Council OKs improvements, assessments for Karl Drive

Action allows

construction of catered living

center

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Missing was the sometimes contentious debates as the New Ulm City Council voted Tuesday night to order in street improvements and special assessments for creating Karl Drive and requested a staff report on how to stop motorized vehicles from using an inactive recreational easement along the Cottonwood River.

What started as a public hearing on ordering in the Karl Drive improvements turned into a discussion of the assessments for the project would begin accruing interest and when payments would start.

Attorney John Schnobrich of Redwood Falls acknowledged his client, Welcome To Our Home, which is developing the Sunset Properties parcel, would be responsible for paying $82,000 in assessments for one side of Karl Drive.

That leaves $68,000 to be paid for the other side that would be shared by Sunset Properties, Kmart and the Jehovah's Witnesses church on North Garden.

William Koeckeritz, a partner in Sunset Properties, asked the council to approve a provision in which interest on the assessment wouldn't start accruing until Dec. 31, 2004, and the first payment on the assessment wouldn't be due until July 1, 2005.

Because the improvements are being paid for by WTOH in order to facilitate construction of its catered living center, the city won't be billed for those improvements until the project is complete which is expected to be in mid-2004, Schnobrich told the council.

"As soon as the city is billed, my client will be giving the city cash back in the form of assessments payments," Schnobrich explained.

"My only concern is that Kmart and Jehovah's Witnesses be treated the same even though they are within the city (and would be on a different schedule)," Council President Dan Beranek said.

However, City Manager Brian Gramentz assured the council that, given the time frame for completion of the project, the city wouldn't be at risk in expending money for the project without the assessments in place if Koeckeritz's proposal was accepted. The council then approved the assessment agreement in a separate vote.

The council then referred to staff a request by Andy and Anna Leif to vacate the recreational easement in Ridgeview Estates Second Addition off Cottonwood Road as they are planning to build a home on a lot that is traversed by the city's recreational easement.

They said the easement on the back of Lot 3 is used by snowmobilers and ATVs and presents a hazard to their children's backyard play.

City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten said the easement has never been activated by the city so property owners would be free to build fences or temporary structures to stop the motorized traffic.

"However, if the city decides to activate it, then you would have to tear down the fence."

"I don't think we would be building there, then, because that's not enough of a guarantee," Anna Leif said.

The council then voted to refer it to staff to work out a solution that would then be brought back to the council.

The George's Ballroom property came back to the council in the form of a deal to give the new owner a break on paying the Streetscape assessment that's due on the lot fronting on Center Street.

However, councilors decided they wanted to see the assessment spread over all six lots so that the owner couldn't sell off the other lots without paying off the assessment.

The matter was referred to the city attorney for a determination as to whether the city could actually do that.

The council also agreed to pay 10 percent, or $17,300, of the cost of the environmental assessment for extending the runway at the airport and runway pavement rehabilitation and crack repair. Federal funds will pay the remainder of the $173,000 project cost.