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Development at the north end of Edwardsville has been a longtime campaign promise of those running for office in the city.

And all those candidates seem to agree that the reason no development is coming is the lack of sewer lines.

At their meeting Monday, Edwardsville City Council members heard about a possible solution for financing such an improvement project that would hopefully lead to enticing development and revenue the city desperately needs.

“We’ve had a number of discussions about sewers in the north end,” said city administrator Michael Webb. “One mechanism, which is probably best, is to look at the creation of a benefit district.”

Dotty Riley, with Kutak Rock LLP, the city’s bond counselor, gave a presentation regarding benefit districts, which would allow for a city to create special development districts while levying special assessments, issuing temporary notes and issuing general obligation debt.

“Benefit districts are probably the most common form of financing for cities in the state of Kansas,” Riley said. “We do a lot of these. Some large cities do more than a hundred a year. It’s a well-established vehicle for pay for construction.”

Riley said there were three ways a city could go about establishing a benefit district – the first being by resolution, in which a body of government passes a resolution on its own authority to establish the district. This type could only be used for sanitary, storm water and sewer improvements.

The second is by a public hearing, in which the city asks for resident input before passing a resolution.

The third way is through a petition signed by a certain percentage of property owners in the affected area.

Riley said within a benefit district, the city may elect to pay up to 95 percent of the costs of the improvements, with the remaining costs being divided up among property owners affected by the improvements.

But not all council members were convinced a benefit district is the route to take.

Council member John Eickhoff said he was concerned about the extra costs that property owners falling within the district would be faced with. He said not only would the city have to collect annual assessments from the property owners to pay for the sewer improvements, but then property taxes would also go up because of those improvements.

“Are residents wanting all this or are we taxing everyone out of the north end?” Eickhoff asked the other council members. “I’d like to see a petition (from residents) come to us rather then us force it on somebody.”

Webb said he believed a lot of people have been wanting sewers at the north end of town for quite some time. He said many people haven’t been able to develop their properties because of the lack of sewers.

The council plans to continue discussing the benefit district during another work session. A date has yet to be determined.

In other business, the council:

• Approved, 5-0, minutes from the Jan. 25 meeting.

• Approved, 5-0, payment of bills totaling $102,800.25.

• Heard a request from Jay Frazey, owner of Dirtworks, the company contracted by the city to clear streets, during the public comments portion of the meeting. Frazey said twice in the last week the city had called him out to clear snow and then canceled the request not long after.

“I was called out twice now and within an hour they call and say, ‘no, don’t go,’” he said. “That is an issue for me. I have to call my guys in to go out and do that kind of stuff.”

Frazey requested, as a courtesy, the city take the time to make sure they need his crew before calling next time.

“What I’m trying to do is build my credit up with my guys,” Frazey said, adding that it takes effort to get equipment ready and that time is wasted when he’s called off a short time later.

Police Chief Mark Mathies said he wasn’t sure why that was happening and would look into the issue.

• Authorized, 5-0, the financial participation in the Woodend Road Phase II project with the Kansas Department of Transportation. The overall project cost is estimated at about $1.5 million. Edwardsville will be responsible for $38,000.

• Approved, 5-0, a resolution authorizing the commencement of condemnation proceedings for the 110th Street project.

The city has been working on right-of-way acquisition for the widening project of Edwardsville Drive/110th Street. There are still two property owners with whom the city has not been able to reach an agreement with.

No action will be taken right away with the resolution, but Webb said it would start the process in motion should an agreement fail to be reached with the final two property owners.

The reason for the resolution, Webb said, was because the project was on a tight timeline for an October bid letting. Should no agreement be met with the property owners, Webb said the eminent domain proceedings take three to four months and having already passed the resolution, the city would still be able to make their deadline.

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