By TEREASA NIMS
Sunday Times Newpspapers
RIVERVIEW – Residents voted for better roads and sewer amenities Tuesday, when they approved a street and sewer bond proposal.
The proposal — which passed 824-456 — allows the city to borrow $8 million, payable over 11 years, to install, improve, replace and reconstruct streets and water mains in the city, including necessary rights-of-way and secondary roads, said Riverview City Manager Doug Drysdale.
The estimated millage to be levied in 2015 is 0.97 mills (97 cents per $1,000 of taxable value) and the estimated simple average annual millage rate required to retire the bonds is 2.73 mills ($2.73 per $1,000 of taxable value).
Drysdale assures voters that proposal’s passage is nearly a wash because of the city’s recent payoff of the judgment levy debts for the Wyandotte Treatment Plant.
“Basically, we are taking 3 mills off and putting 3 mills on,” he said.
Drysdale said there may be a “slight increase” in one of the first two years of approximately .1 mill difference from what is already being collected.
A 1 mill collection will begin in July 2016 and improvements should begin next spring or summer, Drysdale said. Residents will only see a .1 mill increase in their taxes.
Drysdale said the roads have taken a beating and the millage passage is welcome to help correct them.