October 19, 2006

By Diane Chiddister

If Issue 21, the $8.4 mill property tax levy passes on Nov.7, the Village of Yellow Springs will almost double the amount it currently spends on road maintenance. The $743,000 raised by the levy will address the Village’s current $366,848 general fund deficit and will also add to the Village’s current $400,000 road budget almost $400,000 more for a pavement management program.

The main reason for the increased spending on roads, Village Manager Eric Swansen said in an interview last week, is that for years, due to financial constraints, the Village has neglected its roads. He believes that investing in roads now will save the Village money in the long run.

“The primary issue is cost effectiveness,” he said in an interview last week. “If we’re not maintaining our roads in a cost effective manner, we end up paying more.”

Putting more money into roads now will over time help the village maintain its human services, according to Swansen.

”If we value the parks and pool, we should spend the least on streets in the long run,” he said.

Swansen said he has not yet identified which roads would be repaired first if the levy passes. The Village’s first step would be to bring in a consultant to help the Village identify “where we could get the most bang for the buck,” Swansen said.

The consultant, who would cost the Village about $16,000, would drive over all 21 miles of village roads in a computerized van which is specially-designed to determine road condition. The consultant would then provide options for the Village which would identify the longterm costs of various road maintenance choices.

“There’s a real science to this stuff,” Swansen said.

Up until now, budget constraints have forced the Village to use the “worst first” approach to road maintenance, Swansen said, and he believes that approach results in pouring a lot of money into a few bad roads rather than maintaining many fair to good roads in a way that will keep them from getting worse and eventually costing more.

The “worst first” approach means putting off fixing roads until they have deteriorated so much that they require an overlay, which happens about every 15 years, according to a handout provided by Swansen. The overlay costs about $60,000, and extends the road’s life for another 15 years, making the total investment over 30 years about $60,000.

In contrast, the “state of the art” road maintenance program in Ohio is called pavement management, according to a written statement from Swansen, who wrote that, “A significant and proven body of scientific research has consistently shown that providing effective maintenance to minimize the penetration of water into the road surface extends the life of the road, providing the least cost over time. Failure to eliminate water intrusion leads to freeze/thaw crack deterioration, erosion of the road base and eventually base failure, leading to pavement failure.”

If the Village used the preventative maintenance approach instead of repairing the “worst first,” workers would manage roads in fair to good condition by crack sealing, and would complete the road surface treatment every 10 years at a cost of $15,000 each time. The total cost for the same 30 year period would be $30,000, or about half the cost of the “worst first” approach, Swansen said.

A recent road survey done by a Village worker on foot identified 42.6 percent of Village streets as excellent to good, 30.9 percent as good to fair and 26.5 percent as fair to poor. According to a graph by the Center for Urban Transportation Research, spending $1 for renovation when a road is good to fair will prevent a municipality from spending $4–$5 on the same road in poor condition.

Yellow Springs roads in the worst condition include Corry Street from Xenia Avenue to Dayton Street, Dayton Street, Walnut Street and the curve on Corry Street, according to Swansen, who stated that those roads exhibit ineffective overlays, poor drainage and a weak base.

According to an e-mail from Swansen, out of the 2006 $408,000 budget for Village roads, 58 percent went to personnel and benefits, 13 percent went to contracts, with the largest to LJB for engineering and funds for striping and curb painting, 13 percent went for materials, such as salt, signs and fuel, and 16 percent went toward capital improvements. The Village did receive a grant for the Dayton Street project.

According to Swansen, if the Village continues its current level of funding road maintenance, the roads will “continue deteriorating, as we can’t keep pace with the needs.”

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com