Agenda - Council - 08/24/1993 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I On April 10th,1990, Lee Hennon (Dellwood Estates), wrote a contract with the city of Ramsey, in which the developer agrees to make advance payment to the city in the amount of 89,434.00, which is the city engineer's estimate of the benefit lots 1 & 9 of the Plat would receive from the improvement of Bison St. N.W. The city agrees that it will not further assess any of the lots in the Plat for the hard surface improvement of Bison Street N.W. In September of 1990 the people who purchased lots from Lee Hennon were advised by Lee Hennonthat Bison would be paved in the spring of 1991. Then in the spring of 1992 Mr. Howard Dowling purchased a lot from Lee Hennon and was assured that Bison would be paved by the fall of 1992. In January of 1993 a feasibility study was done for the paving of Bison, subsequently in May of 1993 volume 8 //5 of the Ramsey paper stated in it's "what's happening with your city council", that contract would be let to pave Bison in the spring. When nothing was accomplished, Mr. Bruce Johnson went to the work of circulating a petition to the affected lot owners (1 thru 7) that Bison be paved. The petition was submitted with more that enough affirmative votes for the council to act favorably--- 3 lot owners objected well past the 60 day rule, but this still left well over the 35% needed for the council to act favorably. The council instead adopted a resolution to terminate the project. This in the face of the Road and Bridge Committee recommending that the project proceed because the petition previously received against the project was not signed by the needed percentage of affected property owners and was received past the 60 day comment period. We were surprised and dismayed that the council allowed 3 property owners submitting an (for all practical purposes) illegal petition, sway their judgement when the majority still wanted this project completed. Had the owners been aware that the council would accept illegal petitions they would certainly have attended the meeting en masse to make sure the council did the right thing!! The City of Ramsey agreed to the stipulation put forth by Lee Hennon in 1982 that they would properly relocate the road (Bison) when it was paved, so the city of Ramsey should bear the expense for the proper location of the road--furthermore we have been advised by the State Attorneys office that, quote,"a real question of performance" is involved and leaves the City open for a lawsuit!! As stated in the studies to date, the accounting department of the City of Ramsey becomes suspect as they have less money now. than was put in escrow in 1990. Furthermore, the interest should have accumulated to the amount of $1252(approx.). We therefore submit that the City of Ramsey should complete the paving of Bison Street as stated in the contract of April lOth 1990 using the money placed in escrow with no further costs to any property owners.