Commission extends timeline on street assessment

Valley Springs City Commissioners held off on imposing a street assessment on Lynx Street property owners last week after a group gathered outside city’s monthly meeting to protest the timing of the unexpected expense. 

Around a dozen residents gathered outside the American Legion hall while several others phoned into the public hearing, which was only open to the public via teleconference to comply with coronavirus social distancing guidelines.

The residents objected to assessments they’d recently received from the city to pay for the final coat of asphalt to Lynx Street. The amounts averaged $1,500, fluctuating on the lot’s size. 

Lynx Street residents had a lot of questions for Mayor Carl Moss and Valley Springs commissioners, but neither provided the answers to those questions.

Questions such as “Was a bond issued to cover the paving of Lynx Street, and if so, why were the residents being asked to pay for this new asphalt?” and “Why was the city not holding the developer responsible for the costs?” were asked but not fully answered. 

That was property owner Curt Childress’s first question for commissioners.

“Why haven’t you gone after the developer for this, which is the first action that should have taken place, instead of just surprising us 10 days ago that we’re going to get a bill for $1,500 or whatever the amount’s going to be?” Childress asked. 

City attorney Patrick Glover said the original contracts between the developer and lot buyers on Lynx Street stipulated that the developer would put the lift of asphalt after so many lots were sold. 

“The developer did not go through with that,” Glover said. “The city does not have the same right to go after the developer … The city has the responsibility to maintain the roads in the city. If the asphalt’s not put on, the roads are going to get worse.”

One lift of asphalt was placed on Lynx Street in the past 13 years, the city said. 

Over the course of the hour-long public hearing – held entirely via teleconference – several residents voiced that they had not been informed of the contract stipulation when they purchased their lot.  

Residents also objected to a lack of communication from City Hall about the bill. 

A few residents said they hadn’t received the bill until the day before the public hearing, though city finance officer Linda Hunnel assured the notices were postmarked 10 days before.

“We haven’t been privy to any contract negotiations, and everybody is really uncomfortable about this,” Childress said.

“Those frustrations are totally understandable, but all I can tell you is that the city is following the statute,” Glover said. 

Glover explained the cost would be applied as bi-annual property tax and spread out over several years. Residents also had the option of paying it in full within 30 days of the assessment interest-free, he said.

The commission held the hearing in an attempt to pass the resolution of necessity, which Moss called the first step in the process, but the dozen or so residents were adamant that the city postpone the project until an in-person meeting could be held.

“The meeting should have been pushed back, as should everything else on the planet right now,” said a female homeowner who didn’t identify herself. 

“If it’s already been so many years that it’s been needing to be done, why can’t we postpone it until after all of this COVID is done?” suggested Marcy Versteeg, another resident. “I don’t know how many people have been affected financially by this because they don’t have jobs …”  

Hunnel said the payment would not be due until April 30, 2021, and interest would accrue.

“You guys at the city don’t have your ducks in a row,” Todd Versteeg charged. “I don’t feel that you guys have done your due diligence in getting this meeting planned out, let alone giving the homeowners their due diligence in speaking their voice.”

After more than 45 minutes of dialogue between property owners and city leaders, Commissioner Dean Helgeson suggested the topic be tabled for six months. 

Though city leaders could no longer be heard on the teleconference after an hour and were no longer responding to residents’ questions, Mayor Moss confirmed Friday that the city agreed to postpone the conversation for six months.

In recent years the Lynx Street development has been taken over by Ron Kuipers, who plans on building several dozen homes to the north and along Valley View Drive.