County seeks bargain on street repair
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 17, 2016 1:46 PM
Sticker shock from an estimated $3 million price tag to bring roads in Canterbury Village and North Creek subdivisions up to state standards has the county searching for other less-costly options.
But despite the cost, Wayne County commissioners are continuing with plans for a March 1 public hearing on what property owners in those two developments would have to pay to have the work done -- $24,861.42 each.
Letters have been sent out to property owners in the two subdivisions about the cost.
State law allows subdivision residents to petition the county to repair the streets to standards acceptable to the state Department of Transportation so they can be taken into the state's secondary highway system.
At least 75 percent of the property owners, representing 75 percent of the road frontage, have to sign a petition in order for the county to act on it.
All expenses incurred by the county to repair the streets, and project costs, are assessed against the benefiting property owners as special assessments.
Property owners can pay the full assessment within 30 days after the day commissioners approve the notice of confirmation of the assessment roll.
That has not yet been done.
A second option is that any portion of an assessment not paid within the 30-day period must be paid in 10 equal annual installments.
In this case the installment would be $2,485 annually plus 5 percent per year on any outstanding balance.
"You can pay it over 10 years, but it is still a hefty amount," County Manager George Wood said.
The proposed project area includes 123 residential lots fronting on the subdivision streets of East April Lane, Abbey Place, Adler Lane, Chancery Drive, Coventry Drive, Helms Court, Helms Drive, Hyde Park Drive, Lane Tree Drive and Londonderry Drive.
During the March 1 public hearing, residents will have a chance to either add or delete their name from the petition.
However, in order to remain valid the petition still must bear the signatures of at least 75 percent of the property owners, representing 75 percent of the road frontage.
"What we are planning on doing is holding the public hearing as scheduled on March 1, but we wanted everyone to know no action will be taken at that meeting," Wood said. "We will just be taking comments from the public. We intend to recess that meeting which means it will still be continued over for about a month, about four weeks.
"That will give us time to look at what options we may have given that the price came in so high. We wanted people to know that we will hold the public hearing as required, but people won't have to make a decision at that meeting if they want to stay in or out on the petition, because we will be holding a continuation of that meeting four weeks later, and at that point they can do that."
That is not to say they can't join or leave the petition on March 1 if that is what they want to do, Wood said.
"But our recommendation is to hold off on that until we look at all of our options," he said.
Commissioner Ray Mayo said that even though no commitment will be made at the hearing, residents need to maintain the 75 percent on the petition.
The recess will allows time to work together to see what the county can come up with, he said.
"It (estimated cost) was above what we were expecting, there is no doubt about that," Wood said. "We have just got to see if there are any options we can do. I don't know that there are at this point, but we want to have some time to look at it."