T-R PHOTO BY SUSANNA MEYER Le Grand city council member Troy Underhill said he felt council members had acted disrespectfully toward Mike Wright over the past several months after he requested a rezoning of the property located at 506 W. Main Street.

LE GRAND — At a special city council meeting on Tuesday night, Le Grand city councilman Troy Underhill read a letter to the mayor and his fellow council members addressing their conduct surrounding a dispute over the recent request to rezone the vacant property located at 506 W. Main St.

The conversion from a residential to a commercial classification had been requested by Mike Wright and recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission. At last week’s regular meeting, Wright made a complaint against two council members, Todd Parrish and Donald Weitzell, alleging they had gone behind his back to two neighboring property owners and asked, in Wright’s words, “very inappropriate” questions about him. Weitzell did not attend the special meeting.

In his statement, Underhill listed several projects Wright and his company, Wright’s Construction and Development Incorporated, had been involved in that benefited Le Grand.

“Listening to the public and our other council members and Mike Wright at our last meeting, I wanted to point out a few things. First of all, Mr. Wright’s company has put in a total of 39 sewer and water hookups for this town. He has created two housing developments,” Underhill said. “He has torn down two eyesores and constructed new buildings to replace them. One of these buildings currently has a commercial space to rent. I would say that Mike has been a very positive force for this community.”

Because those projects had a positive impact on Le Grand, Underhill contended, he felt Wright had been treated inappropriately.

“Our council members, acting on a rumor from the post office, were wrong. Mr. Wright has never to my knowledge given us reason for us to think he was being dishonest. I believe that the actions taken were disrespectful. If there had been real concerns of threats, the law should have been notified so they could take care of it,” Underhill said. “Mike did everything the city required, and he has done a lot for our community. Yet there are still people who have it out for him.”

Because Underhill said he would not be attending the April 12 meeting where the council would decide whether or not to rezone the property, he wanted to state his case and ask the council to consider voting in favor of the request.

Underhill detailed his experiences talking to Le Grand citizens who had made complaints about the conversion, saying there had been very few, and some of the citizens had even changed their minds after considering it further. Working off of rough numbers, Underhill said less than one percent of Le Grand citizens made complaints.

Whether or not storage units are built on the property shouldn’t be a concern, Underhill argued, as the council is only voting on the rezoning of the property and not what is ultimately constructed there.

“Anyone who thinks (storage units) are an eyesore can look across the road and see what’s already there,” Underhill said. “I hope that you will consider all these things next month at the vote for changing this lot from residential to commercial.”

Neither the present council members nor Mayor Shane Sweitzer responded to the letter during the meeting.

In addition to the letter from Underhill, the council confirmed the terms of hire for Shauna Robinson, who is taking over the City Clerk/Treasurer position from Jodi Abrahams. After the terms of the hire were confirmed, Robinson was sworn into her new position.

The purchase of a Dodge Ram 2500 with a plow for the Public Works Department — to be used for snow removal — was also approved unanimously. The $50,000 truck will be replacing one of the trucks in the fleet that has transmission issues, according to Rod Fehrmann from the Public Works Department.

In other business, the council:

· Held a public hearing for the fiscal year 2023 budget.

· Approved unanimously resolution 13-2022, which would adopt the budget for the fiscal year starting on July 1, 2022 and ending June 30, 2023. This would also certify a tax levy rate of 9.18593 for that fiscal year.