The buildings for four long-time Billings non-profits are in need of maintenance.
“Each of those nonprofits are running their own properties,” Billings City Councilman Bill Kennedy said. “Is the city going to be liable for deferred maintenance on it?”
Those buildings are fully or partially owned by the city and include the Alberta Bear Theater, the Babcock Theater, the Billings Depot, and the Moss Mansion.
The Billings City Council approved an initiative to talk about what to do with those buildings at its meeting on Monday night.
Kennedy sponsored the initiative because the city does not have a maintenance plan, according to the agenda.
At this point, it's just an initiative to get the council to talk about the issue.
It's not known how much money would be involved and what would be best financially for the taxpayers.
Kennedy said the buildings are leased and some or all of the maintenance is done depending on the nonprofit.
“There's, a lot of deferred maintenance in each of these,” Kennedy said. “As long as the city owns a portion or all of it, there's still deferred maintenance. There's still a liability issue. And we need to discuss that.”
Council members, Roy Neese and Jennifer Owen said they agree with Kennedy and the need for the council to discuss what to do with the buildings.
During the meeting, council members asked about one of the potential options, putting the properties up for sale.
“If the council decides to dispose of this property, don't we have to follow our policy?” Council member Denise Joy asked.
“The best practice would be to follow that adopted policy,” sald Chris Kuklulski, Billings city administrator.
And while the council wants to look at this issue, some brought up other concerns.
“I do think the South Park pool is really essential,” said Councilman Ed Gulick. “I don't want to divert any time from that. I think it's very good for us to set a direction for (the buildings). But it hasn’t been a big issue, up until very recently.”
“I felt it real important that we start the discussion,” Kennedy said. “On what do we want to do? Are we going to put them in our budget? Take care of deferred maintenance? Are we going to sell the properties? Are we going to talk with each of the nonprofits and see what they want to do with their building?
