Noise Barrier Modfied

As I wrote a short time back, the commercial interests of Gopher Electronic's owner appears to have some over-riding influence on the barrier construction. The current design, as of November 27, per Jennie Read, PE, North Area Engineer - Ramsey County, (jennifer.read@state.mn.us) is described in the figure below:

I have, as usual, a couple of concerns. It makes sense to begin to taper the wall down as it approaches Little Canada Road. A visual obstruction for vehicles from the west turning south onto the I35E entrance would be a safety hazard. However, terminating the wall at the current location ignores the health and quiet of our neighbors on Australian Avenue. The two issues that will cause their noise levels to be untouched (regardless of the oddly derived MNDOT estimates) are the gap left between the noise source (I35E) and the reflection caused by the earlier east side noise wall. The photo below illustrates that the east wall is nicely lined up to reflect noise from that side of the freeway into the neighborhood directly across the intersection.

Simply extending the wall to match the new east side barrier is not enough to correct the damage done by the original (and poorly considered) noise barrier design. While it might be inconvenient for the business owners to have to install higher signage to be visible to the tiny fraction of drivers who will be looking for signs while negotiating a hazardous section of freeway, the cost to the homeowners should come first for both MNDOT and the City of Little Canada's local government.

Having seen the original noise level estimates made by MNDOT which were used to justify why noise barriers were not recommended when the freeway was expanded, I'm unimpressed by the random numbers their "engineers" have applied to expectations of noise reductions in the neighborhoods. The closer the properties are to the noise barrier, the more effective the barrier will be. Even MNDOT "experts" should know this fact.

Honestly, the more I see these characters abuse science, the more I am convinced of Thomas Huxley's condemnation of the three classes of witnesses, "liars, damned liars, and experts." At least with these new estimates in hand, I will have data to work with in collecting measurements over the next few seasons before the wall is constructed. After the wall is built, it will be interesting to hear the MNDOT excuses for why their numbers, again, failed to approach reality. Before the previous I35E expansion and noise wall construction, the MNDOT optimistic guesses regarding the effects on our property defied logic and science and were, as expected, wrong. Instead of "less than 3dB" of change in the abusive noise levels on our properties, the new traffic expansion increased levels by 5-9dBA and 8-14dBC.

The Little Canada residents living along the south end of the existing west side wall (1o-3o on the MNDOT map above) have voted against the extension of the wall. I suspect it is because they are receiving as much benefit from the existing trees as they expect from a new wall. Due to medical issues, I was not able to attend the November 28 City Council meeting where they expressed their opinions. However, it will be critical for the city and residents to carefully monitor any MNDOT "enhancements" to the existing tree protection, if that becomes part of the plan. When MNDOT planted 4' trees on the west side (near the 1n location on the MNDOT map above), the state's employees cut down several existing 20' trees to "make room" for the new starter plants. Obviously, that was counter-productive and should not be repeated.

Done

I wish I had more energy to talk about the herbicide application on the lake, but John and I hit the lake at 6:30 this morning and finished at just before 4PM. 6.6 miles of slogging through lilies and milfoil. Because of GPS issues, we stayed well inside of the DNR's application map. 9 hours of plowing that swamp was more than enough work for the two of us. My everything is sore.

This was the first time I've been on the lake since early June, when the weeds took over. The lake is in terrible shape, with very little animal life left on or in the water. We saw about a half-dozen painted turtles, the same number of ducks, no snappers, no geese, no herons or egrets, no minnows or small fish, just bugs and weeds. In 14 years of living on the lake and regularly canoeing it, this was very close to the least life I have seen on it. Usually this time of the year we have birds, adolescent geese and ducks, lots of turtles sunning themselves, and minnows. Not this year.

With the lake in this kind of shape, I have to wonder what the Watershed District folks are doing when they take their monthly prowl of the lake? There is no way anyone even mildly knowledgeable would consider this healthy water: lake or watershed. The good news is that the levels are up, but the lake is, for the most part, dead outside of invasive plant species.

