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MR. JOHN MILLER, 2716 Farrington Street: I'm reasonably happy with paying the personal assessment to get that improvement in appearance and a better quality road, but I really don't understand the value to the City government, or the public in general, of making the change. I wonder if somebody could cite any changes that are beneficial to the public in general - somebody from the City. MR. HONCHELL: I can certainly make a pass at that at least. Many of the people that drive on these roadways donlt necessarily live on the roadway. If they're going to another road further up - it's part of the overall transportation system of the City. It's felt that many times an improvement like this has an overall benefit to the neighborhood in general. In other words, the value to your property - if you live along the specific improvement - hopefully goes up. That's the whole plan behind this. It's part of the benefit you receive by being along this street. It's also thought that the overall worth of the City - or the benefit to the whole neighborhood - also goes up. We in the Public Works Department also anticipate that maintenance costs are going to go down, which are paid for by everyone in the C~ty, and it's going to be an easier road to maintain in the future. It will have proper curbs and gutters to carry the storm water away, it will have better crowns, better slopes, and have a better pavement condition that should require less pothole patching - sealing of joints, etc. Overall, we feel there is a benefit to the entire community. How one wants to exactly divide that benefit up - 40% on this street, 20% on the next, etc. - obviously is open to each person's interpretation. It's been the City policy that it would be 25% assessed to the adjacent property owners and the remaining 75% is a benefit to the community as a whole. I hope that clears it up a little. MR. MILLER: Can you explain your procedure to make sure that no new holes will be dug withing a year or two. There are several homes that I know of where they have not yet connected to some of the facilities. I'm ~oncerned about what you're going to do about that. MR. HONCHELL: In case anyone couldn't hear - the ques- tion was, what about those parcels that don't already have connections to sanitary sewer and water. How can we avoid having this nice brand new road - if it gets put in - torn up six months later by someone digging out in the street. Unfortunately, we can never guarantee that that's going to happen because breaks happen, leaks happen, etc. One of the things we do on our City utilities, for instance - we televise all the sanitary sewers prior to the work being done to make sure that we can locate what we hope will be the bad location. We then correct those at the time the street is torn up so that wouldn't have to be done. If there are homes that do not have sanitary sewer and water services extended out past where the roadway work would be - toward the home - we install those at the same time. -4 -