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• A resident wondered when the first payment of the assessment is due and how <br />the payments are done. Mr. Elfering answered that in October of 2008 there <br />would be an assessment hearing for the final assessment amount. After the <br />assessment has been approved by the Council at that meeting, the property owner <br />has 30 days to pay the assessment (full or partial) to the City with no interest. <br />After 30 days, any unpaid amount is certified to Ramsey County for collection <br />with future property taxes. The County will then assess the amount including <br />interest on your property taxes for a period of ten years. The property owner can <br />pay off the assessment at anytime thereafter, at the County, and will be charged <br />interest accrued for the year the payoff is made if payment is made prior to <br />November 15th. If the payoff is done after November 1511h, the property owner <br />will be charged the next year's interest. Mr. Hanson commented that the interest <br />rate is typically around 6% to 6.5 %. <br />➢ Mr. Elfering noted an error on the handout which shows the proposed assessment <br />rate for urban residential at $28.99. The amount should actually be the capped <br />residential rate of $57.97. He said to get the estimated assessment; the property <br />owner can multiply $57.97 by their assessable footage. <br />➢ A comment was made from a resident wondering why the street needed to be <br />reconstructed since it was done in the 1980s. Mr. Elfering indicated that he <br />believed an attempt was made to construct the street properly at the time it was <br />done, however geotextile fabric was not used to separate the sand subgrade and <br />clay soils. The clay soils have migrated into the sand section resulting in failure <br />of the subgrade. He noted that when reconstructed the road will have a layer of <br />geotextile fabric placed in between the sand and the clay subgrade, which <br />prevents the clay from contaminating the sand. The high water table may also <br />have contributed to the street failure. The new storm sewer installed will allow <br />for draintile to remove any water from the new subgrade. <br />➢ It was discussed that the City Council takes residents' comments into <br />consideration when determining if a project should move forward. However, the <br />Council may move a project forward over any resident objections if they feel the <br />improvement is for the good of the City and to be financially responsible to all <br />taxpayers. <br />➢ One resident questioned why the 2002 information meeting had a lower <br />assessable amount than in proposed at this time. Mr. Hanson answered that the <br />City recently changed it assessment policy for reconstructed urban streets. <br />Previously, we would have assessed only 50% of the capped rate. However that <br />yielded an assessable amount that appeared to low in relation to other projects. It <br />was noted that the City has not used that provision of its street assessment policy <br />to date and it appeared necessary to correct the inequity before it was applied to <br />be consistent going forward. It was also noted that the only comparable project <br />of reconstructing an urban street was Payne Avenue back in 1990. In that case, <br />8 <br />