Hard to have good roads, sidewalks, drainage without the highway dept. getting a proper budget, Roads are driven on by everybody; residents, police, fire, ambulance service, so real public safety begins with the highway department! If there are no sidewalks, people walk in the road, potholes and bad roads, people drive a bit erratic to avoid hitting them. Bad roads also cost everyone a bit extra in repairs and maintenance of vehicles.
It's hard to afford to build anything with the rules this state has for public construction. Just think about all those orange cones, put out every day. How much road is blocked off for some minor repair and the cost of rebuilding a road is beyond our ability to afford. Concrete sidewalks and granite curb. Every union has to get their beak wet.
ReplyDeleteBack when we did the roads survey, yup, we paid a company to tell us just how bad things are and we did............nothing different.
ReplyDeleteIn 2018(?) the number we were short on a yearly basis by more than double our yearly expenditure. Have you seen any increase from our Administration? The only person I've heard promoting roads is Jeff and I thank him.
What services do we get as taxpayers? ROADS is a huge part and around here we have neglected them in favor of excess staffing, poor budgeting and over $1 million dollars a year left unbudgeted but yet responsible for all our Capital, snow and Ice, $200+k of regular ordinary operating expense, but all is left to "free cash" the left over.............
Let's see what financial issues arise and this year closes cause I dont think its going to be pretty.........
Bad management costs...........here it comes!
Why worry, who is going to be buying a new car or EV truck for $100k+ with 7%+ interest, insurances, driving it on these roads to their $400k house losing $20k-$40k per year........
Did anyone ever stop to consider the cost of filling holes with blacktop ? The tons of blacktop, paying men to pick it up, and transport it back to Templeton, then to pay men to fill the holes. In the end it is sitting on the side of the road where it was pushed with the plow ! All that expense, with a temporary fix. We do it over and over again.
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