Belfield City Council members heard an update on projected taxes for a road improvements special assessment, which have gone down thanks to surge funding and officials narrowing the project.
The total project cost is now $7.9 million, down from $11 million originally, Belfield city engineer Jon Wilczek said.
That comes down to 98 cents per square foot for landowners, less than half of the original estimate of $2.60, which riled up landowners at a meeting in November.
“These are down to what I would say are some real reasonable prices,” Wilczek said.
Few landowners attended the meeting Monday. The revised tax figures will be published in The Press and the special assessment commission will hold a public hearing for individuals that disagree with their rates.
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The city stands to pay $14,500 a year for the properties it owns during the 15-year assessment.
“People should see that you worked hard to get it down to where it’s affordable,” Councilman Lance Hurt told Wilczek.
At the special council meeting Monday, Wilczek pulled out maps of the four districts, reviewing which streets were removed from the plan. The city focused on the streets in the worst shape to lower costs.
“They started slicing and dicing,” Wilczek said. Much of the road taken out of the project was the truck route.
At a January meeting, officials said the surge fund reduced costs to Belfield residents by a third, according to minutes. But as the bill was winnowed down in response to lower oil prices and lower expected oil tax revenue for the state, Belfield’s share got bumped down by $1.4 million, auditor Natalie Muruato said. Still, winnowing down the project by $3 million meant a significantly lower rate.
The $1.1 billion surge funding bill was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jack Dalrymple quickly this session, and the state treasurer began disbursing the funds earlier this month. The bill includes $100 million for cities in oil-producing counties, based on population.
Wilczek noted the Belfield assessments must be finalized, and ideally the project should be done, by Oct. 1 for Stark County to include the assessments on the tax roll, otherwise the project could have to wait a year.
