RACINE, Wis. — On Thursday, TMJ4 told you about hundreds of Racine residents who were billed hundreds of dollars for sidewalk repairs. The repairs though, were completed years ago.
Since our story, reporter Jenna Rae has been flooded with emails from other neighbors with similar concerns. Friday, she took those concerns to city leaders.
"We were both kind of shocked," Elizabeth Stoyer said.
"I was kind of frustrated," JoAnn Johnson added.
Stoyer and Johnson are two of the 500 Racine neighbors billed last week for sidewalk repairs from 2021.
They both received similar letters, with different amounts due, for work done years ago.
Related articles: Racine neighbors billed for sidewalk repairs years after work was completed (tmj4.com)
The letter states if they don't pay the balance by September 15th, the amount will be added to their property tax bill, with a 4.5 percent interest, over 10 years.
"Get rid of the interest and just put it on my taxes in one lump sum. There's no reason that the city needs to spread it out over 10 years and charge us. To me, that's a money grab for the city," Stoyer explained.
Watch: More residents come forward expressing concern over Racine sidewalk repair bills
A money grab Stoyer said she thought she already paid back in 2022. She said the city sent her a letter in early 2021, before the project was completed, warning her about the project and its payment.
"It gave us some options. It gave us the option to pay it outright, or to put it on our 2022 taxes, and no where on that letter did it state we would be charged interest on our 2022 taxes," Stoyer said.
The city's website clearly states that "sidewalk maintenance is the responsibility of the property owner."
But remember, it took the city three years to bill neighbors.
So we took their concerns straight to city leaders and talked to Alderman Henry Perez.
"It could've been lost in the process, that's is unacceptable, but it happens. And so, people may be getting the bill now and going 'what is this? I should've been billed four years ago.' Well it doesn't really work that way. You're billed when the bill comes up," Perez explained.
Rae asked "do you think it's fair that the city took three years to bill people and they only get two months to pay several hundreds of dollars?"
"Well they actually don't get two months according to the letter," Perez responded.
"But they do, and then they get interest tacked onto it, so then they have to pay even more," Rae said.
"Over 10 years," Perez rebutted.
"So is that fair in your mind," Rae asked.
"Fair is a difficult question. Yeah, I don't like that that happened, absolutely not," Perez answered.
Perez said he wants residents to contact their alderman to get these payment issues sorted out.
He also is encouraging people to call city hall and request an itemized list of what they're required to pay.
TMJ4 News spoke to the owner of Forward Contractors, the company that did the sidewalk repairs in 2021. The owner showed TMJ4 a receipt that said the city's final payment to the company was in May of 2023.
It's still unclear why the city took 14 months to bill residents. A question the city's spokesperson, Sean Ryan, wouldn't answer on Friday.
We requested an interview with someone at city hall, through Ryan, at noon Friday. That's after Ryan said no one would be made available for an interview Thursday.
After 4p.m. Ryan responded and said "I do not have any additional comment beyond the information I provided you yesterday regarding this topic."
We tried calling Ryan too, and he never got back to us. We also called the head of the public works department and never heard back.
We're continuing to push for answers.
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