At its regular meeting on June 10th, Humboldt City Council addressed a petition calling for the establishment of a downtown grocery store. The petition was received from a Humboldt resident.

The petition requested consideration from City Council for a tax incentive to promote the development of a grocery store at the corner of Main Street and 6th Avenue. The only building currently vacant at the mentioned location is on the southwest corner. Council was not aware of an expression of interest from any potential purchasers. 

The petition was signed by 214 individuals. Mayor Rob Muench acknowledges, "I think there's some concern out there, and any time you have 200 and some people signing, it's something that council is willing to look at."

However, Muench pointed out that there were omissions in the petition that challenged the Council's ability to proceed. City Clerk Sandra Pauli reported that, according to The Cities Act, a petition needs to be signed by a number of electors equal to at least 10% of the population. Based on the 2016 census, the petition would need to bear a minimum of 586 electors.

A second issue is that the signators are required to be residents of Humboldt and to indicate their physical addresses for verification. Only 98 indicated a civic address, and many of the signators were from out of town. Because a complete and valid petition meeting the requirements of The Act can only call for a referendum or plebiscite, Council would be unable to act unless those were called for an undertaken.

Council did acknowledge that there was a concern about access to grocery stores in the downtown area, mostly on behalf of senior residents. They also addressed the fact that there are retail outlets selling food in the downtown, and that a concession to one business might be detrimental to those existing retailers. At least one of Humboldt's food stores offers a home delivery service. 

Because of the deficiencies in the submitted petition, Council agreed to receive it as information, but they are not compelled to act on it. The petitioner will be contacted and given the opportunity to provide more information.