A certain Heights business owner has consistently thrown out the need to return diagonal parking along Prospect, likely from Kelly Avenue on north... that this would help "solve the parking issues" in the Village, and possibly slow traffic down. When I say "return," I mean that diagonal parking was on Prospect (from what I've been told) up until the late 50s to early, early 60s.
Would this concept work again? Maybe... if it was 1961.
I do have to admit it would probably slow traffic down... to a complete standstill, mostly due to accidents.
Do you know what the average traffic count for this area of Prospect is? About THIRTEEN THOUSAND a day. It's an extremely busy road. Have you ever tried backing out of a diagonal parking spot at the Peoria post offices, on a reasonably busy day? Invariably, a van or a truck will park on one side or both sides of your vehicle... and you have to inch out... slowly, slowly... and hope to High Heaven that the traffic behind you is going slow, and that the drivers are watching for you, and... and...
And, that's at the POST OFFICE parking lot.
Well, try doing that with the traffic that goes along Prospect each and every day. The odds for collisions would increase dramatically. On top of that, if you have diagonal parking along Prospect, you will now have to condense the four lanes to two lanes of travel, as the road is not wide enough to do it any other way, if diagonal parking was brought back. So, the traffic (remember, THIRTEEN THOUSAND vehicles per day), that normally travels in the north or southbound TWO lanes would now be traveling in ONE north or southbound lane. The traffic along Prospect that someone would be trying to back into, for all intent and purpose, would now be DOUBLED in numbers.
You're going to need a lot more than just good luck to back out safely. You're going to need a helicopter to lift you out of your spot.
Not to mention the havoc that would be caused with two lanes of travel, when a semi-truck stops to deliver goods to a business... that's right, traffic will STOP behind that truck till it moves. Because there is no longer any other lane to go into. The semi-trucks cannot negotiate the turns on the side streets, let alone the alleys behind the businesses, to try and deliver BEHIND the stores. They simply have to deliver at the front.
What does this all sound like to you? It sounds like a total and complete MESS to me. And, a dangerous one at that.
There are those who wish that things could be like they were in 1961... when Peoria Heights was pretty much the northern-most destination along Prospect. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I'd be surprised if the traffic count exceeded 1,000 cars a day back then. Well, since it is unlikely that we will ever see 1961 traffic count numbers again... it would be nice if those who expound on these "solutions" (i.e. diagonal parking on Prospect), would spend some time doing a very simple thing.
That would be: checking the calendar, in order to be reminded what year it is.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Costs of Maintaining Prospect Road
One of our trustees received a somewhat scathing e-mail from a disgruntled Heights citizen; angry about the cost of the mill and overlay for the upper 2/3 of Prospect Road, from the railroad tracks north to Kingman. The citizen accused the trustee of not being "fiscally responsible" and "caving in" to the "pressure" from me.
First, the plan to mill and overlay this area has been under consideration for several months. Why? Because it really needs to be done. It's been anywhere from 15-20 years since the last mill and overlay in this area, and it shows. There are costs to maintaining the road in the condition it's in, just to keep it safe to drive and walk across. It's time that the mill and overlay is done.
The costs to do so rose considerably due to the stimulus plan, and that was unforeseen when the original plans and costs were drawn up by our engineers. Why did the stimulus plan cause costs to rise so much? Because the companies who can do this sort of work are BUSY. Big time busy. And, when they're busy, their costs go up. They don't NEED to have the job. Simple economics; that's the way it is.
Now, one might ask, couldn't the Board wait for the costs to go down? We considered that. Wait till next year... maybe the year after... muddle through with the repairs until we can get the costs down. Problem is, the stimulus money will be trickling all over the U.S. for at least the next couple of years. On top of that, costs will rise just because over the same time period. We could not be certain that the costs would go down; and there was a likelihood that they would go up.
We also have received just under $85,000.00 from the stimulus plan for the mill and overlay, for this year. If we did not do the work this year, that money would be lost. After careful consideration, we arrived at the conclusion that even though we didn't like the way the costs had gone up (somewhat artificially), the facts are the facts: Prospect Road needs the repairs.
The disgruntled citizen also heaped anger towards the trustee for the "fiscally irresponsible" use of "our tax money." Is the mill and overlay of Prospect Road a LUXURY item? Something we can do without? It's the main artery of Peoria Heights. It takes a lot of road beating. Should we just spread gravel over it or something? The infrastructure of Peoria Heights needs attention... that's what we have worked hard at doing, and the work cannot be done for free, obviously. Moreover, do you know how much money the Village gets from property taxes? About $150,000.00. That's right. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Out of a THREE MILLION DOLLAR budget. The vast majority of the money we need to do ALL of the work we do comes from sales tax and state income tax. Without the businesses making money in the Heights, we would have to shut down.
