The Observation Deck

There was an interesting letter to the editor in the Lakewood Sun Post about the condition of the streets in Lakewood. The writer wanted to know what happened to the money collected by the City that was supposed to be used on streets.

A while ago I did some digging for a post that was never posted, anyway...

The State gave the City of Lakewood $1.1 million dollars in 2004 for road maintenance. The State constitution requires that the money be spent on road maintenance.

The City collects about 1.2 million dollars for the vehicle registration fees each year. That money is supposed to be used for street maintenance.

Is that money really being spent on street maintenance? That is at least 2.3 million dollars a year for routine maintenance.

The State department of Transportation says there are about 45,000 vehicles registered in Lakewood. I don't know if the local fee is $20 or $30 per year per vehicle.

Bill---- Yes, all that money is being spent on maintenance and funds added to that from the city's general fund expand the street rebuilding program.

You can go to the City Engineer's website for a bar graph which shows the expenditures.

Stan Austin

Assured that the money is being spent, the real issue, in my mind, is whether Lakewood and Cuyahoga County is a donor or "donee."

We should never expect Columbus ODOT to collect the gas tax and license fees for each county/municipality then turn around and send the same amount back. Their job is to collect the revenue, muck around with it for a bit, then give some municipalities more than they originally gave and give others less. (No politics here of course. Allocations are all based on merit. Right?)

Cuyahoga County has for a long time been a donor in this equation, receiving less back than it gives.

David Anderson wrote:Cuyahoga County has for a long time been a donor in this equation, receiving less back than it gives.

This site has some interesting info on vehicle taxes.

http://tax.ohio.gov/divisions/tax_analy ... 23cy04.stm

Citizens of Lakewood pay about 8.7 million in stat gas tax. The City receives about 1.1 million.

The City has been spending less and less for street repair over the last few years. About 15% less than a few years ago.

My gripe with sending money to the State is that they send 10% back to the locals on the condition that the locals spend another 10% on things they don't want or need. (OK, maybe it's not that bad but you get the idea)

Remember: Columbus would be a cow town if it wasn't the State capital. Any growth it has experience has come at the expense of other communities.

90 percent of lakewood gas tax dollars are presumeably being spent to build highways and 8 lane throughways around Columbus.

The concept of Latent Demand goes something like this: expanding traffic capacity doesn't ease congestion: it induces people to drive more.

latent demand. how does this fit in to a coherent National Energy Policy? Or even a National Energy Attitude?

Bill--- Lakewood, in the last 3 years, under the leadership of Tom George has dramatically reversed the trend of not repairing or rebuilding streets.

I mentioned in a previous post, just go to the Engineer's website to see the increases in capital expenditures over the past 3 years.

After you do that, drive, walk, bike around and look at the streets that are being or have been rebuilt or paved (if that was all that was required) in the past 3 years.

A word of caution-- the construction trucks---concrete, dump trucks, asphalt machines--- might slow you down a little.

It might be noted--- two councilmembers--- Demro and Fitzgerald --- voted against the authorization for funding of street rebuilding and repair such as Arthur, Roycroft, Clifton water main, Detroit sewer, among others.

So, with the leadership of Tom George, the common sense of Mike Dever, and the technical ability of City Engineer Dennis Albrecht, we are finally back with an objective, engineering based program of water, sewer, street repair.

Stan Austin

Stan Austin wrote:It might be noted--- two councilmembers--- Demro and Fitzgerald --- voted against the authorization for funding of street rebuilding and repair such as Arthur, Roycroft, Clifton water main, Detroit sewer, among others.

Council members Demro and Fitztgerald will have to speak for themselvs.

The federally mandated water and sewer improvements would be happening no matter who was Mayor. The city is spending a lot more on water and sewer projects. I don't know why Demro and Fitzgerald voted against the issues you mentioned. Maybe they will let us know.

The City is spending about 15% less on street improvements than it did a few years ago.

