The city recently sent a letter to residents in the rural uplands area, regarding support for drainage related requests.
I regret this letter was sent out to residents without context, as I believe that may have addressed many of the concerns that have come to the surface. For that, I would like to personally apologize.
The letter was sent to residents in response to a number of requests for service related to drainage that the city has received from properties in the rural uplands area.
The fees the city charges to maintain drainage systems are allocated by area and are utilized to support issues specific to those areas as they arise.
However, as the letter in question indicates, the city currently does not collect any fees from properties in the rural uplands area to support drainage issues.
As such, any support the city would supply for drainage issues occurring in that area would need to come from general taxation funds, which is not a feasible solution for all taxpayers of the city.
Residents in the rural uplands area took part in a public consultation process to establish a method of funding drainage issue in 2009 and 2010.
Unfortunately, no feasible solution has been achieved to date, which is how the current situation has come to pass.
Over the next few weeks, city staff will be bringing this issue before our new council for them to consider.
Regardless of the process established for addressing the issues in the rural uplands area, I would like to assure everyone that resident consultation will continue to be a large part of finding a solution to this issue.
I would like to thank all residents who have contacted the city for feedback so far, and we look forward to working with you in the future to resolve this matter.
Frank Pizzuto
City manager