After the Spicer City Council heard the disappointment voiced by Faith Lutheran and others at the Nov. 9 assessment hearing, the proposed assessment for the frontage road located between Faith Lutheran Church and State Highway 23 was reduced from $84,000 to $56,000 (from $108 per foot to $70 per foot). Normally that sort of reduction would be grounds for a big celebration -- you know, cook up a little lutefisk and roll out a batch of lefse -- until you realize that just down the road, United Prairie Bank paid a pittance in comparison -- $9.50 per foot! Why the huge difference? Ask the City Council.
A frontage road by definition allows access to businesses and streets along a main thoroughfare and/or provides a safe means of transport from one part of the city to another without having to enter or exit, and thereby needlessly clog up, the main trunk highway. All in the city benefit from and use this type of road and therefore should pay for it.
Despite being suggested early on in the Highway 23 proposal, the Spicer City Council unfortunately did not insist on this frontage road's inclusion in the project, and now Faith Lutheran Church and its members should pay a disproportionate amount for the council's omission? Doesn't seem fair to me.
Jay Haug
Spicer
