Politics & Government

Roadwork Assessment Possible for Kremer Subdivision Residents

Some Kremer subdivision residents may be assessed for a portion of the road reconstruction costs, but they are also looking at storm water user fees and borrowing for the $7.1 million project.

Affected residents of the Kremer subdivision could be assessed an average of $8,000 for roadwork connected to the neighborhood's looming .

It's just one funding option considered Tuesday at a joint meeting of the and the Caledonia Utility District. The board discussed a variety of ideas for covering some of the village's third of the road costs, approximately $389,000:

  • Assessing homeowners for a portion of the road costs,
  • Borrowing money to pay for the project.

“Most of the roadwork hasn’t been funded yet,” said Dave Wagner, of Ehlers & Associates. “But the ERU would at least help fund it without using tax levy dollars.”

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The road project is part of an overall . The cost of the entire project is just over $7 million, with each entity picking up one-third of the roadwork costs. The financial responsibility breaks down this way:

  • $4.25 million for the water/sewer utility,
  • $2.4 million for the storm utility,
  • $389,000 for the village.

The project is needed because areas in the Kremer subdivision sewer system are cracked to the point where raw sewage is going into the ground. The utility district had a company send television cameras into sewer pipes in the subdivision to identify problem areas, and they found areas where the clay pipe has collapsed.

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Caledonia Utility District manager Bob Lui said that some of the 8-inch sewer pipes are blocked to 4 inches. Within the last five years there have been four water main breaks.

“Some of them we can't even get the camera through at all and we’re cleaning it every 10 days,” Lui said. “There are certain sections where we are in there a lot.”

What's next

The board hasn’t made any decisions on how to pay for the road portion of the project.

An open house will be held for Kremer subdivision residents to look over the project plan at 5 p.m. Thursday at the , 6156 Douglas Ave.

Editor's note: In an effort to provide full disclosure and transparency, Editor, Denise Lockwood is a resident of this subdivision.


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