2011 Street paving program

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The following was copied exactly from the City Manager’s newsletter dated 11/22/2010 but emailed two days later (as usual):

2011 Local Street Improvement Program
The Engineering Division will be sending out notices to affected property owners of the 2011 Local Street Improvement Program which includes resurfacing of approximately 10 lane-miles of streets. The streets are as follows:
Batsey Dr. – All
Creekview Dr. – Batsey Dr. to Marshall Rd.
Ellen Dr. – Wildwood Rd. to Manchester Rd.
Elwood St. – Verity Pkwy. to Wilbraham Rd.
Florence St. – Sherman Ave. to McGee Ave.
Highland St. – Roosevelt Blvd. to Selden Ave.
Main St. – 1st Ave. to 11th Ave.

McGee Ave. – McKnight Dr. to Florence Ave.

McKnight Dr. – All
Shafor St. – Central Ave. to University Blvd.
Wilbraham Rd. – Wrenn Dr. to Germantown Rd.

Now those of you with a keen eye for details might notice that all of S. Main Street within the South Main Street Historic District and several streets within the Highlands Historic District are included in next year’s program.
Please understand that I am not saying that those streets, or any of the other streets on the list, are not in dire need of attention. And let me make it perfectly clear that I am NOT aware of the criteria used for judging street by the City of Middletown. (However, included in my experience I might note that, among other things, I was once one of four Resident Engineers on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Project, and included in my responsibilities was inspection of existing pavement conditions and supervision of repairs. I am qualified.) One might think that there are other streets in this city that are in worse condition than some of the streets on the list. It should be understood that the “condition” of the street is not always the deciding factor.
However, it is nice to know that the good people in the historic districts that do so much for our city, and have so much expense maintaining their large, old homes, won’t be saddled with the trouble of gathering petition signatures and the expense of paying for the repair of their streets themselves for twenty or thirty years. It is only right that this expense should be shared by ALL taxpayers throughout the city.

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Mike_Presta Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483	Post Options Post Reply Quote Mike_Presta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: 2011 Street paving program Posted: Nov 26 2010 at 6:29am
	The following was copied exactly from the City Manager’s newsletter dated 11/22/2010 but emailed two days later (as usual): 2011 Local Street Improvement Program The Engineering Division will be sending out notices to affected property owners of the 2011 Local Street Improvement Program which includes resurfacing of approximately 10 lane-miles of streets. The streets are as follows: Batsey Dr. – All Creekview Dr. – Batsey Dr. to Marshall Rd. Ellen Dr. – Wildwood Rd. to Manchester Rd. Elwood St. – Verity Pkwy. to Wilbraham Rd. Florence St. – Sherman Ave. to McGee Ave. Highland St. – Roosevelt Blvd. to Selden Ave. Main St. – 1st Ave. to 11th Ave. McGee Ave. – McKnight Dr. to Florence Ave. McKnight Dr. – All Shafor St. – Central Ave. to University Blvd. Wilbraham Rd. – Wrenn Dr. to Germantown Rd. Now those of you with a keen eye for details might notice that all of S. Main Street within the South Main Street Historic District and several streets within the Highlands Historic District are included in next year’s program. Please understand that I am not saying that those streets, or any of the other streets on the list, are not in dire need of attention. And let me make it perfectly clear that I am NOT aware of the criteria used for judging street by the City of Middletown. (However, included in my experience I might note that, among other things, I was once one of four Resident Engineers on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Project, and included in my responsibilities was inspection of existing pavement conditions and supervision of repairs. I am qualified.) One might think that there are other streets in this city that are in worse condition than some of the streets on the list. It should be understood that the “condition” of the street is not always the deciding factor. However, it is nice to know that the good people in the historic districts that do so much for our city, and have so much expense maintaining their large, old homes, won’t be saddled with the trouble of gathering petition signatures and the expense of paying for the repair of their streets themselves for twenty or thirty years. It is only right that this expense should be shared by ALL taxpayers throughout the city.
	“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012

