Stillwater Club Gets Pass On Assessment; Neighbors Unhappy

STILLWATER, MN — Stillwater resident Carol Gapen will be assessed $7,582 for road work being done on West Moore Street. Her neighbors will have to pay thousands of dollars as well. Just across the street from her is land owned by Stillwater Country Club, which isn’t being assessed at all.

According to a memo written to the Stillwater City Council last month by City Attorney Dave Magnuson, an assessment on a golf course must consider if the course's value is increased by the road improvements.

Ray Kirchner, an appraiser hired by Stillwater, told city officials that any benefits for the country club "would be minute and unable to be substantiated by any market data I’m aware of. I would suggest that the city not pursue it," according to the Pioneer Press.

(For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Minnesota Patch, click here to find your local Minnesota Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Gapen, who practiced law in Wisconsin but is now retired, found Kirchner's analysis hard to believe.
“If that’s true, then I receive no benefit either because all I do is drive on it,” she told the newspaper. “That just shows the ridiculousness of it.”

Read much more at the Pioneer Press

Photo by Chad Sparkes via Flickr Commons