Letter to the Editor: Alderman Discusses Real Estate Assessments and Communications Towers

George’s Alderman Highlights

Real Estate Assessments: A significant part of our city's income is from real estate taxes. The County gives us assessment data several times a year and we just got our latest data. Assessments fell about 1% from the values used in the current city budget. The final number in late September is expected to fall again because of re-assessments requested by owners. We must set the city rate for next year's tax bills in September. The current rate is 59 cents for the General Fund and 42 cents to pay off city bonds. When it was set up years ago, the bond fund assumed assessments would grow about 1 1/2% every year until 2024. Of course that hasn't happened. We have a small reserve in this fund. So, do we keep it at 42 cents now and risk raising the rate by several nickels if real estate values don't grow? Or raise the bond rate a few pennies now and hope assessments eventually increase.  What do you think?

Curb Inlet Screens: Our two main streets, Rue Grand and LSL Blvd., are seeing a lot  of trash tossed along them. Most of this eventually finds its way into the lakes. This makes us and the EPA unhappy. We are experimenting with some simple grate/screen designs that might stop cans and food bags from getting into the storm drains. We'll put a few in and see if they work without causing street flooding. That is if we ever get much rain!

Street & Storm Water Projects: We reviewed the projects currently identified for the next few years as we try to catch up on infrastructure maintenance. The bottom line is we are about $1M/yr short starting in 2014 even assuming we win County and Federal grants. About 24% of our concrete streets are nearing 25 yrs old and about 70% of our asphalt streets have had some maintenance but are over 36 yrs old. In 2016, part of LSL Blvd. will need a major overhaul. We have a rating system for streets and storm sewers that will be used to determine what gets fixed when. I expect storm sewer work will be given a lower priority than streets. You can expect the city to ask you for another bond issue (meaning real estate tax) in a few years. What do you think?

Communication Tower: There have been rumors about a 100' tower in Blvd. Park. The US FCC requires all emergency responders (Police, Fire, and Emergency equipment) to switch to 800 MHZ communications January 2014. St. Charles County passed a sales tax to fund this federal mandate. This tax will pay for car radios and broadcast towers through out the County. The County wants a tower on high ground near City Hall as it needs a line of sight to other towers and to our Police Dispatch Center to give the best reception. The tower needs to be about 280 feet tall and would be similar to the tower design on Henke Road. The County is of the opinion that they do not need city approval to construct the tower. I wonder if that is really true. The County has looked at an outlot in the Schnucks shopping center and at the back of Veterans Memorial Park. They also wanted to take soil samples at Blvd. Park. But we don't want them in our Parks. City staff suggested the site between Walgreens and the Meadows Sign at the intersection of LSL Boulevard and Highway 40 off ramp. Hopefully the land owner and the County can reach an agreement for this site. What do you think?