VietVet Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 15 2008 Status: Offline Points: 7008	Post Options Post Reply Quote VietVet Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jan 30 2011 at 8:34am
	From Sunday's Journal..... "City leaders are hoping a petition program may help address some of the concerns regarding some of those neighborhood roads. The Street Resurfacing Assessment Program — a simplified version of a current Ohio law — will allow residents to petition the city to make repairs on the street where they live. If 60 percent of the property owners agree, the cost of any necessary repairs would be partially assessed to the homeowners’ taxes." Gee, what a deal! The property owners get to pay for having their streets repaired in a timely manner because the city is negligent in its effort to maintain a street fund. "The hope of the program is residents will see faster results on repairs to their roads while knowing their tax dollars are being used to directly benefit their property", said Public Works Director Dave Duritsch. Uh, Dave, nice try on the sales pitch while you ask people who are already taxed to death to absorb more taxes. "With only $800,000 budgeted for street improvements in 2011, city leaders have recognized local dollars can only stretch so far for repairs. The Street Resurfacing Assessment Program is meant to allow residents to petition the city to make road repairs on their street". Which leads us back to the question we have been asking for years....why hasn't the street repair funds, removed in the 80's and placed in the General Fund, to bail the city out at that time, been put back into the street repair funds? If you had placed this money back where it belonged, perhaps there would have been enough each year to have dealt with the road conditions that are now out of control. “I am very anxious to see how many citizens take advantage of the program,” Gilleland added. Gee, I'm guessing not many Gilleland. “We wouldn’t want to put good money after bad,” Duritsch said. “We want the improvements to last longer than the cost to pay them back.” Good one Dave! Does this type of thinking occur in any other town around here? Are there any other cities that ask their property owners to pay for the upkeep of their own street? Put the dam money you mis-appropriated years ago back in the street fund where it came from and stop taxing the people to death. This is a bad idea and you're killing the property owners once again by asking them to foot the bills the city should be taking care of. JMO

Mike_Presta Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: Apr 20 2008 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3483	Post Options Post Reply Quote Mike_Presta Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jan 30 2011 at 9:48am
	Well, at least the citizens of our NEEDIEST neighborhoods (S. Main Street and the Highlands) will have their street repairs covered by ALL of the taxpayers across the USA and won't themselves be saddled with the added expense of an assessment to repair their streets like the rest of us. And Kohler is even looking into somehow sneaking the more expensive "olde tyme" street lamps into the deal as well. Why not??? After all, money is no object...as long as it's everyone else's money.
	“Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012

acclaro Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 01 2009 Status: Offline Points: 1878	Post Options Post Reply Quote acclaro Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Jan 30 2011 at 12:43pm
	Yes, these are ALL heavily traveled roads which incur much traffic! This is an unconstitutional charge levied, it discriminates (how do they choose who gets paved at ALL taxpayer expense vs a small cul de sac where maybe 40 residents are hit? MORE IMPORTANTLY, what does it do for Middletown ONCE AGAIN...when companies and residents to be, know the only way to get their street paved is to pay of it with your neighbors. Memo to home lookers---,ove to Franklin, Monroe, Springboro, West Chester, where you don't have to pay for street repair, its part of your taxes to the city. In Middletown, it just pays for over-staffing. When does it end people?

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Feb 01 2011 at 11:19pm
	Hmmm….How will this work if you only have houses on one side of the street and the City owns the other side…and then you add in a few foreclosed homes and an empty lot. Hmmm…who pays for what??

acclaro Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 01 2009 Status: Offline Points: 1878	Post Options Post Reply Quote acclaro Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Feb 02 2011 at 9:57am
	How does this work if 60% vote yes,but you don't want to pay it in advance? The city cannot force you do this, as its already a benefit (or supposed to be in normal cities which have dedicated funds which Middletown has diverted since 1987),as you cannot be forced to buy a product. If so, the city would have EVERYONE paying for the new Rumke trash cans. I know several cul de sacs which have less than 30 houses. I think this will not be met with the reception the city thought. The Rumke bill has already gone up nearly 40%, monthly now topping nearly $14.00 with the added sewer charge and the increase in water. In theory, it may seem like a good idea but in reality, it appears the city is just trying to find ways to get residents to pay for what they should ave responsibility for maintaining, which has been ignored for > 20 years. What happens on the backend, when the street is targeted for repair,do the street residents get a credit or a refund? On another thread, someone made a good observation of the days of Steve Husemann. What I took from his interaction was the real concrete glimpse of how a select few, maybe 200 lifelong residents, mostly whom worked in Middletown, told him what to do, in terms of picking what chief, who to bring in for city leader (his friend), and that they run the city, not 49,000 residents. Its clicked on all cylinders with Ms. Gilleland from that point forward.