MARSHALL — This week, the Marshall City Council continued discussion of assessments on a downtown property affected by reconstruction work on North Third Street.

Property owner Dereck Deutz said the assessments, which totaled more than $39,000, were “another hurdle” for planned renovations at his business.

In the end, however, council members voted 6-1 in favor of approving the assessment.

“I really feel as a council member, our hands are tied,” said council member Craig Schafer.

If the city were to adjust Deutz’s assessment, they would have to adjust all the other assessments for the reconstruction project, he said.

Special assessments for the reconstruction of parts of North Third Street and West Lyon Street were brought before the council at a July 9 hearing. At the hearing, Deutz, the owner of Columbia Imports at the corner of Third Street and Main, said he objected to the proposed assessment on his property.

Council members voted to continue discussion of Deutz’s assessment on Aug. 12, and to adopt the rest of the assessment roll.

On Monday, Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson said there were four areas that made up the total assessment on Deutz’s property.

“The total assessment is $39,716.78,” he said. “Of that total, $21,312.02 is streetscaping costs on Third Street, charged by the front foot. All costs were aggregated and charged by the front foot at 20% of actual cost. The street assessment is $13,675.32. The special assessment policy limits the street assessment to that number … The sanitary sewer service line was assessed at a cost of $2,780.62, and the roof drain storm sewer drainage for the building was assessed at a cost of $1,948.80.”

Anderson said when the city was working on the downtown reconstruction project, they were working with the property’s previous owner, before Deutz purchased it.

“We did have general consensus with these assessments, but this property was purchased after the project was awarded,” Anderson said.

Deutz said he wanted to propose a reduced amount for his assessment, of $24,716.

“This 38% reduction was figured by taking the current annual property tax of $1,924, times eight years, which is the current pay period of this assessment, at 5.27% interest. I see this as a fair reduction in the assessment,” Deutz said.

Deutz said as a business owner, he didn’t want so much streetscaping on North Third Street. One reason was that it affected parking for customers. Another was the amount of use that the streetscaping would get throughout the year, he said.

“The success of this patio relies heavily on our business to expand into a bistro and maintain it year-round,” he said.

However, Deutz said the additional streetscape didn’t get the snow removal and cleaning it needed from the city.

“There are missing aspects of the project, such as trash cans and fixtures, that were supposed to be incorporated into the project.”

“Other than maintaining a large patio year-round, we must invest well over $150,000 to renovate the building into a functioning bistro,” Deutz said. “With the purchase of this building last year, we were not expecting this high of an assessment, and it has placed another hurdle in our process of making this into a bistro.”

“I really appreciate where you’re at and feel bad about it,” Schafer told Deutz. “I don’t know what a good remedy is here.”

“Craig and I were involved in many meetings, and I completely respect your opinion, Dereck,” said council member James Lozinski. “The issue I have though is, the previous building owner wanted this.” Lozinski said the previous owners had petitioned the city for more streetscaping. “It’s not necessarily fair to the other taxpayers to say now we’re going to give a reduction to Dereck because he bought the building.”

“There was a lot of, I guess I want to say excitement and buy-in, to doing something special with Third Street, and we did,” Schafer said. “In all fairness, with this far into it, if we open up your (assessment) and adjust, in fairness we have to adjust everybody’s, and that’s not what our policy is, to do that on ad valorem, to put it on everybody else’s taxes.”

“It’s really a hard spot. There’s no win in this,” Schafer said.

Deutz asked council members to at least consider finding grant programs or other ways to help support small businesses in Marshall.

“It’s been very tough to find any sort of support that way,” he said.

After closing the hearing, council members voted 6-1 to approve the assessment for Deutz’s property. Council member Steven Meister cast the vote against.

The downtown reconstruction project had a total cost of more than $4.38 million. Of that amount, a total of $523,899 was assessed to property owners benefited by the project. The city was proposing an assessment repayment term of eight years, at an interest rate of 5.27%.

The assessment roll included in the agenda at the July 9 City Council meeting listed a total of 38 properties with addresses on West Lyon Street, North Third Street, East College Drive and West Main Street. Recommended total assessments for properties ranged from $545.28 at the low end, for a property owned by Wesley United Methodist Church along North Third Street, to over $43,000, for the Lyon County Museum property on Lyon Street. Many recommended assessments were in the $10,000 to $20,000 range.

The highest recommended assessments on the roll included $43,194.44 for the museum property; $39,716.78 for Deutz’s property on West Main Street; $34,654.96 for property owned by Horvath Properties LLC on Lyon Street; $28,746.43 for the Marshall 6 movie theater property; and $27,289.71 for property owned by Shiloh Commercial Properties LLC at the corner of Third Street and Lyon.