Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Steamboat Springs City Council will consider a measure Tuesday night that would revise a Local Improvement District created to fund street improvements in-cluding a heated asphalt section of Longthong Road.

Plans to install a heating system that will melt snow and ice on a steep section of Longthong will go forward. However, the scope of the overall project and the terms of the improvement district that backs the bonds that will pay for the work could be modified.

The difficulties motorists experience on Longthong have been a source of furrowed brows both in the neighborhood and at City Hall for many years. The city and Longthong area residents plan to pay for the improvement project with bonds enabled by a local improvement district approved by voters in 1997.

Under the provisions of the district, the city's cost of the road work would be recouped through assessments against the property in the district.

The city and the property owners in the district reached a cost-sharing maintenance agreement in March 3, 1998. Now, the engineering work needed to prepare construction documents has been completed.

The need for the changes came about when the lowest bid, $511,000, exceeded the estimated costs of $395,000.

The city intends to go forward with the installation of the heating system on Longthong Road, but will delay asphalt improvements for upper Longthong and Valley View Place until next summer.

Public Works Director Jim Weber and City Manager Paul Hughes are recommending that the city pass a new ordinance increasing the amount of the city may assess against the property owners from $418,700 to $515,000 to address the $96,300 shortfall between the authorized bond amounts and the amount of the low construction bid.

The plan to heat a portion of Longthong was formulated after a study of heated municipal roads in Snowmass.

The estimated seasonal cost of utilities for the heated road is roughly $11,000, about what the homeowners are currently spending for snowplowing and summer grading on the unpaved road.

To reach Tom Ross call 871-4210, or e-mail tomross@amigo.net