Mailbag: Mark Writes: On Lake Leota Referendum; On Bond Term; On Dredging and more

(Ed. Note: This was a comment that I have posted for better visibility.)



Personally, I do not have an opinion on Lake Leota other than I would like to see it restored. Financially, I don't know if that is the right decision or not for Evansville. Most of us are concerned about the property tax mill rates. $2,000,000 is the number I have seen floating around and at first glance it seems like a lot of money (which apparently includes creek wall restoration, which is necessary in some form one way or another, if I understand it correctly).

My big question is how would this be financed? I am assuming it would need to be financed through bonds. If so, how many years would this be financed over and what would the actual impact on our taxes be? If the bonds could be spread over many years and have a minor impact like $10-$25 year for the average home, I think most people would be in favor of it. If it started creeping up to $100, $200, $400, $500 on the average tax bill, you would lose more support as the yearly tax impact rose. I have heard that a referendum should be proposed and I would support that if we were given specifics on what the tax impact would be. I think a general question like, should we spend $2,000,000 to restore Lake Leota would be a bad referendum, because it wouldn't give us the information we need to make an informed decision. Also, if different options are explored as suggested, I think the question should be phrased to ask, no restoration vs. A, B or C and what the associated tax burden be for each. This will allow citizens to review each option (and do the math for their actual property tax assessment) and make an informed decision of whether or not to support restoration.

Another question that I have heard is why dredge it when it will fill back up over the years? It definitely would be a bad idea if the bond term would be longer than the dredging is expected to last before it would be needed again. I am wondering if there is better engineering than we had the last time it was fully dredged? Is there any possibility of putting some sort of natural filter/settling pond before the creek enters the lake to control the silt from entering the lake? Maybe this filter could be periodically cleared to maintain it's functionality as a filter and keep the lake at the same depth at a minimal maintenance cost?

If the lake were restored and had more depth than it had in recent years, I think it would be nice to see the park district rent paddle boat rentals on Lake Leota.