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RC a
ssessment hearing fills chambers

By MaryHelen Swanson
Rush City residents living along West 9th Street will be looking for an answer in this report, but it wonít be coming until after after next Mondayís special city council meeting.
A special assessment hearing was held in Rush City, Dec. 9, and residents nearly filled the council chamber to voice opinions about the assessments and other issues such as the conditions of their driveways.
Last February, when the process started, the city told the people the assessment would be $4,018, that figure being arrived at by a formula that made each of the 22 housing units pay an equal amount toward the total street reconstruction project.
Overruns on costs boosted assessment figures to over $4,700 per housing unit and there was objection to that figure at the meeting Monday night.
The objections were eased when City Administrator Daniel Hoffman informed everyone that, by law, the city cannot revise the assessment. He recommended the assessment figure be set back at the $4,018.
Eleven letters had been received from individual property owners.
A lengthy letter from Joel Hanson, on behalf of his parents Virgil and Vada Hanson, was distributed to each of the council members and available for the audience to review that night.
Hanson had eight issues of concern including a notation about a significant error in the feasibility report that estimated much less Class V would be needed than actually required. This and another error boosted the costs by over $26,000, Hanson noted in his letter.
During public comment, 9th Street resident Scott Mollberg said he was glad the assessment figure would be reduced but still felt it was unfair to have to pay so much for reconstruction of a road he said wasnít done right ìfrom the get goî back in 1974.
He also noted that the concrete work at the end of his driveway was already going bad and that the mailbox positioning created a situation where the mail carrier has to drive on the curb to deliver mail.
Responding to the issue of the poor road construction in 1974, Mayor Mike Skalsky said at that time the city just took the word of the contractor.
Angie Oscarson was concerned about a drainage issue and a potential ice problem.
Continued from front
The residents appeared nervous when City Engineer Bob Moberg informed them that the warranty period was two years beginning at ìsubstantial completion,î which he said was the status of the project now.
According to Moberg, the final layer of asphalt needs to be put on as well as completion of curbs at driveways, plus a punch list of items to be addressed.
Since there were several concerns about driveways, Moberg promised that next spring the city would look at these on a case by case basis.
He said he would then put together a list of those needing work and send it to all of the homeowners along the street.
Mayor Skalsky assured the residents that the assessment would not be more than $4,018 per parcel.
He said it was important to get feedback from the people.
He even asked if there were other ideas about how much the assessment should be.
Mollberg said 50 percent would be a good figure. That would be around $3,300.
At $4,018, the residents are picking up 60 percent of the cost, the city will pick up 40 percent.
Money is the issue in small towns, Hoffman said. He reminded everyone that city money paid on projects comes from everyone living in the city.
He pointed out that W. 9th Street was the first major street improvement project in decades.
He said there are many small towns like Rush City with similar streets needing fixing and decades go by without repair.
Rush City, Hoffman went on, decided to go ahead with the project instead of ìweaving and duckingî the issue for more years.
When the assessment hearing ended, the residents were assured that they would not be paying more than $4,018. But the council did not adopt a final assessment Monday night.
A second assessment hearing was held Tuesday night on the Bremer/Colfax project. The council agreed to hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 16 to decide on the final assessment figures for both projects.
The key, said councilman Mic Louzek, is that when itís (West 9th Street) done next year the people get what theyíre paying for.
ìFour thousand dollars is a lot of money,î he said, ìIt better be done as best as we can have it done.î
Before leaving the meeting, City Attorney Joe Anderson assured the council that $4,018, or 60 percent of the cost was a reasonable expectation.
According to Hoffman, the residents along the Bremer/Colfax streets are picking up only two percent of the cost because it is part of a bigger water/sewer project and the city has obtained a Public Financing Authority (PFA) loan to help pay for the utilities. The residents affected by this project are also being assessed by frontage footage rather than a set figure.

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