(Spirit Lake)– A study by some lakes area communities into the feasibility of starting up a municipal telecommunications utility may be dead in the water.
A motion at Tuesday’s Spirit Lake city council meeting to accept a recommendation from the Opportunity is Calling Committee to award an engineering proposal for the study failed. Only one person, Kevin Bice, voted in favor of the motion. Council members Jerry Harbst, Barb Ricke and Duane Yager voted no; Jeff Thee abstained, citing a potential conflict of interest due to the business he operates.
In casting his no vote, Harbst said he would not vote in favor of the proposal until the council can make it’s own appointment to the committee. That had Mayor Eric Nielsen again defending his appointment of Pat McNorton to the committee.
What kind of bearing the action will have on Wahpeton, Orleans, Okoboji and Arnolds Park–other cities that were to be involved in the feasibility study–isn’t certain. Atleast one of the cities, Okoboji, had already voted to approve the committee’s recommendation to hire the engineering firm.