People can make up their own minds. Here is the City website:

http://www.ci.lakewood.oh.us/pdf/2006Ca ... sGraph.pdf

Bill

Part of the reduction is monies spent for streets might be due to the use of the newer technology that allows for melting the pavement, adding additional ashaphalt as needed and placing it back on the street. While I understand that it may not last as long as a complete repaving, I also understand that it is significantly less in costs. They did that on south McKinley and on east Franklin and it looks pretty good.

Jeff

Bill-- You have that exactly back a** backwards. Federal money would have been spent to repave Clifton and State money to repave Detroit but the underlying infrastructure, water and sewer lines would have been left in place.

They are old, out of date, they need to be replaced. That is Lakewood's responsibility. You do that first. Then you pave. Otherwise, you dig up the street again and put patches that just don't work. And, the job costs much more. It's plain logic.

We almost had that situation when Tom George just was sworn in. The County was going to pave Franklin, come hell or high water. The water main had to be replaced. Previous persons didn't understand simple logic of infrastructure. Tom had to free up enough money to get the water lines replaced before the County came in and repaved.

It has taken 3 years of hard and sometimes obscure political work to get the city's charter and finances back in order so that we put the water main in on Clifton first, before it is repaved. You do the sewer es on Detroit first before you repave.

Do you paint your wallpaper before you take it down? This isn't rocket science. It's just plain logic.

And, as a side note--- The street repaving is being done properly. Under a past public works director under the direction of a clueless mayor, some streets were half or partially repaved. This was a desperate effort to get something, anything going before election time.

As Jeff Endress pointed out, there are different methods of resurfacing being utilized. Some are cheaper and meet the requirements of a particular street. Some streets require a total rebuild.

Whichever the case might be, the miles of streets being borough up to standard according to an engineering based plan is much more than in the past few decades.

Stan Austin

..

I wonder if it would be easier to just pile drive bad roads into gravel. Then either drive on the gravel or pour new concrete over it. It would keep people from speeding.

Charyn-- I'll get the exact citation for you later, but I wrote an article on that precise question last year. It's a comprehensive 100 point analysis of the road. It was developed by ODOT and it was applied here by City Engineer Dennis Albrecht.
It puts the condition of the streets in priority. That is compared to different funding sources.
The best combination of the two is put together for a logical, engineering based order of street repair.

Stan

Charyn Compeau wrote:I have to wonder out loud, however, exactly how they make the decisions about what roads need repair first.

I am happy they paved my street (McKinley), but there are streets near Horace Mann that are rougher than an abandoned wagon trail. So while they made it easier for the off-rampers to speed - they are detroying the suspensions of dozens of mini-vans!

Any insight on what the determines the placement on the repair list?

Peace,
Charyn

Charyn,

That's an excellent question. While almost all streets fall within the engineer's new scoring system, which I support, 14 Lakewood streets including North Clifton, Maple Cliff and Beach Road are privately owned by their residents.

Some question remains as to whether the city is, or ever was, responsible for repairing those streets, which may explain why North Clifton near Horace Mann, for example, is in such bad shape. (Eight other private streets are in western Lakewood.)

I realize it may be slightly off topic, but in short time I'll be calling for a private streets "summit," of sorts, to figure out exactly how we categorically and fairly handle those special few streets under our tight budget. It'll be an interesting debate, to be sure.

Kevin Butler
Councilman, Ward 1

What would be a reason that the city would fund the repair/maintenance of these private streets?

Another good question. A few reasons I've heard, off the top of my head:

(1) Written obligations. The original documents creating the private street ownership around the turn of the 20th century reflect an easement obligating the city to take care of certain repairs, such as the sewer under Maple Cliff, for example.

(2) Safety concerns. Where safety and sanitation vehicles would be hampered otherwise, it's in the city's best interest to maintain safe passage in order to promote the public welfare.

(3) Precedent. The city historically has stepped in to help, so say many residents who would prefer not to pay twice for street repairs, once privately, and again to the taxing authority for other people's streets.

KB