City roads have improved, but more work is needed

City Council had mandated to city staff that it wants to see at least $2 million in local funds invested into local streets being repaired. This does not include large projects, such as Yankee Road or South Main Street.

And City Council’s finance subcommittee wants to see it continue for next year.

“It’s nice this year,” said Councilman Josh Laubach, chair of the subcommittee. “It looks better, but it no way gets the job done.”

The job this year had the price tag of $2 million, and Laubach said the city needs to spend at least that much for next year. Most of that money was paid for by utility payments, but the city had to come up with about 25 percent to equal $2 million from other areas in the 2013 budget.

The largest chunk of the $2 million includes $1.4 million being spent on a dozen streets, which equaled a collective 4-1/2 miles, for this year’s local street paving program. All but one of the dozen streets has been repaved, said Middletown Public Works and Utilities Director Scott Tadych. Carmody Boulevard from Columbia Avenue to Germantown Road will be repaved by the end of the summer, he said.

While Tadych said the $2 million is not keeping up with the need, it’s significantly more local dollars being invested than what’s been dedicated to paving in the past. It’s only been a few hundred thousand dollars in the years prior.

“It’s great for us,” he said. “It would be great if we could continue doing it. Obviously, the need is out there.”

Tadych said his department could easily spend twice that amount, which would just be keeping up with the need for improved streets.

The remainder of the $2 million includes a little more than $171,000 for city crews to pave nine local streets, which equaled about 2-1/4 miles. The remainder of the money will be spent on repaving Locust and Thorn Hill lanes, which residents of those roads will need to negotiate the construction of a water main project. About $400,000 of that $966,000 project will be spent on paving.

While it’s not part of the $2 million City Council mandate, nearly $1.38 million is being spent on the second phase of the Yankee Road reconstruction and widening. Yankee Road from MADE Industrial Drive to Todhunter Road will be closed beginning either on Aug. 19 or 20 for three months.

“The closure is so we can get the construction done faster,” Tadych said. “And it’s more cost-effective if we can close it down. To keep Yankee open, it would cost additional money to maintain traffic.”

The road will be widened to three lanes and “designed to handle the truck traffic,” said Tadych.

The three-phase widening project will, when it’s done, see nearly $9 million in federal, state and local money being spent. Phase one was a $3.1 million project to widen Yankee from Oxford State Road to Made Industrial Drive. Phase three is a $4.6 million project to reconstruct and widen Yankee from Lafayette Avenue to Oxford State Road.

The corridor is key for companies, including AK Steel, SunCoke Middletown and Pilot Chemical, which have invested millions of dollars in their facilities and employ hundreds of people.

ODOT Jobs and Commerce and JobsOhio have provided funding for the second phase of the Yankee Road widening project, mostly in part to Pilot Chemical’s expansion of its Middletown facility.

“One of the things they needed was the road to be fixed up through there,” Tadych said. “This is 100 percent funded from (the state).”

Crews are also finishing up the concrete work along South Main Street and will soon start on repaving the eight-block historic district. The project, which is just more than $1 million, has already had the conduits for the new street lights installed.

In November we must make sure that our council members continue to set money aside for street repairs.
City Council must start using our tax dollars for our NEEDS and not their WANTS