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.
Indeed the work needs to be done and the 85K stimulous toward it - noted -- for this year -- will help. I have read this very carefully, also with consideration, and without a doubt I think the Board made the right and responsible decision. So true, maintaining the Heights main artery is no luxury, but a necessity.
ReplyDeleteIs it true by law, that even though we only had 1 bid, we have to accept it? I could see a company that knows the competitors are busy, puts in a jacked up price hoping no one else bids and then makes killer profit off us becuase of such a law.
ReplyDeleteI'm not aware of such a law. The Board would have had the option to decide not to do anything regarding the mill and overlay; thus, "turning down" the one bid. Cullinan, I'm sure, put in what they felt was a fair bid based on all the factors involved. But, the end result is that none of the heavy hitters that could have done this job are hungry. I'm betting that even if we had received a second bid, it would not have been far off from the one we received, in terms of dollars and cents.
ReplyDeleteAnd, that takes us right back to our original quandry. In the end, the road is in rough shape. The work needs to be done, and the $85,000.00 we have in stimulus money would be lost if we chose not to do it this year.
Thanks for the comments.
Glad there's no such law. I guess the way I understood the Journal article is sounded like the Heights was getting screwed. Yes, I agree it needs to be done even at the elevated cost.
ReplyDelete