"Other than fire and police protection, what do these people receive for their tax dollars?"
After considerable discussion and over the objections of County Highway Engineer Shae Kosmalski, the county board approved a motion Tuesday, June 23, 2009 to create a special taxing zone, or subordinate service district (SSD) for West Rosebush Lane off Highway 61 west of Grand Marais. At the public hearing were numerous property owners on both sides of the debate.
"I feel our work should be out on our county road system," Kosmalski said. A June 2 memo she had written to the board said, "With current staffing, it would be impossible to take on additional work of this nature without letting something else fall off the plate. …No county I have polled does this type of work. This could create an avalanche effect. So many private roads are in this same boat. Impacts beyond this particular request must be considered."
Kosmalski suggested charging an annual service fee of $1,000, an annual administration fee of $600, and a $1,500 set-up fee. She said erosion control issues related to the road’s proximity to Lake Superior could make maintenance more complex.
Kosmalski recommended a formal process for all SSDs that would indicate how a neighborhood spokesperson would be chosen, how work priorities and levy amounts would be determined, and how they would deal with disagreements.
On another SSD, a contractor recently broke a culvert, Kosmalski said, and no clear process was in place for dealing with that. Clear understandings and agreements need to be made with homeowners in all SSDs, she said.
Commissioner Jim Johnson wondered if the county would be obligated to do all maintenance, including things like mowing the ditches, on roads covered under SSDs. Keith Kuckler, who has a workshop on West Rosebush, said the county would only need to do as much as the homeowners requested and were taxed for.
We’re not responsible for stormwater and erosion, are we Shae? Commissioner Bob Fenwick asked. It becomes "a gray area," Kosmalski answered. She recommended consulting with the county attorney when they hire contractors to maintain roads that are not owned by the county.
Kuckler pointed out that numerous roads throughout the county have been maintained without formal agreements among homeowners. Difficulties can arise when the original homeowners leave and new people move in, he said.
With expensive homes on the lake, Kuckler said, these people pay a lot in property taxes. Other than fire and police protection, he said, "what do these people receive for their tax dollars?"
Commissioner Bob Fenwick said he would only approve the SSD if most of the homeowners wanted it. A homeowners’ association working out road maintenance agreements would be preferable, however, he said.
Property owner Michael Leighton said he had not been approached regarding the possibility of setting up a homeowners association. He was not in favor of the SSD, although if it were created, he would want property owners to be assessed equitably. He said he has two parcels that can be accessed from either East Rosebush Lane or West Rosebush Lane, and he would not want to be assessed from both ends if both eventually became SSDs. Bob Fenwick said if that happened, both should be included in one SSD.
Leighton said, "I’m sorry [we] West Rosebush neighbors couldn’t work this out ourselves."
You can’t compel people after the fact to become part of a homeowner’s association, Kuckler said. Many neighborhoods have volunteers who are willing to handle the details of road maintenance, but those people eventually get tired of doing it or get too old.
Kosmalski believes having an SSD does not solve the problem of how to maintain the road. "The problem doesn’t go away," she said. "It just shifts regarding who’s handling it." If the county gets paid to maintain the road, she said, it will have to handle complaints.
When neighbors are no longer able to take care of a road, it might not be maintained, Commissioner Jim Johnson said, and if it doesn’t get maintained, it will get ruined. He said he does not want to see that happen.
Burt Kreitlow said he and his wife Doris have been using the road for 57 years— since 1952— but would like the county to help with maintenance the next 57 years.
Thecounty is being put in the middle "to fix a people problem," said Commissioner Fenwick. The road is the property owners’ responsibility, not the county’s, although he was willing to have the county help if it was done equitably, he said.
Bob Robinson had read a list of property owners in support of the SSD. Commissioner Bruce Martinson said he would be in favor of the SSD as long as at least 2/3 of the property owners were in support of it.
Kuckler suggested allowing the affected property owners vote on whether to establish an SSD, but the road has only two people living on it who are registered to vote in Cook County.
The board voted unanimously (with Jan Hall absent) to allow the SSD. They will take some time to decide how to assess the properties. County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said most SSDs in the county are appraised by parcel, but a couple of them are assessed by property value.
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