BOZEMAN- At Monday’s City Commission Meeting, Bozeman commissioners will put forward a plan to fund the $2.1 million cost associated with last year’s repairs to West Oak Street and North Ferguson Avenue.
Bozeman pays for road maintenance and repairs through creating Special Improvement Districts, or SIDs. The whole purpose of these districts is to assess the costs evenly across the property owners within the area.
“700 of them, so we have been doing this for quite a while and the idea is that everyone is responsible for the road in front of their property,” said Deputy Mayor Chris Mehl.
Last year, the city created a SID to make improvements to Oak and Ferguson. The total cost of the project was $2,525,667 and the plan was to have the city pay for $1,062,138.50, Gallatin County pays for $902,424.65 and the Flanders Mill Subdivision pay for $160,713.85. The county then filed a lawsuit against the city that was later dismissed saying the pricing was unfair.
"Thus, the elementary school, the high school, they have all paid their share, all of the houses around there have paid into that. We are asking the county to do the same as everyone else,” said Mehl.
The project ended up coming in under budget, meaning the city now has to dissolve of the old SID and create a new one, opening up the controversy once again.
"So it is less than we thought, which is great news. It is done, which is also great news, but if we don’t get the money from the county, it means all of the other taxpayers are going to have to subsidize it,” said Mehl. “How do I look a business, or a homeowner in the eye and say ‘well I charged you 100 percent which I thought was fair but the county we only charged 50 percent. It just doesn’t, it’s not right,”
The new SID has the project costing $2.1 million with the county paying $902,424.65. Mehl said the city got a letter from county commissioners saying they will protest the SID.
