Letter about king of
your own town….
To the Editor,
“It’s Good to Be King” is a song by Tom Petty. Looking back on the 2020 Harmony street project and all of its parts and pieces, area 2 (which is 3rd St SE) and area 3 (which is 5th Ave., 6th St., and 7th Ave), received a “mill and overlay surface improvement” according to the summary used in the final public hearing.
The streets did receive the new overlay as stated, however area 3 also received a lot of new concrete curbing, I counted at least 18 new sections on the two streets as the snow was melting the other day. These are not small sections of concrete, but probably 12- to 22-feet sections totaling ~$7,000 to $9,000 using the lowest cost ($24.50 per LF) for concrete curbing in the GenX contract.
Area 2 did not receive any new curb and gutter and had the same assessment costs ($17.98 per ft) to the residents as did the folks in area 3. Area 2 however did have one location that a sidewalk was removed and filled with dirt, hmmmm. That isn’t mentioned in the area 2 statement of work.
If area 3 didn’t pay for the concrete removal ($3.00 per ft) ~$1,000 or the replacement costs, who did pay for those in their assessments?
Area 4 had to pay assessments for full street reconstruction ($84.47 per ft) but they received a partial reconstruction and only one side of the street received full new curb and gutter. Oh, the sidewalks that were supposed to be removed for the full street reconstruction areas, area 4 still has sidewalks in place.
As Tom Petty says, “It’s good to be king of your own little town.”
Brad Thacher
Harmony, Minn.