Assessment Excessive, Say Couple

Robert Louis Nelson first moved to his dairy and alfalfa farm in Cheney as a boy in 1941.

He and his wife, Juanita, still enjoy their semirural retirement on nearly 60 acres straddling the old highway to Tyler.

But progress may be threatening to overtake their simple life.

The city of Cheney wants to improve Highway 904 from the Cheney-Plaza Road to Mullinix Road.

The Nelsons are facing the possibility of a big assessment to pay their share of the costs.

Public works officials have lined up nearly $1 million in grants to subsidize the paving, curbs and sidewalks the city says it needs to accommodate economic growth.

The grants hinge on the city raising about $270,000 in private money under matching rules for the grant program. So, the city has proposed establishing a local improvement district and charging each landowner a share of the project costs based on how much frontage they own.

The Nelsons own 2,400 feet of frontage on the east and west sides of the highway.

They live on Social Security, two small pensions and a modest income from their property. Their land has been classified as open space to reduce their property tax payments.

Nelson estimated the bill for the local improvement district would be $50,000 or more. The interest payments alone could be $250 to $300 a month.

“I don’t think we can afford it,” Nelson said. “But I know we like looking out the window and seeing nobody beside us or in front of us.”

He is retired from the flour mill in Cheney.

The Nelsons said the city doesn’t need a wider highway with sidewalks. There are only a handful of pedestrians using that stretch of road, and traffic is never heavy, they said.

The city wants to install two 7-foot bike lanes on either side, two 12-foot travel lanes and a 12-foot left-turn lane in the middle of the road as well as curbs and 66-inch-wide sidewalks.

The improvements would link the downtown with job sites such as Johnson Matthey and the Wilcox Farms plants at the southwest edge of the city.

Economic growth should bring other new employers to the area in coming years, officials said.

“I think it’s a fairly important project,” said Mayor Amy Jo Sooy, a friend of the Nelsons and a former schoolmate of Juanita Nelson.

Sooy has tried personally to persuade the Nelsons to support the local improvement district but to no avail.

“I don’t see how it will affect our friendship,” the mayor said. “I see where they are coming from.”

The Nelsons have posted a sign in front of their drive-way expressing their opposition.

They said they have no intention of selling their property for economic development, even the property is their main economic asset. The land is worth $10,000 to $20,000 an acre.

“It’s only worth that if you want to sell,” said Nelson, describing himself as land rich and money poor.

The Nelsons aren’t the only opponents of the LID.

Earlier this year, the city sent a survey to all of the landowners along the affected stretch of road.

Owners representing 36 percent of the frontage said they are opposed to the assessments. Thirty-eight percent said they favored the LID, but most of those owners are required to support road improvements in exchange for previous developments approved by the city.

The other 26 percent were undecided.

Among the reluctant property owners is the New England Cemetery, which has almost no income to pay an assessment. City officials are seeking a way to exempt the cemetery from the LID.

Don MacDonald, project engineer, said the city is looking at several alternatives to raising the private funds.

The state allows the creation of assessment reimbursement areas in which property owners would not have to pay their assessments until their land is developed. The city would borrow the money and charge interest until the fees are paid.

The Nelsons said they don’t like the idea of having an unpaid bill accumulating interest against their property.

But city officials said the paving project would increase the value of their land as much as the assessments, and probably more.

MacDonald said the Nelsons’ property already has benefited in value from the installation of sewer and water lines along the highway, at no cost to them.

Also, the Nelsons could defer payments under two other legal mechanisms. One is a program designed to protect senior citizens from being forced off their land when growth causes public works installations.

The issue will go before the City Council on Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

City officials said they don’t want to miss a chance to have the highway improved with state and regional grant money.

Juanita Nelson said, “I think they see a chance to get a free road.”

MEETING ON LID Cheney’s City Council will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 13 to discuss a local improvement district to raise money for improvements to Highway 904.