Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883
Estimated costs of the proposed citywide street improvement project, as presented by Interstate Engineering during the public input meetings on Thursday, Oct. 28.
New Rockford city officials held public input meetings on Thursday, Oct. 28, to gauge support for a proposed street improvement project.
About a dozen citizens gathered Thursday afternoon for the first meeting, when Transcript representatives were present.
Wade Senger, Project Manager for Interstate Engineering, went through a short slide presentation outlining the key pieces of the proposal. Of the three alternatives previously presented and published in this newspaper, the city commission has chosen to proceed with Alternative 1, which involves the most improvements, and has the highest price tag. Officials contend that doing less work now will result in more repairs needed in five to seven years, at likely an even higher cost.
About half of the city's streets are paved and considered to be in "fair" condition. None of the streets were considered in "good" condition, or requiring only minimal repair.
The proposed project will bring the city's streets up to good condition with a combination of repairs, such as patching areas of alligator cracking, crack sealing, and removing and replacing large areas of pavement that have failed. The streets will then be edge milled adjacent to the curb where necessary, and streets that have depressed crowns will be leveled. Once the repairs are finished, all the paved streets will receive a two-inch overlay of new asphalt and a chip seal coat.
Approximately 20 percent of the streets are gravel. Those streets will have their grades re-shaped, crowns restored, and two inches of new aggregate added.
The gravel alleys will also have their grades reshaped and receive two inches of new gravel.
Curb and gutter will be replaced where necessary to improve drainage and reduce stress on the city's combined sanitary and storm sewer system. Valley gutters may also be repaired or installed sparingly, as needed.
Senger presented updated estimates on the cost of special assessments for lots of varying footage. As shown in the chart on page A2, a property owner with an average-sized lot (or 50 linear feet of frontage) on a paved street will pay approximately $440 per year for 15 years, or $5,075 upfront. Property on gravel streets will potentially have a lesser financial impact, estimated at $220 per year for a 50-foot lot, or $2,540 upfront.
Property owners with corner lots will only be assessed based on the length of the front yard, not the side yard. The "front yard" is determined by the street address of the property.
The numbers above were based on financing the project through the sale of municipal bonds at 3.5 percent interest for 15 years. The city's annual payment is estimated at $760,000, which must be divided amongst the 100,000 linear feet of lot frontage estimated to have special assessments levied against them.
Property owners should note that the special assessment amounts presented are merely estimates. Should the project move forward, the three-member special assessment committee will use a benefit analysis to determine an equitable way to distribute the cost amongst all property owners.
Owners whose properties are situated on gravel streets do have the opportunity to petition for paved streets. A new special assessment district would be created, and the property owners in that area would be responsible for paying the cost of paving the gravel streets. For more information about that process, please contact New Rockford City Hall at 701-947-2461.
Property owners have until Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. to protest the project. They should do so by filing a written protest with City Auditor Becki Schumacher, indicating the property which is the subject of the protest.
The New Rockford City Commission will hold a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 15 at 8 a.m. to review the protests and determine if the project should move forward.
