Mahnomen City Council Holds Public Hearing

Mahnomen, MN- Seating for the Mahnomen City Council was packed on Monday night for the latest special assessment meeting regarding the 2019-2023 Sanitary Sewer, Water, Storm, and Streets Improvement Project Resolution, a project that has affected the City of Mahnomen for the past few years.  

In this public hearing Project Engineer Lee Cariveau of Widseth gave a presentation to the Mahnomen City Council and the public was also there to ask any questions regarding the assessment during the meeting. 

This presentation given by Cariveau broke down the details of the project on what was repaired and replaced, as well as explaining the assessment process, and highlighting what parts of the project that will be directly assessed to the benefitting property owners. 

According to the Widseth presentation the average cost of the service lateral improvements and street improvements of each individual property owner who benefitted from the project would be responsible to pay an average total of $7097.79. This average depends on the amount of work that had to be done on each individual’s property and varies from property owner to property owner. The presentation also highlighted grants, deferrals, and payment options that would be available to any property owner subject to the assessment. 

Concerned citizens took the podium to voice any questions or concerns they had about the assessment, and a majority of the public attendees present were not happy with the financial hit the assessment would cost them. 

Many in attendance also claimed that information about grants that would be available to property owners regarding the assessment cost were exaggerated with some claiming that they were told that the financial burden being placed on the property holders was exponentially higher than they were told before the assessment began. Many individuals also expressed concerns about the possibility of incorrect assessments being assessed to them. 

After the public hearing was closed to discussion the Mahnomen City Council held a vote to approve the assessment and it passed with four board members voting in favor of the assessment while one board member voted against the assessment. 

Any citizen with questions about their assessments are encouraged to contact the Mahnomen City Hall.