Letter to the Editor: Property owners take note of street improvement costs

I’m wondering if New Rockford property owners know what they are signing up for by not making their voices heard regarding the street improvement project currently being reviewed by the City of New Rockford.

You are looking at close to $9,000,000.00 in special assessments for Plan A, and that’s before they tack on the interest and any cost overruns. I’m showing you this figure in zeros so maybe you can better grasp the cost.

This money will be paid by you, the property owners, at 4% interest over 15 years. (Hmm, 4% is a pretty good return on your money these days, except you will be paying it out of your own pocket, not collecting it.) Of course this will be added to your property taxes that you are currently paying. Ouch! Makes you wonder why you own property.

Eddy County (mostly New Rockford residents) is the most elderly county in the state of North Dakota. This means a lot of its residents are retired and living on Social Security. Have you figured out how much that will cut into your check? Apparently not, because there was hardly anyone at the two meetings to voice any objections. There is also a Plan B and a Plan C (if you read the article in the Oct. 11 issue of the Transcript), and one of those may be a better choice.

Granted, New Rockford streets look bad due to all the carving up we’ve done replacing water lines. And thanks to our city workers, they have been repaired very well. So if you are complaining about the streets, you better open up your wallets.

But we do have choices: (1) we can wait to see what Biden’s infrastructure plan will do to help us with the project; (2) work on the N.D. legislature to let loose some of the Legacy Fund; or (3) just wait until petroleum product prices come back down to earth.

In my opinion, we are being lured into this rather abruptly. There needs to be a lot more information gathered to make a decision of this scale. Like who’s going to pay for the homes or lots that get a direct benefit and don’t pay their assessment...we will have quite a few of those...and renters, your rent is going to go up to offset property owners’ cost of the assessment.

There are more opportunities for help in funding this in the near future, rather than going ahead with this expenditure right now. That being said, I’ve been to a lot of small towns. A lot of them don’t even have pavement, so the next time you drive down New Rockford city streets, be thankful you have pavement with a few bumps, because a lot of us don’t have pavement, and every time we pull out of our driveway we have to deal with it.

If you would like to voice your opinion or concerns on this project, call the City Auditor at (701) 947-2461 and talk with Becki, or write a letter expressing your concerns and drop it off at the city office. And if you haven’t done it already, I would suggest the latter because it carries a lot more weight and can be reviewed at the November 15 meeting, which is right around the corner.