What happened with the Townley/Burroughs paving project?
27 Jun 2007
Yesterday we had one council candidate urging for passage of spending $696,000 for paving and one urging against spending the money for paving. What was the end result? From the Toledo Blade, though it does not say who voted for or against we learn this:
Toledo City Council voted yesterday to spend $350,000 to pave two streets in Mayor Carty Finkbeiner’s neighborhood.
Council voted 9-3 to repave Townley Road and Burroughs Drive in South Toledo, honoring a commitment neighbors said was given to them in letters from city administrators in 2000 and 2001. Mayor Finkbeiner, who lives on Townley, has stayed out of the debate over whether the two streets should be repaved.
I was in the neighborhood 2 weeks ago and was struck by the condition of the roads and curbs. Everyone I spoke with was so upset that once again it appeared their paving project was going to be tabled. This is a beautiful, well maintained neighborhood and the only eyesore is the streets. A couple neighbors were going to send me information so I could contact Council; however, they did not follow through. It appears they resurfaced quickly and cheaply a few times, and now the road is higher in the middle than the lawns, so in rainstorms, the water dumps on top of the lawns. The curbs have disintegrated on about 40% of the streets. When I talked to the neighbors, I was shown a letter from the Mayor who recommended tabling it for a year and finding a less expensive way to repair the roads next year. The rumor was to eliminate the curbs altogether. That is part of the reason they were so upset. Streets without curbs have a reduced value and once again, we are now following the commitment to the infrastructure of our neighborhoods. On 2 occasions I’ve had press releases concerning the condition of the roads and have started a Rough Road Repair Registry with photos and addresses. As mentioned previously, we need a systematic approach to the repair of our roads. If there already is such an approach at City Hall, then at least we should post on the web all the streets set for repair and list all streets called in by residents and check them off one by one as they are repaired. It is not rocket science and I’ve begun to realize the dissatisfaction is due to lack of information as well as lack of response. We can do better!!
June 27th, 2007 at 4:46 pm