West Fargo City Commissioner speaks on special assessments, the newly approved half-cent sales tax, and potential parking portends

(West Fargo, ND) -- One of West Fargo's leaders spoke to WDAY Radio about the city's growth, special assessments, the new half-cent sales tax, parking plans in the city's downtown area, and utility rate increases.

Roben Anderson, a West Fargo City Commissioner, joined Tuesdays with Tony to talk about multiple prominent conversations happening behind the scenes in the city. He began the conversation with growth within the city, saying West Fargo could do more to slow down and keep costs low. Overall, Anderson says the city should begin rethinking how they use incentives for building and business projects. 

"Right now, if we were to slow a little bit, I personally wouldn't mind that, "said Anderson, "I'd like to pump the breaks a little bit and just take our time, evaluate some things, see how we are doing with budget and other things going on."

Anderson also spoke on the increase in West Fargo resident's water bills, saying a resolution to raise the costs by $0.40 cents per 1,000 gallons will be discussed at an upcoming city meeting. The rise in costs comes from Fargo, who increased the rate by the same amount. Anderson says this conversation ties into special assessments and other possible utility rate increases, explaining that the rate hikes could reduce the costs of individual assessments. 

"It does help offset special assessments, we have had projects that are done for water and sewer that haven't assessed because we used the utility fund, "said Anderson, "Its another way that we are looking to move away from special assessments."