BOZEMAN – The battle between Gallatin County and the City of Bozeman continued this month over how much the county should pay for the road repairs made in front of Gallatin County Regional Park.
For the last year, the city has asked the county to pitch in about half of the cost related to the improvements made to W. Oak St. and N. Ferguson Ave. The problem is, the two government bodies don’t agree with how the cost of the project should be assessed.
"The county has known about their obligation to pay for these road improvements since they purchased the road, so we are just simply waiting for them to do those road improvements. And I think the city has been really forthcoming in trying to work with the county to move forward on this issue and many others we will have as we are a growing community and a county together,” said Mayor Cyndy Andrus.
Bozeman commissioners originally created Special Improvement District 740 to assign the cost, asking Gallatin County to pay for $1.1 million. The project came in under budget, which is why the city is working on creating a new SID asking the county to pay $900,000 instead.
Gallatin County commissioners, however, believe the bidding process was done illegally and the costs are not correctly distributed. City commissioners asked Andrus to reach out to a county commissioner to see if the two parties could meet one-on-one. She chose Gallatin County Commissioner Steve White.
"I called Commissioner White several times and wrote him several letters to meet with me to begin having those discussions and Commissioner White refused to meet with me,” said Andrus.
White declined to meet with only the two of them, and countered by asking all three county commissioners to be involved in the process.
"Our single point was just to have three commissioners in the meeting. There was objection from the city doing it that way and I respect their opinion but our government wanted to have three commissioners,” said Steve White.
Once White declined, Andrus replied with a letter of her own, stating “your refusal to meet with me one on one is disappointing”.
Keeping the conversation alive, Andrus invited all three county commissioners to the August 6 City Commission Meeting because the SID would be on the agenda.
"Just hoping that when the commission comes on Monday, if they come, they are coming to resolve the issue and let us how they will be paying their share of the road improvements,” said Andrus.
Gallatin County commissioners say they plan to attend but they aren’t sure how much involvement they will have in the discussion.
