Published: July 18, 2008 12:16 pm            

Supervisors consider bonding road maintenance

CLINTON — The Clinton County Board of Supervisors discussed the possibility of bonding the county’s increasing road maintenance costs during its regular meeting this week, which was held in the auditorium at the Clinton County Fairgrounds.

Chairman Grant Wilke told those in attendance that the rising costs of fuel, labor and supplies are forcing the county to look at additional sources of funding for maintaining its roads.

“We’re thinking about maintaining our roads at the most respectful use of the tax dollars that we can,” Wilke said. “We’ve come to the conclusion that our only method to help this situation is by bonding, and everybody would share that cost.”

Clinton County Engineer Todd Kinney noted that the Secondary Roads Department depends on the road-use tax as its main source of revenue, but rising fuel costs are forcing people to fill up less, thus decreasing the amount of money the county receives.

“The pot of money we have to pay employees, buy materials and do projects has remained or gotten smaller, but we’re still trying to do the same amount of work,” Kinney said, adding that the cost of asphalt alone has increased by more than 300 percent in the last five years. “You can only pinch pennies and quarters from so many places.”

Kinney noted the department has endured extensive staff reductions throughout the last 10 to 15 years in an attempt to cut costs, and is limiting the amount of repairs made to county roads and delaying the purchase of new equipment.

He noted the longer maintenance is deferred on county roads, the faster they deteriorate, and repair costs will increase exponentially in the long run.

“We're making the ends meet, but we’re living off of the depreciation of our assets, our infrastructure,” Kinney said.

Kinney stated that general obligation bonds, or GO bonds, are another option to consider for financing county road improvement projects. GO bonds are paid by all taxpayers and there are no exemptions, not even for TIF districts.

Kinney noted his department has compiled a list of four county roads that currently require an extensive amount of maintenance and would greatly benefit from being paved using GO bond funding.

“It would be an immediate savings for the Secondary Roads Department,” Kinney said.

Wilke noted that board members have spoken to bonding attorneys and financial advisors concerning the use of GO bonds, and the county is still in the informational stage.

“We feel that the basis of any community is to have a good road system to keep the people traveling on, and the product coming in and out,” Wilke said. “We’re just trying to be proactive and keep the public informed. We want to have the citizens be part of that discussion and the decision-making process.”

Supervisor Dennis Starling noted that one of his biggest concerns in road improvements costs is that the county will not see any relief from the state or the federal government.

“We’ve got two choices: number one, we can become proactive and we can do some of these projects and stop the loss of our infrastructure,” Starling said. “Or we can continue the way we are and we’re going to see worse roads every year. There is no other alternative.”

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.