Curb and Gutter assessment

Some folks in Roland should have gotten a letter about a proposed assessment to their property regarding the addition of curb and gutter to the street in front of their house.

The city council is pondering a streets project that involves paving and adding curb and gutter to the 100th block of Logan (the part north of the curve, all the way to Maple), and one block of Elm Street, north of the Middle School.

There is a public meeting regarding this project at 7PM on Monday April 12 in the Community Center. The regularly scheduled council meeting will take place at 6PM, with the council meeting being moved from City Hall to the Community Center, so we can just roll into the public meeting after the council meeting.

Just some notes on all this....First, no decisions have been made on this project, including whether to even do the project. The letters sent out give an estimated cost of the assessment for the curb and gutter part of the project, if the city were to go through with the plan.

No decisions will be made regarding this project on Monday night. The meeting will have our city engineer present to give information about the project. The meeting will also be an opportunity for citizens to ask questions, and give comments for or against the project.

If you would like to comment on the proposed project, but are unable to attend the meeting, please email or call City Hall with your input, so we can offer that at this meeting.

The plan that we have so far would have the city paying for all the street and storm sewer work. The part of the project that would be assessed to property owners would be the cost of the curb and gutter. This cost could be paid for all at once, or prorated out for some amount of years, to be decided by the city council.

Some of the drivers for the necessity of this project include upgrading the infrastructure of the city, simply for maintenance, as well as general appearance. Those two streets have been identified as streets currently needing repair, and having heavier traffic loads.

The council is also considering impact on individual property owners, and the taxpayers of the City of Roland as a whole. So the council has to consider an appropriate balance between what to spend, and how to keep Roland in good shape, and how not to overly burden taxpayers, while making improvements.

So next Monday is a step in all of that. In general, I am supportive of the plan, but we don't have specifics yet, so my mood may change, depending on what is all worked out. So feel free to come to the meeting on Monday to offer your input.