I got a notice of a certified letter waiting for me at the post office, so I headed there on my lunch hour to pick it up.
And it was almost stereo-typically bad. The line was long, no one was ready, the guy in front me had a long and involved conversation with the clerk about people they knew and someone’s third wedding, and the clerk himself appeared to be legally blind.
When I finally got the letter I was running late and only had time to glance at the return address – the treasury department for the City of Akron. I groaned and thought it was something tax related (audit? shudder), then headed back to work.
Later, I opened it up and saw that it wasn’t about taxes. It was a notice that I was being assessed for street repairs.
Wait, isn’t that a Community Chest card from Monopoly? Huh.
I read through it and saw that my street was on the list of those being repaired as part of the current project for repaving. And, based on the amount of property, it was going to cost me about $266. They won’t have the final cost for a while and it wasn’t a bill – just an estimate and a notice.
I had mixed feelings about that. I would have liked it to have just been part of the property taxes and not this additional assessment, but it could have been worse.
And, well, it’s part of being a homeowner and being in a community. That’s the deal. I’m not even that bummed about paying taxes – though I don’t always agree with how that money is spent. And the actual process of paying those is terrible.
But, as I said, it could have been worse. And though it’ll be crazy when they are actually working on it, I’ll have a nice street when they are done.
Now, if only we could do something about how many people park on the street. Seriously, people, have you heard of a driveway? It’s like driving through a gauntlet to get to my house.