Petition rewritten

A revised petition was submitted to the city of McCook Thursday after an earlier petition was refused by the McCook city clerk.

The first petition, to rescind land contracts with two Frontier County farmers presented to the McCook City Council by Don Klein, Richard Bair and Mike Allen on Monday, was denied because of improper wording.

In a letter to the three chief petitioners, City Clerk LeaAnn Doak said she did not believe that the proposed petition was in proper form.

The original petition asked voters "Shall the city of McCook rescind the two contracts for options to purchase conservation easements to site a new well field."

Doak's argument was that if the action is subject to referendum, the council's action on the contracts should be addressed and not the contracts themselves.

"The briefly worded caption in the proposed petition should be worded such that it directly poses the question of whether the vote to approve the contracts, and authorize the mayor to sign them should be rescinded, repealed or however you wish to express that action," she wrote.

The new petition reads: "Recently the City Council approved contracts with landowners granting the city options to purchase conservation easements, rights to drill test holes, and other rights in 14 quartersections in Frontier County.

"The city will use the property as a northern well field. If approved this measure rescinds and repeals the city's approval of the contracts.

"Shall the action of the city approving said contracts be rescinded and repealed?"

The city has three days to approve or deny the petition.