PRESCOTT – The Prescott City Council reviewed the final special assessment report and project overview for Locust Street at the Dec. 11 meeting. Greg Adams, civil engineer with Cedar Corporation, said there was an increase in some of the initial assessments due to an increase in unit prices including the sewer, curb and gutter.

“That’s why we have to have the final assessment here because that number is greater than the preliminary, but it followed basically the same format as the preliminary,” he said.

 Mayor Robert Daugherty questioned if it was due to an increase in material prices.

As the council opened the public hearing, resident Tom Oss, a Locust Street resident, asked, “I have a corner lot. I paid for curb and gutter assessment on the Kinnickinnic side a number of years ago, and I got this, and I see I’m not given any corner lot credit. I was wondering about that.”

He also said he paid for and installed a lateral PVC connection all the way to the sewer line 30 years ago. He said that for this project he watched them cut off his sewer line and install a new line with the new sleeve style, “which is an expansion sleeve.”

“I thought that was a mitigating circumstance for being charged the full amount of lateral and I would like to have that addressed,” he said.

It didn’t make sense to him since he had already paid for having a new line run from his new addition to the street.

“So, you’re arguing that you already had an existing lateral that was good and that you shouldn't have had a replacement done?” Alderperson Maureen Otwell clarified.

“To bring it up to modern standards, they would have had to put in a short section of pipe at the main with an expansion joint to meet mine. That’s the way I understand it,” he answered.

“We did a cured in place pipeliner on the sanitary sewer to save money,” Adams said.

He said the sanitary manholes were in good condition. Each lateral got watertight fitting that was connected, and the new PVC pipes were put on from that up to the right of way.

Daugherty questioned if the residents are being assessed for that lateral connection. Adams said the city’s laterals follow the city’s assessment policies, and it isn’t priced by linear foot but by each unit item.

Oss said he understands but he already paid the city’s fees once for lineal feet and the work could have been adjusted for his home. 

Doug Reinhardt, another Prescott Locust Street resident, said when his original assessment was made, the price was $6,800 but now it’s $9,017.95.

“I believe that’s way over what it should be. Nobody on Locust Street was charged an upcharge of that much as I was on my property. I’m wondering why it was?” he asked.

He too has a corner lot and found out that he has two laterals, of which he wasn’t aware.

Otwell asked Adams if he had the proportions of increases for each property, which he did not. Otwell remarked that her price went up quite a bit as well.

Adams informed the council that Kay Reinhardt, wife of Doug Reinhardt, was contacted during construction when it was discovered that the two laterals appeared to be “live” to the home.

“It was confirmed that both laterals served the house. I think the explanation was there was an addition put on the house at one point and a connection was made. There were a lot of lateral connections on this line for whatever reason. Some were not used. I think it was just the way that was platted many, many years ago,” he said.

He added that the increased cost was from the extra lateral because the preliminary assessment only included one lateral and they had to install the additional lateral to keep the plumbing connected to the home.

“I’ve never seen two laterals on a home either,” he added.

He shared that they didn’t have record of which laterals were live, so it had to be verified during construction.

“You’d have to spend a pretty exhaustive sanitary sewer study to have everybody dye test everybody’s home with a live camera in them one at a time to indicate which sewer is live. You could probably spend $60,000 for a company to come in or something to do that.”

He explained that they instead verified them as they were being connected.

“So, both sewer laterals are alive coming from the house?” Daugherty asked.

Adams said that they looked at eliminating one of the laterals, but the residence is on the side with the three-phase feeder from the substation that runs there. It was too flat, and they would have had to go into the yard and dig under the three-phase power conduit but there wasn’t enough grade across it to run it to one common connection point. He added that there would have to be a clean out at both of those turning points.

“What seemed to maintain the best flow was just to connect them there,” he stated.

Reinhardt stated, “I’m just saying that I feel it’s not fair for $2,000 increase from what was the estimate that we got. I just don’t believe that’s fair for one homeowner to have to pay that, lateral or not lateral. It’s just part of the construction and I didn’t know there were two laterals. But they should know better than I knew when they did the estimate for it.”

Kay Reinhardt said they didn’t know about the two laterals and believed the house only needed one.

“I think originally it had septic tanks and then of course when they came with sewer and water then it was the city’s choice to run how many laterals it was. It wasn’t the homeowner’s choice,” she explained.

 “I get what you’re saying regarding lateral connections, but I don’t know that that was our choice to begin with as a homeowner.”

She felt too the city should have had it in the preliminary estimate.  

As the council continued with the remainder of the meeting, Oss stood up and asked, “We can’t talk about the circumstances that we discussed at the open meeting and it’s just all evaporated and it’s all done? There’s no consideration by the council for these mitigating circumstances? It’s just over?”

Reinhardt asked if anything was going to be done about it.

“You do have two laterals, sir,” Daugherty said.

Alderperson John Peterson asked, “Is there anything that can be done about that, Matt? At this point, the work’s already done, right?”

City Administrator Matt Wolf said, “Correct. Our policy has been every lateral that goes to a property is assessed as long as and as well as the linear square feet for the curb and gutter. Our code specifically says for corner lots, the long lot should be assessed at 100% and then the short side of the lot will be assessed at a 50% discount. Both of the cases that were brought up tonight were both on the long side on Locust Streets so there would be no 50% credit for that work at terms of our policy.”

 He added that this has been the city’s policy for many years but if the council wanted to look at that code and change it, that would be something to do going forward.

As Kay Reinhardt began to discuss the two laterals, Mayor Daughtery informed her that the public hearing was closed.

She asked the Council if they would be ok with that if it was their house as she walked out.

Daughtery stated, “Just for public record, everything was followed according to city codes and assessments.”

Adams told the council that he spoke with Kay Reinhardt on the phone when the second lateral was encountered, and she verified there were two laterals and that the line was live.

“There was no other cheaper way to make this connection to avoid the two lateral connections. In 30 years of doing this, I’ve never seen two laterals to a residential home, but it existed,” he commented.

 “The city doesn’t have all of those records at their disposal,” he continued, adding that this could have been built 60 or 70 years ago. He also stated during the preliminary assessment hearing, it was assumed one lateral per home, and they weren’t aware of the second one.

Wolf further shared that there isn’t any record stating why two laterals were initially installed at that residence, so it isn’t known if the city required the second lateral or if the homeowner required it at the time.