Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Full house at special assessment hearing

“Not everyone is going to be happy; everyone has to pay,” New Rockford City Commission President Stuart Richter told a crowd of about 75 property owners Tuesday evening.

His remarks came at the beginning of the Special Assessment Committee (SAC) hearing held to hear objections from property owners. The committee had released the amount of special assessments to be applied to each of the 978 parcels in Special Assessment Districts 2021-1 and 2022-1.

SAC chairman Jerry Seibold said the committee referenced the 2000 street project, as well as other N.D. communities who have been involved in similar projects recently, to determine how to allocate the costs fairly and equitably among all property owners.

A handout explained the criteria the SAC used to determine the special assessment amounts for each property. The document is available on our website, http://www.newrockfordtranscript.com, for reference by those who were not in attendance.

The special assessment district’s parcels were separated into three categories: property on asphalt streets, lots on gravel streets and parcels with no direct public roadway access. Property owners in all three categories split 30 percent of the cost as “benefit,” as they all are within city limits and will benefit from the newly-repaired streets. Regardless of the condition of the street in front of their property, all parcels were assessed the benefit portion.

Properties on paved streets receive the biggest perceived benefit, namely fresh asphalt, and therefore their owners will bear the largest tax burden. In addition to the 30 percent benefit amount, properties on paved streets also split 63 percent of the cost.

The remaining 7 percent of the project cost was split among properties with gravel streets, proportional to the amount of the total project costs that will be spent on their road repairs.

There are a total of 102,519 frontal feet in the district. The special assessment amounts were calculated by multiplying the per foot cost by the frontal footage of each property as per the legal description, using the side with the street address. Therefore, for a corner lot, the property owner is only assessed on the frontal footage of the street side OR the avenue side, depending on his physical address.

“We will not make any decisions here today,” Seibold told attendees. “We’d like (your objections) in writing.” There was also a 3-5 minute time limit set for each verbal comment.

Property owners all had ample opportunity to speak to the SAC, and the engineers for the project were on hand for questions from individuals after the meeting.

The biggest concern among property owners appeared to be the cost assessed to those who live on gravel streets and who have no public street access to their property. Several have private gravel drives, while others are landlocked.

Per the guidelines established by the assessment committee, parcels without an existing roadway directly accessing their property or that do not have a private driveway or public alley accessing a roadway, i.e. landlocked, are excluded from assessment. Based on their testimony, several property owners of “landlocked” parcels had been assessed the 30 percent benefit portion.

Another point of contention was the 15-year length of repayment, as some argued that the assessments should be amortized over 30 years to make them more affordable. Wade Senger of Interstate Engineering explained that the repayment terms for public projects are based on the “useful life” of the repairs.

Asphalt streets have a lifespan of 15 years before repairs are needed. New Rockford’s current streets, which were last repaired in 2000, have outlasted their expected lifespan by 7-8 years already, Senger surmised.

If the repayment stretches out more than 15 years to say 30 years, 15-20 years down the road property owners will still be paying for this project and incurring additional costs for crack and chip sealing, asphalt overlay or additional curb and gutter replacement that will likely be needed.

The amounts as published in the Aug. 15 and 22 editions of this newspaper will likely change slightly for almost all property owners. Seibold acknowledged that adjustments will be made to offset reductions that are granted. This includes errors made in calculations of frontal footage or perceived benefit.

“Sometimes we’re human, we make mistakes, or sometimes the information we have gotten is incorrect,” Seibold explained. He noted that the SAC had already been made aware of some adjustments that need to be made prior to the meeting.

The SAC held a special meeting on Thursday, Sept. 1 to review the written objections and make adjustments to assessments as they deemed appropriate. Their final assessments will be reviewed, and ultimately approved, by the New Rockford City Commission very soon. City attorney Travis Peterson told attendees of Tuesday’s meeting that the final certification of the special assessments would take place in time to publish a notice of such in the Sept. 12 edition of the Transcript. He also said the city was not required to publish the complete list of final assessment amounts in the paper, but rather will publish notice that the final list is available at New Rockford City Hall.

Special Assessment Q & A

Q: What are the terms of the repayment?

A: The special assessments for each parcel will be amortized over 15 years at 3 percent interest.

Q: Can a taxpayer prepay their full assessment amount up front, and if so do they get a discount?

A: Taxpayers have 10 days from the certification date to prepay their full special assessment amount and avoid accrual of interest. There is no additional discount for prepayment, however.

Q: Did city officials consider allocating sales tax revenue to help offset the cost of specials?

A: Per Richter, the city increased the city sales tax by ½ percent to help pay for the water infrastructure project, so they did not consider adding more for the street project. The city sales tax is currently 2.5 percent.