Elizabeth Wilson
Record Bee staff
LAKEPORT ? What comes to mind when you think about the condition of Lakeport”s roads? Perhaps potholes? Maybe a driving experience akin to off-roading?
These were just some of the opinions offered up by citizens on the street Wednesday afternoon. Fortunately, the road to the future looks much better, as construction crews and engineers are busy with several road improvement projects that are underway.
Lakeport City Manager Jerry Gillham says the condition of Lakeport”s roads has been such a hot button topic that he made it his priority when taking the job a few months ago to personally drive on every street in Lakeport to assess the conditions.
“Fixing the roads has been on the list for the city council for a long time, and now it”s happening because of Measure I (a half-cent sales tax voters passed four years ago to allocate money for roads). The mayor comes in every other day saying ?where”s the asphalt?” Literally,” said Gillham.
At least six to nine new street projects are planned for the year, with several currently underway, including South Main Street and Park Street in Lakeport. The roads on the list to be fixed over the next few years are identified via an engineering analysis that can detect problems from the top layer all the way down to the surface beneath the asphalt, according to Gillham.
“They do a core test, and then some sort of high tech test of the surface below the asphalt, and there is certain criteria the engineers have to determine what the most beneficial fix is. The number one thing is we want to get an accurate depiction of the actual condition of the road. You might say, ?oh my word this road seems really bad,” but it may be that the base is fine and all it needs is resurfacing or grinding. Like with the South Main project, the road looks fine but the base is deteriorated,” said Gillham.
According to Gillham, nearly all money for road improvements comes out of the general fund and Measure I. “We had money from Measure I that accumulated that we”re using now, and the budget I”m putting together for 2007-2008 will also allocate money for roads ? in past years we did not allocated funds on the same level as we are now, due to the gradual increase of monies from Measure I that must first occur. The road projects certainly wouldn”t be happening without Measure I.”
In the near future, the city will likely look into borrowing money in advance against Measure I so that more construction can be completed sooner without having to wait years for funds to accumulate for roads that need fixing now. “This is year three of Measure I, so it”s not consistent enough to get a bond, which means we won”t be doing it in this budget, but we”ll take a look at what kind of revenues Measure I generates this year and then it”s the city council”s call, and I might certainly recommend it,” said Gillham, who explained the process of borrowing.
“Say $5,000 comes in per year from Measure I, then you can only do that much per year. But if you take half or two thirds of that money to pay back a loan ? you can take out say a $2.5 million loan for the next 15 years and do a major portion of the work right away. We need to wait until we have a history with Measure I generating monies in order to validate a possible government bond.”
Gillham added that the best means of generating money from a sales-tax generated fund like Measure I is growth in the county. “We need people to continue moving here and continue spending money here. That gets us the revenue to upgrade streets as quickly as possible.”
