Nancy Edmonds Hanson
Back in 2012, Moorhead launched a new program to encourage home-building in the city – a policy rebating property taxes paid in the first two years after houses have been completed. It has been a success, and on Monday, the City Council approved a resolution continuing the “Make Moorhead Home” plan through the end of 2020.
Assistant City Manager Dan Mahli told the council that 193 homes qualify for a total of $215, 473 in rebates, including 59 finished in 2017 and 134 in 2018. Their value was accounted for in 2019’s assessment, affecting taxes payable this year.
The rebates – conceived ten years ago as an incentive for local development of residential housing – apply to the entire value of the property and structure for a term of two years after completion. They do not apply to special assessments. Homeowners do not have to submit applications for the rebate; it is tracked through building permits.
After the two years of rebates, full property taxes are assessed by the city, as well as the Clay County Commission and Moorhead School Board. The commission and board have already approved extending the program through the end of the year, Mahli said.
Historical society reports
successes in 2019
The year 2019 will go down in the books as a successful one for the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, executive director Maureen Kelly Jonason said Monday. She noted that the nonprofit group ended the year with “a small surplus.” Actual budget numbers won’t be available until the annual audit is complete in May.
She reported 28,000 visitors visited the Hjemkomst Center, the city-owned facility occupied by the nonprofit historical group, in 2019. More than 10,000 of them came to see “Beyond Bollywood,” the Smithsonian Institution exhibit on Indian-Americans’ contributions in the U.S. The popular exhibit was augmented by original local research by the HCSCC staff, who consulted with local residents of Indian descent on gathering stories since the first arrived in Fargo-Moorhead in 1964.
The center hosted a total of ten exhibitions in 2019, ranging from “War, Flu and Fear” (the World War I era) to the Red River Watercolor Society’s national juried watercolor exhibition. Historical talks and special events drew guests wanting a deeper dive into the content. About 600 individuals, households and businesses maintain annual memberships in the organization.
Council members Heidi Durand and Shelly Carlson questioned Jonason about the amount of support provided by the city. She explained it amounts to the equivalent of about $400,000 per year in the museum’s rent-free occupancy of the city-owned building, payment of utilities, and support services provided by city employees. The director pointed out that, in return, the society provides interpretive and curatorial service for the Hjemkomst ship and Hopperstad Stav Church, both owned by the city.
Durand observed that Clay County’s support is only $200,000 per year – “interesting, given that ‘Clay County’ is right in the name.”
Both council members asked whether the HCSCC board is working toward payment of rent, perhaps as part of the current “capacity building” process funded through a grant from the Margaret Cargill Foundation. Jonason pointed out that the grant funds, like most of those the society receives, are strictly limited to the uses specified by the donors. “We can’t use those dollars however we might like,” she said.
In other business, the City Council approved a liquor license for River Haven, the event center soon to open in the remodeled American Legion building at Seventh Street and First Avenue North, and the consumption of beer in the Moorhead Youth Hockey Association’s Cullen Hockey Center, as well as a “lawful gambling” permit for MYHA.
