The Burleigh County Commission continued the process of selling off the Missouri Valley Complex Monday night, agreeing to improve the relinquished areas with sewers and water service in exchange for tacking those improvement costs onto the sale price.

Commissioners agreed to sell one portion of the land for about $306,000 to Hay Creek, LLP, a company in the materials business. They offered to sell a second lot for $358,400 to private investor Don Weisz and rejected an offer of $770,000 for a third lot from developer Rocky Gordon.

The county is selling off a portion of the property that it purchased to build a fairground-like complex. Profits from the sale will go to development of the complex, which is slated to include an indoor arena and a drag strip.

Overall, it would cost the county about $800,000 to add sewer and water services to both the complex land and the land that is being sold off. The commission hopes to recoup at least part of this cost by adding the cost of sewer and water for that plot to the sale price.

Commissioner Mark Armstrong suggested that the county go ahead and make the improvements on all this land to prepare for the future.

"Even if the sale falls through, we will eventually need sewer and water to make them saleable," he said.

But Commissioner Jim Peluso disagreed, saying he thought the county could not afford the improvements if it could not offset them with a standing agreement to sell the land.

In other business:

n Acting for the Burnt Creek unorganized township, commissioners imposed a 35 mph speed limit on a stretch of 12th Street NE. A 25 mph speed limit had been suggested for safety in the area, which is currently unmarked and thus defaults to 55 mph country roads.

Commissioner Doug Schoener said he's driven the stretch in his car and pickup and that 25 mph didn't seem reasonable. Commissioners agreed on 35 m.p.h.

n Acting for the Lincoln unorganized township, commissioners approved a motion that the developer of the upscale Whispering Bay development south of Bismarck pave the entirety of Larson Road. The road leads out of the future development and is currently a gravel road.

"We have to make it a strong recommendation from us that that be paved," Peluso said.

The vote is a recommendation because the area will be annexed by the city of Bismarck, which thus gets final say over issues like zoning, paving, etc.

(Reach reporter Jonathan Rivoli at 223-8482 or jonathan.rivoli@;bismarcktribune.com.)