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Street Repairs Take Bigger Bite

Posted on Tue, Oct. 05, 2004





Street repairs take bigger bite

STREET IMPROVEMENTS:Fewer Duluthians will receive financial help as a result of a city policy change.

BY CHUCK FREDERICK

NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER


Dozens of John Toman's neighbors didn't pay a penny last summer when more than eight blocks in Duluth were ripped up and repaired for new utility lines.

Toman won't be so lucky next year when the work hits his street. The retired U.S. Steel supervisor figures he'll be on the hook for about $4,000 of street-improvement assessments due to a change in city policy that, in years to come, will leave hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeowners footing similar bills.

"It's not fair," said Toman, a Morgan Park resident of nearly 49 years who lives on Beverly Street. "We're all citizens of Morgan Park and of the city of Duluth. We should all be treated alike."

In the past, the city used federal money, including Community Development Block Grants, to help low- and moderate-income families and families living in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods pay their assessments.

Always, one street project a year was done in a neighborhood deemed eligible to receive the federal assistance. The city dedicated about $280,000 to $400,000 of federal money annually to help with assessments.

But this year two street projects were scheduled in block grant-eligible neighborhoods. In 2005, there'll be three. The policy had to be changed, Duluth Community Development Director Keith Hamre said.

"It keeps going up and there's just not enough money to go around," Hamre said. "It's a matter of how much we can afford and what we want to do with that money."

Duluth receives about $3.4 million annually through three federal programs administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Community Development Block Grant program is the largest provider of cash for everything from home-improvement projects to new playgrounds to job training. The federal money is intended to help Duluth's poorest residents and to bolster its poorest neighborhoods.

Not wanting to take the federal money away from other assistance efforts, the city changed its policy. The new policy funnels the federal money for assessments only to low-income families who also live in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, Hamre said.

Those low- and moderate-income, block grant-eligible neighborhoods are Morgan Park, West Duluth, Lincoln Park/West End, Central Hillside and East Hillside-Endion.

"We had to change the program at some point," Hamre said. "It wouldn't matter what year we did it. Someone wouldn't have been happy. Someone would have said, 'Hey, they were covered, why not us?'

"But the bottom line is the updated policy is fair," Hamre said. "It continues to cover the people we intended to cover."

The rationale offers little consolation in Morgan Park, the first neighborhood affected by the policy change.

An $8.4 million project to replace sewer and water pipes in the one-time U.S. Steel company town is ongoing. For more than two years, residents were told that assessments to fix ripped-up streets would be covered. That changed less than a month ago at a meeting with city officials. Residents learned at the same meeting they'll also have to pay for permits to connect to the new pipes.

"It's going to stick me for $800 or $900," Leo McDonnell, a retired lawyer on Beverly Street, said of his expected assessment. "It's not even going to be a street improvement. It's just them repairing damage they do building the new water line. I won't end up with an improved street. I'll end up with a patched street where now I have a good, solid street. That shouldn't qualify as an assessment under the city's street improvement program."

Duluth's ongoing Street Improvement Program uses the city's share of Fond-du-Luth Casino revenues to cover 75 percent of all road work in town. Assessments on property owners who benefit from the work pay the rest.

Assessments in 2005 are estimated to be $43.50 per foot. That means the owner of a 100-foot-wide lot would pay $4,350 if the street in front of his house is repaired.

The assessment issue and its impact on Morgan Park will be discussed at a neighborhood meeting today. Morgan Park residents will meet with city councilors at a public hearing Tuesday.

"We'll do whatever we can for them, but there have been so many cuts from the federal government and from the state. It trickles down. We'll have to see what we can do," said Councilor Russ Stover, whose district includes Morgan Park. "It's a tough situation. But there are a lot of tough situations with the way budgets are nowadays."


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