Guest Column: City issues and answers – Our streets

Guest Column: City issues and answers – Our streets

Nancy Shaver
St Augustine, FL

There has been a lot of talk about the neglected streets in St Augustine during the campaign for Mayor. Let’s take a look at where we are, how we got there — and what we need to do to get back on track.

The fact is that we have not paid any real attention to our streets in a very long time. We are the Ancient City, but we don’t need to compete for the oldest potholes.

• For at least the last eight years we haven’t adequately budgeted to repair our 77 miles of streets. Just this year we finally put $100,000 in the budget for street repair.

• Since we haven’t assessed our streets in over ten years, we don’t even know where our priorities should be; but we do know that three trucks have fallen through as the street collapsed underneath them. We do not know how many tires have been damaged by potholes.

• When you don’t properly maintain your streets, just like not changing the oil in your car, the price of repairs is higher — and the cost of street repair is already expensive. The Florida Department of Transportation estimates the cost of rehabilitating a mile of road to be $1.5 million dollars; and, for our city, it is likely to be much higher. Even if only 25% of our streets need complete rehabilitation because of the eight years of neglect, we’re looking at close to $30,000,000 dollars plus the cost for streets that just need paving.

• We’ve been told that this “deferred maintenance” is a result of the recession, but if you look at the City’s revenues, they have remained steady over the last eight years — the money has just been spent on other things at the direction of the current Mayor and commissioners.

• What do we need to do to get back on track and get caught up?

– Complete an assessment of our streets so we’ll know what we need to do, in what priority, and at what cost.
– Combine that with updated information about water, storm water, and sewer needs.
– Determine how much “catch up” our City can absorb and afford without raising taxes.

Using solid facts, and common sense, we can be proud of our streets—and our other city services. As we work through this, with me as your Mayor, you’ll be kept informed, asked for your ideas, your thoughts, and your priorities; and, you’ll have leadership that listens and delivers.  The race for mayor of St Augustine is non-partisan.  As a candidate for Mayor, I have approved and paid for this message to be published.