What's good for the goose, gander theory tested
Staff reporter
What's a good enough overlay project for one city street should be OK for another. Right?
That's the question Marion resident Kevin Fruechting raised Monday during a Marion City Council meeting.
Previously the council had decided not to include curb and gutter on the high traffic Eisenhower Drive, but the same council was requiring curb and gutter for Country Club and Fairway drives that do not have a fraction of the traffic.
Residents of Country Club Heights, who would have to pay for the street project, attended the meeting to discuss options. Fruechting was their representative.
Fruechting said the residents received a letter from the city with cost estimates and the consensus was the project was not cost effective.
"It (the estimates) was brutal," Fruechting said.
He said residents would be charged between $30,000 and $40,000 each for the street improvements, and the city would be responsible for $53,000 of the costs. The special assessment would be spread out over a 10-year period.
There are five houses in the addition, with the possibility of three more, and Fruechting estimated there currently were 15-20 cars using the streets per day.
"There isn't very much traffic," he said, "and it's not feasible to spend that much money. The overall project is pretty darn brutal."
Fruechting noted that he had driven around housing near a country club in another city and was surprised to see those streets were asphalt without curb and gutter.
Roger Hannaford III, a resident of the Country Club Heights, said previous cost estimates were $13 per linear foot. Now it is $80 per linear foot.
City officials determined if curb and gutter is eliminated from the project, it would cut costs in half.
Councilman Stacey Collett said the city adopted ordinances that required asphalt streets meet specifications that included they be a minimum of six inches thick. He asked Fruechting if there was a possibility the residents of the addition would form an association and pay for their own street repairs and maintenance. Fruechting said he would not be in favor of that and stated he lives within the city limits and pays taxes which should provide those amenities.
Fruechting also pointed out that the streets in the addition were in place before the city passed the current street requirements. With that said, he said the residents of the addition wished to withdraw their petition for curb and gutter and asked the city to consider an asphalt street without curb and gutter.
The council agreed and city officials will contact the city's engineer for cost estimates.
