By Kellen Olshefski
staff writer
In the wake of recent concerns about special assessments and the Mill Street construction project, the Village of East Troy Board continued discussions at its Oct. 21 meeting considering the possibility of a referendum.
While Village Attorney Linda Gray said a referendum is possible, but has to be done in a specific way by raising the levy limit, Trustee Ann Zess said with the majority of street projects deal with sewer and water, especially the Mill Street project, a referendum wouldn’t do much if anything.
“A referendum isn’t going to do anything for the cost of sewer and water fees,” she said. “That’s the majority of the cost for a special assessment.”
With the water and sewer budget being separate from curb, gutter, sidewalk and driveway approaches, Zess suggested looking into how the sewer and water costs related to special assessments could be spread out amongst village residents.
Village President Randy Timms noted reorganizing the sewer and water rates to include all of the expenses as an additional option.
“That does what a referendum would have done by virtually taking that expense and spreading it throughout the whole village,” he said.
Citing Mill Street as an example, Timms said with everyone using the street, it would seem fair everyone helps to subsidize the street.
“By increasing the rates, everybody pays, which no ones going to like, but it lessens the burden on a few people,” he said.
“If we can come up with a way to do that, it might be the fairest way to do it.”
Providing the village were to reorganize water and sewer rates, Timms noted it would be unfair to charge people who have already been specially assessed, such as Trustee Fortune Renucci, who was specially assessed for Division Street repairs last year.
Trustee Chris Gultch noted exempting people who have been specially assessed in fairly recent years would only jack rates up more for other village residents.
Timms said it would be unfair as those recently specially assessed would be “paying double.”
“In essence you’d be paying for everyone else, you’d be paying for you, but nobody else is paying for you,” he said.
Renucci said while he understands Timms’ point and agrees people shouldn’t have to essentially pay twice, there’s many facets to look at carefully. He suggested if the board tries to go forward, they shouldn’t look back.
“If the people got specially assessed, they got specially assessed,” he said. “They have to pay it, that’s the way the rules were, that’s the way the rules are.
“The rules have to change somewhere and someone’s going to feel like they’re getting the short-end of the stick, but it has to start somewhere … you’re not going to be able to make 100 percent of the people happy.”
While Timms said he unfortunately agrees, the board does have a little window of opportunity left to explore the options.
“We’re not looking at going retroactive,” Zess said. “Whatever decision we make has to be going forward.”
Timms clarified he didn’t want to pursue a referendum, but simply pursue the option of a referendum.
He said while he’s not necessarily in favor of a referendum, he did want the board to pursue it as one potential option to easing the burden on village property owners facing special assessments. He said he wanted to complete the initial investigation so the board would know what the options were.
“In other words, I didn’t want to wait until the eleventh hour and then start asking questions,” he said.
With special assessments being costly for village residents, Timms said the board has been trying to figure out a better way to handle the costs, though has continued to “come up short.”
While a referendum is a viable option, Timms said he tends to doubt whether it’s the “right way” to solve the problem or not.
“I guess the bottom line is we’re still searching for a better way to do it.”
Trustee Dustan Stanford was called out of town for work and was unable to attend the board meeting.
