By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
Plans for overhauling Piedmont roads and streets, and the way to pay for the work, could be decided by residents in a November election.
In February, the city council tabled a plan for a $28 fee to be billed from residential utility customers to fund road improvements. City officials have said the fee would be legally considered a tax, and residents should vote on it.
“We have determined that this is a tax,” said Mayor Kurt Mayabb. “It has to go to a vote of the people.”
City Attorney Michael Segler told the city council in a Monday meeting the amount of the tax, the purpose and duration of the tax will need to be ironed out.
“We would use that for a proclamation which would be brought before the council and then the Mayor would issue a proclamation for the county election board,” Segler said.
A resolution calling for an election must be submitted to the Canadian County Election Board by Aug. 19 to get the issue on the Tuesday, Nov. 3 ballots.
Mayabb said the $28 fee on utility bills would be for all residential customers who live in Piedmont city limits. There are about 2,600 such customers. The fee would provide about $1.1 million a year for roads and streets.
“The $1.1 million from a utility fee would give us enough money to operate for a year to keep those projects going,” Mayabb said.
Residents in February complained about the proposal for the plan to fix streets and roads plagued by potholes and erosion.
The city council could call a special meeting to finalize a plan to put the question on ballots for November.
Melissa Ashford, City Councilwoman Ward V, said she wants to let the people decide the plan.
“I feel like the citizens want to move forward and this is their chance to vote on whether they want to get their roads fixed or not. I would personally like to have this on the ballots as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, plans for an $880,000 Piedmont Road resurfacing are being mapped out.
Engineering work is being done to resurface a mile of Piedmont Road from Apache/NW 206 to Ash Road/NW 220.
