Streets meeting

I mentioned I was going to post and comment on our meeting on street improvements. Got busy with other stuff, but better late than never.

We had a nice sized crowd, and it was nice to have a facility like the community center to handle a crowd like that. It would not have worked in City Hall.

Our city engineer talked about the proposed street improvements--the first block of Logan, and the street north of the school. These are streets that currently need repairs, and were tagged as having traffic loads that are worthy of upgrades.

Back when I was on the city council, we worked on upgrades, by asphalting all streets in Roland that have curb and gutter on both sides of the street, that were previously seal coat. Examples are East, Ryan Circle, Britson Circle, the south part of Logan, Main Street, and so on.

So we are at a point now of making a decision on what to do with our seal coated streets that don't have curb and gutter. The previous council tagged that first block of Logan and the street north of the school.

So the council, with estimates provided by our city engineer, sent out notices of the likelihood of property owners on those streets being billed for the cost of the curb only. The city was going to be paying for the street portion. That amount was $22 per linear foot.

That number is the worst case, and if the cost came in lower, the amount billed would be lower. We did hear that Story City property owners got a notice that for a project they have going on, it would be about $16.50 per linear foot.

The citizens at the meeting, asked a few questions, offered some feedback, and all in all, I found it very productive. We also noted some email comments that I and the city had received from people unable to attend the meeting.

One of the big takeaways I got from the folks present, was the need for another outlet to Logan. There was a big concern for the amount of traffic going by. By my estimates, 1/9 of Roland's population lives down Logan, or one of its sidestreets. That is a concern, as there is no alternative way out.

We are going to talk about this a little more at our city council meeting Monday night. I am supportive of coming up with an alternative way out, even if it means just making a gravel road out Bryan to Industrial.

However, I am also supportive of curb and guttering those two streets that we were initially talking about. We are not going to get better prices than we are right now. I also am aware of the added burden to the property owners. But I think roads are an improvement to the town that helps appearance, long term property values, and with a good road, cuts down on long term maintenance expense to the city.

However, no decisions have been made yet. Further discussion will take place on the council, and we shall see where that goes.