past four years. Frontier Village has a Northern Pacific Railroad caboose for exhibit near the depot.

In October, the City Council approved not demolishing the caboose. City Council members and Jamestown Tourism had been contacted by individuals who were concerned about the caboose being demolished.

In October, the Civic Center and Promotion Committee recommended publicizing the caboose for an entity or individual to remove it from the site and relocate it somewhere within the area that was previously served by the Midland Continental Railroad.

Heinrich said restoring the caboose is not practical. He said it would cost around $50,000 to restore the caboose.

Heinrich said he is interested in finding the original design plans for the caboose or having someone draw the specifications in case an entity or individual wants to restore it.

Councilman David Steele said the caboose has deteriorated to the point where it will need to be completely torn down. He also said a structure might need to be built to put a restored caboose in to help preserve it.

The Jamestown Finance and Legal Committee in a 4-0 vote recommended approval to assist the Jamestown Parks and Recreation District with the McElroy Park parking lot project and to direct the city attorney to work out an agreement outlining the details of each party’s participation.

Councilman David Schloegel was not present for the vote but was present later via phone.

Jamestown Parks and Recreation District Executive Director Amy Walters wrote in a letter to the mayor that the parking lot will support the general needs of McElroy Park along with the renovated youth baseball and softball fields.

Heinrich said he is hoping a draft of the agreement will be available at the City Council’s next meeting on Jan. 2. He said there is no pressure for the City Council to act on the agreement by Jan. 2.

The Finance and Legal Committee in a 4-0 vote recommended approval of a request from the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. to fund up to $500,000 of the 2024 Flex PACE Program on an 80-20 city-Stutsman County split.

If approved by the City Council and Stutsman County Commission, the city’s share will be $400,000 while the county’s share will be $100,000.

Heinrich said the Flex PACE Program is a state program that provides grant money to expanding businesses. He said the state provides 70% of the grant funds while the community is required to provide 30% of the funds in order for businesses to receive the grant funds from the state.

“With the funds that the city of Jamestown provides to these businesses, that is not a grant but a loan so they do pay those funds back, but that allows them to then get the state grant money from the Bank of North Dakota,” he said.

In 2023, the JSDC participated in six Flex PACE loans totaling over $365,000. The investment leveraged over $855,000 and more than $5.7 million in private investment into the Jamestown area.