Street Project Still Riling Residents

The 2009 Street Improvement Project, the topic that won’t go away, took over the Feb. 11 Centerville City Council meeting.
A dozen residents of Peltier Lake Drive showed up at the meeting to speak their minds about assessments, appeals, attorneys and recent actions of the City Council.
Although City Attorney Kurt Glaser said the public forum was not supposed to be a question and answer session, the bulk of the meeting turned into a dialogue between the council and the residents.
Several residents of Peltier Lake Drive reported that they had met before the council meeting to discuss ways to reduce their assessments short of litigation. “For the most part, people on Peltier Lake Drive want to have a win-win and work with the city. We don’t want to litigate,” said resident Daniel Skoog.
Despite recent public hearings and consultations with Glaser, the residents still had questions for council members. Among them: why the city holds closed-door sessions, why residents can’t get appraisal data, whether it’s worthwhile to obtain a special appraisal to appeal and why residents have to pay for the street project.
As the council moved through its agenda, discussion stemming from bid rejections and the reopening of bidding for the 2009 Street Project consumed the meeting again. William Svetin wondered whether savings from the new bidding process would lower their assessments.
“If the bids come back lower, pass it on to the people,” he said.
Glaser said assessments only represent 20 to 25 percent of the project’s cost, so if the overall project costs drop, it will affect the taxpayers paying for the remaining 75 to 80 percent — not the individual assessment amounts.
If the total cost of the project doesn’t go up, no public hearings will be necessary, and residents appealing their assessments must keep following the same time line as a matter of law, Glaser said.
Quad Press