By Kyle Vuille
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
As plans for the River Road rural special improvement district irrigation system continue, the Dawson County Commissioners last month approved an amendment to the River Road RSID resolution that will impact the tax assessments of the residents of River Road who will pay for the project for years to come. A meeting about the River Road proposals will be held tonight, Jan. 10, in the Dawson County Courthouse conference room at 5:30 p.m.
The engineer’s estimate for construction of the project was $626,400 as of the Dec. 19 commissioners meeting. The final construction bids are yet to come in for the project. The cost of maintenance, upkeep or repairs of the projects are not included in that estimate and will fall on the individual user.
The amendment made in the Dec. 19 meeting to the resolution was a piece of language stating if a property owner has separate lots that are contiguous, adjoining lots, the user will be assessed for one lot and have one yearly fee and will have one riser on their property.
According to Dawson County Clerk and Recorder Shirley Kreiman, the property owners who have had adjoining, contiguous lots had their total property assessed as one parcel in previous years, but for some reason, they were legally described as separate parcels.
If a parcel of one property were to be sold to a new landowner or a new residence was built, that user would pay a connection fee, the assessment fee and receive one riser.
This brought up the discussion of the future property owners not paying the amount the original residents are paying for the project at the beginning. River Road residents like William and Wendy Millspaugh are questioning this because the more users there are on the system, every property owner’s assessments will be recalculated, thus owners in later years, not paying the same as they will for the project.
This change in the resolution has brought concern to those who live on River Road.Another concern coming from those residents who attending the commissioners meeting was the duration of time those residents would be paying back the RSID loan.
Previously, it was mentioned the loan would be paid back in 20-30 year time frame, but now it has yet to be decided.
Bill LaBree, who is also a River Road resident, and has seen the progression of the project since it was initially put into motion, reminded the concerned citizens at the meeting there is still a 30 day protest period where more amendments can be made.
It was also noted, only two of the county commissioners were present, with Gary Kartevold not in attendance, leaving Dennis Zander and Doug Buxbaum as the two present and able to vote on the amendment.
Zander made the point that he has abstained from voting on the matter previously because his parents own property on River Road which could be considered a conflict of interest.
The amendment was passed, but the temporary board of residents from River Road will meet with the county planner Forrest Sanderson on Jan. 10 when more details will be available.
Reach Kyle Vuille at news@rangerreview.com.