City levies for summer road projects

Special assessments levied against Luepke Way and Central Court property owners

Property owners on Luepke Way and Central Court will soon be getting their final bills for their portion of the cost of last summer’s road projects.

The city levies special assessments against each property owner for the cost of the curb and gutter, driveway aprons, one third of the blacktop surface and 20% of the engineering costs for each road reconstruction project. Last spring the city approved estimates for how much the construction would cost. Historically the estimates run between 30% and 50% higher than the actual construction cost. At Tuesday’s city council meeting aldermen approved levying the final bills for the projects with totals that were close to half of what the preliminary estimates had been. The estimate for the Central Court project was $88,097 with the actual cost of $46,361. The project impacted seven property owners.

For Luepke Way, the estimated cost was $131,067 while the actual cost was $70,501. This project impacted four property owners between Maple St. and Wheelock St. with the city billing itself $35.797 for 850 feet of frontage in the city park.

“It is nice to see them come in lower,” said alderman Laura Holmes.

“We can’t come in higher,” said alderman Mike Bub.

Mayor Mike Wellner agreed noting the preliminary assessment gives an upper limit to the property owner cost. “Usually it makes people feel a little happier,” Wellner said of the cost being well below the estimates.

In other business, aldermen:

_ Approved the supplement to the city code of ordinances that updates the code books and incorporates all the ordinances passed by the council in 2019. The city contracts with American Legal Publishing Corporation of Cincinnati, Ohio to keep the codes updated each year.

_ Approved the annual list of city designated nonlapsing accounts totaling $1,037,794.19, this is about $5,000 more than last year. The designated nonlapsing accounts are city reserve funds set aside for specific purposes such as equipment replacement and construction projects. In the past the city had about $100,000 set aside for the city portion of the State St. bridge, that was spent in 2019. New this year is an insurance premium account with a balance of $100,534.03. This is the amount of savings the city received from switching to an insurance pool with other municipalities. The intent is to use the funds to defray future insurance premium increases.