West Seventh Street between Myrtle and Snipes was in line for paving this spring, but members of The Dalles City Council are questioning why this little-used street would be getting priority over other roads in the city that appear to be in worse shape.
West Seventh Street between Myrtle and Snipes was in line for paving this spring, but members of The Dalles City Council are questioning why this little-used street would be getting priority over other roads in the city that appear to be in worse shape.
There is no shortage in the number of streets in The Dalles that suffered damage over the long winter, but some members of The Dalles City Council say that doesn’t mean every street needs to be repaired and are calling for a fresh look at priorities.
Councilor Russ Brown is especially critical of a plan to repave a portion of West Seventh Street.
“I was a little upset seeing this,” Brown said. “It’s a lightly used street, and we haven’t gained on the backlog of maintenance problems. This is a poster child for a project we didn’t want to happen.”
According to Dave Anderson, director of The Dalles Public Works Department, $75,000 has been earmarked to repave the segment of Seventh Street that runs between Snipes Street and Myrtle Street.
“I don’t think we should spend that much,” Brown said. “It feels like we need to be more careful about how we spend street maintenance dollars.”
Anderson explained that roughly 1,400 feet of the street is scheduled to be repaved. He said that simply doing a much less expensive chip seal on the roadway would have cost a significant amount of money and would not have held much value in the long run.
“The surface is too deteriorated to take chip seal,” said Anderson. “And I struggle with the concept of spending $10,000 to $15,000 if it will only last two years.”
Brown pointed out that Seventh Street in that area might be seeing new development in the next couple years that could require new utilities to be put into place.
“There is a lot of undeveloped land there,” Brown explained. “If a developer comes in, they’ll have to do some work in the streets, so they’ll end up repaving anyway. That’s a lot of money to put into that street, and maybe five years from now it will get torn up and redone. It’s a bad investment to spend that much.”
Mayor Steve Lawrence said Brown had raised an important point.
“I hear you,” Lawrence said. “Let’s have a bigger discussion on priorities.”
Councilor Taner Elliott agreed that a pause to consider other priorities besides Seventh Street for the city’s limited street repair funds would be wise.
“I’m all for putting this project on hold,” Elliott said. “That street doesn’t have much traffic and doesn’t deserve this kind of money spent.”
Councilor Timothy McGlothlin said decisions should be based on the level of funding available to the city.
“Paving a road rather than chip sealing is a practice that, when times are good, proves to last the longest and be the most resilient surface,” McGlothlin said.
“However, when money is tight, we are looking for ways to increase total road coverage with fewer dollars.”
On Thursday, Anderson said he had agreed to allow time for the city council and the Public Works Department to review the Seventh Street paving project before proceeding.
“West Seventh is on hold until it can be discussed at the April 10 city council meeting,” Anderson said.
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