Board of Equalization hearing held in Lanesboro

By Jade Sexton
jade@fillmorecountyjournal.com

Fri, Jul 20th, 2012
Posted in Lanesboro All

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Ron Vikre came to the Lanesboro City Council meeting on April 9 from the Fillmore County Assessor’s Office to discuss property values.

Julie Charlebois, owner of Riverside on the Root and Root River Outfitters, asked why she is paying 15 percent more for one building and ten percent more for the other. Both are commercial buildings. Vikre said he would look into it for her.

Rick Lamon from the Lanesboro Grocery Store LLC, spoke to the council about the value of the old grocery store. He said the building still carries a value of $111,000. It was previously valued at $152,000, and was reduced during the last assessment due to depreciation of the building.

Lamon asked if the city would consider lowering it more, as it is unlikely a person could generate any income from it, and it would need a lot of work. Right now the building is for sale for $89,900, which is $20,000 less than it is valued.

Vikre said he met with Lamon a year ago and reduced the value at that time. Mayor Steve Rahn made a motion to reduce the value to $95,000, and the motion passed.

Garbage Proposals

The city recently sent out a request for garbage proposals. They received quotes from Waste Management, Richard’s Sanitation, Harter’s, and Veolia.

Each company was represented at the meeting, and had a chance to speak to the council about their services. Waste Management, who has been serving Lanesboro for the last five years, had two different options; one with bags or a cart, and one with just carts. Richard’s Sanitation had similar choices, as did Harter’s. Veolia said they do not use bags any longer, and they offer two cart sizes.

Council members felt they did not have enough time to look over the proposals, so a continuation of the meeting will be on Monday, April 16 at 5:30, and they will make a decision then.

Street Assessments

Robert Thompson returned to the city council to further discuss street assessments made with the Whittier Street project. He said he checked with six different cities in the area and asked how they handled special assessments. Chatfield does not use special assessments at all. Assessments in Preston do not include utilities. Dover is doing a street project, and the assessment will be $25 per foot. Thompson said they did not want to go higher than that because it could be a hardship for people.

“If you take a good hard look at this, I think you will remove the utilities,” said Thompson.

Council member Ceil Allen asked, “Didn’t you already take this to court, and didn’t the judge already give you a decision?”

Thompson replied, “Just because a judge says it doesn’t make it right. I’m appealing to common sense here.”

Other Business

Rick Lamon said he is fine with the alley agreement, and will take out the wording about future owners. The city approved the donation of the alley property, and agreed to pay half of his survey costs, which came to $400.

Ceil Allen said the library board is looking into getting new signage for the front of the building to better direct people to the library. The park board also discussed this at their meeting.

The council approved a membership with the Iowa Conference/County Historical Society.

The council thanked S&A Petroleum for the scoreboard donation, and they will be taking bids for the old scoreboard.

The council approved the following items:

•The Election Polling Place Resolution

•a gambling license for the Lions raffle

•gambling licenses and liquor licenses for Buffalo Bill Days and the Turkey Federation

•lodging license approvals for 2012-2013

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