GLADSTONE — The Gladstone City Commission is pausing the 9th Street Project special assessment process. A second public hearing was held for the 9th Street Special Assessment District Monday, however no action was taken.

The special assessment process requires two public hearings before the district can be adopted and two more public hearings for the special assessment itself before the special assessment can be adopted.

The city plans to have a special assessment for its portion of the 9th Street project.

With the city commission stopping the special assessment process, the start date for the summer project will be pushed back again.

The special assessment process must be completed before the bonding process can begin. The bonding process has to be completed before the construction can begin on the project.

Instead of adopting the special assessment district, the commission scheduled a workshop on Monday, July 29, at 5 p.m.

Mayor Joe Thompson explained the workshop will be used to discuss the 9th Street Project as a whole and reset the timeline based on the discussion.

The 9th Street Project includes a total reconstruction of 9th Street — including work on storm drains, water lines and sewer lines from Minneapolis Avenue to 4th Avenue — as well as work on other streets, avenues and alleys. The work on 9th Street will also include work on some of the sidewalks and an addition of a bike lane.

The work being done within the project was scaled back due to bids coming in higher than expected.

The project was awarded to Oberstar Inc., under the condition the total construction cost is kept under $3.5 million.

The 9th Street project was to encompass parts of 9th Street, Delta North and South alleys, 6th Street, Superior Avenue, 11th Street, the alley between Minneapolis and Wisconsin avenues, 3rd Avenue, 8th Street, and the 4th Street sanitary. However, Superior Avenue, the sanitary sewer on 4th Street, and some sidewalks were cut from the project.

The 9th Street project is within the Downtown Development Authority’s district, so the DDA will cover the cost of 70 percent of the project and the city will cover the remaining 30 percent.

To fund the project, the DDA and city have looked into a 15-year capital improvement bond through Robert W. Baird & Co., an American multi-national independent investment bank and financial services company based out of Milwaukee.

Both the DDA and the city have already put money towards the project and have included the payments within their budgets.

The total project cost at the end of the 15-year bond would be around $4.7 million and special assessments will cover $508,869 or 10.63 percent of the cost.

The estimated average special assessment cost per lineal foot is $2.67.

Although the commission decided no action was going to be taken after the public hearing, the hearing still had to be opened as it was on the agenda with public notices sent out beforehand.

The only comment during the public hearing came from former commissioner Mike O’Connor.

He handed out copies of the public notice for the public hearing to the commissioners and requested the hearings to be rescheduled.

O’Connor said the public notices did not meet a requirement per the state law. He said, because of this, the previous hearing and the hearing at Monday night’s meeting did not count as an official public hearing for the special assessment.

City Clerk Kim Berry explained to O’Connor the requirement O’Connor cited not needed for the special assessment district public hearing notices, but needed for the next step in the special assessment process.

Thompson said the special assessment district public hearings will be rescheduled during the workshop regardless, as the timeline of the project is being reset.

In other business, the commission:

– Accepted the city commission regular meeting minutes of July 8, the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) regular meeting minutes of June 18 and the payment of bills.

– Removed 9th Street Special Assessment – Resolution No. 3: 2019-08 and Nationwide Plan Amendment from the agenda.

– Appointed Kyle Closs, a First Bank representative, to the DDA Board. Closs’s addition fills the board.

– Approved the amendment for the Gladstone Business After Hours special event application to have the Jam Band play from 7 to 10 p.m., utilize city power source and Farmer’s Market tents on Wednesday, July 31. The event, which is sponsored by Water’s Edge Chiropractic and Main Street Pizza, is on the annual list approved by the city commission each year. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, July 31 from 5 to 7 p.m. One block street closure from 9th Street to 10th Street will occur from 4 to 10 p.m.

– Approved the DDA to use $25,000 from the DDA fund balance for earnest money to support the North Shore Development process. The DDA and Don Bacon, the consulting attorney on the North Shore Property acquisition, has been working with Paul Coppo on an agreement to secure almost 28 acres of land in the North Shore Project area. At the June 18 DDA meeting, Bacon reviewed a proposal that included a $25,000 non-refundable earnest money, a purchase price of $775,000 and a 24-month term. The $25,000 earnest money would be reimbursable if a sale is made in the 24-month timeframe.