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The road improvement project list for 2024 has advanced to the stage where Wyoming City Council approved going out for bids and finalized specifications.  There’s been a couple of neighborhood meetings based on preliminary planning and feasibility study of the project, a public hearing held and last week the city engineer asked for a council vote to seek bids.  

The hearing for assessments will be in the fall.

Engineer Mark Erichson said the condition of the roads chosen for this phase of work is sufficiently bad that most of the surface will be removed and replaced, with very little pavement reclaim processing advisable.  

There are urban and rural sections, with assessments averaging on the 24 foot wide rural sections estimated to be somewhat less than the bill for the 28 foot wide urban sections requiring concrete curb and gutter.

Assessments are payable over 10 years.  The interest rate could be around five percent, council heard.  Or, property owners can pay-in-full immediately.

Wyoming as a whole pays for 80 percent of its street capital improvements and property owners with driveway access onto the stretches of street being worked on pay 20 percent.  

In taking public comment, a citizen who lives on Granford Avenue complained that she thought this work would be already covered in her property tax bill. 

The staff explained this cost-sharing is a method that council supports, so as not to have a huge impact on the regular tax levy.  There are many cities that fund specific non-maintenance related improvements at a 50-50 share or higher, so being asked to cover 20 percent is not comparably out-of-line.

Assessments are calculated based on the overall project costs ($2.7 million) divided into each parcel or “unit” that benefits. The rural sections can expect $6,100 per unit and urban sections should be $6,500 per unit.

City Administrator Robb Linwood advised the resident that the neighborhood can ask to have their street project removed from the list of projects going out for bid.  The resident did not support that approach.

With Council member Ohnstad absent, council approved the action to seek bids 4-0.

The other main meeting agenda action was to approve a resolution authorizing the county auditor, as elections administrator,  to tabulate a total for write-in names in upcoming balloting and not have to itemize each write-in vote in the final report. 

It will create a more efficient ballot tabulation system and speed release of results, among other benefits.  The write-in ballot entries will still be counted but unless a write-in hits the same level of votes as the next closest official name on the ballot, the election administrators will just announce a combined “write-in” count for that precinct.  As the  officiating personnel for all the races in Chisago County, the auditor needs the okay from the precincts.

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