Paving district gets green light

The county commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved the creation of a rural special improvement district to pave 3 miles of Mennonite Church Road, calling the project a "bargain" because construction bids came in well below earlier estimates.

A bid of $606,000 from Knife River decreases the annual tax for 104 affected property owners to less than $200 a year, County Administrative Officer Mike Pence said.

Figuring 5.52 percent interest for a 20-year term, the tax could be as low as $160 annually per lot.

"The way the prices came in, you couldn't oil in front of your house for that amount," Commissioner Jim Dupont said.

The county is picking up the tab for about two-thirds of the project, Pence said, including all of the road base work.

A major complaint from Mennonite Church Road residents was that the owners of homes built in the district in the future will not share in the cost.

Before taking a final vote on the project, the commissioners vowed to push for legislation that would allow counties to impose latecomer fees for road improvements. In areas such as the Mennonite Church Road area east of Kalispell where there's ample space for future subdivisions, it's unfair not to be able to tax future lots, they agreed.

Future lots 'should have a mandatory [RSID] payment," Dupont said.

Commissioner Joe Brenneman said there's "inherent inequality" in the current system, especially for neighborhoods such as this with significant development potential.

Brenneman was on vacation when the commissioners held a public hearing on the Mennonite Church Road proposal last week, but he said he reviewed the public comments and minutes from the hearing and found the district to be reasonable and fair.

"This project meets my criteria," he said.

Opposition to the project was heavy, though. The county received 14 valid protests against the creation of the district, but that wasn't enough to reach to 50 percent threshold needed for an effective protest. Nearly 40 letters protested the amount of the tax.

Perhaps the biggest argument against the district was the contention that Mennonite Church Road is a through-road used heavily by other county taxpayers.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com