Sewer Assessments Ok’d

Thu., June 26, 1997

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

City Council

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved property tax assessments for 271 parcels in a large sewer project on Moran Prairie.

Construction was completed last fall on the sewers, worth $2.5 million, and street paving south of 57th Avenue near Helena.

The council-approved assessments will average $3,350 per parcel.

The assessments could have been higher, but the sewer project was subsidized with $1.6 million from the state clean water fund, payments from the county’s aquifer protection district and county paving money.

One homeowner, Dennis Dipo, objected to his assessment because his property had a newly installed septic-tank system.

The city hearing examiner ruled that the value of Dipo’s property on South Ridge Drive would benefit by having a long-term sewage disposal system, but the increased value was set at $2,553, or about two-thirds the average assessment.

Assessments cannot exceed the increase in market value to the individual properties.

Work is starting on an adjacent sewer project in an area bounded by Crestline, Regal, and 56th and 57th avenues. The cost of that job is about $2 million.

The two sewer district projects are part of the city’s multiyear effort to eliminate septic tanks in the Spokane area.

The city is still designing sewer projects in Yardley in East Spokane and on the North Side near the Division Y, said Jim Smith, projects engineer.

, DataTimes

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