If Wright City residents want major street improvements done in their neighborhoods in the immediate future, they should set up a special tax to pay for those projects, according to Wright City’s elected leaders.

That was the advice given to a resident who addressed the Wright City Board of Aldermen on Dec. 22 to ask for money to be budgeted to repave his neighborhood streets in 2023. The resident, Rod Smith, said he provided city staff with cost estimates from a contractor in hopes of getting the city to schedule work on streets in the Forest Lake subdivision. The cost of the work could be around $500,000.

“Our asphalt roads are in desperate need of a repair and overlay,” Smith told the aldermen. “Where are we at with getting that in the budget for (2023)?”

Smith said he wants to see the city take action because the cost of asphalt paving has been increasing significantly in recent years. Continued delay will only make the project more expensive, he speculated.

Mayor Michelle Heiliger said city staff will be doing minor repairs on those streets, but that the city can’t guarantee any major street project in Forest Lake, or any other neighborhood, in the next year.

“Where we are with the budget right now is that we really don’t have any money (budgeted) to do any large projects, unless we get grant funding for them,” Heiliger stated.

The topic of street improvements has been an ongoing source of anxiety for the Wright City government, which says the cost of needed projects far exceeds the city’s available revenue. Wright City does have at least $6 million in its reserves, but is conserving that money to use as matching funds for any outside grants the city receives.

Since there’s no telling which street projects will get that outside funding, Heiliger said any neighborhoods that want to see immediate work done should consider funding those projects themselves by setting up a neighborhood improvement district, also called an NID.

An NID is a small-scale taxing district where a cluster of homeowners pay an extra property tax fee. That extra tax is used to secure a loan that pays for improvements to specific streets or utilities.

An NID tax district has to be approved by a majority vote of the property owners who would be paying for it. 

Addressing Rod Smith’s request specifically, City Administrator Jim Schuchmann said the NID would encompass all the homes within the Forest Lake subdivision.

“You would hold an election where the voters in the Forest Lake subdivision would decide if they want to be responsible to pay back that cost ... over a 10 to 20 year period,” Schuchmann said.

Smith indicated that his neighbors might be willing to consider that option if it means getting immediate action on streets that have long needed repair.

“We’re chasing our tail, we’re going downhill and degrading every year,” while costs for work are only increasing, Smith said. “It would be silly to wait too much longer.”