Chuck's roads are good for 30+ years. Stillwater's? not so much

Star Tribune Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:04:36 GMT
Stillwater may change how streets are funded

A proposal before the City Council would have property owners picking up most of the tab for project assessments. The Stillwater City Council began considering a proposal on Wednesday night that would shift more of the cost for street improvements from the city to property owners. Currently, the city's assessment policy calls for a 50-50 division of project costs between the city and homeowners whose property abuts roads repaired or otherwise improved by the city. But the City Council is considering changing the policy to a 70-30 split, with property owners paying for the majority of the improvement projects. ... The number of Stillwater roads listed by the city as being in poor condition has been growing, an indication of the widening gap between repairs needed and the repairs done. "The city roads are engineered to last 20 years at least," said Stillwater Mayor Ken Harycki. "We figure we have about 90 miles of roads. If you divide that by 20, that works out to about 4.5 miles a year. We [repair] about 1.5 miles a year. So we're trying to close that gap."

[[keywords: PublicWorks;PropertyTax;Metro;]]