Paving payment plan bothers landowners
The Flathead County commissioners heard from Mennonite Church Road area residents Thursday, most of them strongly opposed to a rural special improvement district aimed at paving the road.
Many of the residents told the commissioners that they want the dusty and rough-riding road to be paved, but they do not believe that 104 property owners within the designated district should have to shoulder more than half the cost of paving a through-traffic road that will be heavily used by other county taxpayers.
The project involves paving about three miles of Mennonite Church Road between Montana 35 and Creston Hatchery Road.
"It's a through-road. Anybody can and will use it," Mike Corbett said.
What's worse, others said, is that owners of homes built in the district in the future will not share in the cost.
"It's mainly an issue of fairness for a lot of people," Darrel Weidauer said. "Imagine yourself having to live out there for the next 20 years, having to write out a $500 check every year, and looking at 100 houses out there that don't have to pay for it."
Tom Gorton said that is particularly galling for residents like himself who have lived in the area for many years.
"We're not making the money. We're not selling the properties, but we are being penalized," Gorton said. "It's not right."
Corbett and others at the hearing suggested that the district boundaries were designed to ensure that an effective protest to stop the RSID would be impossible. More than 50 percent of the property owners are needed for an effective protest, but property owners in the Fox Hill Estates subdivision were required to sign waivers of protest making the 50 percent threshold difficult to reach.
Tara Fugina, an assistant deputy county attorney, told the commissioners the county received 14 valid protests against the creation of the RSID, amounting to less than 20 percent of the total cost-share, the number of property owners within the district and the total taxable value of property within the district.
She said the county received an additional 38 letters protesting the amount of the RSID assessment. Fugina stressed that is an entirely separate issue than a protest against the creation of the district.
Commissioners Jim Dupont and Dale Lauman said they would not consider voting on the RSID creation this week because Commissioner Joe Brenneman is on vacation, and the Mennonite Church Road RSID is in Brenneman's district.
After the hearing, the commissioners opened three bids on the project, with the lowest bid package coming from the Knife River construction firm. The bid came in at just over $600,000, substantially lower than the estimated cost of $868,000.
That would result in a lower-than-expected tax assessment for property owners. But the breakdown for their share, the county's share and the Fox Hill Estates developer's share has yet to be calculated by Morrison-Maierle, the firm doing engineering and design work on the project for the county.
Dupont and Lauman said the Mennonite Church Road RSID will be back on their agenda when Brenneman returns next week.
Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com