McMinnville officials have earmarked $500,000 to continue paving improvements for fiscal year 2017-18.
“We requested $1 million to pave in the upcoming year and administration changed it to $100,000,” said McMinnville Public Works assistant director Brad Hennessee, to members of the city Streets and Sanitation Committee. “I don’t know if they did not hit the zero or if that was intentional.”
Hennessee presented a list of streets the department could possibly pave, depending on the amount of funds placed into the budget. The city uses a pavement condition index to categorize streets from worst to best. During each paving cycle, the worst streets are paved first.
If the amount budgeted remains at $100,000, Rebel Hill Street and Lakeshore Drive have an estimated cost of $42,613 and $61,224, respectively, for a combined $103,837.
With $500,000, the list extends to include Garfield Street, Westview Street, Post Road, Old Smithville Road, and Mullican Street. Those seven streets have a combined estimated cost of $475,847. Adding Travis Trail, next on the list, brings the total to $511,503.
Doubling the budget to $1 million would add the following streets to the next paving cycle: Chris Lane, Hale Court, Muncey Street, West Colville Street, Anderson Street, Allen Street, Womack Street, Vinewood Street, Greenland Drive, Northwood Lane, Tanner Street, Edgewood Avenue, Needmore Road, West Shellsford Road, Hobson Street, Northgate Drive, Higginbotham Road, Highland Drive, Dellwood Lane, Sunburst Lane, Dogwood Trail, and Arrowhead Drive.
It is estimated all 30 streets would cost $980,809.
Hennessee said he used the paving rate given by Tinsley Asphalt during the last paving cycle and the length of those streets to calculate an estimate on how much each street would cost to pave.
“Paving estimates are just that,” he said. “They are estimates.”
Until the project is bid out in 2017-18, the city won’t know actual costs to pave each street. Actual cost could come in higher or lower.
Hennessee said the request of $1 million is an attempt to get the city in a 10-year paving cycle, which means each street is paved every 10 years.
“Our city street inventory is like $9.3 million,” he said. “If you paved $920,000 worth this year, you would be on a 10-year paving cycle. Most cities are on less than a 10-year paving cycle. We are playing catch-up and we know that.”
The city went more than 10 years without paving. After more than a decade of patching only, city officials borrowed $2 million in 2011 and began the process to begin paving. Since that time, funds have been earmarked annually for paving.
“If you are asking for $1 million, we will have to borrow the money,” said Alderman Everett Brock.
City administrator Bill Brock said, “I’m going to tell you, $1 million a year … a lot of cities do that, plus. Now, we’ve got better streets than a lot of other cities. When you start looking at other cities when you ride through, theirs are worse than ours. A million bucks a year is not a lot of money in paving. It’s not much. If you do $500,000 a year, that’s something. To hit the streets hard and then stop and do nothing, it’s not a good way of doing it.”
Committee members unanimously approved placement of $500,000 into the budget for street paving.
Budget discussions have just begun and changes can still be made throughout the process.