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Haviland, Ks —
In January, Haviland Mayor Robert Ellis and the city council proposed a plan to pave all of the streets in the city of Haviland. Speaking via telephone on Monday Ellis said that community feedback has halted the project.
“It’s all been negative,” said Ellis. “We needed 51 percent of the resident property owners to agree to do it. I got a few responses, three people came and talked to me, and they said they couldn’t afford it, so they wouldn’t be for it.”
The city had proposed a project that would pave all of the streets in Haviland. Cost of the project would have been returned to property owners, which created problems with residents, some who did not want or couldn’t afford to pay to pave their streets and some residents who had already paid for paving via the petition process.
“A lot of people would be upset if they’ve paid for [the street paving] already on their own and then would have to pay twice if the city paved all of the streets at-large. They’d be paying for it twice,” continued Ellis. “I feel the same way. I wouldn’t go into orbit about it but some people would. I’d like to see it done, but when I lived down where the old supermarket was and I got that petitioned and paid for, and then I moved up to where I am now and got that paved and paid for, it doesn’t make much different to me personally.”
Ellis says that rain and snow can make some of the dirt roads almost impassable.
“[The weather] affects the dirt roads a lot. You can hardly get down them if we have too much rain, which doesn’t happen that often. But if it snows a lot and then it melts, why they’re a mess for a while.”
Residents will still have the option to pave their street through the petition process, which requires 51 percent of all of the property owners on a street to agree to the paving.
“If someone would carry a petition, then it could happen. That’s what we did in the late ’60s and that’s why the [street paving] is so hodge-podge, “ continued Ellis. “There are streets that are paved for a while and then they are unpaved, then they are paved again. I’d like to see them all done, but that’s probably not going to happen. So out-and-out paving, we aren’t going to do it.”
In January, Haviland Mayor Robert Ellis and the city council proposed a plan to pave all of the streets in the city of Haviland. Speaking via telephone on Monday Ellis said that community feedback has halted the project.
“It’s all been negative,” said Ellis. “We needed 51 percent of the resident property owners to agree to do it. I got a few responses, three people came and talked to me, and they said they couldn’t afford it, so they wouldn’t be for it.”
The city had proposed a project that would pave all of the streets in Haviland. Cost of the project would have been returned to property owners, which created problems with residents, some who did not want or couldn’t afford to pay to pave their streets and some residents who had already paid for paving via the petition process.
“A lot of people would be upset if they’ve paid for [the street paving] already on their own and then would have to pay twice if the city paved all of the streets at-large. They’d be paying for it twice,” continued Ellis. “I feel the same way. I wouldn’t go into orbit about it but some people would. I’d like to see it done, but when I lived down where the old supermarket was and I got that petitioned and paid for, and then I moved up to where I am now and got that paved and paid for, it doesn’t make much different to me personally.”
Ellis says that rain and snow can make some of the dirt roads almost impassable.
“[The weather] affects the dirt roads a lot. You can hardly get down them if we have too much rain, which doesn’t happen that often. But if it snows a lot and then it melts, why they’re a mess for a while.”
Residents will still have the option to pave their street through the petition process, which requires 51 percent of all of the property owners on a street to agree to the paving.
“If someone would carry a petition, then it could happen. That’s what we did in the late ’60s and that’s why the [street paving] is so hodge-podge, “ continued Ellis. “There are streets that are paved for a while and then they are unpaved, then they are paved again. I’d like to see them all done, but that’s probably not going to happen. So out-and-out paving, we aren’t going to do it.”
