Long-delayed sidewalk assessments hit home

Some Princeton Borough bills were for sidewalk repairs made seven years ago.

By: Jennifer Potash
   It wasn’t a tax bill in the mailbox that caused a few double takes for some borough residents.
   But assessments for sidewalk repairs completed as long as seven years ago were sent out to homeowners beginning this year.
   For Gunhild Rush, who moved to Forester Drive a few years ago, the bill was a bit of a surprise.
   She and her husband did not question their responsibility in paying the bill, but were amazed the bill took so long to arrive.
   Other residents complained to the council that the final bills were much higher than the estimates during the early stages of the project.
   It has been the borough’s policy to assess residents for half the cost of the sidewalk repairs to their property.
   The assessment for residential properties ranged from several hundred dollars to a couple of thousand dollars.
   Residents who purchased their homes after the work was completed are responsible for the assessment — not the previous homeowner, said Councilman Roger Martindell.
   When a house is sold, the purchaser can run a title search to determine any outstanding assessments to the property, he said. But, he added, if the assessment is not filed with the municipality, the homebuyer has no way of knowing about it.
   So a borough resident who purchased a home last year, when the work was done several years before, gets the bill, he said.
   How the bills were delayed is somewhat murky.
   "The borough bureaucracy has been stymied for a number of years in billing the improvements," Mr. Martindell said. "It’s been a long and tortured history.
   In some cases, the information was completed by the Engineering Department and forwarded to the administration, where the assessments were in limbo, officials said.
   Not to excuse the delay, but it may have occurred because the assessments did not have a high priority, said Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi, who became administrator in 1999.
   Mr. Martindell said the delayed assessments have been a contentious issue in the Borough Council Finance Committee’s discussions for several years, as the borough did the work but was not reimbursed.
   No borough resident is required to pay the assessment upon receipt of the bill. The borough offers a payment plan extended over four years at the rate the borough borrowed the money to make the improvements, usually 4 percent, Mr. Martindell said.
   A new process has been put into place to prevent assessment delays, Mr. Bruschi and Mr. Martindell said.
   Mayor Marvin Reed said he is still not happy with the situation.
   "It’s been a long-term problem and it really needs to be resolved," he said.
   With a more streamlined approach for the assessments, Mayor Reed said he hopes with future projects that residents "will understand right from the start what the borough expects to pay for and what they can expect will be their assessment, so if there are any questions they occur at that time and do not become questions that haunt us a long way after the project has been completed."
   While the borough did take several years to assess the residents, there is an upside to the delay, Mr. Martindell said. The residents could use the money for other purposes during that time, he pointed out.