Special Improvement Districts topic of Wednesday's presentation

Montana State University Extension Local Government Center Director Dan Clark will be in Havre to share information and answer questions on using SIDs, special improvement districts, to repair roads and infrastructure Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Havre City Hall.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for all community members to become informed on how we can fix our streets as individual neighborhoods,” City Council member Lindsey Ratliff said. “There is no easy fix and there is no cheap fix.”

SIDs are created when residents of an area propose creating an entity — a neighborhood or specific region in a town or city — to implement repairs, upgrades or improvements, such as streets, curbs, gutters and so on, and then if the majority of residents concur, the city creates the district. Bonds generally are sold to finance the work, and residents of the district are assessed a fee to make the bond payments.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the city had more than 20 SIDs within city limits. Now only two remain.

Voters have denied two proposed mill levies the city put on the ballot in previous years to help fund street repair through additional taxes. This led to the city, again, looking into the option of using SIDs as a way to fund repairs.

Ratliff said that Havre has a number of infrastructure projects that need to be done, repairing not only road surfaces but also the pipes and infrastructure beneath them. She added that the council has previously tried to pass mill levies in order to gather funding for these projects, but the voters voted against it.

“The council’s hands are tied,” she said.

Council member Sarah McKinney said that, because the city was unable to get any additional funding for the streets through a mill levy, the city is bringing in an expert to explain, step-by-step, what is needed to create a SID.

“It’s the next step in the conversation,” she said.

It is important for everyone to attend the meeting, she added. SIDs impact homeowners directly and renters indirectly, because landlords will most likely increase rent to cover the cost, she said.

“It does truly affect everyone living in Havre,” she said, “as do the poor state of our roads.”

Ratliff said that, to her knowledge, SIDs are formed when a neighborhood agrees to assess a levy or a tax on their properties. This funding, in turn, is used to fix the streets and the infrastructure of the roads. A number of the neighbors within the neighborhood have to agree to pay for the SID and is a way for property owners to fund street improvements for their own streets. She added that the process also includes city government, lawyers and contractors to be on the same page as everyone else within the community.

“It is quite a process, that is why we need a professional to come up and speak to our community,” Ratliff said. “So everyone is on the same page.”

“It’s important for everyone to come to this meeting, so they can use their own agency in their own neighborhood to fix their streets, because the city doesn’t have the money to do it,” she said. “The state government, the federal government, I don’t see any major overhaul on infrastructure funding coming anytime soon.”

She said that if people want to see their community thrive and see families grow in Havre the community needs to work together to make Havre a livable and attractive place. She added that she plans to live in Havre for a long time and as a community member, mother and teacher she wants to see Havre function as a well-oiled machine, and SIDs are a good place to start.

“So if you want your streets fixed, your going to have to pull together with your neighborhood to fix your streets,” she said. “Havre is an awesome place to live and we want to continue to make it a great place to live. We are going to have to make some tough decisions and it’s not going to be cheap.”

McKinney said that she is looking forward to going to the meeting and is looking forward to learn more about what options are available to Havre to help solve the infrastructure issue.

The roads have aging pipes beneath them, she said, and the city spends a lot of money every year repairing them and fixing them. SIDs may be a possible long-term fix to these problems. She added that she doesn’t know if SIDs are nessessarily the solution, but it is something worth investigating.

“Everybody should just come out and join the conversation,” she said.

Ratliff said that the infrastructure problem is not going to go away anytime soon if it is not addressed, and, if it is not fixed now, it will be left to the future generations.

“You can’t just sit back and complain online about the streets if you are not willing to do anything about it,” she said.