Letter to the Editor: Nov. 29, 2021

New Rockford Transcript readers, city property owners, and citizens of New Rockford: I am deeply concerned for the wellbeing of New Rockford regarding the special assessments for the proposed street project that will be in addition to what you currently pay. I’d like to thank Craig Voigt for his letter to the editor recently. I’m not going to go into a lot of details about my situation regarding the estimate of my taxes nearly quadrupling; rather, I would like to keep this more about the property owners at-large, and how this has the very real potential to do more harm than good, even if you think you can afford this increase.

I surmise that in ways that you may not think of at this moment, it will most certainly hurt in the long run. Small towns are a very delicate thing nowadays, and must be handled with careful thought and planning for every single citizen from the wealthy to the poor, from the able-bodied to the fragile, elderly population, as well as the future generations that may call this place home.

I am not completely surprised that the protest meetings were poorly attended. Is there a reason for this? Do you think that $8,750,000 is an acceptable price to pay? Have we done the due diligence to try to acquire other funding help, other than just from property owners?  

In my situation, my estimated annual increase will be $1,320, on top of what I am already currently paying, for a period of 15 years. That is an added $19,800 cost for me, over and above what the current property tax costs are!!! Does this sound reasonable?

I’d love to help, and completely understand that repairs are desperately needed, but at what cost? I must think I’d be a fool to knuckle under and pay that kind of money. There is no way for me to justify these taxes. Would there be any sort of reassurance that there will not be any further specials or increases in our property taxes in the next 15 years, as we pay off this high-cost project? Consider also; any property you own takes money for upkeep. New and old homes alike, there are always costs for maintenance and repairs. Older homes possibly cost as much, or more, to keep up. I see a lot of older homes in New Rockford. Most appear well maintained; however, I also notice homes that appear to have attempts made for upkeep, but likely the owners have run out of money to continue. Will home repairs go on the back burner with less money to spend?

One of my neighbors has a property that is almost an entire block. According to the estimates for frontal foot charges, is he responsible for $2,640 per year, in addition to whatever he currently pays ($39,600 in 15 years)? WOW!!! According to DATA USA the median property value in New Rockford was $83,500 in 2019. The median annual household income was also listed at $44,531. Household income - does that mean from both wage earners?? I make slightly less than that.  

I doubt that people with that type of income want to try to somehow absorb this kind of tax burden. So, what you may say is, “I can afford it and want to do the right thing and fix all the streets!” Even though you may think you can pay it, others likely cannot.

Another concern I have is that some nonprofits have the potential to be hurt. I haven’t researched it to verify this, but there is concern that churches, museums, and other such nonprofits may be charged the assessments, even with a tax-exempt status. Will it become difficult to find workforce help if people leave? I bet it certainly would. Do you rent a home and think this will not affect you? I’d be willing to bet my breakfast that you will likely have an increased monthly rent cost, as it will be passed on to you from the landlord. Will the folks who are living on social security with a very minimal amount, and no increases in pay, be forced to choose between food, medicine, and taxes? What is the population of elderly or people on a fixed income in New Rockford? About 30% is a figure I’ve heard mentioned, but did not verify. That’s a fair share of our population.

The city I live in has mainly gravel streets, except for main street, and another four blocks or so going towards the school. We are okay with that. Yes, there are times when I think it would be nice to have paved streets, but after seeing the situation up there, I will never complain, EVER. Our main street and the east and west street were completely redone a few years back, with no specials or large increase in property taxes. With these astronomical figures coming at me from the New Rockford street project, and if in fact it happens, I will be looking at doing very different things than I had originally planned with my property in the city of New Rockford. I hope the value isn’t further decreased, should I determine that I must sell it. But, I also fear that this very well may be the case. I feel trapped (sort of).

I placed a phone call to one of the city commissioners, as I was instructed to do so by another good citizen of New Rockford regarding my concerns. Commissioner Richter was courteous enough to contact me the following day. In my initial call, I explained very briefly the purpose of the call and that if he was busy, I’d have no problem with leaving the time for a call back at his discretion. He stated that the protest meetings were poorly attended, and that they planned to move forward with the project, and that they would be as gentle and compassionate as they could be regarding the property owners as this project progressed. I told him that I would have been more than willing to come to the protest meeting, but was sick with Covid-19 at the time. I also indicated to him that it was my opinion that the meetings were advertised and held for such a short period of time that it’s no wonder they were poorly attended. I would have expected a greater amount of time for public input on a project that entails almost $9,000,000 of money to be paid out by property owners.

I also question whether the time period for input have been longer, so that people could try to wrap their heads around a project with such a large price tag? Possibly send out fliers to property owners in the mail? Mr. Richter stated to me several times that they had done everything legally and according to the book.

At the current time, I never have called into question the legality of their actions. What is legal, and what is moral and ethical, may be quite different. What I do call into question though, is the way they presented this project to the taxpayers, and the lack of a reasonable amount of time for people to think about how this may affect them moving forward.

I would like to ask at this time for you, the good people of New Rockford, to dig into this and study it. Find out how this will affect you, and also your neighbors. Attend city meetings so you know what is going on and how things are progressing.

We, the people, have elected people in these positions and shouldn’t have to go to meetings because they are supposed to be trusted to make decisions for the good of everyone, but I don’t think all aspects are looked at if nobody ever shows up, if nobody ever questions things. We need to participate and be involved in the processes.

We are all in this together and need to think of not just ourselves, but what this may do long term, if it continues to the entire community and even the greater Eddy County area. I’m certain there are more cost-effective ways to do this. If your neighbor struggles, you, too, will eventually struggle. Please join me in efforts to make this more fair, reasonable, and affordable by asking tough questions and trying to get a more economically feasible way to better the community.

I won’t give up on trying until I have exhausted all my options. I encourage you all to stay informed and make decisions that are not going to hurt any of the people in the community that we all love.

Nick Werth

Rhame, N.D.

[email protected]

I would love to hear other insights on this, both for and against it.