Hillsboro city leaders look to address safety concerns at local Dollar General store

HILLSBORO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Our investigation continues into Dollar General stores’ safety.

Following our series of reports, local leaders are now taking action.

Several Dollar General stores have come under fire after complaints of safety hazards.

In the Red River Valley, the store in Hillsboro was one of many locations where customers expressed their concerns.

“There were several issues and complaints,” said Hillsboro City Commission President Levi Reese. “The state fire marshal came down and did several inspections basically to see what violations are there.”

Those inspections happened late last week.

On Monday during the Hillsboro City Commission, preliminary results of the investigation revealed some of the key reasons for the problem.

“They did say part of it is that they do not have enough employees and partly that the company was sending them more stock than they can handle,” said Reese.

In many cases, Dollar General stores often play a big role in smaller communities.

“I traveled until about a year ago, and just about every town I went into the only thing left was a Dollar General,” said a resident in attendance.

City commissioners are now hoping DG leadership will make a change.

“I’m hoping that Dollar General sees the situation that they have and changes their business plan to address some of these issues because they are important to these communities,” said Commissioner Paul Geray.

Reese says there is only so much that the city can do.

“Under our ordinances, we can look at it through the fire department and health and safety,” he said.

He also says it was necessary to take the first step of trying to fix the issue.

“If someone has a complaint or issue we are going to look into what we can and cannot do,” Reese said. ”Sometimes there are complaints that do violate ordinances or codes. We just want to make sure that our community is safe and healthy, and that people have a nice place to work, live, and get the things they need.

The state fire marshal has yet to complete its report.

We will continue to follow this story and provide an update on the latest details.

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