The Eighth Street expansion project between Grant and McKinley streets has been completed and now it’s time to finalize payments for the work, Great Bend City Clerk Shawna Schafer told the City Council Monday night. A public hearing on the cost assessments has been set for 6:30 p.m. May 20 for both the street and sewer/water improvements.
“This is one of the many steps to finalize this,” she said.
The improvements have been paid for by the city using money from the temporary note. The final assessment costs for the street, sewer improvements and water improvements were $707,419.88, $61,456.25 and $96,123.87, respectively, for a total project cost of $865,000.
However, this is a petition project, meaning it is ultimately paid for by a benefit district made up of businesses and property owners along the stretch of street. Special assessments charged to these owners will cover the cost of the work.
Walmart owns two strips on the east end and Lighthouse Investments of Great Bend owns entire field that fronts the south edge of the street. These two amount to 54 percent of the property involved.
Trail Ridge Partners, developers of the Reserves at Trail Ridge apartments, and Tractor Supply, and Gentilly Real Estate of New Orleans, La., owners of the former Montana Mikes building, are also included.
Now, a notice will be mailed to each property owner notifying them of the assessed costs and the date and time of the public hearing for the purpose of hearing any and all written or oral objections to the respective assessments.
Schafer will publish the notice of public hearing in the Great Bend Tribune not less than 10 days prior from public meeting date, mail the hearing notice and cost statements to be all the property owners on the same date as the notice publication, and file the documents in the City Clerk’s Office, making them available for public inspection.
Venture Corporation of Great Bend, the contractor on the street project, finished by the end of December. But, there was more to this than the street; there are also the waterline and sanitary sewers beneath it. These were finished by the end of January to accommodate the development of the new Tractor Supply store at Eighth and Grant.
Last fall, the Great Bend City Council authorized the sale of general obligation temporary notes to pay for the street, sewer and water improvements to the three-block stretch.
The city’s temporary notes were held by Farmers Bank and Trust.
Eighth Street was key to the current improvements to the now ongoing 10th and Grant intersection work since it acts as a bypass to help ease traffic during this endeavor.
