Musky Court road rebuild project moves to public hearing
Plans for this summer’s rebuild for Musky Court in the city of Medford advanced this week with the city council vote Monday night to approve levying special assessments on the abutting properties to the street.
In Medford property owners are assessed one third of the cost of the blacktop, as well as the cost of storm sewer, bituminous surfacing, curb and gutter, water main, sanitary sewer, landscaping, temporary landscaping easements, and engineering costs for road rebuilds based on property frontage along the road. The cost of driveway aprons is also assessed to property owners, but this can vary and is based on the size of the driveway. A public hearing on the special assessments and the project will be held on April 14.
While sidewalks are installed or replaced as part of road projects, they are paid through the general city budget and are not assessed to the property owners. In January residents of the neighborhood came to the council meeting to speak out against sidewalk.
“I still get calls regarding that,” said council member Laura Holmes who represents the area, saying that people are still opposed to the sidewalk going in there.
“It is a done deal,” said Mayor Mike Wellner of the sidewalk to be installed on the road. He noted the sidewalk is not part of the road reconstruction project and that there is no special assessment for sidewalks.
“The city pays for the sidewalks,” he said.
Council member Mike Bub agreed, “It passed the council and the engineering is being done,” Bub said of the sidewalk project.
City Coordinator Joe Harris noted there is some good news for the Musky Court property owners with cost. He noted the prices received on the 500-foot road project came in very similar to those from Madison Street which was completed a few years ago. Harris described them as being “very competitive.”
Residents will receive their preliminary special assessments prior to public hearing. The final special assessments will be voted on after the project is completed and will be based on actual cost.
Council member pay change
Members of the Medford city council voted themselves a 50% pay increase that will begin in April 2026 for half of the council members and in April 2027 for the other half. Council member pay will go from $60 a meeting to $90 per meeting.
The raises are phased in over the next two years because state law requires that salaries of governing body members may only be changed by ordinance and compensation must be established before the earliest time for filing nomination papers. This is to prevent a sitting board from raising its pay without being answerable to voters.
While the per meeting pay will increase, the net result is expected to be close to cost neutral since the city council reorganized this year and reduced the number of regular meetings by 50% by combining the committee of the whole and city council meetings to the same nights.
The last time the council member pay rate was changed was in 2021 when it was increased from $55 to $60 per meeting. Prior to that, the previous increase took place in 2014. As part of the action in 2021, council members had directed to review the pay rate every three years.
Reserve accounts
The amount of city general fund reserves grew by about $130,000 between 2024 and 2025. Like many municipalities, the city uses reserve funds to set aside money for future needs such as vehicle replacement, building maintenance or capital projects.
In early spring each year, the city formally approves the various designated unreserved funds and what they will be used for. In 2024, the general fund designated unreserved accounts totals $1,257,708 and in 2025 total $1,386,903.
While most fund areas remained about the same, there were increases in a handful of areas. Larger increases included $25,000 toward accounting software, an additional $7,500 for office equipment, and an increase of $24,831 to police vehicle purchase. The largest increase was in the amount of funds being carried over for salt, sand and rental for snow removal which grew from $200,249 in 2024 to $291,568.
Bub noted that with two extremely mild winters in a row, the fund has grown. “It is triple our normal budget,” Bub said, of the amount routinely set aside for snow removal.
“You never know what it is going to be,” said Mayor Mike Wellner, noting the city has had years where they have had to draw on reserves after spending all of the snow removal budget.
Harris said they have plans in place to adjust the amount in reserves for that area when the city begins work on the 2026 budget later this year.
In addition to the general fund reserves, council members also approved the refuse and recycling and the wastewater utility reserve funds. Refuse and recycling saw a sizable drop in reserve funds with the purchase of an end loader last year going from $163,500 in the end loader reserve to $15,000. The city added to the replacement account for the tub grinder, used to grind waste concrete, increasing the fund from $235,221 last year to $247,221.32 this year.
In the wastewater utility, $5,000 was added to the vehicle replacement, and the city began saving for the replacement of the jetter truck used to clean sewer mains by putting $10,000 into the reserve account.
In other business, council members:
• Approved an update to the Title VI plan. Since the city receives US Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding, the city is required to have a Title VI/ADA Nondiscrimination Plan that shows the city has nondiscrimination policies, public participation opportunities and procedures in place to log and address complaints. The city had these in place and they have been updated to meet compliance requirements.
• Approved the sale of 10 acres of cityowned land on the corner of Pep’s Drive and CTH O. Five acres will be sold to Hope Hospice at a cost of $5,000 to build a new office location. The remaining five acres will be sold to Grunwald Plumbing and Heating for their new location for $5,000.
• Approved hiring Ayres Associates to do a dam inspection on the Millpond Dam this summer at a cost of $3,900. This is a routine and required inspection to maintain the health of the dam.
