Lake Holcombe Town Board; Dollar General on way to Holcombe

The old M&W building is coming down, to reportedly make way for a Dollar General in Holcombe. Located at the corner of 263rd Avenue and State Hwy. 27, the site was auctioned off, with the property going to an acquisition company, who will then lease the place to Dollar General. Photo by Ginna Young

By Ginna Young

Dollar General is coming to town, as reported at the Lake Holcombe Town Board meeting July 14. Although it wasn’t officially a done deal, the old M& W building on the corner of 263rd Avenue and State Hwy. 27, was auctioned off.

“That building will be razed,” said town board chairman Brian Guthman.

Guthman says, his understanding, is that an acquisition company owns the property now, but will lease it to Dollar General, for 20 years.

No one on the board is sure how the DOT will fit into the picture, but since there is an existing driveway at the site, the process might go fast. David Staudacher, board supervisor, said the building that will come down, was actually transported from Birch Creek, just south of M and CC.

Unfortunately, that structure is not standard of Dollar General layout.

The future business plans to hire six to 10 employees, and will help give residents a quick choice, as opposed to driving out of town to shop.

“Holcombe is growing,” said town treasurer Jim Mataczynski.

Speaking of growing, residents are reminded that they need a permit from the town, if the improvements on their property are more than $4,000, because it adds value, which the assessor needs to know, for tax purposes. Recently, rumors circulated online, where blame was placed on certain people and/or organizations, because of a letter that the town assessor sent, stating that the town must be reassessed.

Guthman said it is not any citizen’s or organization’s responsibility, or action, that caused that letter to be sent, as the reassessment has been in the works for the better part of two years.

“We don’t have any choice,” said Guthman. “The state dictates that.”

Guthman also said the town is still having parking issues on 304th, but had talked to sheriff’s department, with little results, as they do not want to enforce the parking restrictions. Guthman pointed out that the parking is in front of a DOT boat landing, so the county should enforce it, since they are hired to maintain it.

Larry Becker, Holcombe resident, asked if the town could approach the state, to see if they would consider giving up the green space of the park for a parking lot, to help with issues.

“I never see anybody using that park,” he said.

Guthman said the space is definitely used as a boat landing, but that only a few people from out of state stop to use the park portion of the wayside. He’s not certain the DNR would be on board with the idea, but says it is worth looking into.

“Maybe that would be a good idea,” said Guthman.

The town is also continuing to work on the satellite fire station that was brought up some months ago, and the fire board is talking to engineers. However, their plans came back more than the fire board wants or needs to spend. Guthman says the station does have to have two bays, but that a kitchen and frills are not needed.

“We did find out we don’t want to disturb more than an acre of property,” said Guthman, who added that any more than that and they will need a wastewater management system.

Guthman said for now, the fire board is checking into a prefabricated building, so an architect would not be needed, to save on cost.

Comprehensive planning was supposed to be discussed at the meeting, but will be on the agenda for the next meeting, as supervisor Doug Olson was unable to make the meeting and had a lot of information he received about that, and the cost to the town to complete the planning.

While he couldn’t find out anything more about comprehensive planning at the moment, Becker reported he had looked into extra patrol enforcement, for instance, on the lake. Becker says there is a recreation warden the town or an organization, or both, could hire to patrol.

“There are ways to get more enforcement, if you want,” he said. “But, it comes at a cost.”

To help things flow more smoothly within the town regulations, the board is methodically cleaning up ordinances, which involves taking out extra spaces and making the wording flow better. When they have all been looked at, the ones with significant changes will go before a public hearing, then to an attorney, to make sure everything is worded correctly and legally.

Improvements to the town continue throughout the summer, as bridge work on 240th Avenue was done, with the structure needing a new guardrail post put in, with the concrete eroding away. While the workers were doing that, the deck “moved” as they were testing it, so the town workers peeled it up, to find it was filled in with gravel and covered with blacktop, causing moisture to sit there.

“Now, we’ll be good to go,” said Guthman.

Repairs will also be made on the shared road with the Town of Estella, where the culvert under the road is greatly heaved. Thanks to a grant that Estella received, that project, along with the bridge repair, will see 50 percent of the cost paid by the county, while Lake Holcombe and Estella will each kick in 25 percent.

Guthman said when they repair the culvert, the road shouldn’t be closed more than a few days.

“We’re going to have it locally done,” he said.

In upgrading the town hall, the new furnaces and air conditioning that were installed, are already making a marked difference. With the WiFi thermostats, if the temperature dips below the level they’re set to, the system sends a text to town roadman Ben Jordan’s phone, alerting him to check on the hall.

“It’s going to be nice,” said Guthman.