Sales tax helps improve streets

Thanks to the renewal of the city sales tax, juggling street improvements may be made easier in the future.

City engineer/Street superintendent Greg Wolford pointed to the sales tax as a steady stream of funding that will enable street projects to be completed, rather than bumped from the plan because of lack of funding.

The McCook City Council approved the one and six year street improvement plan at the regular city council Monday night after a public hearing and Wolford explained that major repair of streets "doesn't happen over night."

Streets are evaluated on a constant basis by city staff and himself, he said, with projects chosen due to the amount of maintenance city crews have spent repairing a street along with citizen's complaints.

But streets placed on the one and six year plan can be dropped due to lack of funding, Wolford said. This was the case of West I, K and L streets, that first showed up in the "Beyond" section of the six-year plan for 2003. In 2004-06, it was budgeted for 2009, but then was pushed back to 2010 in last year's plan due to lack of funding.

Because of the city sales tax revenue, this project was moved back up to 2009 in this year's plan, he said.

Residents who live on West I, from West Seventh to West 10th streets requested at the Jan. 21 council meeting that their street be repaired, due to the high center crown in the middle of the street.

That street, along with West K and L Streets, are the only projects scheduled for repair in 2009 at $362,000, paid for with federal funding, city sales tax revenue and property taxes paid to the city.

"Funding really affects how much we can do,"Wolford said. "We can give you a plan but if we don't have the funding, there's only so much we can do."

The three sources of funding for street improvements are federal allocations from gas taxes, property taxes and city sales tax revenue, Wolford said, although federal funding can only be used for main throroughfares, such as J Street, Norris Avenue or H Street.

Wolford's budget for the next six years estimated about $150,000 per year in federal funding, $200,000 in sales tax revenue and $50,000 from property taxes.

Projects scheduled for this year include the resurfacing of J Street with asphalt, from West 10th to Norris Avenue, and new asphalt on Norris Avenue, from F to O Streets. Total costs for these projects are estimated at $1.7 million.

Carry-over from city sales tax revenue and federal funding will help pay for the improvements, Wolford said.

Two additional projects are scheduled for this year but will be bid only if funds are available: new asphalt on Cedar Drive, from West B to the Cedar Motel, damaged during the B Street construction, at $32,000, and repairing three downtown city parking lots on the north side of U.S. Highway 6-34, at Norris Avenue and First Streets and Norris and West First, at $90,000.