Public works seeks to triple outlay for paving streets

Worried that repairing crumbling streets will wind up costing taxpayers far more in the long run, public works officials are seeking to triple the money the city allocated for road resurfacing during the next fiscal year.

The budget panel for the Public Works Board recently recommended allocating $1.9 million for repaving city streets. That compares to the $650,000 it will likely spend this fiscal year, which ends in June.

“This is what we think we need to somewhat hold our own,” Public Works Director Walter Veselka said.

But with politicians and fiscal overseers fretting that revenues are down and wary of hiking property taxes, the prospects for winning approval for the spending are poor.

Finance Chairman Rich Miecznikowski, whose Board of Finance does most of the work of setting the yearly spending plan, said, “We’ll look at it very closely, as we do with all budgets.”

“I know damn well they’re going to cut it,” said Don Padlo, a long-serving public works commissioner.

Last year, public works sought $2.2 million for its overall streets budget – which includes paving, sidewalk repairs and a number of related items – but emerged with $1.3 million in its final revised budget.

This time around, public works officials are angling for $2.6 million, despite warnings that city spending will generally be frozen at this year’s level.

“We can’t take another $1 million hit,” said city Councilor Cliff Block.
For the complete story, click here.

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Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Pine Street fix is coming

Yeah, they know Pine Street is a mess.
Mayor Art Ward said the contractors working on the Route 72 extension have promised to try to patch up the road as much as possible.
It's not going to be anything beautiful or pristine because, of course, the new state road is going to go right along its path from Yarde Pond to Todd Street. There's no point in repaving something that's going to be rebuilt soon enough.
But officials are trying to do what they can to make it a bit better.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Road paving budget to be slashed

Updated at 9 p.m. Tuesday:
Despite a plethora of potholes across the city, officials are eyeing a drastic cut in road repair money in the next municipal budget.
Officials say there expect some some debate about the proposal before the Board of Finance to slash $1 million from the requested $2.1 million road paving budget.
The spending plan that's on the table now would set the road paving program's budget at $1.1 million for the fiscal year that starts in July.
“I do have concerns” about the proposed cut, city Councilor Kevin McCauley said Tuesday, adding there may be “a battle to try to return” at least some of the funding before final passage of the spending plan.
“Would I like to have $2 million more to put into it? Absolutely,” said Mayor Art Ward.
But, he said, reducing the amount going to public works is “the only venue available to us” as officials scramble to try to freeze property taxes this year.
Ward said that he hopes federal stimulus cash may turn up that would allow more road work to get done.
The city budgeted as little as $1.2 million for road resurfacing as recently as 2006. But for its 2007 budget, officials hiked the figure by 51 percent to $1.8 million "to catch up deteriorating road conditions."
Former Mayor William Stortz pushed for more emphasis on infrastructure repairs, which he argued had been put off for too many years by City Hall leaders more interested in holding down taxes than taking care of roads and other public necessities.
By last year, the program's cost had risen to $2.1 million after officials said they would need that much to keep up a reasonable paving program that would ensure Bristol's 225 miles of public roads got the attention needed.
Public works would generally take it on the chin under the city's draft budget, losing $1 million in the road overlay account, $300,000 from its vehicle replacement request and $100,000 from its building maintenance allocation.
In the case of vehicles and building maintenance, the reductions amount to one third of the money sought in each category.
City Comptroller Glenn Klocko said that reaching the property tax freeze sought by officials preparing the budget would, at least at this point, be done "on the backs of public works."
"I don't want to hurt a department like that," Klocko said, but there's nowhere else to turn for the money.
Even after the public works and school cuts eyed by the Board of Finance, there remains a $1.8 million gap that appears most likely to be filled through union concessions or layoffs, or both.
During the last recession, the city's paving budget was as low as $400,000 in one year, though officials acknowledged it was too little to keep up with the need.
The city aims to resurface roads on a schedule that takes about two decades, but a lack of funding has made it impossible to meet that goal. It actually takes about 25 years to circle back around to a particular street, though adjustments are made to take into account that some roads need help sooner than others.

FYI: To read about pothole complaints, see this link and to learn more about potholes, see this story I wrote a few weeks back.

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Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com

Lake Avenue repaving starts next week

Public works press release:

The City of Bristol will be repaving Lake Avenue from Route 229 to Vincent P. Kelley Road. Work is scheduled to start on June 9, 2008:

The work will be done in a two phase project. The first phase will be milling/old pavement removal. In less than two weeks (weather dependant) after milling, we will move to the second phase, which is repaving.

Prior to each phase, we will post temporary No Parking signs on each street to ensure easy access.

All local residents will have access to their property during construction, and there will be no interruption of mail, rubbish or other services.

Please contact Ray Rogozinski, Assistant City Engineer at 584-6125 with any questions or concerns.


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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com