The city of Annandale is moving ahead with nearly $1.7 million in street and road improvements in 2004, some of which will be assessed to taxpayers. The city council received engineering reports on three projects at a special meeting Monday, Dec. 29, and tentatively scheduled a public hearing on them for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 27. Affected taxpayers will also be invited to a city hall open house from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, with city engineer Brad DeWolf. The projects and DeWolf’s cost estimates are: n Adding turn lanes on Highway 55 at the entrance to Annandale Business Park, $109,257 n Extending the frontage road north of Highway 55 west from Kendale Avenue at the Dairy Queen to Poplar Avenue, including reconstructing part of Kendale, $229,300, and reconditioning the existing road from Kendale east to Norway Drive, $267,600, for a total of $496,900. n Reconstructing Norway Drive from Poplar Avenue east to Highway 55, including Lundeen Drive and part of Kendale, $1,070,200 The engineering reports found the projects feasible, necessary and cost-effective. DeWolf said he hopes the actual prices for the work come in cheaper than the estimates. He hopes to put them out for bid in February and begin work in the spring “so we get some good prices.” The city will pay for the Highway 55 turn lanes out of its streets fund and there will be no assessments, city administrator Mary Degiovanni said. But the new part of the frontage road will be 100 percent assessed to owners of adjacent properties. City policy says all new streets as well as new curb and gutter will be 100 percent assessed to abutting benefited properties. Street reconstructions and pavement overlays will be 35 percent assessed. Assessments for storm and sanitary sewer improvements will be calculated by the city. DeWolf recommended the assessments be on an adjusted front foot basis. “It’s always unpleasant,” Mayor Marian “Sam” Harmoning said when asked in an interview whether she expected a contentious public hearing over the assessments. “It’s never a fun situation to tell people this is what we have to do and you get to pay for it.” But the benefit for the whole city has to be looked at, she said. When they hear the amount, taxpayers naturally wonder how they can afford it, the mayor said, but when they see their share and the amount of time they have to pay “the actual budgetary impact is hopefully less than they envision.” The city council can extend the payment time up to 20 years depending on the amount, she said. DeWolf suggested the city prepare preliminary assessment rolls and hold the open house so he and his staff can answer people’s questions. It makes the public hearing go easier, he said. Plans for the frontage road extension call for an access to Highway 55 just east of Poplar and closing of an existing access between there and Kendale. The drainage system at Kendale and Highway 55 is undersized and causes flooding during heavy rains, DeWolf said. The culvert under the highway will be connected to a new 54-inch pipe which will carry the water to a drainage ditch north of the Dairy Queen at a cost of about $61,000. The engineer said he sees traffic on the existing frontage road increasing tremendously because of the new supermarket and motel there. New curb and gutter, storm sewer and surfacing will be installed on that part of the road. The Norway Drive project runs 4,600 feet or .8 miles, DeWolf said. Curb and gutter will be replaced only where necessary but the street will be reconstructed for about $527,000. Storm sewer will be added on Norway Drive at a cost of $185,200, and exiting clay pipe sanitary sewer will be lined for $179,500. DeWolf assured Harmoning that drainage changes won’t cause a recurrence of flooding problems that used to exist near the sod fields north of Norway Drive.