There are some significant patches of little-to-no lily growth that I would like to have explained. The lily outbreak began near the island beaches. In 2000, the only lilies to be spotted on the lake were on the east and south edges of the island. By 2003, that area was beginning to be overgrown as the water level was forced grossly below normal levels by the new drain installation on the east lake. After several years of low rainfall and improper lake drainage, the lilies had spread all over the lake. The sediment drainage from the freeway revision raised the lake floor dramatically at the northeast end of our lake and the normal deep end of the lake began to fill in. All of this contributed to increased plant contamination; which contributes to sediment build-up and even more favorable conditions for plants. This summer, however, the lilies have receded from the island's shores and there are several relatively low water points with very little lily infestation.

Oddly, the east side of the lake looks untouched by all this contamination. Obviously, something significantly different is happening to that side of the lake.

The caution signs should stay out over the weekend, but they can be removed Sunday evening. We have some floats on the lake marking our outer boundaries and I'll remove them Sunday. The Dow Rodeo data says we should begin to see the effects of the spraying after 48 hours. Hopefully, this time next week we will be able to use the lake again.

Taxes and Bureaucrats

Every time I’ve had an “experience” with a Minnesota state bureaucrat, I’ve wondered what makes westerners so much more interested in democracy than easterners. By that statement I mean, most western states put a bit in state government’s mouth with their referendum system. Eastern states, apparently populated by less involved semi-citizens, are big believers in non-participant “representative government.”

The older I get and the more powerful communications technology becomes, the less faith, or interest, I have in representative government. It was a rational system when it took a new President or Senator two months to ride a horse to Washington to take office, but it’s absolutely primitive today. Every major function of government, including budgeting, could be voted on, electronically, by citizens and the bureaucracy would be left with only the task of serving the public good. If they fail at their task; that department’s funding would reflect that failure in the next budget. With our current system, failure appears to be justification for more funding.

Now, to the local point at hand.

I received my 2009 Proposed Property Tax statement. The Ramsey County website indicated on the bill (www.co.ramsey.mn.us/prr) explained that “Ramsey County property appraisers will be available for individual market value consultations in adjacent rooms beginning at 5:30 p.m.” Along with hundreds of other Ramsey County taxpayers, I attended this meeting and took a number for my “individual market value consultation.”

After waiting for two hours, I was led to a desk where a “consultant” told me, “You understand that there is nothing I can do to lower your property tax evaluation here?”

Of course, I or the other 300-500 citizens waiting for a consultation understood no such thing, but he proudly pointed to the small print on the statement that said, “The period to discuss possible changes has passed and changes can no longer be made to your property valuation. It is included here for your information only.” The people who write this crap for the county must take an English as A Foreign Language writing course before they are allowed to print gibberish on official paper.

If the title of the form is “2009 Proposed Property Tax (their italics and bold print, not mine), you’d think that changes, in fact, can be made. I’d love to know what noun the “it” in “It is included” refers to.

I was told by one bureaucrat that it was a relatively simple matter to protest the county’s appraisal, which should reflect current market values including duress sales (fast approaching the majority of sales in the current market). The “consultant” to whom I was assigned, however, told me that the 2009 property evaluation was based on the 2007 market value and could not be revised to reflect the real market. I was warned that any attempt to take this issue to Minnesota Tax Court would require a several hundred dollar private appraisal, and would be contested by the county.

I am going to accept that challenge and cause exactly as much trouble for that department as possible. Hell, I might even hire a lawyer just to wrangle my property evaluation down to a realistic value. I’d rather spend the money on a private lawyer than these arrogant county deadbeats.

Here are some references for your personal fight:

• http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/prr/TNT.htm
• http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/prr/assessor/index.htm
• email: AskPropertyTaxandRecords@co.ramsey.mn.us

The Pioneer Press, that uber-conservative property value booster that it is, recently stuffed a report back in the Business section explaining that Twin Cities property values are down "19 percent from the median of $216,500 [to $175,000] during the same month last year." The article tried to invent a stabilizing trend by claiming that "traditional" listings were only down 2 percent from the previous year, but asking price and selling price are growing more distant every day we drift further down this several-year recession path and toward a national depression.

From my experience tonight, I can tell you several places where I'd make massive cuts in the state and county budget.

