Voting against the abatement was 4th District Commissioner Ben Montzka who said he does not approve abatements for retail businesses, preferring to support only manufacturing businesses. Montzka said he did not know Randy Nelson personally, but of his family s reputation, still he said he could not support the abatement for a museum no matter who owns it. As noted previously, the new store is expected to be 50,000 square feet and include a video store and the dairy museum with displays presented by the Midwest Dairy Association. The store is being built west of Community National Bank on the west side of the freeway. The expanded store will also provide many new jobs, both full time and part time for the community, all at above-minimum wage scale.
Plans are to close the current grocery store but open it later as a smaller-scaled store.
The city council has not made a decision on this request yet. Acknowledged the receipt of a petition asking for a rescinding of a conditional use permit for the Loeffler chicken ranch. Heard a presentation by North Branch Schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Stepaniak on the upcoming referendum. Stepaniak informed the commissioners of the 43 percent increase in number of students last fall which prompted the necessity of a referendum. He told them if the referendum fails, the school board would have to make some tough decisions.