City hoping to hold own election
By Suzanne Werre
Editor
The Underwood City Commissioners are hoping to have a city-wide election before the Nov. 4 general election, putting two issues on the ballot.
The question of whether the city should impose a 0.5 percent sales tax as well as a 15-year specials tax to pay for the already-approved floodwater projected presented by Moore Engineering would be one question put to voters. The other is regarding a tax exemption to new retail businesses.
Underwood currently has 1.5 percent sales tax, and the additional 0.5 percent would put the city in line with other surrounding cities of Garrison, Turtle Lake, Washburn and Wilton, which are all at 2 percent.
Following June’s deluge of water into the city, the scope of the floodwater project has increased because of the addition of some problem areas that need to be addressed, as has the expected cost. Before the addition of those items, the city was anticipating having to spend just over $1 million, with the other approximately half of the project being covered by the state.
At Monday night’s meeting, commissioners officially approved moving forward with the floodwater project, passing a declaration of official intent, which had been all but done at the last commission meeting when commissioners said they would go ahead with the project, and all that needed to be done was to decide how to pay for it.
