Program to help homeowners with dead ash trees approved by City Council in Mason City

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City last week approved a new program to help homeowners who have ash trees that are dead or diseased on their property who need financing to help with the cost of tree removal.

Property owners with nuisance trees would be alerted by mail to abate the tree within 30 days, either hiring a tree service of their choosing or apply to the program provided by the city. The special assessment program would allow any property owner up to ten years to repay at 7% interest with no penalty for early repayment.

There also would be catastrophic grants for the most affected properties owned by low and moderate income homeowners, which would buy down the maximum cost to the homeowner of 10% of the assessed value of the property, with the remainder being eligible for special assessment under the program, according to City Administrator Aaron Burnett. “Let’s say you have a $50,000 home, the city will only assess up to 10% of what that assessed value is, so that would be $5000. That’s the maximum assessment. So if the tree removal came back at $10,000, the assessment would still be $5000. The city would essentially provide a grant for that last $5000, understanding that for some individuals, this could be a threat to them being able to maintain home ownership.”

Some on the council expressed concern about the 7% interest rate and low-income residents having to pay a lot of money to remove the nuisance trees. Burnett says he recognizes some of those concerns.  “We do not want to be the bank. We’re a lender of last resort. This is meant to be a safety net program. In the ideal, I think that an individual pulls out money, goes to a lender, goes through with the transaction and never has the city involved. That would be perfect. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be the case for some folks, and that’s where this program comes in.”

The program will be funded through $250,000 in general obligation bond funds for this fiscal year via their capital improvement projects fund, and the council plans to fund the program with another $750,000 from the CIP in Fiscal Year 2027.