COMINS TOWNSHIP — Three property owners in the Perry Lake assessment district will appear in Circuit Court June 28 to appeal their portion of a special assessment, which was passed by the Oscoda County Board of Commissioners earlier this year.

Commissioners passed the special assessment to pay back a bond for the construction of a water level and flow control dam.

Carlyle Dube, Dan and Nancy Soults and Lee Grzincic filed appeals to the 20-year, $400,000 assessment, which affects 131 property owners on, or near, Perry Lake.

The assessment, according to county commissioner Richard Monk, will be used to pay back a bond for the construction of water control dam, plus interest.

County commissioner Michael Hunt said each of the 131 lots was assessed individually, with the amount assessed based on the lakefront footage and square footage of a parcel. He added back lots, those without water frontage, were assessed solely on square footage. Hunt also said about 30 individuals have already paid the assessment in full, equaling more than $111,000.

“Had nobody paid ahead, we would have sold $400,000 in bonds,” Monk said. Currently, he explained, roughly $288,608 in bonds will have to be sold, due to the above-mentioned pre-payments on the assessment, which allow those property owners to avoid paying interest on the assessment.

“If it doesn’t get any ruling from the judge, we can move forward with our bond sales,” Hunt added.

In the appeals filed by the three landowners, several reasons as to why they appealed their property’s assessment were given.

“The formula places an unfair tax burden on property owners who own more than one lot (unit) because the largest percentage of the formula is based on the unit. … It looks as though the unit factor was established to lower the tax burden of some of the lakefront owners who own larger lots, but only have a single lot. We have no frontage off the lake, and no view of it,” said the appeal by the Soults.

Dube’s appeal claims that his lakefront property touches a section of shore that is only three-feet deep year round, and clogged with aquatic plants, closing off recreational use of his lakefront property.

“The application of a factor in the formula that values all frontage equally is inherently unfair and onerous to property owners whose frontage gains little or no benefit from the established lake level,” Dube’s appeal claimed.

Dube’s appeal also mentioned that most people access the lake from the Comins Township Park, which was not assigned any portion of the water control structure costs. His appeal also said his property lies on an arbitrarily placed section line, which legally makes his lot two adjacent properties.

Hunt said that property owners on the lake petitioned for a way to control the water levels back in 2003.

“It’s taken seven years to get to this point, and we were told by our engineer that it’s only going to take three weeks to build,” Hunt said adding the structure will be a small dam that controls water level and flow in the lake. “Right now, there’s just a culvert there.”

Hunt said the culvert empties into Perry Creek, and eventually the AuSable River.

Actual construction of the dam is about $98,000, with much of the other costs incurred on permits, engineering and fees. The engineer on the project is Lapham Associates, of West Branch.