Saturday, July 19, 2008
In Dexter the Roads are Paved with Gold
The costliest assets owned by the Village are its roads. We spend, literally, millions of dollars on the 27 miles of roads in the Village. (Just shy of $2 million budgeted for 2008-2009 FY.) The roads are funded by tax dollars from the state and a Streets millage (2.9891 mills in 2008) through the Villge. So where does all this cash go when we are talking about streets? And are we getting the best bang for the buck for our street dollars?
Well, first, there is the day to day management of the streets. They have to be cleared of snow in the winter which is a big expense, but the service we receive is as good as the best service of any community I know. We have to repair streets, for things like pot holes. And then there is maintenance. In 2007 we budget… nothing for maintenance.
Nothing? Well, nothing is an exaggeration. Obviously we fix issues as they occur which helps to maintain the streets. But we have not had a official maintenance plan in place in the Village. In 2002, when we first discussed where the decline in the Bond millage should be allocated (to other millages or as a reduction in taxes) the discussion at Council was that the reduction in the Bond millage (due to a growing tax base) should go to streets, since the streets were underfunded and needed a lot of work. I asked at the time, “What work needs to be done?” Aside from the Capital Improvement Plan, which is not for maintenance but identifies Capital Improvements, we had no plan for the streets. I asked that over 2002 we make a plan and in 2003, budget as was needed for maintenance and improvements. I asked about an inventory of roads in the Village and a street by street accounting of the value and condition of the roads. Same discussion in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, but no maintenance plan in place. In 2007 I even asked our auditor how they assigned a value to our streets without a survey and the answer was basically that it was an educated guess.
In 2008, my good friend Jim Carson brought forward a copy of a book he received through his work with Washtenaw Area Transportation Study regarding maintenance of roads and how it saves money for the community. It talked about an inventory of roads, surveying the condition, and putting in place a plan to maintain the marginal roads and improve them to good and to maximize the life of the roads. Since replacing roads is so expensive, maintenance is very important. Council decided to move forward and this spring a survey was done and a database compiled of all the roads. 1 mile in the Village (the new road on Kensington) was considered good, something like 16 miles of roads were fair, and the other 10 or so miles were poor. (I am doing this from memory so I am not 100% certain of the numbers, but they are close.) This means all the roads put in service in the last ten years in Dexter Crossing, Westridge, and Huron Farms, are rated “fair” or worse!!! (3rd Street was re-done this year, as is Dexter Ann Arbor Rd, which means both of these sections will be “good” as the survey is updated.)
This year, in the budgeting process, Council put 20% of our street dollars into maintenance, with the idea that the 20% allocation will continue over the next couple of years until we get caught up on maintenance. These dollars, combined with the survey showing us where improvements can be best applied to “fair” roads, will result in a much better maintained road system in the Village. That means our tax dollars will go further in the future as we get ahead of the curve on the roads. If we are going to pave the streets with gold, we ought to get the most out of those dollars.
