Roundabout assessments protested

Hutchinson’s participation in the state’s construction of a roundabout at the State Highway 15/North High Drive intersection was reconfirmed Tuesday night. But some neighboring property owners told City Council members they’ve been left out of the process.

The council passed a resolution authorizing City Engineer Kent Exner to continue preparing plans and specifications for the $300,000 worth of water, sewer and stormwater lines the city will install.

Two people objected to the project Tuesday night. David Dummer, 999 Main St. N., said he did not receive a notice to a May 1 neighborhood meeting the city hosted on the project.

Jim Schaefer, the city’s attorney in the late 1980s, decried the city’s assessment plan, claiming it was unable to make its case that it benefitted his mother, who lives at 46 North High Drive N.E.

“There is absolutely zero benefit for my mother’s house and will have no benefit in property value of her house,” Schaefer said. “It’s not fair, because we are paying for improvements we don’t need.”

But Lee Salmi, who lives at the corner of Main Street and Ninth Avenue Northeast, welcomes the roundabout as a way to slow the increasing level of traffic, especially trucks, passing by his home at high speeds.

Read more in the May 15 Leader.

(Terry Davis is a Hutchinson Leader staff writer. E-mail him at davis@hutchinsonleader.com.)