Ramsey County Tax and Budget Meeting

The following information is copied from the Ramsey County Truth in Taxation site:

Ramsey County Tax and Budget Meeting
Arlington High School Great Room
1495 Rice Street
St. Paul, MN
December 11, 2008 - 6:00 p.m.This is a combined public meeting of your county commissioners, school board, city council, and metropolitan special taxing districts to discuss proposed 2009 budgets and proposed 2009 property taxes. You are invited to attend these meetings to express your opinions.Ramsey County property appraisers will be available for individual market value consultations in adjacent rooms beginning at 5:30 p.m.Interpreters will be available for deaf/hard-hearing, and also for Spanish and Hmong speaking participants. Handicapped accessibility will be provided.

The above chart is a look at what has happened to Little Canada property values and home sales in the past year.

For example, according to my Ramsey County Property Records and Revenue statement, my home's "Taxable Market Value" fell 5.4%. Obviously, this is significantly more optimistic than actual home sales reflects (-22%), according to the city-data.com information (which is based on actual home sales not anticipated tax revenues. You'll note that sales has dropped off dramatically in the last year, too. Even the $140,000 average sale price is questionable, since so few houses have been sold (even though there are many more houses for sale in the city than there were in 2007).

So, I'll be meeting with an appraiser on December 11th to argue my home's Taxable Market Value down to a more realistic value. I recommend you do the same. There is no point in paying taxes on imaginary evaluations and this is money that belongs in your pocket, not the state, county, or city's.

City Council - Lake Shore Owners' Meeting

On October 30^th, 2007, there was a meeting of lake shore owners called by the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District that only two homeowners attended. We don’t know if that was because of poor contact by the city or apathy by homeowners. We hope it was the first. In that meeting, the two of us (Thomas Day and Kathy Engebretson) were told that we needed to form a “lake owner’s association” to receive any assistance or protection from (or by) the state and city’s neglect of our lake.

In 2002, the City of Little Canada “took over” managing the lake height from a resident on the east side of the freeway. From that point until today, the lake has continued to deteriorate until it is in danger of becoming a mosquito swamp and an industrial and residential chemical waste dumping ground. These government institutions have caused a number of problems leading to the damage to our lake:

• The Little Canada has poorly maintained the drain traps which allows street runoff to fill the lake with silt and pollutants,
• the local school has dumped industrial chemicals into the school’s drainage system, ending up in Savage Lake,
• the Watershed District improperly designed the lake drainage to drop the lake’s water level below historical levels, allowing water lilies to take hold and cover the surface of the lake,
• and the DNR has ignored the deterioration of the lake while preventing lake shore owners, the county, and the city from correcting those problems.

In 2002, the City of Little Canada took over “managing” the lake height. For years past, a a resident on the east side of the freeway had contributed his own time to setting the gate and watching the water level. From that point to today, the lake’s condition has continued to deteriorate. In 2003, County Watershed District employees improperly measured the lake’s height and, accordingly, constructed a new drain system that lowered the lake height about 18-24” below historic levels. The Watershed district took 2 years to admit this mistake and two more years to make a correction that brought the lake levels up approximately 9” (still 9-15” below historic shoreline levels). The lowering of the lake level, plus the silt build-up from the street runoff, encouraged the dramatic increase in the lily pads covering the lake and other foreign plants along the shoreline. In my backyard, past runoff silt had created a small shelf that extended about 10’ into the lake from the drain, in 1997. Now, that silt-island extends at least 50’ into the lake. Further south, directly west of the island on our side of the lake, silt runoff has practically created a bridge between the island and the houses directly northwest of the island. By mid-June, the lake has been almost completely covered by water lilies, due to the lowered water level and raised the lake bottom.

All of this does more than just create a nuisance and environmental damage: it lowers the value of every property near the lake. Property values near high-quality natural resources are elevated, but those near unkempt swamps and abused waste dumps depreciate. If the city, county, and state choose to damage our property values, we should, at least, require them to accordingly lower tax evaluations.

I have created a blog site to try to help organize our lake owners’ group regarding saving this natural resource: http://savagelake.blogspot.com/. If you are interested in joining a Lake Homeowners’ Association and working together to improve Savage Lake, please contact me at twday@usa.com.