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Chapter 8 is titled "Public Improvements and Special Assessments". There is no <br />reference to public repairs and restoration in this chapter and none was made since <br />repairs are not improvements and are not regulated by chapter 8. There seems to <br />be much discussion about financing public works projects that involve only repairs <br />to existing infrastructure if that infrastructure happens to be a public road. Look <br />carefully at Chapter 8 and you will find a glaring omission of these repair projects. <br />And for a good reason, they are not improvements. <br />In Section 8.02 the charter defines an improvement, and I quote "the term local <br />improvement shall mean a public improvement financed partly or wholly from <br />special assessments". A project to grade and resurface a road is not an <br />improvement if the form or function of the road is not changed. <br />Both section 8 and state Statute 429 are very specific about what can be assessed as <br />an improvement, it only happens if the project increases the value of the properties <br />in the project. Let's try an obvious example: Suppose that the street lighting on, <br />say, Second Avenue needed most of the lamps and covers replaced. Would the <br />properties along that street be assessed for the repairs? Not if the fixtures were the <br />same as the originals. Road repairs are no different.. If the driving surface of the <br />road needed replacing could the homeowners along the road be charged for the <br />repairs if there was no improvement but just a return to the original condition? <br />According to Section 8 and state Statute 429, No. Financing for these repairs will <br />have to come from the city treasury or some matching highway repair funds if they <br />are available. However, try to put in some brighter street lights, curbing, a <br />different road surface or sewer and water and you turn a simple repair into an <br />improvement. Or if there is a new road needed to serve a new development. Then <br />the charter kicks in and the property owners benefited by the improvement pay for <br />it, as the charter intended. <br />Cha 4r 8 Ae-e_S5 '40 6 -ems <br />i3 -E- ►t7 e -f c i-; o f c <br />/ 5� <br />/ /2-/�7 <br />6€-.79,er <br />