City gives info on proposed street program

Havre city officials have unveiled a PowerPoint presentation they hope will enlighten voters on the proposed 20-year, $30 million program to improve the city's streets.

The plan will be on the Nov. 3 ballot that will be mailed out to voters on Oct. 14.

The streets proposal, a measure to abandon several unused city parks and City Council races in wards 1 and 3 are the only contested matters on the city ballot.

The PowerPoint presentation was shown at a public information session at city hall last Monday and will be presented as a second session at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 5, at City Council chambers.

Several council members would like to take the show on the road, saying they will go to civic, social, church and senior citizens groups who are interested in hearing them make the case for the proposal.

Under the plan, the city will spend $1.5 million a year for the next 20 years to fix the city's deteriorating streets. Taxes will increase about 150 mils, they said, though that amount may decrease if the city's taxable property goes up.

"When you think about what we can do with $1.5 million, it's not much," said council member Terry Lilletvedt. The city has compiled a Top 10 list of streets in need of repair. Only the top 3 could be completed the first year of the project, she said.

The top 3 are:

• 4th Street from 12 to 14th Avenue, $295,000

• 16th Street, 6th Avenue to 12th Avenue, $1,047,000

• 8th Avenue, 1st to 3rd Street, $266,000.

But Lilletvedt said the priorities might change as other problems pop up.

This spring, 7th Avenue between Pepin Park and St. Jude Thaddeus School was scarred with potholes after a rough winter, she said.

It cost $60,000 just to make the street passable, she said.

Public Works Director Dave Peterson said many city streets are 50 years old, but some are 70 years and older. It is only natural, he said, that they are susceptible to tough winters.

This winter was especially hard, he said, because there were cold periods followed by warmer weather. That is the perfect weather to rip streets apart.

"Freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw is the worst weather you can have for streets," he said.

"When I was young, I would love that chinook weather in winter," he said. "Now, as public works director, I hate it."

People in the audience made comments that city officials have heard from other people throughout the city: The program is too costly, and it doesn't do enough.

Residents can form special improvement districts in which residents pay taxes to make payments on loans for their neighborhoods, she said. But that will cost them even more money.

Havre resident Val Murri said one obstacle the city will face is the "sticker shock" that taxpayers felt when they read their property assessments. Havre' property values went up considerably over the last six years, he said.

But the tax rates will decline, he said.

City Clerk/Finance Director Doug Kaercher said that the actual tax hit felt by most families will be far less than feared.

He said the city will collect only $41,000 more this year because of the increased assessments.