The Roads......Again

Today's Journal story....

Crumbling streets need more money to fix them

Give Middletown and Hamilton a blank check to fix all the streets in need of repair, and they would write it out for more than $300 million, collectively.
Mother Nature and the recession have taken their toll on the aging asphalt in Butler County’s two largest cities. Dwindling budgets have delayed or limited street repairs for years, allowing city crews to only patch the pothole-peppered pavement in parts of Middletown and Hamilton.
The end result: Scores of disgruntled, complaining motorists who’ve had to shell out hundreds of dollars to replace and realign their vehicle tires.
“It seems like they fill one pothole and another forms right behind it,” said Jordan Craycraft, who lives at the corner of Dickens Avenue and Baker Court in Middletown.
Craycraft said he hasn’t experienced any damage to his car, but every time he drives over a series of potholes, he clenches up.
“It rattles me in my car,” he said.
It would take between $10 million and $13 million a year (not including interest) for the next 15 to 20 years to bring all of Middletown’s roads up to standard. In Hamilton, the city would need to spend between $5 million and $7 million a year over the same time frame to repair or repave all of its crumbling streets, according to a 2009 assessment, the most recent available.
Middletown and Hamilton are not the only communities struggling to maintain their roads. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given a D+ to America’s infrastructure, which encompasses 16 categories, including roads and water and sewer systems. Every four years the industry agency issues a report card that evaluates conditions and investment needs for major sectors of infrastructure.
Middletown has roughly 262 center line miles of roadway, and about a third is considered poor or worse. Hamilton has 254 center line miles of roadway and half are rated poor as of the most recent estimate.
Center line miles represent the total length of a given road from its starting point to its end point. The number and size of the lanes on that road are ignored when calculating its center line mileage.
Middletown had increased its income tax by 0.5 percent in the late 1960s for capital improvement projects, which would include maintaining and repairing the city’s roads. However, that changed in the mid-1980s when voters permitted the city to not earmark that money for capital improvement work.

AND WHY WASN'T THAT PERMISSION VOTED ON AGAIN TO PLACE THE MONEY BACK IN THE STREET FUND WHEN THE CITY WAS PAST THE SO-CALLED "EMERGENCY" BACK THEN?

“We’ve been underfunding streets for almost 30 years,” said Preston Combs, Middletown interim Public Works and Utilities director.

AND WHY DO YOU THINK THE MONEY WAS NEVER RETURNED AFTER 30 YEARS PRESTON?

Most of the low-volume local streets are in need of some type of repair, Combs said. The city had asked voters in the mid-2000s to approve a tax levy to help pay for the streets, but the campaign that would have generated around $3 million just to bring the roads up to a fair standard failed.
“I would classify them as varied,” said Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan about the overall condition of the city’s streets. “There are some that we’re able to do some recent maintenance on, and there are some that are scheduled for some improvement. But there are many that are in need of repair.”
Compared to other cities, the mayor said “they’re average.” (AVERAGE????)
“I don’t think we’re better off, but I don’t know if we’re any worse off,” said Mulligan. “I was here on a street in Cincinnati and I was shocked at how bad it was. I know we have folks who have high expectations for the conditions of the roads, and we do what we can to try to keep those up, but money is very tight.”

"MONEY IS VERY TIGHT" SAYS MULLIGAN......EXCEPT FOR THEIR SPECIAL PROJECTS....THEN THEY FIND ALL KINDS OF MONEY AND APPLY FOR ALL THE FED HELP THEY CAN GET. LET'S FACE IT MR. MAYOR, THE STREETS HAVE NEVER BEEN ON THE RADAR SCREEN OF CITY PROJECTS SINCE THE 80'S.

Roads remain a priority for the city (BULL CRAP LARRY), Mulligan said, but with so much of the city’s $29.7 million general fund budget tied to fire and police (POOR NEGOTIATING ON THE CITY'S PART) – a collective $20 million a year – there’s not a whole lot the city can do short of putting a levy on the ballot.
“It’s going to require some sort of funding,” he said. (OF COURSE, A NEW TAX ON THE ALREADY OVERTAXED PEOPLE, RIGHT MULLIGAN?)
Of the 262 center line miles in the city, it could take between $28.5 million to $57 million just to repave the roads. But Assistant City Engineer Scott Tadych said with a significant portion of city roads in need of reconstruction, that price tag is likely to jump to about $140 million – not including the cost for curbs, gutters and sidewalks, and interest since it could take 15 years, maybe more, to improve all roads.
Councilman Josh Laubach has been one of the more vocal local elected officials in Middletown about roads.
“The challenge is, we aren’t budgeting to bring them up to standards,” Laubach said. WHY NOT? SHOULD BE A TOPIC EVERY YEAR.
The city has spent an average of $1.77 million on street improvements and paving the past two years. But just to keep the standards, it would take upwards of $10 million a year. MANY COUNCILS HAVE HAD OVER 30 YEARS TO ADDRESS THIS. WHY HASN'T IT BEEN DONE? INEPT CITY LEADERS.
And with a cash-strapped budget, the city needs to reallocate money into improving the city’s infrastructure. NO, LIKE THE STREETS, THE CITY ISN'T DOING SQUAT FOR THE INFRASTRUCTURE.
“You have to reduce cost in other areas,” Laubach said. “I think all costs are on the table, personnel costs being the highest. That takes up the greatest portion of the general fund. You can’t solve that without looking at that area.” YEAH JOSH, BUT THE CITY SEEMS TO ALWAYS FIND FUNDS TO DO WHAT THEY WANT TO DO ON THEIR LITTLE PROJECTS LIST. THIS HABIT OF ALWAYS CRYING ABOUT FUNDS TO DO THE STREETS FOR 30 YEARS, WHILE OTHER CITY PROJECTS CONTINUE, IS GETTING OLD.

This week, I made a delivery to Karen Drive, off of Elmer, which is off of Central.

SPIDERJOHN - Central Ave. is also teriible--far worse than S Main. No way that a consensus will ever be reached to re-pave and pay for the Central run. So what do we do? Our city's spending priorities are now so far behind and out of whack rthat we may never catch up.

 
Spider
It is time for the citizens of Middletown to revolt against our City Council and demand that they ask for a full accounting of these RESTRICTED FUNDS. We need to demand a full and complete explanation of just how and on what that these funds can be used. If not we are just like sheep being taken to slaughter as City Hall spends money as they damn well please.
WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE?      

 

KTF
I am a firm believer that a small group of like minded people can move mountains if they really put their minds to the task at hand.
We can no longer stand by as every extra dollar is used for THEIR DOWNTOWN DREAM while the rest of the Middletown neighborhoods crumble. It is time for us to stand up and demand change for the 99% of Middletown residents.