Kick in the Asphalt
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from : Newton White
Kick in the Asphalt
Folks I was told that the city had not repaved a road in over a year and that not keeping good pavement will cost more when the road base gets damaged. I have looked into this.
What I found was more disturbing than a pothole and a bad stretch of road.
Money was budgeted in fiscal years 13 and 14.
Almost the entire amount for 13 was carried over to 14 when more money was budgeted. Including $75,000 for a third party consultant to examine our roads, I guess our city does not have anyone competent to grade pavement.
That was disappointing to learn of more neglect and unlike our medians and public landscaped areas their IS budgeted money and outside contract labor to do the work. It cannot be blamed on being short on people and chronic unfilled positions, another problem for another day.
What should be more upsetting than the blatant neglect of what was listed as a 26 year cycle program? That Public works cannot produce the plan.
I requested the paving plan and what I got from the, Public Works Director “I am not prepared to provide a list of proposed streets to be paved in 2014 yet – we are putting that together now. ” I had also requested a past history and found that nothing has been paved since early 2012, and the excuse that projects were deferred because some other work may need to be done.
I believe we need to think about this for a minute. According to the documents I have there is a 26 year cycle plan that cannot be found and shown to me, the program was neglected in 2012, defferred in 2013 and now we are past the first quarter of FY14 with no plan to spend the over 1 million dollars that have accumulated for paving.
Reasonable responsible people should be asking how these budget requests were prepared approved and voted into existence by council. Without a plan that can be produced, how did staff arrive at a budget? Does more or less really need to be spent?
How many more things are sitting still and being neglected? What are we paying for?
Why wasn’t council asked if it is OK to deffer an ongoing cycle plan for which they budgeted the money for?
Newton,
You do a great job of identifying Huge malfunctions within City government. Often you offer up a possible solution to the problem. I hope this energy helps you in your upcoming run for a seat on the Council. Unfortunately Council is allowing Management to fail them each and every day and the points that you bring up are left behind as every meeting there are new blunders to replace the old ones. Every time you speak at Council nobody communicates back to you. You get some eyes rolling back in their heads and a couple times a mumbled thank you and that is the end.
Perhaps with your idea of the agenda changes it could also include that a citizen concern shall be:
1) Answered by Staff immediately or
2) Deemed by Council as not warranted and end of subject after immediate discussion or
3) Issued a Number and assigned to a Specific Staff member by Council and the Manager. The assigned Staff member shall answer any questions or requests for information at the next scheduled meeting. This staff member should work this task every meeting going forward until Council deems that it has been properly addressed.