Minutes - Council - 05/23/2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

extension of the amortization schedule. The City Attorney has indicated the assessment timeframe can be extended to 15 years. Mayor Gamec inquired about the actual project cost. City Engineer Jankowski indicated the estimated project costs are included in Appendix B. The estimated project cost is $200,600; with the project overhead of 25% the total estimated project cost is $250,000. The assessments would be $6,599 per property; there are two property owners with multiple properties. The annual cost would vary from $1,089 per year down to $703 per year for the first year of a ten year amortization at an interest rate of 6 ½%o. Dell Howe, 16471 Sapphire Street NW, stated he would not contest a lot that Mr. Jankowski has stated, with the exception of the 25% contingency in the overhead. 25% of $100,000 is a lot less than 25% of $200,000, but the administrative end of it is still basically the same. City Engineer Jankowski indicated he understands Mr. Howe's point, but wherever staff has been able to identify the final cost they have used that in the final estimate. The more difficult thing is the administrative costs, and a percentage is used in order to recover costs. Councilmember Cook explained the City will be administering the funding of this project for 10 or 15 years, depending on the length of the loan, so that cost will not be known for 10 or 15 years. Mr. Howe stated the history of Welcomes Road sand trail is well known. At the March 28t~ Council meeting the issue of setting a precedent was raised and Engineer Jankowski was directed to meet with the residents. He shared thoughts that might shave off some money. The residents understand the Council's concerns about setting a precedent. They would like the Council to consider the following things. In assessing specific differences he got an inventory of all the unimproved streets in Ramsey. Without exception, paving all these streets except Welcomes Road would require little or no additional fill to be brought in. Welcomes Road is one of the longest sections of unpaved road in the City; Puma Street only has one house on it. Welcomes Road is the only linked north/south road in this area. All the other unpaved roads serve only the immediate residents and are dead-ends or have readily available options to access other streets. Welcomes Road is much more than just a residential street; it has the reputation of being a readily available muddy road after a rain. It will be some time until there are road extensions completed in this area, meanwhile, the development in the area with the heavy equipment will likely continue to use Welcomes Road. It would be logical to look to the developers to incur some of the cost for upgrading Welcomes Road, not to mention the property damage from the heavy equipment. His concrete driveway had a very heavy vehicle drive in on it, which crushed the concrete. He has seen drivers pull onto other driveways when they meet each other on the road. Mr. Howe stated Welcomes Road serves as an arterial road. He requested the City consider helping these affected residents to a greater extent than what has been offered. Mayor Gamec explained there is a lot of traffic on Chameleon Street, which has so much water at times that they drive up on people's yards. Also, off of Highway 47 there is an unplatted addition where the traffic all filters back. These are similar situations, and they have all been handled the same way. City Council / May 23, 2006 Pagell of 20