JACKSON SETS NEW STREET-PAVING POLICY

JACKSON -- Alderman Jack Piepenbrok, head of Jackson's street committee, credits the city's incredible growth rate with creating the need for a permanent street improvement policy.

In years past, aldermen considered street improvements one at a time, pitching in to one extent or another on improvements.

That started to change in September. Piepenbrok, along with committee members David Hitt, Val Tuschhoff and Kevin Sawyer, began working on Jackson's first official policy.

"We had guidelines, but we didn't have everything in one place like we needed it," Piepenbrok said. "The actual changes in guidelines are few, but at least we have everything in writing."

One of the few constant decisions still included in the plan is that the city won't contribute anything toward the paving of a gravel road.

But the changes may surprise property owners.

The policy states the city will pay only half the cost of street reconstruction, with property owners paying the other half. In the central business district, however, the city will pay 75 percent to the property owner's 25 percent.

"We have handled it all different ways, but generally we have paid for all of the paving done uptown," Piepenbrok said. "It isn't fair to take taxes all citizens pay and spend it when the people owning businesses uptown get the most benefit."

Still, because more people use those roads, the city picks up more than its usual financial load.

The city will continue to completely finance all overlay projects.

Piepenbrok said Jackson government would like to do more, but it is impossible.

"When you have the growth we have, and you have about a half-million dollars a year to spend on streets, you have to budget," he said. "You can't give away too much more."

Some Oak Hill Road residents wanted more. About a dozen attended this week's aldermen's meeting to ask questions about the city's participation in paving their road.

Mayor Paul Sander stressed that Oak Hill Road, along with Gloria Street and Ridge Road, was slated for improvements this spring long before the new street policy went into effect. Some residents at the meeting objected to the cost of paving their road, an estimated $30 per foot of frontage.

Sander noted that, while the initial investment may seem large, it would result in much higher property values. Still, if the residents want to protest, any number more than 50 percent could stop the project.

"Some people feel the city should hand things to them on a platter, and that won't happen," Sander said. "Others just want to petition the city to have a 27-foot-wide street instead of a 33-foot-wide street, and the aldermen will listen to their reasoning."

A narrower street would result in smaller tax bills.

While the board intends to stick to its guns on the gravel-to-concrete issue, Piepenbrok said it may consider changes in the new policy if the need arises.

"This will be a living thing," he said.