VALLEY CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Property owners along Paving Improvement District No. 131 were successful protesting out the proposed $9.8 million project.
On Tuesday, July 1st the Valley City Commission unanimously approved of a motion that recognizes the successful protest of the project.
The following is a news release from the Property Owners following the Successful Protest of Paving Improvement District No. 131 in Valley City, ND.
Since January of 2025 this group of affected property owners has now twice had the unfortunate opportunity to engage in a petition to protest the creation of two paving improvement districts known as PID 130 and PID 131. Both paving districts were proposed for the same project along Second Street North and Fourth Avenue East. In January the protest petitions represented approximately 53% of the property owners and the June protest rose to representing 63% of property owners. This happened while we all have been pre-occupied in dealing with the devastation of the recent storms that have tragically impacted our friends, family, and fellow community members. These storms have impacted many of our businesses as well and it has been difficult to find the time or focus to even come together for the purpose of protesting this project. It is disappointing that the city did not immediately come out as part of their disaster declaration and suspend all deadlines (such as the end of our protest period). You can make whatever statements you want but at the end of the day it is only
your actions that matter.
While we understand the general need to upgrade and maintain municipal infrastructure in the city, we all have agreed that such improvements need to be done under the umbrella of transparency and fiscal responsibility. There are many ways to do things and we have offered suggestions on how to make the project better at lower cost and detailed what our concerns were and why. Without getting into detailed specifics of
how the city has responded, we can safely state that the response we received from them was troubling.
Our elected leaders should have been asking the questions that we asked. What can we change to make the project better? What can we do to save money? Can we hold off on the project a while longer and save more money so that we do not have to assess people? Is this really the next most important project that the town needs or is the project only being pushed because of grants?
There are many small towns in our county and state that still have gravel roads and poor infrastructure conditions; yet, Valley City has no problem replacing improvements that have substantial life remaining. While this has been going on for decades, the city has simply gotten to a point where business owners and taxpayers cannot afford it anymore. Special assessments need to be eliminated as a funding mechanism in the City of Valley City unless there is 100% support for the assessments. There are people in the community that simply cannot afford them and we also cannot afford to lose any more of our population because of it. Business owners cannot afford to lose any more customers.
We hope that the leaders in the City of Valley City listen to what we are saying. We want change. We want them to lead us into a period of peace and prosperity for everyone and this will only happen when cost control measures are at the forefront of all decisions.