By Nancy Huddleston, Editor

Residents of Toledo Avenue continued to question the Savage City Council Monday night (Oct. 6) about a street reconstruction project they never wanted.

But in the end, the assessment roll for their project and for several other neighborhood streets was passed 4-0 (with Councilman Al McColl abstaining because he lives in one of the neighborhoods).

Public Works Director John Powell said all the projects were done on streets built in the 1980s and are at the top of the city’s list in terms of necessary repairs.

All projects are nearly completed, Powell reported, except the mill and overlay work in Maple Leaf Woods. “We wanted the contractor to finish up the other projects first, and we expect them to move into that area shortly,” Powell said.

Other projects included mill and overlays in the Wellington Forest (132nd Street, Webster Avenue, 133rd Street and associated cul-de-sacs) neighborhoods. Reconstruction projects were done on 131st Street from Vernon Avenue to the east terminus at Maple Leaf Woods; Toledo Avenue from 143rd Street to the northwest terminus at South Hills; Webster Court from 137th Lane to the east terminus at Rolling Meadows; and the Carlson addition, which includes Ottawa Avenue from CR 42 to 140th Street, 140th Street from Ottawa to Princeton avenues, Princeton Avenue from 140th to 141st streets and 141st Street from Princeton to Ottawa avenues. 

Property owners on streets identified for reconstruction projects were assessed $4,517 per lot, and those living on streets slated for mill and overlay projects were assessed $1,140.

Jennifer Dam of Toledo Avenue said she’s upset about the whole project and couldn’t believe the City Council let the project go through when everyone on the street signed a petition saying they didn’t want it done.

She was also concerned if the project was going to get done, seeing as the start date was pushed back and fall is setting in.

Powell told her the city has until November to finish the project and noted the wear course (second layer of asphalt) will be installed this year to keep costs down. He said the cost of asphalt skyrocketed this year and in order to stay ahead of the costs, the wear course will be put down this year, instead of next.

Dam also voiced a concern with the $4,500 assessment and 6 percent interest fee charged if property owners opt to pay on an installment plan.

City staff told property owners there is an appeal process and advised them to leave a letter stating their intent to appeal if they had concerns with the costs.

Mike Amborn of Toledo Avenue asked City Council members to respond to why they went forward with a project that the neighborhood did not want.

Councilman Al McColl cited safety, saying city staff presented information about why the project was needed. “We have to look out for the best interests of the city as a whole and delaying this project just would have added to the costs,” he said.

Councilwoman Christine Kelly said she was very sympathetic to the residents, especially since everyone signed a petition. She also noted the $4,500 assessment is a significant amount of money.

“But improvements have to be continually done to maintain the city at a level needed to keep up with services,” she said.

Amborn also said Toledo Avenue never got the mill and overlay work needed to keep the street up to city standards, which hastened the need for the reconstruction project.

“If anything, we should get the cost of a mill and overlay deducted from our reconstruction fee,” he said. “And if there’s been a drainage issue on our street for 20 years, then the city should have fixed it because they own it.”

Powell responded that he’d love to fix every city street that needed it every year; however, there’s only so much money to go around, so the city does the best it can.

“We always talk about using the ‘ounce of prevention’ approach to catch the roads before there’s serious deterioration,” Powell said. “We just haven’t been able to do that in the past 20 years, so at some point when you get to a certain amount of deterioration, you don’t do the mill and overlay. It just wouldn’t make sense to do a mill and overlay on a road that is past time to repair.”

The overall cost for the projects is $1.102 million. But a change order of $21,100 was also approved by the City Council this week for work within the 137th Lane and Wellington Forest areas. The mill and overlay process was used on those streets, but in many areas the aggregate base was exposed due to irregular pavement thickness and the base needed to be stabilized with more extensive work.

 Nancy Huddleston can be reached at editor@savagepacer.com.