There's a laundry list of things that I wish would have been done 5-10 years ago, but they weren't. Prospect Road maintenance is one of them. The previous administration wanted to take care of Prospect with Streetscape. That would have cost $5-6 million, in 2005 dollars. I wonder what the disgruntled citizen would have had to say about that... or, maybe that would have been okay to him/her. Regardless, here we are, and it falls upon us to address the issues: that's why we've spent nearly $450,000.00 over the past four years for the curb and sidewalk program; why the flooding at Columbus and Moneta was FINALLY addressed and corrected; why Monroe Avenue was milled and overlaid just last year; why the beginning of putting in storm sewers and curbs along Boulevard was done; the list goes on.
It could be the disgruntled citizen thinks the Heights is just a bank, and the savings can only be used for what he/she deems to be important, and to heck with the rest; or maybe there are other issues, possibly political, involved; or maybe he/she is simply sincere on feeling any work on Prospect is wrong, unless it is done for the amount he/she feels is acceptable; or possibly he/she doesn't understand the economics involved when a huge project like the stimulus plan comes into being. I don't know.
But, the work needs to be done.
First, the plan to mill and overlay this area has been under consideration for several months. Why? Because it really needs to be done. It's been anywhere from 15-20 years since the last mill and overlay in this area, and it shows. There are costs to maintaining the road in the condition it's in, just to keep it safe to drive and walk across. It's time that the mill and overlay is done.
The costs to do so rose considerably due to the stimulus plan, and that was unforeseen when the original plans and costs were drawn up by our engineers. Why did the stimulus plan cause costs to rise so much? Because the companies who can do this sort of work are BUSY. Big time busy. And, when they're busy, their costs go up. They don't NEED to have the job. Simple economics; that's the way it is.
Now, one might ask, couldn't the Board wait for the costs to go down? We considered that. Wait till next year... maybe the year after... muddle through with the repairs until we can get the costs down. Problem is, the stimulus money will be trickling all over the U.S. for at least the next couple of years. On top of that, costs will rise just because over the same time period. We could not be certain that the costs would go down; and there was a likelihood that they would go up.
We also have received just under $85,000.00 from the stimulus plan for the mill and overlay, for this year. If we did not do the work this year, that money would be lost. After careful consideration, we arrived at the conclusion that even though we didn't like the way the costs had gone up (somewhat artificially), the facts are the facts: Prospect Road needs the repairs.
The disgruntled citizen also heaped anger towards the trustee for the "fiscally irresponsible" use of "our tax money." Is the mill and overlay of Prospect Road a LUXURY item? Something we can do without? It's the main artery of Peoria Heights. It takes a lot of road beating. Should we just spread gravel over it or something? The infrastructure of Peoria Heights needs attention... that's what we have worked hard at doing, and the work cannot be done for free, obviously. Moreover, do you know how much money the Village gets from property taxes? About $150,000.00. That's right. One hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Out of a THREE MILLION DOLLAR budget. The vast majority of the money we need to do ALL of the work we do comes from sales tax and state income tax. Without the businesses making money in the Heights, we would have to shut down.
There's a laundry list of things that I wish would have been done 5-10 years ago, but they weren't. Prospect Road maintenance is one of them. The previous administration wanted to take care of Prospect with Streetscape. That would have cost $5-6 million, in 2005 dollars. I wonder what the disgruntled citizen would have had to say about that... or, maybe that would have been okay to him/her. Regardless, here we are, and it falls upon us to address the issues: that's why we've spent nearly $450,000.00 over the past four years for the curb and sidewalk program; why the flooding at Columbus and Moneta was FINALLY addressed and corrected; why Monroe Avenue was milled and overlaid just last year; why the beginning of putting in storm sewers and curbs along Boulevard was done; the list goes on.
It could be the disgruntled citizen thinks the Heights is just a bank, and the savings can only be used for what he/she deems to be important, and to heck with the rest; or maybe there are other issues, possibly political, involved; or maybe he/she is simply sincere on feeling any work on Prospect is wrong, unless it is done for the amount he/she feels is acceptable; or possibly he/she doesn't understand the economics involved when a huge project like the stimulus plan comes into being. I don't know.
But, the work needs to be done.
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