JACKSON ROAD DEBATE TO BE AIRED AT MONDAY MEETING OF CITY BOARD

JACKSON -- Arguments over paving Oak Hill Road have spanned months, but Jackson's mayor says the debate will end permanently.

All property owners along the road are invited to a Jackson Board of Aldermen study session at 7:30 p.m. Monday, where aldermen and residents will hash out the Oak Hill Road issue once and for all, Mayor Paul Sander said.

"City staff has briefed the board on all the facts, and we are prepared to give an explanation," he said. "We will answer every question once."

Debate on the half-mile gravel stretch began last winter when residents complained about driving through mud. In the spring they complained about dust.

Oak Hill Road was one of the first considered for improvement under the city's new street policy, which states city funds will be used to upgrade existing streets, not pave gravel roads.

About a dozen property owners along the road attended a March meeting of the Board of Aldermen to object to paving. They said the cost was too high and the city should contribute. At first the board voted no, but then city staff found a 1987 advertisement in the Cash-Book Journal. It recommended passage of a half-cent transportation tax and listed Oak Hill Road as a street needing improvement.

In light of the revelation, aldermen voted to pay 50 percent of the cost for paving the street, going outside their established policy. At the time it appeared residents would pay about $15 per foot of frontage.

But that number didn't factor in moving a water line and two culverts, Oak Hill Road resident John Ryan said. The final bid came in at $332,621, so residents will pay closer to $30 per foot.

Property owners have 10 years to pay the tax bills, which have the same rate of interest as U.S. treasury bills.

"If they put in a bid, they obviously knew about the water line and the rest of it," Ryan said. "My family had already planned how to pay this off, but now it's twice as much. We were kept in the dark."

Sander said the $15 figure was mentioned a time or two, but the city never claimed that would cover any more than the pavement. He said moving water lines is a natural part of improving a street, and residents should keep in mind that the city's cost is higher, too.

"It seems like a never-ending battle," he said. "We want to do that street. That whole end of town is developing, and there doesn't need to be a gravel street there."

As for keeping residents in the dark, Sander said any city bidding process is a matter of public record, and staff followed statutes in granting the low bid to PR Developers. The legal protest period is over, and work on Oak Hill Road has begun.

"We have hashed and rehashed Oak Hill Road for a year," Sander said. "I have confidence in our staff that they will have the facts and figures to answer questions Monday for the last time."