MITCHELL, SD (Mitchell Now) — Council chambers at Mitchell City Hall were overflowing on Monday night as residents who sit along eight alleys filed in to give their opinions on a public hearing about potentially costly improvements the city is considering.
They had been mailed a letter in recent weeks that, according to Mayor Jordan Hanson, was an attempt to gauge appetite for converting the mostly gravel alleys to concrete. The city says it selected the eight alleys due to how often they get requests for repairs. Mitchell has been raising money since 2019 that has gone to an alley maintenance and improvement fund, which is beginning to reach a significant sum.
Hanson went through five possible courses of action, explaining that if they waited for the alley fund to pay for comprehensive improvements citywide, it would be 275 years before Mitchell’s government could cover concrete paving of every alley at no cost to residents. He pointed out that they had to find a way to either get buy-in from residents or come to a consensus on which alleys were a priority.
The city is hoping to begin the work in summer of 2027. By the time crews were finished, the assessment for what each resident owes wouldn’t be billed until 2028. If they are unable to pay in one lump sum, they could defer the payments to their property tax bills beginning in 2029. Payments would be spread out over 10 years with an interest rate of 8% applied.
It has long been city policy that if over 50% of residents attached to an alleyway can come to an agreement that improvements are necessary, the city would be compelled to make upgrades blocks affected. On Monday, Council decided to poll residents in the audience along each of the eight selected alleys to see where sentiment was.
Where support seemed robust, the council tabled the public hearing for two weeks. That will allow members to figure out what share of the cost the city would commit to. The public hearing was tabled for the alley running to the north of the 300 block of East 1st Avenue and the alley on the north side of the 400 block of East 7th Avenue.
On the other hand, improvements were dismissed for alleys along the 900 block of East 2nd Avenue, the 600 block of East 4th Avenue, the 700 block of East 4th Avenue, the 500 block of East 7th Avenue, the alley downtown just east of the 700 block of North Rowley Street, and the commercial alley that runs behind the 300 block of North Main Street.